All-New, All-Different Avengers #4

By Mark Waid, Mahmud Asrar and Dave McCaig

There have been some hits and misses with this All-New, All-Different re-launch from Marvel. Even more than the hits are the books that fall in-between and are just kind of there. All-New, All-Different Avengers is a book that is in the middle. This is a book that has the ability to pull itself out from mediocrity, but it does have a tough act to follow since Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers was one of the most epic Marvel stories ever told.

Mark Waid is a good writer who has made many great characters what they are today, but so far, the book feels a bit flat. We’re four issues in and this team just feels very forced. The way they were brought together last issue didn’t sit right and this issue we are still getting a lack of chemistry. Waid starts the issue of with a couple of interesting pages involving Jarvis. He’s often a forgotten member of the team and it was nice to see him in his leisure time. Waid gives us a little known baddie who really doesn’t matter. This is good training for the kids, but it isn’t that exciting. Waid is giving us shorter stories, this was a stand alone issue and the last arc was only 3 issues, which is alright, but this issue will leave you expecting more. Based on these four issues, there isn’t any wow factor with the Avengers anymore.

The pencils this issue are handled by Mahmud Asrar with colors by Dave McCaig. Asrar is an artist who has progressed from when he first started drawing for Marvel, but this issue is not without its problems. In the early pages of the book as Jarvis leaves his family, we get them at a bit of a distance. This panel looks like something you may see in a poorly drawn children’s book. It has almost no detail and is sloppy. Asrar does his best work when he is able to draw characters close; here he is able to give them the detail they deserve and his art looks great. A panel like Miles tossing Kamala at Cyclone looks excellent as she flies straight at the reader. She’s positioned well and everything is great proportionately. The colors by Dave McCaig work well here with the exception of a few dark spots. There are a few panels where costumes are a bit darker than they should be, and oddly enough one where Kamala’s red lipstick looks way too dark.

All-New, All-Different Avengers hasn’t been all that impressive. This issue was filler and wasn’t that exciting. Mark Waid is an excellent writer and has shown the capacity to right the ship time and again; perhaps he’s just finding his footing. The art this issue was decent, but there were definitely some miscues. As one of Marvel’s big books, this series needs to step it up or it will be easily forgotten.