Out of all the Avengers books, Secret Avengers is one that’s dropped below the radar the most for me, which is strange, because it’s written by Ed Brubaker, one of my all-time favourite writers. Recently, though, we’ve had some fantastic stuff from this book, mostly in the issue drawn by Michael Lark, David Aja and Stefano Gaudiano.

The story of this most recent arc has been interesting, placing the focus on Shang-Chi is something that wouldn’t normally curry much favour with me, but following the recent magic-centric New Avengers arc, it was strangely enjoyable; it feels smart, and that makes the book flow wonderfully.

The art, on the other hand, is something less than wonderful; Mike Deodato’s art is repulsive to me. Back when he worked on Spider-Man with JMS, I remember really liking it; but here it follows the Dark Avengers route of being muddy and confusing. It lets the book down, which is a real shame, because this should be the best book Marvel is publishing right now.