The island of Arcadia is about to face a new challenge.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett, G. Willow Wilson
Art: Jorge Molina
What They Say:
Marvel’s Mightiest Women finally get their own explosive series! In a secluded corner of the Battleworld, an island nation is fiercely protected by a team of Avengers the likes of which has only ever been glimpsed before. Fighting to protect the small sliver of their world that’s left, the Amazing A-Force stands shoulder-to-shoulder, ready to take on the horde!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While there was much consternation from a vocal segment of fans with the announcement of A-Force, this Secret Wars launch series is one that I was pretty keen on just to see what would be done. A lot of the appeal from the get go was the inclusion of Marugeurite Bennett on the book as I’ve enjoyed a lot of what she’s written and I can see some of the thematic elements coming out well here at the start. With this being a small island nation set along the shield wall to the south of Battleworld, alongside Limbo no less, it’s presented as a glistening jewel set against a lot of dark and disturbing areas, giving it a great contrast. And while it is most definitely female character heavy, it’s not a female-only book and there’s some interesting power dynamics that come into play with it.
The world here is one that does some decent character introductions since it has a wide ranging cast of well known character that operates under the Baroness of the island, She-Hulk. With her A-Force team serving as protectors of the land, there’s some solid if brief nods to most of the main cast as it gets underway while introducing the beautiful and serene nature of the island itself, where the inhabitants know that they’re better off here more than anywhere else. Some look to be mild reworkings, with Loki a woman, Dazzler wearing her disco era clothes, the early green clad Jean Grey Phoenix type here, but a lot of it is familiar in general. Interestingly, we get it so that Loki has essentially adopted two young women into her care with America Chavez and Nico Minoru, who are pretty competent young warriors themselves on this island of paradise and powerful women.
What we do get beyond the relationships that we see exist during the introductions and the lay of the land is a bit of action, as the team is called in to deal with the arrival of a very large and very mean shark of some sort. It’s not something truly threatening in a way, when you consider their power level, but we see Ms. America get caught up in the battle and toss the shark over the wall into the Deadlands. This sets into motion the chain of events that has Ms. America being sentenced to work the wall for the rest of her life as it doubles as a prison, because Doom’s law is that none shall cross the shield wall nor damage it, which she plainly did. This puts She-Hulk in a real bind because as powerful as she is in Arcadia, Arcadia exists at Doom’s whims. So seeing her subservient doesn’t help her position with the younger set that doesn’t understand how the world works, and for She-Hulk it drives her to find out the truth of what’s going on, which is naturally teased but not shown.
In Summary:
The opening installment here from Bennett and Wilson definitely works well and is likely going to have those calling it out for various reasons to realize that it’s pretty much like every other superhero book in a lot of ways. I like what’s presented here with the way this place is like a paradise, but there are strong rules that they have to play by in order to exist. We get a taste of how law and order works in the world here from those outside of the main power structure, but we also see that there are some really great things about Arcadia that you know will become the rallying cry for its inhabitants to eventually fight back against Doom. The writing is sharp and fun here, easily engaging, and Jorge Molina’s art is beautifully dynamic without going over the top or being unnecessarily cheesy. Everyone stands out well and there’s some great costume design and some really striking background designs that makes it warrant a couple of re-reads in order to delve into all the details. I’m doing my best to keep my Secret Wars books to a minimum, but A-Force is easily a must check out book.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 20th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
