For today’s comic book review I read Avengers #3,  In this issue we have Namor, the Sub-Mariner, in his first appearance scene Fantastic Four Annual #1.  But in this issue he does not face the Avengers alone, instead he acquires the assistance of the renegade and hunted Hulk to improve his chances of success against the surface world.

This issue also have an all-star cast, showing us almost every active hero In the marvel universe, even if only for a few short frames. We have the Fantastic Four, The X-men, and even Spider-Man making a showing in the first few pages, as the Avengers call out for help in locating the hulk. but to no surprise it is Rick Jones and the Teen Brigade that is the real help in locating him.  But Finding the Hulk is the easy part, and when he teams up with Namor, can even the Avengers stop them?

Story

This story shows a great step in the evolution of comic book story telling,   one that we been seeing them develop for a while now.  The Story feels about as epic as it could, all while building upon what has been given to us before.  No longer is a comic book a story in its self, but now they are finely showing us, just how important, and even universal continuity can be.  But even they don’t get it right all the time.

Artwork

In discussing the artwork for this issue, I feel its best to just say you need to look at it for yourself.  While I feel I included a wonderful panel that shows the quality of the artwork,  Avengers #3 is at its best all together in one piece.

it is filled with action, and emotion, and danger, and each panel seems to capture the best of that as we see the Avengers face off against the Hulk not once, but twice.  and even see a team up that I think we never would have expected.

While we don’t see the thoughts near as much in the avengers as we do in other comics,  Jack Kirby at points can almost show us what the characters are thinking in the way they are drawn.

Originality & Continuity

Nothing bad can be said about Continuity, right from the first issue Avengers has gotten that right.   We have  a Super-Hero team, that is unlike any other in the marvel universe at the time.  and who’s first big long-term problem, seems to be with someone who was one of them.

The Hulk, friend of foe, hero of Villain, i doubt even Jack & Stan knew for sure at the time.  That is also part of what makes the Hulk so great,  and it is good to see his attitude and character reaming as strong as his body in the Avengers, even without a feature comic to call his own.

Characters & Development

I touched on this a lot above,  leaving less for me to say now.  But we do see the avengers developing, and finding themselves as a team.  But little is said or shown,  to give us any idea on how they decide when to call each other, or when to deal with a threat themselves.  That can be the challenge with a team such as this, but so far I feel it is being handled quite well.