Checking in with Al Ewing’s “Avengers” titles.

As far as I’m concerned the third volume of Ewing’s “New Avengers” is still the best Marvel superhero title I’ve read this year.  For all intents and purposes “U.S.Avengers vol. 1:  American Intelligence Mechanics” is the follow-on to that and it retains much of what made that previous run great.  An eclectic group of heroes fighting some truly despicable bad guys?  Check.  Lots of intricate planning from A.I.M. head Roberto DaCosta to stay one step ahead of everyone?  Check.  Genuinely clever writing and character development?  Check.  An ability to utilize crossover storylines to further the main plot of the title?  Check to the extreme, because the final issue here is a tie-in to “Secret Empire.”  Honestly, I would’ve been fine if they had left that issue off to start the next volume because the volume comes to a full stop just as it’s ramping up for the next big thing.  That issue aside, “U.S.Avengers” is a very satisfying continuation of everything that Ewing was doing on its predecessor down to the enjoyably slick art from Paco Medina (with Paco Diaz and Carlo Barberi ably assisting as well).

Yes, I’m counting “Ultimates 2 vol. 1:  Troubleshooters” as an “Avengers” title because it basically is.  Its characters just tackle threats on a much larger scale.  The problem here is that their biggest threat is something they can’t fight:  The disruption of the title’s momentum after the “Civil War II” tie-in from the previous volume.  If you were expecting the team break-up that came at the end of that volume to last longer than the first issue here, then you’d be wrong.  Still, once Ewing gets the team back into place things start ramping up quite well as the Ultimates face off against the N.S.A.’s team of super-powered Troubleshooters and the revelation of the universe-level threat behind the chaining of Eternity and the corruption of Lords Order and Chaos here.  New artist Travel Foreman is a bit too gritty to deliver the same grandeur that Kenneth Rocafort did, but he’s very willing to go as weird as Ewing needs for this story.  Which is very.

I am a bit concerned that the scope of the story has become too large here to be wrapped up in the next volume (no further issues have been solicited after the anniversary issue #100).  After everything he’s done here at Marvel Ewing has shown himself to be a very clever writer and he might deliver a satisfying end to this flawed-but-entertaining run of “Ultimates.”