The game between the Grandmaster and the Challenger is coming to a boil on the Grandmaster’s side, but the Challenger has one last gambit!
Creative Staff:
Writer: Al Ewing, Jim Zub, Mark Waid
Art: Sean Izaakse
Color: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
What They Say:
One Avenger will gamble everything to save thousands — and the odds aren’t in his favor! The Challenger reveals his ace in the hole, and Jarvis awakens from a mysterious coma long enough to cry four chilling words: “It’s all a lie!”
Content: (Warning, spoilers)
No Surrender plunges onward, as The Avengers have thwarted the Challenger’s Black Order, and All three teams, Black Order, Lethal Legion (Grandmaster’s team), and the Avengers have each claimed one of the Pyramoid objectives, leading to the apparent deaths of The Human Torch and some Legion members. Rogue, still upset over Johnny Storm’s seeming demise and leading a group of Avengers, has led the team into a large battle with the rest of the Lethal Legion. The focus, however, is not on Rogue here. Instead, with the timely arrival of Hawkeye and his friend Red Wolf, we focus in on Red Wolf. The book has Red Wolf tell the reader about how he was taught to “look at things”. The battle around him is chaos, but he believes he will know where to strike successfully if he observes everything.
Meanwhile, a comatose Jarvis still hasn’t woken up, but Beast and Nadia Van Dyne (Wasp) may have discovered the cause- an alien pathogen! The book does have some length devoted to Jarvis, but really it’s more of a side note when compared to the overall plot. All we really get from this is the phrase “It’s a lie” before Jarvis is back to dying. Red Wolf realizes where his opening is and what he needs to do, and after a little convincing, Hawkeye provides him a distraction which Wolf uses to claim the Pyramoid. Hawkeye has faith that his friend will come back, Red Wolf is the voice of the issue, at least the main meat of it, and his story about learning to really see things may be important later.
Moving to the characters of the Grandmaster and Challenger, The Grandmaster has all but won, with no remaining members of The Black Order left. The final pyramoid is placed right where Jarvis, Beast, and Nadia are, but the Challenger doesn’t think things are that black and white in favor of his foe. He states that he has one last piece to play, and an offer to make. As the Challenger monologues, we are teken to the ruins of The Mount, where we meet the Challenger’s final player- Bruce Banner, The Immortal Hulk!
In Summary:
This was a pretty decent issue and a sign that Marvel can still do good events. Despite the large number of characters, We manage to find a real voice for the issue in Red Wolf. He narrates over a good portion of the book until he gets the Pyramoid, and his story about learning to observe things and really see them may just open the rest of the heroes’ eyes to what is going on here. Jarvis’ cryptic message really gets no time spent on it, with him waking up and saying that line all he contributes to the book. Rogue has gotten some good development lately, but this book sort of keeps the focus on her continuing grief for Johnny Storm. The reason for the contest between the Grandmaster and the Challenger could be better, but as a basic plot element they aren’t really exploring, it’s still passable.
The Challenger is on the brink of defeat, the question is, now that his final player has been revealed as the returned Immortal Hulk, will that be enough to change the tide in his favor. The book has great action and some pretty good dialogue. Storytelling is done rather well too. It’s frenzied, but you can still tell what’s going on if you pay attention. The return of The Hulk is a big thing here, because Marvel teased us about it before No Surrender began and are even teasing his new series now. Hulk himself gets a splash page accompanying his return in book, and it is simply glorious as a Hulk fan. What will the fate of Earth be now? We’ll have to find out when the next issue hits. The writing and art in this show why Marvel still has it as a comic producer, and I recommend you check this out if you can! It’s a blast and you won’t regret it!
Grade: B+
Age Rating: T+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: February 28, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
