Undercover

“Avengers Undercover” #8 skips three months of development and goes straight for the denouement. With the series finale coming in issue #10, this is an understandable acceleration, but it inevitably feels a bit hurried. Though Hopeless keeps his focus on the teens themselves, the biggest developments are plot rather than personal — making this a little less satisfying, if not less exciting, than previous issues. The new speed is emphasized with a new artist, Tigh Walker, whose style is messier and grittier than Kev Walker’s. Thicker, spikier line work makes the characters look older and grungier, mapping the aesthetics to their emotional evolution. Death Locket in particular looks more like the desperate experiment she was, and Aiden really looks like a stony Celtic warlord. However, the effectiveness of the art is somewhat diminished by Walker’s overemphasis on the female characters’ midriffs; I do wish he could understand a more accurate language of female maturity than skimpy cl

While the characters in this title can only marginally lay claim to the “Avengers” brand, Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker provide plenty of connections to integrate the cast of “Avengers Undercover” #4. This issue includes a visit from S.H.I.E.L.D., a meeting with Baron Zemo and a discussion with Daimon Hellstrom, cementing this disparate cast into the Marvel Universe as they try to find their way out of the evil island nation of Bagalia. Hopeless has tightened up the cast of characters for this series and “Avengers Undercover” #4 narrows the spotlight tightly on Cammi. Hopeless does give the rest of the cast plenty of moments and lines of dialog to define their character, but Cammi is the point of view for the reader in this issue. Cammi is the one holding the group together and leading them through the chaos that fills the void following the murder of Arcade. Under Hopeless, “Avengers Arena” was a gripping enough read, but it was also a soul-breaking comic book. This series is more

In Issue #3, “Avengers Undercover” still refuses to wimp out, and its commitment pays off. By engaging with intriguing questions about consequence and character, Dennis Hopeless has given this series a set of stakes that’s unique in the mainstream superhero market. Intrigue, plot, punching and kicking are all a part of what’s going on, but the focus is set squarely on how the Murder World survivors will internalize what’s happening, rather than on how they’ll live through it. It’s a fantastic use of the series’ premise, but unfortunately Timothy Green’s art doesn’t always do the story justice. In a book like this, the team dynamic is of utmost importance, and Hopeless has constructed an engaging and believable one. Each character reacts to his or her trauma in a different way, from Nico’s rage to Cullen’s new friendship with the Masters of Evil, but they don’t fight one another tiresomely. Instead, each argument is fought with an end goal. The characters are never shaming or blaming

The best thing that could have ever happened to the cast of “Avengers Arena” was getting them off of the island. “Avengers Undercover” #2, the follow-up series to “Avengers Arena,” is showing so much potential with these characters that it’s hard to keep from being a little impressed with Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker. Full of possibilities now that the characters aren’t stuck in one location, it’s moving in a good direction. One of the things that feels different right off the bat is the much more organic levels of conflict. Here, without the threat of having to kill one another, the conflict that appears between the different characters comes across as more believable and interesting. The frustration and anger building between several of the characters is no longer hurried along through an outside stimulus. The end result is a lot more fun to read about; in many ways, it feels like readers are getting to know several of these characters all over again and what they’re really like

Love them, hate them or write things on the internet about them, the events of “Avengers Arena” aren’t going away any time soon. Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker’s “Avengers Undercover” picks up where that series left off, at times feeling more like an epilogue than a first issue. Though it makes for a slower read, there’s something refreshing about a comics event that aims to have lasting repercussions. The characters still grapple with what they did and what was done to them, and the creative team isn’t afraid to take their time exploring those reactions. “Avengers Undercover” #1 spends a lot more page space studying its characters than pitching its concept, with all the expected pros and cons of that approach. Hopeless has referenced PTSD in a variety of his interviews, and comments like that always leave people concerned about how a series might address this very real and very complicated reaction to trauma. One issue doesn’t tell me much, but so far he has at least been careful t