Reunion of Old Acquaintances
This is action packed in one issue for most all the previous 3 parts of this arc story, told in an unique and amazing way by Brubaker who divided the story in flashbacks and actual time, giving a chance for Steve to regroup and come up with a plan to challenge John Steele and the Shadow Council´s plans. I really enjoyed the dialogues in this issue - and they dominated over the captions - specially the ones between Shang Chi and Steve, Max and Sharon, but the best in this issue definitely was Steve´s plan and way of thinking, always sharp and military, but it was odd for me not using Ant Man for this surgical rescue mission. Ok, the writing was awesome in this issue, maybe the best issue of Secret Avengers so far, but the real differencial in this comic book is Mike Deodato´s art: there´s no one in the business with a style and trace similar to his. The guy pencils great combat one on one panels, has an amazing ability for telling a flashback story, knows how to scale all his frames in a way it´s dynamic and cool, then puts lots of tension and thrill in the dialogue of Max and Sharon, gives us a MMA warm up between Shang and Steve, just for pages after showing a fight that Steve knew he couldn´t win, but still it´s so amazing and realistic art that he almost convinces us that Steve has a shot. Mike Deodato is one of the best artists in this industry ever and I´m proud to say he´s from the same country as me. Highly recommended issue!
5 out 5
