The Avengers are in the fight of their lives trying to end the Hulk’s rampage, but nothing can stop the unstoppable. And when an Avenger betrays the team, can the rest of the heroes hope to survive?

Brutal is the best way to describe Avengers #685 which has the team fighting a rampaging Hulk. In his way is Rulk with a little help from some armor. Writers Mark Waid, Al Ewing, and Jim Zub create scenes and a flow that not only make feel like taking on the Hulk is an impossible task but also the results are devastating without crossing the line of killing someone. They make their point without going over the top and falling into traps that take the readers out of the story and paints things into a corner.

It’s an interesting issue with the team focused on this one obstacle but at the same time things also feel a little stretched out as Voyager decides what to do.

If this were a film, this would be a few minutes in a 2 hour length. It’s a small snippet that has the entire issue dedicated to it. There’s good in that it reintroduces the Hulk and makes his defeat seem impossible but it also stretches things out a bit too.

What’s really nice though is how the issue ends. Through all of the fists and destruction, there may be another way.

And all of that brutality is rendered beautifully by Paco Medina with ink by Juan Vlasco and color by Jesus Aburtov. There’s some fantastic sequences and quite a few that had me lingering on the page to soak in the battle and what was happening. There’s also some solid use of panels and page spreads. Add in lettering by Cory Petit that adds to that feeling desperation and chaos and you have an issue where the art and story match up so well.

As I said, if this were a movie, it’d be a sequence that was just a few minutes. But, visually we’d have our jaws dropped and shocked as to where things go. In comic form though, it feels a little drawn out but there’s some great dramatic effect. As part of the greater “No Surrender” storyline, it all feels great and adds to the epic nature of it all. This Avengers story continues to impress.

Story: Mark Waid, Al Ewing, Jim Zub Art: Paco Medina
Ink: Juan Vlasco Color: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover: Mark Brooks
Variant Cover: Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson
Graphic Design: Carlos Lao
Editor: Tom Brevoort Assistant Editor: Alanna Smith
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.45 Overall: 8.1 Recommendation: Buy

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review