Review: Mighty Avengers #12

Posted by Joshua S. Hill

April 29, 2008

or, oh thank the green fields, they FINALLY brought back Nick!

I don’t ask for a lot out of my comic books. In reality, it is pretty simple; non-powered heroes kicking the sh!t out of powered bad and good guys alike. I’m one of those who like the Batman plethora of good guys over, say, Green Lantern or Supes.

So, with my excitement level already built up for Marvel’s Secret Invasion, you can imagine how stoked I finally was to see the return of one of my favorite ever super-heroes; Nick Fury!

That’s right boys and girls, the eye-patched ex-director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is finally back, and he is going to kick some serious ass!

Secret Invasion kicked off last week (probably two weeks ago, but I have no concept of time anymore) with a resounding bang. Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion 01’ kicked off what is likely to be a massive success, if Marvel’s lead in and publicity is anything to go by.

We’ve found out that there are a few Skrull trundling around, and worse, we know that we haven’t found them all. And so each week, with every edition of a Secret Invasion labeled comic, we’re going to be hoping for another reveal.

And boy did we get it. You have to make sure your reading everything SI labeled though, because you might have missed what I nearly missed if I hadn’t gone and checked out Wikipedia. Nick Fury’s lady friend – for those like me who are uncertain – is Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

Now I started this issue none the wiser as to who Nick was sleeping with, so I didn’t have the “Aha!” moment that I’m almost certain some of you would have. But even if you had read Secret Invasion Prologue, you might still have been a bit confused as to her identity.

If you missed it, Prologue saw Dum Dum Dugan get gutted by a Contessa-Skrull, who then immediately took Dugan’s form. I’m not sure what this means for Dugan, as we could still have one of those “Oh my gosh, your alive!” moments later down the track, but for the moment, we’re one good-guy down.

So that Nick’s Contessa turns out to be another Contessa-Skrull is not a huge surprise.

You can imagine for yourself if you haven’t read the comic how Nick manages to find this little secret out, and how he deals with it. But it pales in comparison to what he does next; infiltrate the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, so that he can hack in to Maria Hill’s personal computer. Oh yeah, that’s right, he not only sneaks in to one of the most heavily fortified floating positions in the world, but he manages to get in to his old quarters; the quarters belonging to the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This issue takes place in four parts, and the fourth involves a meeting with Spider-Woman, aka, Jessica Drew. It’s a conversation with good old Nick Fury doing what he does best; cajoling his own operatives to do crazy-assed missions for him for no real good reason.

This issue’s art was really good as well, which surprised me, once I let myself think about it. Very gritty, very dirty, it had a quality to it that I normally don’t abide. However this time, Alex Maleev’s art really matched the story. Because if there is one thing that Nick Fury is, it’s gritty and dirty!

Mighty Avengers, issue number 12, definitely deserves your attention. It gets a 4 out of 5 from me, mainly because of Brian Michael Bendis’ depiction of Nick Fury (yeah, I’m obsessed!). And to whomever wants to have a go at me only giving good reviews, go back and read my Countdown reviews!