The Avengers versus the Stark Sentinel Program! And to the winner goes the new world order. Your Major Spoilers review of Avengers #13 from Marvel Comics awaits!

AVENGERS #13

Writer: Jed McKay
Artist: Franceso Mortarino
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 24, 2024

Previously in Avengers: Orchis’ counterstrike puts the Avengers on the back foot as the true extent of the Stark Sentinel Program is revealed. Can Earth’s Mightiest Heroes stand against impossible odds?

Or will they fall against the metal onslaught?

FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE MUTANTS…

After targeting Krakoa and seemingly eliminating the mutant threat, Orchis hasn’t been resting on its laurels. Thanks to the mind of MODOK and the powers of Avengers turncoat, The 3-D Man, Avengers Headquarters in the Impossible City is under siege by dozens of Stark Sentinels, each created with Iron Man’s own stolen technology. With The Avengers spread around the globe, things are looking dire, with only the non-powered Yuna left in the city, and only minutes before the Sentinels pierce the force shields protecting it (and the hundreds of liberated mutant prisoners inside). Of course, the former head of AIM and the rejected Avenger don’t trust one another, so when 3-D Man cuts off his erstwhile big-headed partner to take on Captain America and Black Panther all by himself, it’s a turning point for everyone.

Will it be The Avengers or Orchis left standing in the end?

MODOK AND THE 3-D MAN?

As someone who has found this volume of Avengers to be hit-and-miss, I have to say upfront that the creative team was dealt a bad hand here. Not only are many of the core team members embroiled in their own solo book issues (like Iron Man’s saga of marrying The White Queen, Captain Marvel’s new symbiotic relationship with Yuna, and Black Panther’s exile from Wakanda), the Fall of the House of X crossover finale ends up taking place right in the middle of this issue’s story. The decision feels like a necessary one, but it lessens the impact of this story as a discrete chapter of comics. The art is interesting, but Mortarino makes a few strange choices, especially in facial expressions and the proportions of the characters’ bodies. The 3-D Man, once known as Triathlon, has never looked cooler than he does here, though, and as a lifelong three-dimensional fan, I’m all for that. Seeing Delroy handling the attack of two of Marvel’s most seasoned and powerful heroes doesn’t hurt either, even if I never cared for his heel turn.

BOTTOM LINE: HAMSTRUNG BY EXTERNAL FACTORS

When you shake it all down, Avengers #13 is affected a bit too much by external factors, leaving us with an anticlimax two-thirds of the way through the issue, an epilogue that has to play it coy, and a next-issue blurb promising an all-new, albeit possibly temporary lineup, wrapping up to 2.5 out of 5 stars overall. As it goes, even if I like the general tone of the current status quo, there’s too much noise in the signal to do more than a straight-down-the-middle average score.

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AVENGERS #13

50%

50%

I Like The Twist, But Not The Ending

When is a crossover not a crossover?

Readers are about to find out!

• Writing

  3
• Art

  6
• Coloring

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