When the Avengers formed, they formed to fight Loki. That much is true. If any foe could bedevil them and bend a little early continuity, it’s the God of Mischief. Though as he reminds Earth’s Mightiest Heroes late in the game, he’s been redefined as the God of Stories. And thus he can easily lure them into… The Veracity Trap.
Chip Kidd and Michael Cho team for a story both nostalgic and metatextual. Par for the course for the collaboration between Marvel Arts and Abrams Comic Arts. What’s also par for the course is a work that lets two creators at the top of their game celebrate their love for early Marvel.
Kidd writes the first section in a style that echoes Stan Lee’s early Avengers scripts. Where he veers from the early issues is that the early Hulk and revived Captain America fight side by side, with a light camaraderie. Because this isn’t really an untold story of the superteam; it’s about the feeling they evoked. Which also means that Kidd, a top-notch designer himself, gives Cho plenty of room for huge splash pages.
Those splash pages occasionally morph into full pin-up pages, just like you’d have found in the back of an early Marvel annual, minus a little purple prose. What Cho really brings is a sense that we’re “reading” an Avengers cartoon from the 1960s the way it would have played in our heads. Jack Kirby’s influence is everywhere, but Cho’s style is all his own. As with the other Marvel Arts/Abrams Comic Arts books, it deserves the oversized edition and brightly colored gloss. While maybe this isn’t one to share with little kids because of the meta-commentary, it’s a book to be looked over again and again.
That’s not to say it’s inappropriate. It’s just that Kidd and Cho insert themselves to consider whether these fantastic yarns can feel true even if they aren’t real. Of course the messages of heroism and hope ring true. Sometimes Loki understands that, though definitely not here. He wants to demoralize the Avengers by undercutting their sense of reality.
You can argue that Deadpool has the self-awareness that he’s fictional, but he internalizes that with the rest of his instability. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes can accept it and still be exactly the noble paragons — give or take a Hulk — that we expect them to be. Even if you do throw Fin Fang Foom at them.
The Avengers in The Veracity Trap will fit fine on your bookshelf, and remind you just why these characters have lasted. Still talking about the Avengers; Kidd and Cho might be characters, but I haven’t met them.
Fanboy Planet is affiliated with Bookshop.org, among other online vendors. Purchases made through links on this and other pages may generate a commission for this site. Bookshop.org purchases get credited to Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, which dedicates a portion of its sales to supporting their local PBS station.
