Secret Avengers Vol. 1: Mission to Mars

Secret Avengers (2010) (Collected Editions) #1

by Ed Brubaker

Who are the Secret Avengers? Are they a covert team of heroes working the darkest corners of the globe to stop disaster? Are they part-spy, part-superhero? Are they Steve Rogers' newest idea to save the world...or all they all of the above? A new era begins as Marvel's hottest team takes a 21st century twist!

Collecting: Secret Avengers 1-5

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Fiction, Comic Book

140 pages, Hardcover

First published February 2, 2011

About the author

Ed Brubaker (born November 17, 1966) is an Eisner Award-winning American cartoonist and writer. He was born at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.

In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nick Fury’s super clone, Max, is running around the Marvel universe half-cocked doing stuff. Max has all of Nick’s memories and used to think he was the real deal. He would take down Marvel villain groups who use acronyms (H.Y.D.R.A, A.I.M.), but eventually started using his skill set for misguided purposes. I try to imagine if, I, Jeff had a super clone out there. What would he be doing?

a) Climbing Mt. Everest
b) Working in a free clinic and helping the needy
c) Writing world-wide best sellers
d) In Las Vegas, banging strippers on a concrete mattress

Oh yeah. Commander Rogers (aka Captain America) takes his stealth team to Mars to battle some crazy-assed scheme to take over the universe.

I haven’t (yet) read anything by Ed Brubaker that I didn’t like. Here with an able assist from illustrator Mike Deodato, he brings nuanced portraits to a large team of players. Especially memorable are Rogers use of Nova’s helmet and Eric O’Grady’s Antman.

Why would anyone choose shrinking yourself as a superpower? Performance issues?

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one had a lot of potential but didn't really pay-off the set-up. Steve Rogers assembles an unlikely team of Avengers to run low-profile espionage/spy types of operations, so after a nice introduction featuring Black Widow, Sharon Carter, and Valkyrie they blast off for Mars... It's a group that doesn't really mesh well; in addition to those four we have Moon Knight, Nova, an Ant-Man, Beast, and War Machine, which is at least one or two too many and some of them have little to do. The art is okay, glossy Marvel standard, and the writing is just okay, too, with a few good scenes but an overall fuzziness of plot. It's a fun book, but unmemorable. Excelsior.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was so good!

We see Steve form a new team and well their mission is on mars to retrieve some serpent crown looking kinda thing and we see how he recruits them all and that thing they went to retrieve has taken control of Nova and well he commands the men of another secret group called Shadow council and then we see this team get down to it and fight and well the fall of some and the rise of more secrets and revelations, Steve becoming Nova, Eric having his own adventures and what not until that epic ending and the secrets of this new bad group and how did Fury get into it? And is it even fury plus some other big characters who are there in the Shadow council!

Its a great book and I love how quick and fast paced the action is and MDJ art is so good here especially close up face of Steve and Sharon and I love it! Plus Nova being bad was fun and the twist with the fake Fury and Shadow council too, clearly they're gonna be a big threat in the next few volumes so can't be more excited to read ahead!

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steve Rogers has put together a secret Avengers team to take on the missions no one else can.


All I kept thinking was that this secret team thing has been done before and done better. It doesn't help that the team consists of the little to no personality group. Even the characters with personality never got an opportunity to display it. The Mission to Mars felt way out to left field just like Max did.

I know a lot of people swear by Ed Brubaker, but I've had mixed results so far. I also wasn't enjoying the overly shadowed artwork.

Mission to Mars was very much a story that felt familiar.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The idea behind Secret Avengers is good, and Volume 1 has a solid finish Loved the Nick Fury/Max plot thread!, so I'm hoping for good things from this title in the future.
I'll admit that I was a little confused when I saw that the guys in the other secret organization were wearing black spandex with a giant snake symbol on the front of their outfits.
Is this a G.I. Joe crossover issue? Are these the evil agents of Cobra?!
Happily, that was not the case. This was more of a fun secret agent/space opera kind of thing. Watch out for Ant-Man, because I really thought he stole the show in this one!

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vote: ☆☆☆½

Storyline and dialogues were so lame that they reminded me why I quit reading Marvel comics for some time after Siege event, but Deodato's excellent artworks saved the day for good.




And Captain America Commander Rogers turning into Nova for a few pages was soooo cool!

