While I like all the Rick Remender I can get, I almost wish we didn't get that Secret Avengers #21.1 issue. Issue #22 serves as a perfectly good introduction to the new Secret Avengers team under new creative management. It quickly gets the ball rolling and doesn't let up until the final page. Fans of this series, and Rick Remender and Gabriel Hardman in general, should find a lot to like with this book. Here's hoping future issues continue to deliver this level of quality. Read Full Review

Secret Avengers #22 is a textbook example of how you successfully relauncha property, building on what has gone before without trashing or disrespecting it, and setting up the whole new status quo with deceptive ease, earning 4.5 out of 5 stars overall. When your biggest complaint about this issue is that the awesome cover art and the awesome interior art are different kinds of awesome, you can be pretty sure the book is on the right track... Read Full Review

On the art side, we have Gabriel Hardman stepping onto the title. There's a rough style to it that fits this grittier Avengers title. The action scenes are cool and nicely laid out. Bettie Breitweiser's washed out colors takes away what we'd normally see in an Avengers book – that bright superheroic atmosphere. All of that works quite well in for this group. Between the visuals and the story, I'm very excited where this is headed. Read Full Review

With Venom and Uncanny X-Force, Remender's already writing two of my favorite Marvel titles right now. And with just one regular issue under his belt, and some very cool ideas and villains on the table, I'm already feeling some major anticipatory excitement for Secret Avengers that I don't see going away anytime soon. Read Full Review

Further review is exactly what this book implores. Remender writes an action-packed story that has deep roots in Avengers history, and he puts Avengers characters all around the core of this issue's tale. I enjoyed this book greatly the first time through. The second time offered some more revelations. I'm sure I'll dip back between these covers in my anxiety to get my hands on the next issue of "Secret Avengers." Good stuff. Read Full Review

Anyway, I'll give the new creative team more time to get a grip on this series - but so far, Secret Avengers is just OK. Read Full Review

Remender writes a damn good Avengers book here, and that's where this gets a little complicated. This reads more like a vaguely defined Avengers spin-off title like New Avengers or Mighty Avengers than the more clearly defined title that Secret Avengers is meant to be. The team's secret nature in this issue comes off as arbitrary and false. It's entirely possible that Remender will emphasize the team's covert purposes in later issues, but for right now, I'm not feeling this as the Secret Avengers. I feel as though I have traded in my cool espionage team of superheroes for just another good Avengers book. While that isn't a terrible trade, it's not a trade that I was wanting to make. Read Full Review

A good start by Remender and Hardman keeps up the high standard that has become associated with Secret Avengers. Read Full Review

In some ways, there is very little sense of awe in Hardman's images because you look at everything and think "yup, that's the way it would look if miniature versions of the Avengers just popped out of a woman's body." He doesn't make that seem as weird as it should be. But then when you stop and thin about it, it's amazing how wonderful these images are that you can easily accept that the fantastic is happening right before your eyes. " Read Full Review

The evil robots alone should earn Remender a giant pile of money to fuck on. That's right -- Rick Remender is the Diabolik of comics. Read Full Review

This is where Remender shines. Much like every other comic I've read by him, his ability to invent new villains and new ideas (rather than just rinse and repeat previous writer's characters) astounds me. I liked the little "wink" to recent troubles in England by having a villain called "Riot". I loved the Lighthouse being a microscopic space station. And the female Descendant from the City of the Dead (I "think" her name was Mother Origin???), birthing replicas through boils in her back??? GROSS!!! But awesome/inventive. And with the re-emergence of the Masters of Evil; I'm sure this will prove an epic storyline. Read Full Review

I was burned by not sticking through the first few issues of Uncanny X-Force so I am not giving up on a Remender book after one issue. However, I found the book to be a standard team book. There's some banter, some conflict, an epic fail going into a battle and a cliffhanger. If Remender is building a saga or is planning to throw a curve he is playing it close to the vest for now. I'm willing to deal another round and see where he is taking this. Read Full Review

I feel that the book needs to stop fluctuating from writer to writer and find a formula that works. Instead of having a rotating cast, there should be something concrete; it should take notes from Jeff Parker's "Thunderbolts", which relies heavily on character interaction to get its point across. Read Full Review