Captain America and Hawkeye team up on a covert mission but can they get along?
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Patrick Zircher
Colourist: Andy Troy
Published by Marvel
Secret Avengers is barely two years old and it’s already been blessed with three of the top writers in comics today with Ed Brubaker, Nick Spencer and Warren Ellis and now, fresh of the critical acclaim of his work on Uncanny X-Force, Rick Remender takes the reigns of the series, but not before a one in done story to let us know what we’re in for.
It’s surprising with what Remender manages to do in twenty pages. From the very first panel of Cap and Hawkeye jumping off a skyscraper all the way to the last panel of them jumping onto a moving jet, the story keeps moving and never slows down. The plot in of itself is pretty straightforward but as .1 issue it serves as a starting point and a way to set up new stories. Remender does this with an introduction to the new Masters of Evil, featuring Princess Python, Whiplash and Vengeance but this time they’re working with primary Secret Avengers adversaries; The Shadow Council. After Brubaker’s run on the series ended the Council have only appeared to give the team something to do and their motives or plans haven’t been expanded, so I’m hoping they’ll be the primary antagonists as the series progresses.
The main focus and highlight of the story is the relationship between Captain America and Hawkeye. Ever since the Cap’s Kooky Quartet days, both heroes have been at odds with each other, with Cap representing the authority figure that Clint instantaneously rebels against. But they respect and have worked together in numerous teams over the years and have become friends but they still have this teacher/student, even father/son dynamic. What works is that they both have equally valid points in wanting the other to grow up or unwind respectively.
In this issue, their mission fails because of Hawkeye’s act-first-think-later personality, so we can be sympathetic to Cap when he chews him out. But later Clint puts himself at considerable risk to save Cap’s life and to finish the mission. The end of the issue with Clint reiterating a speech Cap gave earlier in the story was clever, as it obviously showed that Hawkeye learned his lesson but in his own stubborn way, he’s apologising by showing that knows he was wrong and helps to set up his new leadership role for the team.
Patrick Zircher seems to be a prefect choice to provide art on this and upcoming issues of Secret Avengers. The sense of movement he gives his characters really keeps the story going and keeps up with the pace Remender sets. The start of the issue basically has Cap and Hawkeye discussing the mission and giving the back story and exposition and yet through the art is becomes exciting by watching them jump off a skyscraper and onto a moving train. The way Zircher shows them leaping from one panel to the next really makes what could have been a boring scene exhilarating and proves that he and Remender are in synch and really understand the visuals of comics. If they keep this up Secret Avengers could match and even surpass the quality that’s been present in Uncanny X-Force.
Secret Avengers #21 is a thoroughly enjoyable read that makes me excited to see what comes next.
8/10