[Kemper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Rogers is back from the dead but not acting as Captain America. Instead, Steve has been appointed the ‘top cop of the world’, the individual in charge of dealing with threats from all the super villains, alien attacks, black magic, powerful artifacts and evil corporations in the Marvel universe. Steve-O probably won’t be getting many days off.

Steve is recruiting new teams of Avengers to deal with all this crap and this includes a secret team to gather intelligence and do covert type operations to head off threats. It’s a bit of a weird mix of heroes with Steve, Black Widow, War Machine, Beast, Valkyrie, the new Ant-Man, and Moon Knight. It gets even weirder when they learn that the powerful Serpent Crown they’ve been trying to locate is linked to a mining effort on Mars so Steve calls in Nova to help and soon they’re all off to the Red Planet.

I love the idea of Steve Rogers heading up a world-wide effort to deal with the all the dangers of the Marvel universe and personally leading a covert team, but I had some doubts about this book. The roster seemed to be a bunch of B-list heroes, and Steve isn’t even sporting his old Captain America duds these days. Plus, launching a title about a group supposedly designed to do sneaky covert stuff but then immediately sending them to Mars to face an interstellar threat seemed a bit out of whack.

But Ed Brubaker wrote this, and Ed Brubaker is The Man in comics to me these days and he delivers once again here. Part of the charm of the Avengers is that their line-ups and adventures have always seemed like genre fusing to some extent with a Norse god teaming up with an armored high-tech billionaire along with a guy who is really good at shooting arrows and then they’ve done everything from standard super villain punching to time travel and fighting aliens. To make that work takes some skill, and Brubaker has plenty of that.

The mix of hero types and personalities gels nicely from the scientific Beast making little quips as he delivers the technobabble to Black Widow’s spy talk to Ant-Man’s nervous chatter. The group works because Steve Rogers is running the show and in Marvel comics, when Steve Rogers talks, superheroes listen.

It’s also nice to see a team comic didn’t feel the need to find a way to shoehorn Wolverine into it for sales purposes.

[Jim Ef · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.1/10

The secret Avengers, a new team assembled by Steve Rogers, in order to operate without drawing any attention. Of course their first mission has huge stakes.
This basically jumps right into action and i felt it would be better if at first we would have some kind of built up.
It also seems like Brubaker didn't know what to do with some of the characters, it wouldn't make any difference if Moon Knight was out of the story.

[L. McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
I don’t know... I feel kinda meh towards this.
On one hand it has solid art, great action scenes throughout and the characters are pretty cool.
On the other hand the story’s a bit ridiculous, the dialogue isn’t very good and the storytelling is confusing at times.
So overall it’s not bad. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I went into with Marvel superhero expectations and not Ed Brubaker expectations.

3/5

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of this book: a black ops Avengers. Sounds like fun. The makeup of the team is... Well, it isn't exactly built for stealth. There's Cap, because he has to be in every Avengers book (super soldiers don't need to sleep), but I'm fine with that because he has this sort of work in his history. Black Widow is a natural choice, and considering his powerset, so is Ant-Man. Despite being very blue, Beast could do some good work here. But the rest of the characters seem like odd choices, and most of them are really low tier characters. Like Moon Knight, who takes up a huge chunk of real estate on the cover but doesn't get many panels. It just isn't the most compelling team in the world, and nothing that was done here made me care about these characters any more than I already do. Which is, for most of them, not at all.

Making the first adventure of a team supposedly designed for black ops work be a cosmic adventure on Mars is also a strange choice. Luckily, it doesn't kill the book, because the story itself is written in an interesting enough way. I just would have been happier to see this black ops team do more black ops and less conventional superheroics.

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll be the first to admit, it's really, really hard to get me to care about galactic Marvel. It just really doesn't interest me. I loved reading about Carol Danvers' adventures helping alien refuges and a few volumes of Guardians of the Galaxy were interesting. Beyond that, it's so, so hard for me to care.

This Secret Avengers team is a strange line up? Commander Rogers, Black Widow, Valkyrie, War Machine, Beast, Eric Grady as Ant-Man and (sort of) Nova. I don't know why this combo was chosen (I'm still pressed about Rhodey being the token black guy because we didn't have room for another). It just seems strange.

Anyway, the team ends up in space chasing after Nova who's gone crazy due to the influence of a space crown? Or something like that.

This wasn't my favorite art. The storyline wasn't super interesting. There weren't any real character moments. I think I lost interest so rapidly because it starts with a sort of espionage story with Nat and Valkyrie undercover while Sharon runs point from HQ. Those are the kind of stories I think Brubaker does really well. Then it quickly turned into a story involving space and Celestials and I really, really have bad flashbacks of trying to sludge through Hickmanvengers which had a TON on the Celestials.

