(rating for the whole thing)

Weirdly enough I think this comic gets something or at least how an idea about what the Avengers are about, which is something I feel is often missing. Even if it's never stated explicitly. The debate about if the Avengers are doing too little or too much is often brought up in discussions outside of the comics. That they are too authoritative and so on and this does a good job of focusing a story on that, on them trying to avenge, to redeem. Ready to be in the wrong for the right reasons. I think that's a rebelliousness that is a part of the team, just not often has the space to show it.

In a way, this is like the ultimate, but in reverse, where the most heroic and admirable traits are presented here. The characters confront their sins and atone for them with their all. Tony is a loving father and a husband, ready to make sacrifices and completely defined by that, Thor is a god, filled with sadness and duty towards the people and Cap...Cap is a badass. One gripe i have is that it felt like the story clearly favored Cap over the other characters and I get it, he was the window to that world, and he was the one leading us through it, which considering the political undertones was a great choice, obviously, those were the main themes here and the whole leading was done really well in my opinion. The world was progressively expanding, and our understanding of it, of what happened, and new characters were added like we never got bombarded with anything(maybe just a little bit in this issue). Respect to the way The Red Skull was written btw. Respect to how everybody was written, even if they got a little screentime.

The comics were very collectively paced, which is nice. it felt cinematic, and especially with Cap, his arc was so well tied with everything else. He was growing, as well as the story, itself. From small to big. But in the end, I think it got a little bit too big for its own good, but I get it Big Battles tend to get a little bit like that. Still, something needed a little bit more to tie stuff in a manner that fits the rest of the book. But even if rushed and in a dumb fight, as ideas I like what happened here and what it meant for the characters, even if some of them were rushed too. Some of those faults can be traced to the earliest issues even, where only the cap shined, but then it was not a problem, it was in the end because the idea got clear. At least to me. That said the last few pages were really heartwarming. The passing of the torch and the idea of the avengers to be together living on in the next-gen, while the older heroes can finally lie calmly.On a sidenote, i feel like atoning for your sins and just taking a break from it all after it is a Zdarsky thing.

Acuna is great on the other side, He has great visual language and awesome control of the colors and how they flow and create an environment.. don't Zdarsky and his writing style took the most of him, but still I was never harming it. I just think I should have felt some stuff way more.

Overall, it was a nice mini, it had the heart of the Avengers in it, but maybe if it was only Cap would have been even better. 0.5 points for Tony and jan being together.