Let’s get this out of the way: Greg Land did a great cover. I know! It’s shocking isn’t it? Seriously though I did love the cover for this issue so for once I will give props to him. Anyways, the last arc was a lot of fun for this series but now we finally have an issue not devoted to a tie-in. Plus Kev Walker is back! Can nothing go wrong here?

Well in terms of the actual story here, no nothing is wrong here. Jeff Parker time and again is showing why he is a great writer by doing this series. You think the story is gonna go the obvious route, but then it doesn’t. There is a lot of story and characterization thrown in here and it’s all great to read. Like the cover shown, these six characters get in a bit of a tussel and try to vent from previous stories. Well maybe not much for Crossbones and Cap’N’ Steve; but the rest definitely resolve their issues other then fighting. The way Parker handled Ghost and Stark resolving their issues was really funny to me. Also, I was shocked that (MINI SPOILER) that the Crossbones terrigan mists situation was finally addressed to the heroes. Hopefully this won’t be the last we see of him. Finally, I loved the ending of this issue with the Frog. I won’t spoil that plotpoint here, but I laughed with how Parker solved it.

To be honest I was a bit annoyed we weren’t going to see more of Declan Shalvey. I mean I like Kev Walker too, but Shalvey really convinced me that he would be fantastic as the ongoing artist. But then I flip to the third page with the Avengers walking in, and then I realized that Walker is perfectly capable of doing this series. Like the previous issues, his panel layouts and fight sequences are handled perfectly. There’s even some nice little touches with characters in the backgroup to keep me looking around the panels throughout. There’s some little nitpicks I could say about the art here though. I do see a lot of Mike Mignola in these panels (the style at least) but when the action gets heavy some of the characters look a little wonky. Plus some of the backgrounds in here looked way to simple, and also sometimes it looks like he didn’t bother doing any at all. Not that big of a problem, but it’s little things that could’ve been slightly improved.

Again a lot of stuff happens here in a short span of time. Characters are coming and going; and certain plotlines do end here. I’m curious to see where Parker is going to go with this series right after this. I have no doubt though that it’s going to be action packed and filled with intriuged. No matter who the artist is, whether it be Kev Walker or someone else, this is still going to be one of the best looking Marvel comics on the stands. I still can’t believe though that Greg Land did a good cover though…