Earth’s mightiest heroes face a cosmic-level spirit of vengeance deep in their own headquarters in Avengers #24. Writer Jason Aaron writes a surprisingly enjoyable slugfest between gods, powerful mortals, and a vicious demon. Artist Stefano Caselli brings vivid, aggressive life to the action with the aid of colorist Jason Keith. Simple combat shouldn’t be nearly as entertaining as Aaron and Caselli make it here. Aaron gives Caselli some fun mutations of action that take full advantage of the weirdness that can take place when the super-powered take on a mystical being with a skull encased in eternal flames. 

The relatively new Avengers headquarters has had its problems. The latest seems to be a haunting by none other than the Cosmic Ghost Rider. He’s a little disoriented having been pushed back in time and been forced to confront a team of mighty heroes. It would seem that Thor would have very little problem cleaning-up the haunting all by himself. But a demon spirit capable of existing as little more than a flaming skull proves weirdly elusive. As Thor, She-Hulk and others all are forced to find novel ways to defeat a potent being bent on destroying them all. Meanwhile, Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes’ conflict with Johnny Blaze continues to rage in Hell.

Though there is some power in the Blaze/Reyes conflict, the heart of this issue really lies in the team. Superhuman combat has been the lifeblood of superhero comic books for decades. It’s one of the easiest types of story to deliver to the comic book page and, consequently, one of the most difficult things to bring to the page with any kind of originality. Thankfully, Jason Aaron finds a fun way to dive into high-powered combat between super-powered individuals. Is the dialogue that takes place during the combat cheesy? Uh...yes. Yes, it is. In places, it’s even awful. Aaron’s clever mixture of action makes-up for even the worst dialogue. There’s nothing terribly deep in what Aaron is bringing to the page, but it IS a great deal of fun. 

Big combat between the super-powerful can also look pretty boring. It can be difficult to bring across the full magnitude of gods pummeling each other to death. As each panel pounds into the next with endless percussion until the hero finally manages a win. Caselli finds some fascinating angles on the aggression that involve some really creative uses for a flaming skull. As weird as it looks, Caselli keeps the assaults suitably brutal in an issue dominated by combat. Jason Keith’s colors strike a very appealing contrast between different extremes. Ghost Rider’s hellfire is luminous without overpowering the rest of the color on the page. It’s a very balanced approach to the color.

Specific details with the background aside, this issue is the Avengers fending-off a threat against...themselves. A cool as the combat is, it’s not the sort of triumphant defense of the earth, the universe and more. That has made for some of the better stories history of the team. Hopefully, with this issue behind them, the team can start to focus on the actual business of protecting the earth. 

Grade: B