The Good
There is plenty of non-stop action in this issue, so if you're looking for a title with plenty of action and just plain-old Avengers fun then this may be right up your alley. It has a somewhat campy, superhero feel to the book and the tone is a little bit light and airy, and that's good if that's what your looking for. If you're looking for a more serious and more grounded team book to read, then you might not really appreciate this title.
One of the things the writer does really well is give an equal amount of time on panel to each individual character. Captain America didn't get more panel time than, say, Spider Woman, and I felt that overall the writer utilized the cast she was given to use pretty well.
The art is also really beautiful and I think that the team of both Stefano Caselli and color artist Rain Beredo is fantastic; I was really impressed by their really beautiful panels. The artists made great use of the entire panel space they were given, and executed the scenes in a really beautiful layout. There is a ton of attention to detail in costumes, expressions and fluidity of the characters that simply cannot (and should not) be overlooked. It was really well done.
The Bad
There were a few things about this issue that felt a little bit off. Normally I don't say anything bad about the covers, but in my opinion the covers to this issue were not very creative at all. Here we have a cover that presents all the characters on the team in a group shot that is very plain and kind of boring. What is it about the cover that would lure me into purchasing this issue? Not very much. It's a very standard, bland picture that doesn't really tell me what's going on inside of the book.
The plot feels really simple, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it just doesn't seem like a really essential title to pick up unless you are a die-hard Avengers fan. The premise, however, is pretty dark and it would have been incredibly easy for the writer to veer off and go in a darker direction with this story. A virus/bacteria is infecting people and it turns them into monsters, and the Avengers have to save the day. That sounds like the premise of a great horror comic to me, but perhaps maybe that's just what I want to see.
One thing that is really unclear is just exactly at what point this series is supposed to be taking place. When is the story set? Where does this story fit in with other stories in the greater Marvel universe? And when you can only afford to pick up one team book to read each month, do you want this one to be it?
Looking at the issue as a whole I felt that there were definitely some points where I felt uninterested in the dialogue and the story and I honestly think that it just wasn't doing it for me. The voices of the individual characters were also relatively unclear. The voice between Captain America, Tony Stark and Captain Marvel shouldn't be interchangeable; they should feel unique.
The Verdict
This issue is by no means awful or bad, but I would say it's average. I think structurally it was good, and it was also very organized. The story was easy to follow along, the depiction of characters like Captain Marvel was fantastic (I love seeing her save the day). Additionally, I think all the characters in this book got an equal amount of panel time which is sometimes really difficult to do when you're writing a team of six different characters.
The issue is really beautigul and the artists did a great job not only conveying the story and setting the mood and location for where the story is taking place, but also in the way they illustrated the expressions of these characters. It is really very well done.
There were, however, a lot of things that kept this from being a great issue as opposed to just being 'good.' First, the story could have been a lot deeper and more interesting. I think the premise for the story, like I said, could have taken the issue into a far more serious direction, but it didn't. Instead, the writer plays with the characters on the surface of the story and doesn't really delve too deep, using a lot of cliche moments and one-liners to tell the story for her. A lot of the dialogue doesn't sound genuine to the respective characters, and I think it's important to maintain individual voices for the characters of a team book.
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