Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Luke Ross
Colourist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Editor: Joe Moisan
Release date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

Ironically Agent Melida May has been absent from the season 3 premier of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but still gets her own one-shot comic book The Cavalry: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary #1. And as Agent Melida May is one of the program’s best characters and Director Phil Coulson’s number one, be glad. We love May, and if she ever switches sides she’s so badass she could be Batman.

In The Cavalry: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary #1 May is putting new recruits through their paces, and the recruits are all a-flutter over her reputation as the Cavalry. “Word is she took out 30 operatives by herself,” one of the recruits says. May takes them all to the Sickle, a former Hydra base, for a war game. Of course, things immediately get complicated when the group are attacked by a pack of robot wolves.

Luke Ross’s loose art does result in good layouts, but May’s face infrequently looks like actress Ming-Na Wen. And she looks a lot younger here as well.

Although not the best entry in Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D. anniversary series, that honour going to the bar-raising Nick Fury instalment, The Cavalry: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary #1 is fun romp telling you something about the character. And word to Agent Melida May: You go, girl!

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker