Comic Vine Review

3 Comments

Secret Avengers #20 - Encircle

4

Black Widow has to go back in time to save the lives of the Secret Avengers. Time travel can be tricky though.

Warren Ellis and Alex Maleev team up to create one amazing issue about time travel.

The Good

I yearn for more Planetary, and this book is the closest I'll ever get to that. Ellis takes some of that Planetary style and puts it to work in the Marvel Universe. It's high concept, and at times, it can be tough to grasp (see bad section). It's a tad more challenging than other books and while I hate that about this book, I also love it. It feels so much like Planetary with characters from Marvel that I love.

Alex Maleev is a brilliant treat to this issue. For those of you reading other Marvel books, he's the current artist on my favorite Marvel on-going title, Moon Knight. Hope you like epic, full two page splashes because there's an amazing one right away. Maleev's art works so well on this book, with Ellis writing, because Ellis' writing is different from the rest of the talent on any comic at Marvel or DC. It's unique, and it takes someone with a catching and unique art style to really capture the story. I would love to see these two creators work together again.

I love the fact that every issue, since Ellis has been on, is all one-shot stories. It's a nice break from the larger-scale story lines that Marvel has been smashing over our heads the past couple years. This book is a nice break from it.

The Bad

I'm not afraid to admit this story was WAY over my head on the first read. It's higher concept and there's a lot going on. You have to follow very closely, and you can't breeze through this read like you can with other books. I love the idea of the reader having to put more effort into reading this book to fully appreciate it, but honestly, I wish I read this book first instead of towards the end of the day because you need to devote yourself to it.

The Verdict

I finally feel like this book is getting the team and stories it deserves. Ellis and Maleev are wonderful together on this book, and although I dislike the fact this book was a bit over my head and I had to give it a few read-throughs to fully understand it, it's an element I love about the book at the same time. I also have been enjoying the fact that this was a one-shot story. Anyone can jump on at any point and read, during Ellis' run. I recommend this issue and all of Ellis' run on Secret Avengers. Take your time with this issue though.