Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Marvel Comics, June 2025
What a fun read. The Avengers #25 is part of a big continuity-wide event engineered by American superhero beehive Marvel Comics. Perennial villain Dr Doom has acquired the magical powers of the Sorcerer Supreme. Dr Doom has a decidedly autocratic bent, and so even as an ostensibly benign “saviour” of humanity, Doom finds himself offside with Earth’s superheroes. The opening page of this issue features Doom at the core of crackling chaos, reeking of mystic power and laying waste to the cast of characters.
One of the Avengers, Captain America, finds himself injured in the battle, with lacerations, a broken arm, and broken ribs. This is Sam Wilson, a version of Captain America once known as The Falcon, who (in his own words) has “a shield and some wings and I can talk to birds”. Wilson is a character who has been part of Marvel’s continuity for decades, and so losing faith in himself and questioning his contribution to the fight with Doom seems generations late. We think writer Jed MacKay mucked up the characterisation of story’s lead character here. Wilson sulks only for a panel or two but it rings false. It is Mr MacKay’s one misstep in the issue.
Regardless, Captain America’s power set is indeed not much when facing a powered-up version of Marvel’s most formidable villain, and so the wounded Avenger is “extracted”. This involves a sentient orbital base, resembling an Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars, called The Impossible City teleporting Captain America into a triage ward. (DC Comics and Marvel Comics often mirror each other: the concept of the AI running The Impossible City seems uncannily similar to the Red Tornado’s disembodied presence running the Justice League’s current satellite.)
Five insane trouble-makers decide that they must oppose an altruistic Doom, and so style themselves as the Masters of Evil. This is a name with a long pedigree, and the most famous storyline of supervillains under this brand was the monumental and almost successful assault by dozens of villains upon the New Avengers. We are given the obligatory introduction to them:
(It is not a particularly subtle way of introducing characters in a plot, by having their names neatly printed under profiles of their faces, but this technique seems to be a hallmark of American superhero comics. We wonder if it is an editorial mandate to do an in-panel roll call.)
Wilson and his ally, the artificial intelligence of the City trapped in a plastic android body (a repurposed shape-changing thing called a Man-Slayer), must face down the Masters of Doom. There is a touch of the underdog action genre – think the motion picture Die Hard – in the beginning of the confrontation: our hero is battered, sneaking around in a place seized by the swaggering bad guys, up against impossible odds. But Wilson quickly and cleanly takes down Madcap, and with the first encounter we are pushed back into traditional superheroics.
Artist Valerio Schiti, a favourite of ours, does a wonderful job of depicting the Masters of Evil. There is a lot of stereotypical purple and green in-panel, yet we can easily discern who is who. Mr Hyde fills panels with his huge physical presence, and the ancillary character Dreadknight looms in backgrounds, an ominous backdrop. The Mad Thinker and Mr Hyde could easily be interchangeable characters, but Mr Schiti ensures that two have very different looks: Mr Hyde has an English country gentleman feel to him, while the Mad Thinker, in his green overalls and with lank hair, gives the impression he is not overly concerned with hygiene. (Conquering the world does not leave a lot of time to shower, perhaps.) Small touches like showing Mr Hyde picking his teeth with the end of a fingernail, and the Mad Thinker being happiest with his hands in his pockets, reinforce the individuality of the characters.
But it is the humour which makes this book so entertaining, and read more like a witty Marvel Cinematic universe script than a posing Marvel title. Madcap has a healing factor which enables him to survive otherwise certain death. Madcap’s decapitation by Captain America leaves him without lungs (Mike Carey wrote this trick in the pages of Lucifer for Vertigo Comics years ago, but it is a good one). Between angry gritted teeth, Madcap’s head furiously and impotently mouths empty word balloons. It is a wonderful contrast to Madcap’s dialogue in the earlier pages of the book, the mad man’s face stretched in an unsettling grin, the font within word balloons flickering around depending upon which whimsical poem or song Madcap was indulging in as evidence of his insanity. “Not so chatty now,” might have said a grimmer superhero. Captain America takes Madcap’s angry head with him. Then, an entire dialogue-free page of repeating panels is devoted to Madcap’s body popping up to its feet, realising upon examination by fingers that it has no head, and scuttling down a corridor with a goofy waddle. This is very funny work by the creative team.
It should be obvious from this review that we have not read an Avengers title in a long time. But Messrs MacKay and Schiti do a terrific job of introducing us into the current storyline, getting us quickly up to date on developments, and making us laugh, hard. Bravo.
