Secret Avengers #25 Review

The exciting conclusion to Venom’s first (and, for a while, only) mission with the Secret Avengers!

Secret Avengers #25

“Grandfather Clause”

Writer:  Rick Remender
Artist:  Gabriel Hardman
Color Art:  Bettie Breitweiser
Letterer:  Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Art:  Arthur Adams & Peter Steigerwald

The Secret Avengers:  Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), Beast (Dr. Hank McCoy), Valkyrie (Brunnhilde), Human Torch (Jim Hammond), Captain Britain (Brian Braddock), Venom (Corporal Flash Thompson)

***WARNING:  SPOILERS AHEAD***

PLOT:  The Human Torch ambushes the Deathlok Miss America, trying to get some answers.  She reveals to him the origin of Father and the Descendants, and he flies off to confront him.

Three Adaptoids overpower Valkyrie, but she manages to trick one into activating a teleport circle, sending him to the desert, where Venom is waiting for him.  The two fight and reactivate the circle back to the Core, and Venom easily subdues all three enemies.

Meanwhile, Black Widow tries to run away from the battle with Parvez, the Descendant boy, but she’s stopped by an Adaptoid that can create diminutive versions of her opponent.  These diminutives stun Natasha, and the Adaptoid attempts to re-capture the boy.  However, his powers activate (which they do in situations of mortal danger), and he defeats her with a strong energy blast.

As Captain Britain and Hammond approach Parish Tower, a Master Mold Sentinaught appears trying to appeal to Hammond to take his place among the Descendants, but Hammond instead activates the Sentinaught’s self-destruct sequence.  All groups reunite (including Hawkeye, Beast, and Ant-Man), but before they can leave, an Adaptoid copying Venom’s powers tries and fails to take the boy but severely damages the Human Torch’s android body.

The Core suffers little damage from the resulting explosion thanks to Parvez’s mother, who’s been rebuilt and reprogrammed by Father.  At the Lighthouse Station, Dr. Hank Pym confirms that Hammond’s consciousness is fine but his body is destroyed.  Hawkeye makes everyone promise to keep the existence of the Descendants secret, and then he makes Ant-Man promise not to bring up the subject of Deathlok Janet to Pym.  Ant-Man has led everyone to believe the Core and everything in it was completely destroyed, and when everyone else leaves, he reports back to Father.

THE GOOD:  On a technical level, everything about this issue is very well done:  the art by Hardman and Bretweiser continues to be excellent, in particular the fight scenes.  Venom finally appears in full gear, and he easily steals the show, what with him holding five guns at once and quipping every now and then (which I can see him do, him being a Spider-Man fanboy and all).  The dialogue works very well, and the exchanges between Valkyrie and that one Adaptoid (the Urn) are thought-provoking.  I liked that the Adaptoids are more than just mindless grunts and fight for more than just Father.  Speaking of Father, his characterization as a charismatic yet brilliant leader (always being several steps ahead of the Avengers) and his backstory elevate him from being just another generic bad guy into something far more interesting.  I definitely look forward to seeing the follow-up to these events.  Although the story arc is over, there are several loose ends waiting to be explored, such as whether the Deathlok Wasp is the real Janet, the fate of Jim Hammond, and, of course, the revelation that Eric O’Grady is now working for Father, which comes right after Hawkeye admitting he has earned his place on the team, making it all the much sadder for the character.  It’s definitely a fine conclusion to an excellent story arc.

THE BAD:  In the end, though, I feel a little underwhelmed.  This issue just didn’t quite grip me in the same way as the previous two.  Personally, I was expecting a bit more of a resolution than what we got.  How this first mission almost became a total failure is not addressed at all, although I anticipate this being brought up sometime after AvX.  That’s really the most unfortunate thing that’s not even this issue’s fault:  those loose ends mentioned above are likely to be kept on hold while the AvX event is taking place, and it definitely puts a damper on the whole thing.  I almost want to say that the resolution felt a little rushed as a result of the event coming up.  I’m even willing to say this is one of those very rare times when the story arc could’ve benefited from an additional issue.  Yeah, I know, crazy talk, but that’s how I felt about the ending.

THE UGLY:  One last thing that continues to annoy me to no end: why can’t we have editor’s notes back in comics?  There’s a panel where Father mentions a previous battle with Deadpool in which his body was destroyed.  I’m actually really intrigued by that and wish to know more about it, but my work of tracking that issue down is made harder by the fact that I don’t have a title or issue number.  Bummer.

VERDICT:  Like I said above, Secret Avengers #25 is a fine conclusion to an excellent story arc.  I’m just not sure if it’s a fitting one.  Regardless of that, it has great writing, superb dialogue, amazing art, and Venom being cool.  4 Webheads out of 5.

STORY ARC VERDICT:  4 Webheads out of 5.  Note, though, that this doesn’t take into account Secret Avengers #22, which I didn’t read or review, but I trust that it’s as good as the other parts.  Rick Remender definitely knows how to write a team book, and what he did with Eric O’Grady throughout the arc was great stuff.

Finally, this will be the last Secret Avengers review for a while, since Venom is not involved in the AvX tie-ins.  In case you’re curious, I did pick up #26 (because I forgot to unsubscribe), and I found it to be pretty awesome.

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~My Two Cents