New Avengers #27

Writer – Jonathan Hickman
Artist – Szymon Kudranksi
Colours – Dono Sanchez Almara

This issue of New Avengers follows the team Sunspot put together to the temple of the Black Priests where they hit it with as much force as they can; believing them to be partially responsible for whatever craziness is going on in the universe.  The team is in for surprise as they are halted in their tracks by a person very familiar to them, that of Doctor Stephen Strange, leader of the Black Priests.  Jonathan Hickman has a lot of irons in the fire at the moment and it is surprising that he is able to keep them all straight in his head when writing these books.  With this team of Avengers, dubbed the ‘Multiversal Avengers,’ we see them hit out at the Black Priests, one of the big bads mentioned from earlier in the run on the book though soon they are teaming together to take on the Ivory Kings and Rabum Alal.  Thor has a great moment in the book as he once again wields a hammer, though it is one that is unexpected and one most readers will most likely have forgotten about.  Doctor Strange has certainly gone through some changes after the eight months later time period and while it is certainly a little strange to see him at this place and time, in a way it is not, having turned down a darker path earlier on in the series.  What is also very nice to see is this team of Avengers, made up from some very eclectic members including Thor or Odinson, Hyperion, Nightmask, Starbrand, Abyss and Ex Nihilo.  It is a strange mix for sure, but a very intriguing one that so far, finds them working together quite well as comrades.  Hickman has been introducing some high concept stuff into this title during his run, but is has not affected the ride which has been fun the whole way.

4 out of 5

Superior Iron Man #2

Writer – Tom Taylor
Artist – Yildiray Cinar
Colours – Guru-eFX

So Iron Man is still pretending to be Mr. Nice Guy, but Daredevil is not having any of it as Tony has just turned the entire city of San Francisco into addicts.  Sure the drug of choice is one does not have any physically dangerous side effects per se, but the psychological damage is going to be astronomical and Daredevil will not stand for it.  There is quite the interesting showdown in this issue between our two heroes, each believing that they have the better of the other at different points in the book, but when it comes down to it, Tony is a genius and always has the angles covered.  Matt might think he knows what to do, but he has never met Tony Stark 10.0, the man with an inverted personality and one who has introduced symbiote biology into his armour to make it even more formidable.  While Tom Taylor injects the book with a fair amount of action, there is also room for that classic Tony Stark sarcastic humour, and it is actually quite funny at times, even though the man has essentially turned evil.  It will be quite intriguing to see if the two of them will be able to live in the same city after everything goes down as Matt believes he is right, and he is, though Tony will always have the upper hand.  Yildiray Cinar’s art is fun to behold, a lot cleaner and a little crisper than the first issue and proves himself to be a good fit for the book.  This title is turning out to be an incredibly good read and it is only two issues in with evil Tony being exciting and quite enjoyable and it will be a whole lot of fun to see what comes next.

4 out of 5