The Avengers Emergency Response Squad has answered their first call, but why are the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes doing in Massachusetts? Your Major Spoilers review of Avengers Assemble #2 from Marvel Comics awaits!

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #2

Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Scot Eaton/Elisabetta D’Amico
Colorist: Sonia Oback
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Editor: Alanna Smith
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 16, 2024

Previously in Avengers Assemble: Captain America, Hawkeye, Night Thrasher, and Hercules deploy to investigate a small New England town tormented by the radioactive ghosts of Super-Apes! But are the spectral simians villains or victims? And what is The Red Ghost doing in Massachusetts?

THE AVENG.E.R.S.

After getting surprised and blitzed by the events of Blood Hunt, Captain America has assembled an Avengers team to provide boots-on-the-ground support that the primary team may not be able to: The Avengers Emergency Response Squad. With a large pool of heroes on call (himself, Hawkeye, Hercules, Lightning, Lightspeed, Night Thrasher, Photon, Shang-Chi, She-Hulk, The Wasp, and Wonder Man), the team members take shifts at Avengers Mansion, training and interacting for when duty calls. Thanks to Hercules, this issue’s duty is a haunting, as the town of Kingsport, Massachusetts, is beset by ghostly primates, an army of ectoplasmic apes that surge through the streets every night. The response team of Cap, Hercules, Night Thrasher, and Hawkeye hit the streets, but the intangible ghosts are immune to shield and arrow. Hercules is able to get in his shots, thanks to his mystical adamantine mace, though, and Night Thrasher is a master of more than Krav Maga, identifying the creatures as emitting a specific frequency of radiation… The Cosmic kind that made the Fantastic Four!

IF IT DOESN’T HAVE A TAIL, IT’S AN APE

Eaton and D’Amico combine forces for a hard-edged look in this issue, one that fits the tone of a Halloween haunting well, though I’m less enamored of the coloring. Since the apes are glowing green, it makes sense that Kingsport would have a sickly, evil glow. It’s less appropriate when Julie “Lightspeed” Power and Janet “The Wasp” Van Dyne are having a quiet conversation about the logistics of superheroing, or when Shang-Chi and Lightning are watching Wonder Man’s old movies together in the mansion. The thing I enjoy most about this issue’s plot is that we’ve seen the “Proactive Heroes” trope many times before, especially during the realistic, gritty era of the Bronze Age. It has been a while though, which makes it feel fresh again when Thrash hands out the branded Avengers jackets loaded with bells and whistles and supplies for the long haul. The reveal that the ghost apes are the work of Ivan Kragoff, The Red Ghost, is played within the issue as a surprise, but it’s only a surprise to Captain American and friends, as he’s front and center on the cover, but the dispensation of the villain and the reasons for the haunting are well-played and surprising.

BOTTOM LINE: THIS HAS POTENTIAL

Perhaps the best part of Avengers Assemble #2 is the complex interplay of avuncular god, ’40s super-soldier, surly scientist, feckless fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pantser, with Night Thrasher and Hawkeye enjoying some good, old-fashioned internecine needling, while the art gets the job done despite coloring that I don’t care for, earning 3 out of 5 stars overall. Much like his run on Justice League of America, this series is a chance for Orlando to write a diverse cast of characters who deserve more time in the spotlight, something that I highly recommend readers pick up, if only to see Lighting/Miguel Santos getting his first real shot at being an Avenger.

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