Story: Chip Kidd
Script: Chip Kidd with Michael Cho
Artist & Colorist: Michael Cho
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Price: $25.99
Release Date: August 5, 2025
When the Avengers pursue Loki, their journey takes them to Asgard. Loki commands a legion of monsters. But why has he drawn them from the far reaches of the galaxy? The Hulk advises less contemplation and more smashing. Iron Man agrees and uses his transistor power to attack the monsters. Can Captain America, Iron Man, Giant-Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk breach his defenses? And where did Thor disappear to? Let’s leap into The Avengers in the Veracity Trap and see!
Story
After discovering a powerful new realm, Loki establishes a base in an ancient temple on Asgard. There, he builds a transportation device to this other dimension. After Thor breaches the temple, he tries to destroy the portal. But when Mjolnir vanishes, Thor must enter the glowing ball of energy to retrieve it. In Chip Kidd and Michael Cho’s story, Thor returns defeated. Although he carries his beloved hammer, he lacks the will to wield it. Instead of discovering Thanos and a Chitauri battle fleet in this other realm, Thor learned that everything he believed was a lie.
Like Kwaku Anansi, others regard Loki as a trickster god. What Loki calls stories, others regard as lies. So Loki builds his Veracity Vortex to trap his brother with a different kind of truth. Thor cannot perceive this truth with his senses or measure it with Shellhead’s scientific equipment. Instead, Thor grapples with the power of belief. In The Avengers in the Veracity Trap, Thor encounters a realm where people believe his world is irrelevant. The people there regard their world as the sole reality. And when they think of Thor and his friends, they view them as cultural artifacts like Santa Claus, best abandoned to meet the demands of adulthood.
The Avengers in the Veracity Trap is a fast-paced story that celebrates how comic books contribute to our culture. The book compares the process of creating and producing comics with their impact on us. While reminding us of the importance of ideas, Chip Kidd and Michael Cho’s story also reminds us that stories define us. We can allow others’ stories to limit us. Or we can harness our imaginations to live stories that no one else could ever have imagined.
Art
Michael Cho evokes the look of early Marvel comics with Jack Kirby-style monsters. The Avengers and Loki also adopt a historic appearance. While setting the story in the present day, we see Michael Cho drawing at a drafting table. Chip dresses in a timeless style as he studies Michael's latest page of Bristol paper. While the settings on Asgard remain rooted in the 1960s, the design and furnishings in Michael’s studio seem suited to any era. Yet when the creators separate, they communicate via cellphones in The Avengers in the Veracity Trap.
Michael Cho also evokes the four-color era as he presents his characters in double-page spreads, splash pages, and multi-panel pages. While generally following a linear flow, he occasionally arranges the story across pages. A rainbow flashes across characters as they lose or regain color as they travel between the Marvel Universe and our own. Yet the circles of color that surround the characters in the vortex remind us of the infinite worlds of the multiverse.
Joe Caramagna conjures uppercase black letters into white and ivory dialogue balloons. The words grow bold for intonation, swell for raised voices, and rarely shrink. Every Marvel hero and villain receives a pinup-style splash page with a stylish, colorful introduction. (Except Ulik. Alas, poor Ulik!) Sound effects enhance battles, interdimensional travel, and a giant whose footsteps herald a metal-faced doctor (and a Thurian Age sorcerer). Thanks to Abrams ComicArts and Superfan Promotions for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
People often see the world from their perspective and regard anything that disagrees with their views as a threat. When the Avengers encounter our universe, they discover a realm where they are fictional heroes, controlled by writers and artists. Each protagonist shines when they combine their abilities to escape The Avengers in the Veracity Trap.
Rating 9.6/10
To look inside see my preview of The Avengers in the Veracity Trap.
