Savage Avengers #3

By Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato jr, and Frank Martin

We’re now 3 issues into the most violent Avengers team ever assembled. The Savage Avengers’ members have the highest kill count out of any team, probably ever. Heck, Wolverine and Punisher alone probably have that. As things start heat up, and members of the team start to be drained of blood, we have to question which member is going to be the savior. With so many killers on the team, who is going to make the final kill on Kulan Gath.

Gerry Duggan has been a superstar writer for a while. He’s done events, he’s done the Avengers, and he’s of course written Deadpool. For Savage Avengers, He gets an opportunity not many other Avengers writers get; he’s allowed to have a team that just butchers people. This issue, we finally see all the team members show up. Frank finds an ally in Elektra, which is actually a cool and fitting team up. Duggan also utilizes Brother Voodoo in this issue too. It’s good to see Brother Voodoo be used as the power house that he is, and can be. For all of the stars in this series, it does feel like this is Conan’s story so far. Duggan gives us an interesting development with him, which shouldn’t be much of a spoiler since it’s the cover of the issue. Conan with a Symbiote and a symbiote sword seems like a good idea. Duggan is giving a character who is the least acclimated to the culture one of the most powerful weapons I the story. What could possibly go wrong?

The pencils this issue are handled by Mike Deodato jr. with colors by Frank Martin. To be honest, the pencils and colors for this book are amazing. This may be Deodato jr’s last book with Marvel, and he’s really putting out some great work. We’re drawn in from the opening pages as Punisher kills off various ninjas from the hand. Deodato jr makes the kills and violence top notch as we see a full page of Frank with a sword through a ninja while shooting another. Panels like Kulan Gath draining Wolverine of all of his blood will stick with you, not just because of the imagery, but because of how Deodato jr has set up the page. We see it from below Logan. The blood is dripping toward the reader. It’s a very eerie panel. The pencils this issue are great, but the colors by Frank Martin also rule. In the beginning of the issue, Martin uses heavy reds and blacks as Frank makes his way through a slew of henchmen. Martin also does a good job of making the colors dark to match the tone of the pencils. This can be seen in panels where Brother Voodoo attacks Kulan Gath. As Gath shows his fangs, Martin uses dark reds and black to mix with his skin tone. It’s great coloring.

There isn’t much more that you can say about this series except that Savage Avengers is the most entertaining Avengers book on the shelf. Gerry Duggan has crafted out an interesting story with some really cool characters. The pencils and colors couldn’t be better. The art in this book is some of the best you’ll find in any book.