Review by Ian Keogh

A horrible surprise awaits on opening No Gods, No Masters. Instead of the polished superhero art supplied by Amilcar Pinna on Power is Power, half this book is drawn by Giannis Milongiannis who’s not up to the job. He seems to be striving for the looseness and approach of Kyle Baker, but falls well short, having problems with just about every aspect of the art. Layouts are basic, too many panels are filled with too much space, figurework is poor, faces strangely angled or flat, perspective and scale fall short, and there’s virtually zero facial emotion in scenes that cry out for it. At times Black Widow seems to be wearing a sleeping bag, there are panels where Milongiannis doesn’t even bother with facial features on heads, and only a few notable panels to compensate. It’s astounding enough that Marvel accepted one issue looking so poor, never mind three.

With art of that quality it’s difficult to get to grips with Michel Fiffe’s plot. He builds the team dynamics a little more via discussion, and with Bombshell having come to terms with the tragedy in her life, Fiffe turns the screw on other characters. There’s also the problem of where to gather now that their previous venue has been destroyed. As for villains, you’ll never know what you might find in the sewer, after which there’s a random attack from the strange Femme Force, and some right wing vigilantes free the assassin Scourge.

Everything gets back on track when Pinna returns for the final three chapters. The missing spirit returns with an artist who can convey what the cast are thinking, who can draw a background and whose action pages are infinitely better than those seen over the first half of the book. Over the final three chapters Fiffe manages to include almost everyone of note who survived the ending to Power is Power, along the way neatly putting together the Ultimate universe version of 1990s Marvel series Terror Inc. The ending is also nice, the big battle followed by a proper wrap-up looking in on all the characters Fiffe has had us care about. He’s left us wanting more, which is good, but there was no more for any of them apart from Miles Morales, as Marvel discontinued their Ultimate universe.