So, this just wasn't the story for me, unfortunately.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Avengers go to the...MOON!

When something bad is going on Steve Rogers recruits a few new guys and gals to find out what the hell is happening up on the moon. He recruits the likes of Moon Knight, Valkyrie, and fucking Antman. Not even Scott, the asshole one who doesn't last too much longer in the Marvel Universe from what I remember. So together the team has to take on Nova, who is possesses by some crown of something by a secret organization ran by...NICK FURY!?

This was pretty fun. It has the weirdest team up I've seen in awhile. Characters who can barely function on their own working as a team is fun to watch. The art is also solid throughout with some great shots. The story is decent though the whole Nick Fury twist at the end was meh.

Overall a fun spinoff Avengers title. I'll check out volume 2.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un Brubaker moderado pero cumplidor que se complementa muy bien con Deodato en su faceta fotoprolija. Creo que del bonito tomo del coleccionable sólo me faltan leer los extras sobre quién es quién y esas cosas.

[Димитър Цолов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Прилична история, разгърната в 4 броя, плюс пети, в който се дава обяснение за конкретен персонаж (с различен арт, харесал ми доста повече), но далеч от най-добрите представители в колекцията.

[Michael J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fun book to read and escape for awhile, but it's not that memorable. Kind of a ho-hum effort for Ed Brubaker, a very capable writer. I wonder if trying to write a team book was asking too much of him. This is awfully cluttered with details and story elements and doesn't give enough time for character development. Result: I didn't really care what happened. Don't get me wrong. I love Ed Brubaker, especially his amazing crime comics (Criminal, Fade-Out, Kill Or Be Killed, etc). His plotting and character development skills seem better suited to a single protagonist or two, not a whole group of them. His best work in superhero comics was on Daredevil and Captain America -- those are awesome books.
Mike Deodato is a great artist. His photo realism style and sense for action is often something to marvel over, but not here. There was so much dialogue and information to convey that the action panels are smaller than they should be and often too cluttered to get a good sense of what's going on.
Steve Rogers is not acting as Captain America here, but is in Super-Soldier mode and putting together a secret special-ops team to handle the world's deadly threats that no one can talk about. The action here takes place on both Mars and Earth and the teams split up to investigate the discovery of a serpent crown and the unleashing of yet another Celestial-like race of giant beings set on world domination. Theres a secret society that's been following these activities for years, and possibly not with the best intentions. And Nick Fury might be a part of it. (Don't want to spoil the big reveals).
Moon Knight and Beast don't get to do much. Ant Man is depicted as the dumb newbie in the group. Nova has been corrupted by the crown's influence. Valkyrie just acts tough. And Steve oversees it all. I do like his new shield, though.
In spite of all I find off-putting about this, it's not a bad start to yet another Avengers title. This one originated in 2010, and there have been too many different Avengers side groups for anyone to keep track of. How many super-team books do you really need, Marvel? Secret Avengers was popular enough to run for 37 issues before cancellation, and despite the creative teams seeming to change with every new story arc.
I picked this up because I couldn't resist the bargain bin price at my local comic shop. If you find yourself as fortunate as I did, by all means don't pass this up. However, if you'd like a better read I would recommend Steve Rogers: Super Soldier or any of the trade paperbacks reprinting Brubaker's lengthy run on Captain America.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun bit of Avengers work - having Brubaker's writing complemented by yet another realistic artist is a treat. The story is interesting with just a bit of Brubaker's trademark mystery, and the action is gorgeously rendered as Deodato always seems to do.

This isn't mind-blowing work but it is worth reading, which is more than I can say for a lot of the titles that were launched for the Heroic Age. This is *much* better than that "Avengers" tripe put out by Bendis/Romita Jr.

However, upon a second reading I had these thoughts: "...you messed with the *wrong* ex-Agent of SHIELD." Awkward dialogue isn't something I usually expect from Brubaker, but he's lost me here. When would someone as strong and self-assured as Sharon Carter say something like that to themselves?

Spies, watchers, constructs, and this rag-tag group of adventurers - everything interacting but it all seems pre-scripted, even though very little of it made plotting sense. I can't even say I care that much to read the follow-on.

