Avengers Spotlight 27 - Acts of Vengeance

This series now returns to the usual format of two separate strips with different creative teams, though both take part in the crossover.

Avengers Spotlight #27

Writer: Howard Mackie (first)
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie (second
Penciler: Al Milgrom (first)
Penciler: Dwayne Turner (second)
Inker: Don Heck (first)
Inker: Chris Ivy (second)
Letterer: Jack Morelli (all)
Colourist: George Roussos (first)
Colourist: Mike Rockwitz (second)
Editor: Mark Gruenwald (all)
Editor II: Gregory Wight (second only)
Editor III: Tom DeFalco (all)

First up is the series's regular Hawkeye strip. This is quite a straightforward tale of Boomerang being recruited by the mysterious stranger who convinces him he can't beat Iron Man but can instead score a victory over Hawkeye. The two clash in New York with explosive results. It's interesting to note that it's the mysterious stranger who here recruits Boomerang, rather than one of the six leaders he's assembled, and given the stranger's powers such as being able to transport himself instantaneously it does raise the question as to why he even needed to assemble an alliance of leading villains, especially as they haven't yet done much together. The combination of boomerangs against arrows seems so obvious that it's a surprise that it hadn't been done before, though as Hawkeye had only had a regular solo strip since the start of this series there may not have been the opportunity. The fight results in a lot of damage from Boomerang's weapons, setting a building on fire. Hawkeye has to rescue a woman trapped on the upper level, but her reaction is a reminder that not everyone is so grateful for superheroes and all they bring. It's good to see the proposed Super Human Registration Act is having an impact beyond the Fantastic Four issues in which it's being discussed and that heroes bring trouble as well as salvation.

The second strip headlines no less than five of the reserve Avengers, Firebird, Captain Marvel (this is Monica Rambeau), Moondragon, Black Widow and Hellcat, as they struggle with the Awesome Android near the site of the sunken Avengers Island. This gives the opportunity for a lot of former female members to be seen again. It's also a good consequential story as it focuses on the continued salvage efforts, with the discovery that several androids that were held in suspended animation have escaped, making for good use of continuity and allowing for the fact that with such a disparate group drawn from different eras it's probable that some of them will have encountered the foe - indeed Captain Marvel was leading the team at the time the Android was taken down. Unfortunately with five leads plus Stingray all competing for attention in the space of eleven pages there's not a great deal of development and the resolution is totally deus ex machina as Captain Marvel shows up and immediately fishes out the right equipment to neutralise a foe against whom the use of powers is counterproductive.

The two-strip nature means both tales are relatively brief but the lead puts in a standard piece of foe switching whilst the latter takes a different angle of foes released in the action. Unfortunately there's not enough space for much development and the latter has too great a cast of heroes for the space available but otherwise these are making a good effort to build on the wider events and show the consequences.

Avengers Spotlight #27 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)