Sunday Marvel Sunday "Avengers #2 (2018)"

Avengers #2
December 2018

I got a bunch of packs of Marvel comics late last year at Walmart, and will be talking about them individually here every Sunday.  Here's the first one!

I clarified in the title which year this came out, because Marvel has relaunched all its major titles about a billion times.  Helpfully, this black and white fifth printing includes a legacy numbering of #692, which was also helpful.

The creators are Jason Aaron, who just finished up a near-decade chronicling the adventures of Thor, and Ed McGuinness, who was a major name at the start of the millennium but has inexplicably slipped below superstar status since moving his horse to Marvel, where one of his first projects was Red-Hulk with Jeph Loeb.  I knew he was still in the doghouse when fans were complaining about the cover art from the first issue, as if they had never heard of McGuinness before, but I guess it shouldn't be surprising from the kind of community I've also seen this kind of reception from the likes of Matt Wagner, as if nobody had seen his work before.

The comic itself is quip-heavy, which seems to lean into the Avengers of the movies, which is solid enough thinking, considering how insanely popular the movies are, although technically this mindset probably comes from the comics, the Bendis revival that made the team relevant again, if not the Ultimates version that inspired a few movie elements like Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (since they kind of cast him in that role first).

She-Hulk, as depicted by McGuinness, is looking like Banner Hulk these days, even though she's more traditionally depicted as a well-developed regular body-type.  That's her in the lower corner.

Captain Marvel is there doing her modern Captain Marvel thing, which annoys fans because she's only been doing it for a few years and the other guys have been doing it for decades.  It would perhaps be more helpful if she were an entirely new character, but entirely new characters haven't done so well in recent decades.

The new Ghost Rider has a car.  Nic Cage probably would've loved that version, circa Gone In 60 Seconds ("Driiiive!"), but then he still did two movies of the classic biker version.  I still think a lot of non-MCU Marvel movies are wildly unappreciated, especially since the MCU phenomenon hit full-stride.  Nic Cage is an excellent Ghost Rider.  (Haven't actually seen the second one.  Don't think Eva Mendes is in it.  Seems less important.)

Yadda yadda yadda, Loki shows up, saves the issue from generic villains with vaguely Kirbyesque designs.  The end.