The art by Deodato as always makes me feel like I'm watching a big-budget movie. But at the same time, I think Mike has an unhealthy idea of what hero bodies should look like. Every guy looks like they're about to compete in the Mr. Universe pageant, and Steve Rogers looks bigger and more cut than Schwarzenegger.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expect much from this, another Avengers book and one with a name that struck me as kind of goofy, but I was pleasantly surprised. Brubaker has put together a group of heroes as a covert strike team, and he handles their first adventure with pretty impressive skills. I wouldn't have expected him to write cosmic action as well as he does, but that's my bad for assuming he was more of an earthbound author. Deodato is also well suited for the fight scenes, he has a dynamic sense of layout that dazzles without obscuring the essentials. I'll be back for vol. 2.

[Derek Moreland · Rating 2 out of 5]

How can such a cool concept and frankly great cast be so friggin’ dull?!?

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 5 out of 5]

No había vuelto a releer Vengadores Secretos desde que compré estos cómics en su momento, y la verdad es que tenía bastantes ganas de volver a echarle un ojo a esta colección. Ed Brubaker había hecho un trabajo absolutamente espectacular en Capitán América, y aquí llegaba acompañado de Mike Deodato, que no me puede molar más, las cosas como son. La propia idea de Vengadores Secretos me parece muy interesante. No nueva del todo, ya se había hecho algo parecido cuando los Vengadores Costa Oeste se convirtieron en Fuerza de Choque (de hecho, Maquina de Guerra por ejemplo, habrá estado en ambos equipos). Pero Fuerza de Choque era una colección secundaria, y Vengadores Secretos se situaba en pleno corazón del Universo Marvel, ni más ni menos que con el propio Steve Rogers a la cabeza, y con una alineación bastante original: Sharon Carter (como enlace del grupo), el Caballero Luna, Bestia, la Valquiria, Máquina de Guerra, el Hombre Hormiga (Eric O'Grady) y el mismísimo Nova... aunque la presencia de Nova sería muy breve, ya que el Imperativo Thanos estaba a la vuelta de la esquina y Nova no iba a volver del Cancerverso.

Pero no adelantemos acontecimientos. En este primer arco, Misión en Marte, los Vengadores Secretos se encontrarán buscando uno de los objetos más emblemáticos del Universo Marvel: la Corona Serpiente. Bru, ni corto ni perezoso, enfrentará a los Vengadores Secretos a todo un evento cósmico en Marvel, pero además presentará a un nuevo actor para la colección: el Consejo de las Sombras, del que forma parte ni más ni menos que alguien que parece ser Nick Furia... pero que descubriremos pronto que se trata de Max Furia, un SDV con los recuerdos de Furia que había formado parte de una trama de los Defensores en los Años Setenta...

Total, que la verdad es que es un principio bastante impactante y perfectamente narrado e ilustrado.

[Felix Zilich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Весной 2010 года завершился подлинный «золотой век» в истории комиксов Marvel. Роджерс воскрес, Осборн - был арестован, Акт об регистрации - отменили. Одним словом, обнулили всё крутое, что происходило в графической вселенной в предыдущие годы. Пришла Эпоха Героев, а вместе с ней - пять или шесть параллельных онгоингов про Мстителей. «Тайные мстители» выглядели в этом списке максимально привлекательно (сценарист - Брубейкер, художник - Майк Деодато, среди членов команды - Валькирия и Лунный Рыцарь), но я никогда не пробовал читать даже первый выпуск. Too much Avengers for me! К счастью, случайный pick up первого попавшегося «ашеттовского» тома с полки исправил ошибку.

Чтобы противостоять загадочной группировке Shadow Council (лидер которой, возможно, сам Ник Фьюри), Стив Роджерс (к слову, в костюме из Avengers Endgame) собирает тайную black ops команду из очень пестрых супергероев. Мозг команды - Бист. Полевые ветераны - Вор машин, Черная Вдова и Шэрон Картер. Приглашенные специалисты: Лунный Рыцарь, Черный Муравей, Нова и Валькирия. Начало было хорошее: операция в Абу-Даби по отъему у Roxxon Короны Тентаклей проведена (и нарисована) прекрасно, но потом Стив решил внедрить стратегию: Тайным Мстителям нет смысла собираться вместе, они как Итан Хант хорошо работают по одиночке. Ошибочность подобной стратегии обнаружили почти сразу. Отправленный на Марс Ричард Райдер не вышел на связь. Пришлось всем собираться и лететь на изучение роксоновских шахт, где можно найти Корону Змей, а, быть может, и что-то куда более древнее.

