This week we’re looking at Avengers: Armageddon #3 in our main review. Meanwhile, the Rapid Rundown looks at Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Darkness #2!
Note: the reviews below may contain spoilers. If you want quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendations on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
Avengers: Armageddon #3
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Ario Aninoito
Colorist: Jesus Arbutov
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
We’re midway through Avengers: Armageddon. This started out as a brawler with a massive group of superhero going after a renegade Red Hulk. At the core of the story though was whether humanity control the power of the superheroes. Beings who would enough power and intelligence to both save lives and threaten them.
This issue moves things to a tipping point. The now godlike David Colton, the recently revealed as Captain America of the 00s, decides that nuclear weapons need to go. To say nobody is okay with this unilateral decision should be obvious. Things do not go well for the Marvel heroes in this issue and well, the final page is pretty terrifying. 
Chip Zdarsky throughout his current Captain America run has asked who watches the watchmen? His take on superheroes on global scale doesn’t quite seem deconstructionist. The writer seems more interested in placing the heroes of the Marvel Universe in a more modern context. That the idea of individuals with immense power making unilateral decisions might be a bad thing, no matter their intentions.
Zdarsky’s script nails a kind of superhero horror rare in these kinds of events. So it’s a a shame that the art in this issue really doesn’t capture that. The art team of Delio Diaz and Frank Alpizar handled the first two issues and brought a grittiness and brutality (aided considerably the moody palette used by colorist Sonia Oback) that matched the tone that Zdarsky aimed for in this story. Their depiction of the Red Hulk gave that character a skull like visage, turning the character into an avatar of death. David Colton simultaneously comes across as heroic and terrifying. The battles sequences bring a real sense of horror to the idea of superheroes as weapons of mass destruction.
This issue features though features Ario Aninoito who doesn’t bring the same tone that Diaz and Alpizar did. His style looks slightly more cartoony and expressive in a way which takes away from the tone of Zdarsky’s story. Some pages, like the those with the captured Red Hulk or a pensive Colton in front of the sun, look akin to the previous two issues. But there’s some questionable pages like when Wolverine gets dropped from orbit or a page with Spider-Man and Human Torch looks almost drawn by an entirely different artist.
Remember when Civil War suffered delays because the scale of the book meant Steve McNiven couldn’t keep up a monthly schedule? And how then Editor in Chief Joe Quesada refused a fill in artist because he believed McNiven should be the sole artist on such a huge book? Well, since folks still talk about Civil War and a lot of that is due to McNiven being sole artist, Quesada seems pretty smart in hindsight.
There’s a very particular tone that Zdarsky goes for in his scripts for Avengers: Armageddon. It’s a story that questions how we look at heroes and what should the heroes of today be. Occasionally this story is high drama and sometimes it’s horrifying. This story requires a certain visual tone and consistency that this issue sadly lacks. When this story gets collected, this issue will stick out like a sore thumb.
VERDICT: BROWSE
RAPID RUNDOWN
Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #2While the main Queen in Black comic is fine, but in full transparency, I’m here for this Cloak and Dagger-centric story from writers Al Ewing & Tom Waltz, and artist Zé Carlos. To recap, Iron Man and Cable have assembled two teams, Team Light led by Beta Ray Bill has Photon, Sunfire and Dagger taking on Hela, the new Queen in Black, while Tony and Cable’s Team Black take on Knull with Agent Venom, Darkstar and Cloak to counter his new Light form, but during the Plan A battle, Knull stabs Cloak with his All-Light spear and that’s where issue 2 picks up. Without ya-da, ya-daing the story, the insertion of the In-Betweener, the cosmic representative of the forces of Order and Chaos, is fantastic. I’m new to this iteration of the In-Betweener, which is fine as Carlos really makes it work. Instead of the domino karate gi normally associated with the In-Betweener, the more modern version feels like a creature that Ditko would have created. Having flashbacks showing the team members being recruited is fun, the meat of the story is Cloak and Dagger’s link being tested by the In-Betweener and the nature of their relationship/powers. All this and we still don’t know what Tony and Cable’s Plan B is. This issue is action-driven but manages to personalize it with the Cloak and Dagger of it all. – GC3
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