At this stage in the game Mike Deodato remains the books main draw – no pun intended. With Brubaker still fleshing out his story and settling into the rhythms of writing an over-the-top Avengers book, it's Deodato who seems most at home with this material. Although his striking visuals deliver the goods in each and every panel, his work on two sequences – the book's opening flashback and a gorgeous double-page spread revealing the story's galactic scope – really hit home as the work of a master. As soon as Brubaker's writing rises to the level of Deodato's art – a feat the scribe is more than capable of achieving – this book will undoubtedly become the best Avengers book on the stands. Heck, some would say it already is. Read Full Review

The art also looks much better With Deodato continuing to grace the pages with remarkable pencils and strong action sequences. Few Marvel Comics look so good these days. Read Full Review

The only real issue I have here is with the pacing of the storyline. The content itself is interesting, but it just needs to move along a little faster, and a bit more of a focus on the characters on the team would be nice as well, as we got a bit more exploration of the Archon than the cast in particular. Read Full Review

While the issue is slower than I would like and doesn't move things forward as much, the individual scenes are all very entertaining and the ending of the issue has a genuine 'we're all screwed' feeling. "Secret Avengers" is shaping up to be a really solid superhero team book with both Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato showing that they can do more than grounded, dark stories by playing against expectations with a grandiose cosmic adventure. Read Full Review

I haven't read the first two issues, so maybe this was addressed somewhere in the first two issues, but I'm not seeing how the Secret Avengers having this adventure on Mars jibes with them being this covert strike-force. I think their guest appearance in Moon Knight's book was a better execution of that notion. Here, they seem like just another team - - basically like the West Coast Avengers. Read Full Review

Much like Uncanny XMen #526 before it, Secret Avengers #3 came very close to jumping into the Buy It range thanks to some cool things going on with Nova and a very strong effort from Mike Deodato. Unfortunately, the colors were a bit weak and, quite frankly, I'm getting very annoyed with how poorly the ensemble cast is being handled in this series. While I'm glad to see my favorite members of the team being spotlighted, there is no reason for the rest of the team to be written off so casually. If they are going to be part of the team, they need to be part of the story. Read Full Review

I thought this issue was a huge yawner, and after reading it I feel less confident that I'm going to continue collecting this series, which is a huge shame since I had such high hopes for it. The creative team is amazing, the premise of this book has all the makings of a beautiful summer blockbuster, and yet neither are delivering the entertainment value I expected them to. I'll stick around for another issue or two…. Maybe. Read Full Review

While this is not Rise of Arsenal or One More Day level of bad, nothing happens here. You could skip this issue entirely and come back next month without missing a beat. I feel like I've wasted time reading it, despite not hating it or finding anything outright offensive about it. That's not how you should feel about a book you spent $3.99 on, so it gets an Avoid It from me. Read Full Review

Doesn't even feel like Brubaker is writing it