The Avengers #26 – Masters of Evil pt.2

Captain America fends off a home invasion in issue #26 by Jed MacKay, Andrea Broccardo, Federico Blee & Cory Petit, Marvel Comics.

ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM

Previously, the Avengers executed a plan to unmask Doctor Doom but failed. (See One World Under Doom #3) Unfortunately the Avengers and the Masters of Evil together were not enough to match Doctor Doom’s might. During the frontal assault in Latveria, there were some losses in the form of one Samuel Wilson aka Captain America. Sam sustained significant injuries during the battle. Without any options left, Captain Marvel evacuated Sam back to the Impossible City.

INVASIVE THOUGHTS

Later, Sam was recovering from his injuries at the Impossible City. While questioning whether he belonged with the Avengers or not. After all, they are god-like beings with immeasurable power and strength. Whereas Sam is only human, his talents and skills are not in question, but was that enough to be an Avenger? Sam’s confidence waivered. The Impossible City would not have it. Although Sam only had questions for himself, the Impossible City offered nothing by high praise for the Sam Wilson the Captain America and Symbol of Truth.

INVADED HOME

The battle continued to rage against Doom in Latveria. Meanwhile the Impossible City received an unwelcomed guest. A home invasion by the self-proclaimed Masters of Evil. Dreadknight, Madcap, the Exterminatrix, Mr. Hyde and their leader the Mad Thinker. They took advantage of the world being in chaos to take over the Impossible City. Lucky for Sam the A.I. of the city managed to give Sam a heads up. But it was too late. Mad Thinker had planned for this hostile takeover for a long time. The only thing stopping the Masters of Evil was one single plastoid body with the Imposible City’s A.I. and a badly injured Captain America.

IMPOSSIBLE COMBINATION

Whether injured or not, he was still Captain America. So, he went to work on ideas to take out the Master of Evil and regain control of the Impossible City. Finally, Sam realized the plastoid controlled by the City’s A.I. was highly malleable and flexible. Meaning, it could be reshaped and molded into anything they needed. With this brilliant idea, Sam managed to upgrade his suit and his own physical stats. Giving himself a better chance against this already unfair situation. So far, so good. Sam and the plastoid were able to incapacitate the Madcap during a one-on-one encounter. Finally, Captain America regained his self-confidence and was out on the prowl for the remaining members of the Masters of Evil.

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ISSUE #26*

FROM SOLICITATION:

“THE MASTERS OF EVIL RULE! The Impossible City, current home base of the Avengers, has been commandeered by the MASTERS OF EVIL! Who is left to defend the world while DOOM is in power? And how are the Avengers able to fight a war on multiple sides?”

THE ASHEN COMBINE

Finally, Mad Thinker revealed what is the real intent behind invading the Impossible City: unlocking and weaponizing the Ashen Combine. Just in case you’re not aware of the Ashen Combine, they are a group of world conquerors the Avengers faced and defeated earlier in this series. Fort more, see The Avengers by Jed MacKay Vol. 1: “The Impossible City”. Previously, the Ashen Combine invaded planet earth and gave a handful of problems to the Avengers. During The Avengers #11, Mad Thinker attacked the Impossible City. Although unsuccessful, Mad Thinker did managed to confirm the location of the Ashen Combine’s imprisonment. Ever since obtaining this information, Mad Thinker has been plotting his return to the Impossible City.

T’CHALLA’S MISSION IS OVER

If you haven’t noticed, there’s been one Avengers missing from action since issue #20. T’Challa the Black Panther was sent out on a search and rescue mission inside Meridian Diadem, a member from the Ashen Combine. Meridian contained a tesseract space inside her where she kept enslaved warriors. For more details, see The Avengers #20 by Jed MacKay, Farid Kamari, Andrew Dalhouse, Federico Blee and Cory Pettit. Long story short, the Black Panther accomplished his mission after some much needed adjustments. Now, he was reaching back to Impossible City to be extracted.

A CAPTAIN’S PLAN

Since one versus four is not the most favorable of situations, Wilson planned on extracting T’Challa. Lastly, issue #26 has Sam Wilson playing a game of cat and mouse to distract the Masters of Evil. While Mad Thinker, Dreadknight and Mr. Hyde went after Captain America, he was burning time to allow for T’Challa’s extraction. Safe to say this worked beautifully. Just in the nick of time, when the chips where down for Sam, the Black Panther made his much awaited return.

HOW ABOUT THE ART?

Andre Broccardo generated an Avengers issue filled with non-stop action. Captain America and his plastoid suit soared high and fast through the Impossible City tactically while making it look easy. Also, the city’s backdrop comes alive thanks to the coloring by Federico Blee. This rendition allowed Sam Wilson to overcome his confidence struggles.

OVERALL GRADE: 9.8/10

Just another amazingly structured story arc by Jed MacKay. One thing you can count on from MacKay is previous plots or characters be circled back from his earlier writing on the same run. This writing style is also on display in his X-Men series. Personally, I appreciate seeing characters and plot threads return later down the road to build new arcs. As a reader it makes you circle back to previous issue to see what you missed or how is a character back center stage.

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