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Uncanny Avengers #2 Review: Only Half The Puzzle

By Nick Tylwalk

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When last we left the new Avengers Unity Squad, it had already blundered into its first mess. Attempting to follow Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to Counter-Earth, the team ended up scattered across this weird planet, which is under the control of the High Evolutionary.

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Uncanny Avengers #2 picks up from there, but the main problem with it in comparison to the previous issue is one of pacing. The debut of this volume got all the players involved and thrust them all into danger in different and interesting ways.

This time out, Rick Remender and Daniel Acuna stick us with the least interesting team member, Sabretooth, for an inordinate amount of time. I get that he’s not the same Creed since he’s inverted, but that’s a pretty simple concept. We also see that the High Evolutionary is a bit of a monster who couldn’t care less about his own creations, yet I feel like we’ve long known that as well.

Brother Voodoo’s subplot seems interesting, and we see what I hope is more than a stereotypical resistance movement helping the twins. Rogue’s fate is briefly addressed, but Captain America and Vision? Guess we’ll have to wait until issue #3.

Acuna’s artwork is perfect for this familiar but alien world, which makes the whole package that much better. There’s also a surprisingly unsurprising reveal that’s followed quickly by an even more interesting one. It’s like Remender was a boxer, leading with a feint before smashing the reader with an uppercut.

That was cool, and this might read better when this arc is collected. I just couldn’t shake the feeling there was more story than could fit into these 20 pages.

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

Sabretooth’s battle against the New Men doesn’t go so well, particularly after High Evolutionary (henceforth abbreviated as HE) punches a hole right through his torso with a force beam. Well, that was a short stint as an Avenger. HE lectures all of his New Men for not being perfect enough before being surprised that Sabretooth has healed himself during what I can only presume was an overly long speech.

Creed tries to argue him out of it, but HE rises into the sky and essentially nukes a whole city full of his own creations.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver wake up in the base of the rebels. They’re being led by the Low Evolutionary, who bemoans the fact that even with spies on the inside, there’s never a warning before HE wipes out the New Men. The other resistance fighters (who appear to be human, for what it’s worth) are upset that their leader chose to rescue the twins instead of the victims of HE’s blast.

Wherever Brother Voodoo is, he’s contacted by the spirits of the dead. He has trouble concentrating with all of them asking for help at once, but one named Doniva finally comes forth to speak for all of them. She was actually the first daughter of the HE, but even she was killed for not being perfect enough. Cold.

Meanwhile, HE summons what appear to be undead creatures of sorts to get the city he just wiped out ready for another round of experiments. He’s got Sabretooth being tortured by Lord Gator, but Creed isn’t talking. HE rips the nervous system (I think) out of Sabretooth, ordering his master scientist to study Sabretooth’s healing factor and tracking abilities to use to find HE’s son. Interestingly, the master scientist lies about mutants on the planet, since we know he has Rogue in his custody. Their conversation mentions that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver “masquerade as mutant,” which isn’t a shock given the way this series has been marketed.

The last page reveal has a bit more impact: HE talks to a woman named Luminous, who he says he needs to kill her brother and sister. It’s pretty obvious he means Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, so … how many non-mutant siblings are there?

Favorite moment: Just before HE rises to destroy the city, Sabretooth calls out saying, “Blood like this — never washes off!” Takes one to know one, eh Creed?

Final thought: I know High Evolutionary has been busy doing his thing on his own bizarre copy of Earth, but I find it extremely unusual that he has no idea who Sabretooth is or what his powers are. I mean, he’s a pretty notable villain, and he’s been around for a while, and HE has tangled with Earth’s super-powered beings on more than one occasion. Just seemed like a weird hole in his knowledge.

Next: How Uncanny Avengers #2 might be a response to the MCU

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