While most of the team has been focused on the activities of Doom, the Masters of Evil have been plotting from within their own headquarters. Re-enter: The Black Panther! Your Major Spoilers review of The Avengers #27 from Marvel Comics awaits!

THE AVENGERS #27

Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Andrea Broccardo/Farid Karami
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Cory Pettit
Editor: Wil Moss
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 18, 2025

Previously in The Avengers: While T’Challa was away, The Masters of Evil were at play! With the rest of the Avengers tied up with Doctor Doom, the Masters of Evil have been plotting the downfall of the Avengers… from the inside!

Can Black Panther’s return turn the tide?

WITHIN THE TESSERACT WORLD

Seven months ago, The Black Panther entered the Tesseract Prison of Meridian Diadem, one of the nefarious members of the Ashen Combine, in the hopes of finally toppling her evil regime once and for all. In this issue, he finally achieves that goal (after an unknown amount of time) and emerges back in the Impossible City just in time to save Captain America from the battering fists of Mister Hyde. T’Challa and Sam battle the Thor-level strength of Hyde using their guile, gadgets, and (in Cap’s case, a new armor capable of sustaining him in a hard vacuum. After barely overcoming Hyde, the duo are attacked by The Exterminatrix and her army of Plastoids, which brings all the new Masters into play, just as The Mad Thinker planned.

Of course, he also realized that his team consisted of idiots, independents, contrarians, and fractious goons, and so he planned for that contingency as well.

IS THIS A DIFFERENT MASTERS OF EVIL THAN MODOK’S?

After having been at the center of the most memorable Master of Evil story of all, the choice of Mister Hyde is a deliberate one, both by writer MacKay and the Thinker himself. My question is, are these MoE (The Thinker, Dreadknight, Exterminatrix, Madcap, Quasimodo, and Mister Hyde) associated with the MoE (M.O.D.O.K. Superior, Arcade, Baron Mordo, Doctor Octopus, The Goblin Queen, and Mysterio) seen just weeks ago in One World Under Doom? The fact that they might not be is annoying, but it doesn’t undermine the coolness of this issue’s script and the interesting takes in the art. Even with a different artist handling the segment within the prison tesseract, this issue is artistically smooth and consistent, and the final page reveal that The Mad Thinker assembled his team for their diverse abilities, something that a little Super-Adaptoid-inspired armor will remedy for him is really well-designed and impressive.

BOTTOM LINE: MO’ MASTERS, MO’ PROBLEMS

The idea that the Masters of Evil are the Avengers’ opposite number is a fun one, especially since The Masters are (even at their best) a horde of miscreants, malcontents, and monsters, making The Avengers #27 a fun exercise in balancing those scales in favor of the bad guys without going too far into the grimdark and brutal, earning 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. With the main team tied up in the big universal crossover, we get to see things happening in the team’s headquarters while they’re (almost) all out, something I really like seeing.

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THE AVENGERS #27

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67%

This One Is Mostly Buildup

The Thinker's true plan has come to light, while Black Panther and Captain America once again show that not having superhuman powers doesn't make one a less-useful Avenger.

That second one is the part that's hard for people to wrap their minds around.

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