Avengers #21 (2023)

Jed MacKay's Avengers run has been , overall, fairly decent. Some issues are better than others , of course (i.e. the 3-issue Blood Hunt tie-in arc), but it hasn't really provided us with anything that breaks the mold of the typical "initially impossible to defeat enemy is defeated by the power of teamwork and raw firepower" Avengers storylines we see so frequently. Avengers #21, however, does something different, and it works wonders.
The cover of #21 solicits a brawl between the Avengers and the X-Men (which MacKay is also writing), seemingly setting us up for another inconsequential brawl. After opening the book, what we find instead is an abundance of one-on-one character work, which MacKay shines at. The two super-teams play baseball, eat dinner together, and then split off into pairs/small groups, where we get some really wonderful characterization of everyone on both teams (I was particularly fond of the Iron Man/Beast and Captain Marvel/Cyclops beats). This issue also revisited the Tribulation Events (remember those things, the world-ending cataclysms mentioned by Kang all the way back in #2?) and hints at some future team-ups between the Avengers and the X-Men.
Overall, Mackay presents us with his best issue of Avengers yet, full of character work that this series has been sorely lacking, and hints at some greater events down the line. I strongly recommend you pick up this issue if you're currently reading Avengers or X-Men, or if you're a MacKay fan. Even if you're only a fan of a few of the characters, yo won't be disappointed.