Avengers Annual #1

Writer Kathryn Immonen Artist Stuart Immonen

 

Introduction

 

Kathryn Immonen and David Lafuente are two creators that I really enjoy. The problem with both talents, is that they have not been consistently working in comics long enough to get the attention they deserve. Thankfully, the two have just begun work together on an Avengers Annual. For many this may seem like a strange time to have such a large event with Infinity blowing up the cosmic scale of the full ranks within the team. With so much product currently shipping from the big two, there is also a slight worry that some may forget to purchase the book all together. However, it is rare to see the two working in the industry today, and their fans should flock to the project.

 

Writing

 

The book opens on a great note with a tour of the illustrious Avengers Mansion. A group of elite children are set to go on a ‘retreat’ with Shang-Chi, the master of Kung-Fu. It is great to see the different characters in this book react to the younger kids with the different egos getting in the way of many of the different individuals. The author filters her distinctive writing sense into the book that takes some getting used to here. Hickman’s characters sound much different based on how they interact with each other. She does a great job involving a scene with Captain America getting ready for a dinner service. The Hulk is used with the utmost care her and is one of the funniest characters in the book. The art and writing mesh together really nicely here, La Fuente and Immonen seem like they are made for each other. The new character introduced here does not quite shine until the very end of this tale, where she has a scene stealing moment, that makes the issue come together quite nicely.

 

Art

 

David La Fuente has a hard manga influence that is not popular in the current space of comic book art. That does not mean the pencils are bad though, his style is perfect for an amusing character based story with a ton of interesting beats like this one. He is a really specific type of artist that should be pencilling a certain type of book. Line work is crude here, and La Fuente seems to be adding some extra eccentricity to the style that gives the book a great quirky feel. Some pages here can feel slightly rushed, while others seem to fall more in line with the quality expected from the artist. Many Marvel projects have been taking the unfortunate stance of quality over quantity as of late, hopefully the mantra will change soon. The artist has some really great layouts that come to fruition early on in the book, and stay for quite sometime. His storytelling sense is quite exquisite, as he does a great job meshing dynamic energy into his book that is channeled with a certain amount of care.

 

Conclusion

Avengers Annual #1 may not be essential reading, but it is an amusing Christmas tale that has some great character centric material. Kathryn Immonen and David La Fuente make a great pair on the title, and contribute a new heroine that proves to be very intriguing.