This comic brought to full force the dinosaur/people/bad dudes from Turok's comic into this one. Was this what I was hunting? Some revelation of some of the worst characters in the Valiant universe (Acclaim) to pollute what was quickly becoming a great comic? Turns out - I just might. The silly things were terrible in the Turok comic - but here - they are disguised, and woven into the fabric of Shadowman and voodoo and the loa. Nice counter point to the growing environment of voodoo behind Zero and his alliances. Especially good was the new painting of Deadside - which had become WAY too dark and insane. By the way - MAJOR points on the art here. It created a new beautiful world - and from what? I don't know how bad it was before - but this is fantastic. These are the Shadowman issues to read.
Cosmic cube, I hate you.
Boy, this has to be some of the worst writing ever. Of course the Avengers would just launch into pounding the snot out of whomever stepped up - even if he was claiming to be the Red Skull. Geez. This is killing me. And Cap telling Rick Jones he wasn't in need of assistance of some brat - and the kid running off and crying? But the worst piece of garbage was the whole, "The cube can't overcome the power of love..." Junk. Senseless. Really, if the Red Skull wanted to kill him at that point, just have the cube rip his arms off, and take his head through a meat grinder. That's the problem with something senseless and unbelievable. It puts the story into a place that can't be overcome. A mess.