Comic Vine Review

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New Avengers #24 - The Cabal

5

Before, everything died. Now everything dies screaming.

The Good

Last issue, Jonathan Hickman left off on one of the most jaw-dropping cliffhanger/reveal combinations I’ve ever experienced in my years of reading comics. This issue picks up with Namor realizing the Cabal he’s built to deal with incursions, made up of some of the most heinous villains in the Marvel U, may have been an ill-considered move and is beseeching everyone’s favorite green cloaked Latverian monarch for help. Doom, predictably, is insulted that Namor didn’t come to him first and turns him down. The issue bounces back and forth between the two kings with a quick detour in the middle to Wakanda to check in on Shuri and T’challa and what they’re up to. Black ops, that’s what! Even in this oversized issue, Hickman has his work cut out for him juggling as many characters and settings as are in this issue, but he is, apparently, more than cut out for it because this issue is incredible. It fills in one of my biggest head-scratchers with the Cabal (why isn’t Doom there? Haven’t he and Namor teamed up before?) while not only giving it justifications within justifications, but also giving the Marvel universe a set of truly terror-inspiring villains. These guys aren’t misunderstood or thinking that they’re doing the right thing, they are monsters through-and-through and they absolutely REVEL in it. You want to hate them, but the way Hickman writes them, there’s something horribly alluring about them at the same time.

Valerio Schiti returns on visuals and the timing couldn’t have been better. I’m a huge fan of his interpretation of Namor, and he this issue is focused on all Namor much of the time, but that’s selling Schiti’s incredibly detailed characters short. His take on most of the characters is top-notch, a real highlight is his ultra-ragged looking Thanos who vacillates between looking like he’s in absolute bliss amidst all the slaughter and needing to sit down for about ten thousand years. Frank Martin and David Curiel are on colors, and I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins, which is mostly good but occasionally creates some issues I’ll get into in a moment. The colors in this issue are incredibly rich and vibrant, no small task considering the incredibly grim subject matter. This easily could have been a dull, gritty issue and it wouldn’t have been out of place, but having everything be so bright juxtaposes what is a pretty depressing issue, making it far less of a slog than it could have been.

The Bad

Once again we go to Wakanda and once again it feels perfunctory and out of nowhere. I’m not sure how we got from the Illuminati realizing Namor was up to something, and them not only knowing what he was doing, but also what he was calling the group. It feels rapid and jumpy, and since it’s not immediately communicated that this is 616 Wakanda, I actually spent about half of the segment thinking it was the OTHER Earth’s version.

As much as I love Schiti’s art, I’m actually not a fan of his Doom. Specifically the mask, which is too smooth for my tastes, but that’s more a personal preference. It isn't so much that it looks out of character, it's more that the hard lines and bolts give his face character.

The Verdict

This is actually a great jump-on point, though if you can get it and last issue I highly recommend going for it. I have absolutely no idea where this story could be going, but this has been an incredible introduction. A highlight of Hickman’s run on New Avengers has been having absolutely no idea what comes next for several issues, making it not only suspenseful, but incredibly gripping.