It’s a Sarlacc. Black Widow is falling into a Sarlacc pit. They don’t call it a Sarlacc pit, though. They’re calling it a “Grexxle.” As All-Out Avengers #4 opens, Widow, Spider-Woman, and Captain Marvel are all dealing with aliens on another planet who all seem to want them dead. The precise reason why will have to wait as writer Derek Landy’s action-based mini-series enters its penultimate chapter under the power of penciler Greg Land, inker Jay Leisten, and colorist Frank D’Armata. Dropping all the Avengers into the middle of an issue-length action sequence has been fun so far. Four episodes in, Landy’s premise begins to show some fatigue in a largely enjoyable issue. 

They’re known as the Drahl. They want the Avengers dead. Some of the team has been stranded on a distant planet for days. Given all that they have been through, it’s not exactly surprising that they’re holding up remarkably well. Their time is running out, though. If they can’t eliminate the force field around the planet that they’re on, things will get much worse for everyone involved. The good news is that Hawkeye has found the place where the field is originating. The bad news is that the Drahl are ready to unleash an army of 4,000 warriors at them. 

It’s cool to see a central team consisting of some of the coolest women Avengers, but Landy isn’t doing much with the plot that doesn’t feel stolen from Return of the Jedi. The one little bit of originality this particular issue has going for it is the fact that Landy decided that the Avengers needed to be forced to work with AIM techies on this one. So the Avengers are joined by three relatively brilliant scientists in matching weird gold suits designed by Kirby in the early Silver Age. It’s a fun twist on the old “heroes forced to fight with villains” trope. 

The art team blasts the action across the page with an admirable drama. Launching everyone into the middle of the action is a premise that leans really, really heavily on the art team to sell the drama. Land and Leisten slam the aggression into the page from angles that manage to amplify the emotional intensity of what’s going on while exposition rolls in from behind it all to let the reader know what the hell’s going on. D’Armata gives definition to a LOT of motion lines in the background and adds depth to a barren, rocky world while lending radiance to all of the energy that’s being shot across the page.

Landy’s focus on three anonymous AIM agents feels intriguing. They may not be granted a whole lot of time on the page, but they make a fun deviation from the usual in a superhero comic. Given the right momentum, it would be interesting to see three or four anonymous identical AIM agents in their own series. It would be fun to see Landy and company play around with faceless gold scientists a little more closely. 

Grade: B