It only gets more complicated in Arcadia.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett, G. Willow Wilson
Art: Jorge Molina
What They Say:
With monsters appearing on the utopian island of Arcadia and threatening its inhabitants, She-Hulk and her team of Avengers set out to discover the source. But when they stumble upon a conspiracy that reaches far beyond Arcadia, She-Hulk may just find herself on the wrong side of the law!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first installment of A-Force is one that worked surprisingly well with what it was cobbling together in the land of Arcadia. We got to see a range of things going on with a very fun cast of characters, some very different from what we knew before, and it gave us a kind of glittering jewel of a location with a sense of hope and optimism about it. Something that you really don’t see in most of the other places in this event series. But we did get to see the darker side as well with what happened to America and her exile beyond the Shield Wall, making it clear that there’s a real price to pay for living here and not doing what needs to be done.
So naturally, that’s a focal point here as Nico has adopted the star-filled newcomer with no name. With no dialogue from her but plenty of personality through action and facial expressions, it’s easy to see how she and Nico get along so well, even at a potential price since anyone like this should be taken to She-Hulk to figure out what to do. That’s something that Loki makes clear when she discovers what’s done, but Nico’s worries and positions are understandable after having just lost America. That’s a sentiment that’s well played in the first part of this book and which carries over to events later as you get a divide over those that simply want to deal with what they believe to be a threat and cause of their new troubles while others are more intent on figuring out if that’s really true since there’s some discrepancies.
With the portals that are opening and bringing unexpected things to Arcadia, it’s definitely troubling but also fun in a sense. The first thing we see is a portal underwater that the Submariner’s find, which shows them the AvX world in a swirl form that even here still looks adorable. But the bulk of the book is given over to the sudden arrival of a Sentinel that senses mutants in the mix and seeks to terminate them. It’s old school Sentinel material without much dialogue from it, but it rallies the team together for the moment and there’s a lot to like in Molina’s layouts and the flow of the action as it unfolds. Everyone pretty much gets their chance to shine and look cool while our newcomer also gets to be involved. Which ramps up distrust and trust at the same time, reinforcing She-Hulk’s position that there’s more going on here than meets the eye and they best not react quickly.
In Summary:
Though not quite as bright and outwardly appealing as the first installment was, A-Force has a solid second issue that reveals more of the problems plaguing the area – both with the rifts and the way the society works. The cast is large enough that most everyone gets their moments, several with good quips that stand out or just expressions that says a lot, but it also means that we don’t get a lot of really meaningful material. Most of what we get comes from Nico and the newcomer as Nico rambles on about things, but even there it’s still somewhat superficial. But the book is a smooth and fun read with a great cast performing mostly as you’d expect, just with a few tweaks for the concept of the event series overall. While it won’t get me to read the book when it launches post-Secret Wars, I’m definitely enjoying what we get here in this otherworld.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 1st, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