Например, эстетику из комиксов Кирби и Серанко, про которых так любят затирать олды. Весь шпионский слой истории разработан Брубейкером интересно и с огоньком (Майк Деодато - просто бог), но уж слишком эпизодически и скороговоркой представлен слой ктулхианский. Он выветривается из памяти почти сразу. Остается выжженным пятном лишь бессмертный антагонист, по-муровский списанный с Джона Картера из барсумских романов Берроуза.

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remember those stories of superheroes getting together and getting the job done, saving the world or whatever? This is exactly what you're getting here and nothing more. Plenty of fights, investigations, good vs. bad, but none of the soul. It's like these guys aren't human. All of their focus is on the mission and none of it on plain human interaction. Now, I don't mean that love triangles or crying scenes should have been included, but some proper camaraderie or friendly interaction are certainly missing. This is a poor introduction to the series. Or maybe the dry take on the superhero genre was intentional.

Steve Rogers' new covert Avengers team is looking into Roxxon corporation. They recover an artifact, then Steve sends Nova investigate the Roxxon Mars base. When they lose contact with Nova, they follow only to find proof of a Mars civilization. Nova is being mind-controlled by an artifact. It aims to free something called the Dark Children who have destroyed life on Mars in the past and now aim to do the same to the rest of the world. A concerted effort destroys the bad guys' link to the Dark Children and defeats the possessed Nova who returns to his old self.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ed Brubaker is synonymous with quality, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve read a ton of his work, from his Captain America run, his Daredevil work, to his creator-owned properties like Velvet and Kill Or Be Killed. So, when I read something like Secret Avengers, I tend to rank it on a Brubaker Scale. As such, this one gets 3.5 stars. Not peak Brubaker, but certainly a strong outing, with some interplanetary action, a few laughs, and some fun spy stuff.

Deodato’s art was generally quite strong, but I found his characters tended to have whopping great big thighs, which is one of those things you can’t unsee once you notice it. I mean, I get that superheroes have bodybuilder physiques, but those Deodato thighs make everyone look like they’re on steroids. Where Deodato is concerned, no one skips leg day. (Also, Valkyrie’s impossibly large breasts are just ridiculous.)

The final issue, which delves into the Max Fury mystery, was the best for me. With some more of that, we’re in for a great series.

[Sineala · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the opening arc of Secret Avengers, a black-ops team of superheroes meant to work in the shadows, led by Steve Rogers, who is historically a character who thinks that a trench coat over his Captain America costume is an adequate disguise and as such would not have been my first choice for black ops. Brubaker's Steve is usually too grim and humorless for me -- and this is pretty much in that vein -- but I like the set-up, I like the team, I like the mission (mind-control crown! on Mars! sure, why not!), and Commander Rogers is very pretty and usually he never gets to be pretty. What can I say, I am easily entertained.

Bonus points for Richard Rider and Worldmind, two of my favorite things about Cosmic Marvel.

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book. It's nothing amazing, but very solid. Both writing and art are good, though the writing is not nearly as good as most of Brubaker's work. The team roster is very interesting, however I felt that most of the characters weren't used to their full potential and that it felt more like a Captain America book. That's not a bad thing per se, but I definitely wanted to see more of my boy Moon Knight and my girl Black Widow. Sadly, Nova was relegated to a plot device, but it was worth it to see Cap put on Nova's helmet and harness the Nova Force (not exactly a spoiler since it's shown in the back of the book). I'd give this book a 3.5/5, but rounded up to 4* because it's just a lot of fun.

[Katherine (Kat) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 Stars

Individual issues rated below -

Secret Avengers #1: 3.5/5
Secret Avengers #2: 3/5
Secret Avengers #3: 3/5
Secret Avengers #4: 4/5
Secret Avengers #5: 3/5

[Mrbill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kasian Moonknight nya udah kayak lalat
Bagus padahal ini, cuman kayak males nulis karakter

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprisingly weak entry from Brubaker, who's now back to writing Steve Rogers, the character he has arguably been best at writing in all his time at Marvel. First of all, I'm not 100% convinced this book lives up to its own premise. "Secret" Avengers to me sounds like this is going to be a lot of espionage and tactical superheroics set apart from the other Avengers comics. I mean, that's basically what this book claims to be. Buuuut, it isn't?

