Avengers Initiative #16

When I picked up the last issue I didn't really know what to expect. I just picked it up for the cover. Luckily for me, it was really good. So I decided to pick it up again this month and, lo and behold, this issue was also fantastic. This is how decompressed stories should be told. It's just one chunk of the story, but a lot of stuff happens here. Characters are introduced, skrulls are revealed, a hero (Proton) gets executed by the skrulls, there's even a backstory on the original 3-D Man. Like I said, a lot happens. Despite the fact that there are a ton of characters in this book, Dan Slott & Christos Gage continue to make me care about characters I'd never even heard of (particularly Crusader and 3-D Man). I think that takes a lot of skill. And Stefano Caselli's art is a perfect match to the writing. The former Hack/Slash artist's layouts are well designed and the rendering of figures and environments is really strong. It's the sign of a good artist when a person can really capture the array of facial expressions necessary to enhance the storytelling and really pull the reader into the story. My only problem with the book is one really forced Star Wars joke. I love Star Wars and the joke wasn't necessarily bad, but the timing was all wrong. However, everyone's entitle to one mistake right? This is a really good book and I'll more than likely be buying it next month, too. be