“Homefront”
Quite a few unexpected things occur in this issue of Avengers/Invaders. Alex Ross and Jim Krueger bring it in a battle between the Namors. Steve Sadowski and Inlight make the fight believable, and it’s an interesting match. The ferocity and the power of youth versus wisdom and experience. The young Namor doesn’t mind killing off his future, possibly because it’s so far away, but the older Namor doesn’t dare unleash his full wrath on the upstart that he was.
The rest of the Invaders remain prisoners aboard the mirror universe S.H.I.E.L.D’s helicarrier. The personnel of S.H.I.E.L.D continue to act like good Nazis. The Invaders are heroes. “Call me Tony” and the goose-stepping thugs on the helicarrier treat them like villains. They separate them. They lock them up. Cosmos, knows what they’re doing to Toro, but none of their actions can even for an instant be considered heroic behavior.
The resistance heroes — Spidey, Power Man, Iron Fist, Wolverine and some other dude in black, green and gold — get a little more face time. They’re approached by a curiously selected spy from the ranks of the mirror universe Avengers. She’s pretty scenery that allows Sadowski a moment of definite fan service, but the resistance doesn’t get enough spotlight to actually warrant being in the chapter. Of course, had the spy been Tigra, I would have added another bullet. I’m only human.
Last issue the Torch instigated an escape. This issue Krueger and Ross show a surprising softer side to a Marvel staple. These scenes are the most impressive. The brittleness one imagines in the voice of the innocent who pleads with the Torch lends depth and emotion to what’s essentially a big ol’ slug fest between super-teams: one good, the other twisted evil. Sadowski’s artwork is especially subtle in conveying the pathos.
Finally, we come to Cap and Bucky. I confess that I don’t particularly have any feeling for Bucky. I always saw him as a generic sidekick shaped from a mold of a mold of a sidekick based on Robin. Cap needed a sidekick. This is the best we could do. Krueger and Ross grant Bucky resonance, if not his appeal, by displaying Cap’s absolute faith in him. They also give him the last scene, and it’s a doozie. “Call me Tony” gets his comeuppance through physics and his unfamiliarity with a symbol of justice. How poetic.
