All in good fun.

I’ve ragged on Aaron’s Marvel work quite a bit, but that doesn’t mean he can’t turn in a successful arc.  Issued 8-11 are representative of the kind of campy fun I think Aaron would like to imbue his strips with, but too often gets derailed by over-plotting – evident here as well, though also just a symptom of AAA style structuring – or over-posturing – also evident here but, gendered as this statement is, I think inadvertently tempered by having a female lead whom Jason doesn’t automatically stuff with punches-a-lot one-liners.

There is an odd disconnect with the larger Marvel Universe here, not so much in terms of continuity but just internal (in-story) and external (our)  awareness of it; S.H.I.E.L.D. suddenly functions like your typical clueless police goofballs for the sake of some taped-on yuks, and also seems like it only has 3 agents; there’s also a distracting identity bait -and-switch maneuver that has a pretty fun reveal, but still stopped me dumb with an ‘oldest trick in the book’ feeling – a.k.a. I don’t buy this for a second – and I thought that those living in a world of mutants and gods would feel the same.

More directly, Jason essentially pulls the same exact Thor save twice in this storyline, so it doesn’t feel quite so spectacular when it occurs, and there’s that over-plotted mess that means trying to punctuate your ongoing storyline (something something Dark Elves, Roxxon) while also having a silly-fun duke it out match on a floating island with golden Midas-touched bullets that are pure ‘comic science works how and when I want it to’ magic.

Lots of qualifiers, eh?

But, see, despite all that, it’s still a fun read.  Aaron keeps things tightly paced while spending enough time on any given character or scene to give them fair context within the story.  The action is quick and hammer-filled, avoiding any forced ‘will Thor survive?’ fake-outs, beautifully assisted by Russell Dauterman’s smart layouts and fantastic character models – very organic, weighty – the detailing and finesse of which are emphasized by Matthew Wilson’s subdued but rich coloring.

None of it really matters, of course, which is the hand-waiving magic that can separate a good book (like this one) from a great one; convince me of the stakes in a AAA book and I’ll be on-pull-list-board.  Issues 8-11 certainly don’t convince me of that, but I was successfully entertained without feeling too pandered to (as a comic reader), which is definitely still quite an accomplishment when dealing with the big leagues.