Avenger’s Standoff: Uncanny Avengers #7

Events in Pleasant Hill heat up with the arrival of the Uncanny Avengers. ComiConverse Contributor, Seth Frederiksen, has this review.

Synopsis:

In the third part of Marvel’s Standoff Event, we find Quicksilver and Brother Voodoo, of the Uncanny Avengers, attending to some personal matters.

The scene then cuts to Cable, Rogue, and Synapse as the two X-Men help the Inhuman hone one of her new abilities. The training session is cut short by Deadpool, dressed in golf clothes. This is how they begin their newest mission; locating Steve Rogers at Pleasant Hill.

While on route, they pursue a car driving away from the town, at which point we learn of Deadpool’s irrational fear of Connecticut.

Credit: Marvel Comics

It is revealed during the pursuit that the driver of the car the Uncanny Avengers are chasing is the Wrecker, who Deadpool and Quicksilver dealt with in the previous issue at the old Avengers Mansion. Once the vehicle is stopped by both Cable and Rogue, The Wrecker reveals that he was trying to get back into prison to protect an old friend.

Much to the Wrecker’s dismay, Brother Voodoo informs the criminal his friend has been dead for some time, though the friend’s spirit holds no grudge against the Wrecker.

The Uncanny Avengers are already confused by what is happening in the town, and the situation is only made worse by the arrival of Maria Hill, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Additional S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrive with other officers. They are all quickly defeated by the Uncanny Avengers and the Wrecker.

It is only once the group arrives on the outskirts of town that the full team is mobilized and begins working on a plan of attack, sans the Wrecker, who had been kicked out by Deadpool before they journeyed farther to their destination.

Once they began their initial preparations, they are found and swiftly fired upon by the All New, All Different Avengers, thus ending this chapter of the Avenger’s Standoff Event.

Credit: Marvel Comics

Thoughts:

Given the lack of action in the first couple of issues of the story, it was nice to see something other than just repeating the origins story of the town. With that said, it was also nice to see some conflict with S.H.I.E.L.D. over the ramifications of the agency’s effort to take care of the super villain problem.

I particularly liked how Brother Voodoo had major reservations regarding the Uncanny Avengers fighting S.H.I.E.L.D. at all, as it would be a bad image to portray to the public, particularly to children.

Another part of the story I enjoyed was Deadpool’s gradual acceptance into the team. Given the events of the first major arc of the series after Secret Wars, he is finally being treated like a real member, and not as a tolerated nuisance. Rogue even goes so far as to say he has earned the right to cry “Avengers Assemble!” in battle when she used to argue for his dismissal from the group in the first issue.

Granted this issue focused more on action than on character development but it still brought up the potential schism within the hero community regarding the validity and ethics of what Maria Hill is doing. Whether or not this will be further explored as the story progresses will be seen in future issues of the Standoff event. Overall, I’m enjoying the event, though it suffers from a few stutters here and there.

Seth Frederiksen is a Contributor to ComiConverse. Follow him on twitter:  @senseiseth