In the first few pages, we do get some spy stuff. But literally in just the first, oh, 4 pages? Then Valkyrie blows her spy cover almost immediately and Steve Rogers bursts through the window and it turns into a big scrap. Pretty secret, having Steve Rogers just blast into a building and beat the hell out of everyone.

From this point forward, there is no spying done by the Secret Avengers. There are people spying ON THEM, but the Secret Avengers themselves just fly to mars and start getting in massive, cosmic-level fights. You know. Like how a spy does. I love that James Bond story where he fights Galactus.

Now, maybe that's unfair. This is still a superhero book, so big fights are probably gonna go down. But can we at least get SOME secretiveness from the SECRET Avengers? The first real inclination that this is going to be anything other than just another Avengers book comes at the very end of this volume, in a story so laden with exposition it can barely stay afloat. Here's hoping it pans out in the next volume.

To judge this on a more direct scale, the stuff that this book does is fine. Brubaker's on top of the plot and action like a professional who is required to write these stories all the time. Nothing wildly creative, but nothing terribly disappointing. Just a middle of the road story of a team of superheroes fighting a bad guy. Cool.

But I want secrets! I am a secrets fiend! Give me secrets, Secret Avengers!

Secrets.

[Dmitry Yakovenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Secret Avengers, Vol. 1: Mission to Mars, Secret Avengers, Vol. 2: Eyes of the Dragon.

Снова Эд Брубейкер написал историю про Капитана Америка и снова я с радостью бросился знакомиться с ней, ведь очень уж мощным был ран этого автора на Кэпе.

Этот ран на "Секретных Мстителях" вышел не столь объёмным и качественным, как пятый том Капитана. Всего двенадцать выпусков повествующих о том, как Роджерс собрал секретную командую для тайных операций по спасению мира. В команду вошли: сам Кэп, Чёрная вдова, Шэрон Картер, Валькирия, Воитель, Зверь, Человек-муравей и Лунный рыцарь. Команда разношерстная и крайне приятная, только больше всего времени всё равно дали Стиву, поэтому и лучше всего раскрыт он.

В плане событий всё стандартно – злодеи, стремящиеся к мировому господству, герои, что пытаются их остановить. То на Марс слетают, где будут пытаться спасти Нову, то постараются вместе с Шан-Чи спасти Землю и предотвратить воскрешение отца Шан-Чи.

Не сказать что истории плохие, просто какие-то слишком уж обычные, без искорки. Читать интересно, весело, но много эмоций не вызывают, как и желания поставить такой комикс на полочку, на какое-нибудь видное место. А вот что удалось на 100%, так это рисунок и то, как динамично и смачно нарисован тут экшен, который невероятно приятно рассматривать.

В целом хороший комикс, исключительно развлекательный, от того и не вызывающий восторга, но свою порцию удовольствия он даёт.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! I was so excited when I saw that this was coming out, and I am still excited now that I have finished. This graphic novel was perfection. Great action, great plot, and the pacing really worked giving this new Avengers spin-off quite a promising start. I also really liked the insight into not-Nick Fury that followed the four issues focused on the first mission.

The team dynamics have barely begun to form here, and that will be really great to watch develop since I really like most of these superheroes on their own already. Teams being competent and snarking only mildly is always fun. The fact that the team members –and especially the women– are all quite capable individuals in their own right is also pretty darn cool. As team leader, Steve is really the force linking them all together, which is great to have established right off the bat. And he also can send them off to do things without having to breath down their necks or get annoyed by their inability to get things done.

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[Jeff Lanter · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't know how this ties into the Heroic Age event or crossover or whatever Marvel was doing when this was released, I thought Secret Avengers was pretty easy to pick up and enjoy. It certainly has an interesting team with plenty of potential. Steve Rogers, Moon Knight, a version of Ant Man (I think?), Beast, Sharon Carter, and Valkyrie make for an interesting and pretty diverse team. Unfortunately, not all of these characters got to shine in this volume, but I hope more will in the future of this series. The plot is pretty standard. It is a sci-fi Lovecraftian story without any traces of horror. What is interesting is that there is a mysterious clone or person imitating Nick Fury who seems to be leading the bad guys. The story is pretty straightforward, but satisfying. The art was strong with Lark and Deodato. Both are great artists and help elevate what is otherwise a standard story. I would probably give this Mission to Mars 3.5 stars because the art is so strong, but ultimately, I will stick with a 3 and I'm hoping that the next volume pulls me in more because I want to see what Warren Ellis and Rick Remender due with this team of characters.