Uncanny Avengers may ostensibly be the flagship title of the Marvel NOW! initiative, but it's difficult for any series to make a name for itself when it ships every two months or so while the rest of the Avengers books are shipping every two weeks. I wish I could say that the wait was wholly worth it, but the book has problems. John Cassaday's art appears rushed even with the delays. Background characters tend to be sparse and unrefined, with too much reliance on the colors to fill in depth. In general there just isn't the same sense of striking, cinematic page design that characterized his Astonishing X-Men run. Certain panels look gorgeous -- Thor landing in Manhattan, Wolverine going feral, etc. But those moments don't come frequently enough.
As far as great character moments go, issue #3 certainly delivers. Remender showcases Red Skull in action as he puts his ill-gotten brain parts to use. Many beats that have been promised start appearing in this issue. Remender references Wolverine's state of mind following the climax of Uncanny X-Force. He explores the tension between Captain America and Havok as the latter is forced to learn how to cede command to someone else for a change. And as for how Red Skull would react to battling the living embodiment of the Aryan ideal in Thor? That's a big part of this chapter as well. Finally, there's a sense of this team coming together as a functional whole.
Unfortunately, Remender's approach to depicting the first battle between the Avengers and the S-Men leaves something to be desired. Remender opts for a prose-heavy approach and ample amounts of omniscient narration. It's not so much that the narration is overly exposition-laden, as is the case with too many books these days. The problem is more the sense of disconnect between what the narration is saying and what's being shown on the page.
The narration writes of a dramatic showdown between good and evil. But while the rampant killing and loss of civilian life in this issue hits hard, the actual scope of the conflict is pretty low-key. I was expecting a bit more from a telepathically-charged Red Skull than standing on a car and hypnotizing a few dozen passersby to riot. And there are elements of the script that I wish were better reflected in the visuals, particularly Wolverine's reaction to his psychic virus attack.
Make no mistake -- Uncanny Avengers is an enjoyable read. But it's not reaching the level of quality I expected from the creative team. The worst part is that the series is being hurt by delays, but those delays aren't even enough to allow Cassaday the time he needs to deliver his best work.
Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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