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Avengers Vol. 4 #1

Well, it's a lot better than Bendis's issues of Mighty Avengers, where he had previously tried to be "Avenger-y."

As I've said before, although Bendis likes to cultivate the persona of a maverick, he comes off to me like a desperate people-pleaser. He's trying so hard to please the traditionalists that I could almost smell the flopsweat.

Romita Junior's art is beyond pathetic. The sooner they dump him (and with work that's so bad even by his standards, that's bound to happen.)

That said, Bendis does throw in a very intriguing twist at the end.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Unless I've missed something in the Hulk corner of the Marvel Universe, as I don't follow Loeb's Hulk, it looks like Kang is in cahoots with The Maestro, the evil future version of the Hulk that Peter David created in the early 90s.</span></span>

And that's enough to get me to read the next issue.

Secret Avengers #1

The question on everyone's lips is, does it transcend the iffy lineup?

My answer would be no.

Yes, it's great to have Beast and Black Widow back as Avengers, but it's not enough. The team's overall lack of chemistry really hurts the book.

Brubaker's big twist cliffhanger is not as surprising or as intriguing as he thinks it is.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Nick Fury is now heading some rogue shadow organization that is opposing the Secret Avengers. I saw it coming a mile away.</span></span>

Brubaker and Deodato are expert craftsmen, but there's something missing. Heart, maybe?

Much like Quesada's original intent for Sue to forgive Reed for sending supervillain 'cape-killers' after her, Johnny and Ben, because Reed, in Quesada's words, 'would cook her dinner or something,' having Tony, Steve and Thor all just being shoved back together to make 'everything like it was in the good old days' feels hollow to me.

I don't *like* what Civil War / Registration did, but to then to have any *actual* repercussions of the choices that characters like Reed and Tony made just get glossed over because Quesada wants the old team together again kinda bugs me.

Can a hero still be thought of as a hero if they never have to suffer the consequences of their mistakes, but will be magically bailed out, say, by having the world mind-wiped into forgetting the Armor Wars, of by yellow fear entity retcons?

Preview of Avengers: Prime #1

God, I love Alan Davis.

Well then, I take back some of my disappointment that this would all be conveniently forgotten. Drama!

Oh WOW! I didn't know that! I did wonder about the movie thing...

I'm excited about the new "Secret Avengers"- moreso than the main Avengers relaunch. I've always been a big Moon Knight and Nova fan, and I have fond memories of the Beast on the team, so this is a pretty good lineup for me. I like Nova's inclusion because the Avengers lineups have usually been about diversity of powers so it makes sense they'd want a heavy gun. I liken Nova to an airstrike the ground forces can call in when things get out of hand.

It wouldn't surprise me if Bru was a little influenced by "Cosmic Odyssey" where Batman makes a call and simply tells the person on the other end of the line, "There's someone named Darkseid on a planet called New Genesis. I need you to keep an eye on him." (that person turned out to be Dr Fate) That was pretty badass.

My one concern would be that this is the kind of series where plot will take center stage and characterization will fall by the wayside. Giving them personalities is one thing, but to go deeper than that might be too afield for a task oriented team book. (especially since my aforementioned favorites Moon Knight and Nova are mainly featured elsewhere) We'll see...

In Iron Man's own book, Fraction had Tony's mind rebooted, using a back up from Pre-Civil War. Tony then caught up on current events, and was shocked and appalled by his behaviour. If Tony is still Tony, wouldn't he make the same decisions? It wasn't like the part of him making those calls was under some influence?

The whole happy Avengers family post Siege is a bit off putting to me.

You would think the tension left over from Civil War could still be useful for storytelling. Things don't need to be extreme on either end: they are all starting to forgive one another and move on, but its going to take quite awhile. That's a pretty realistic play.

The upcoming "Avengers Prime" series with Thor, Cap and Iron Man is meant to fill in that emotional gap. Apparently they get over all their issues over the course of that mini and reach a place of agreement and (I presume) cameraderie. Whether or not it would have been more interesting to have that resolve itself in the main title is another discussion. What with trades being so prevalent, I can understand Marvel not wanting to bring a whole lot of baggage to the new era.

Avengers Prime needs Jan and Hank, and maybe even the Hulk. then i'll be happy.

i'm glad the spidey's both made it to the second round. i love the humor they bring to the books. im really excited about 'avengers' now. (and maybe maybe maybe thunderbolts ... they need a new cast for me personally)

im really intrigued with were avengers is going, and im liking john romita juniors work for the first time in a long time.

i want to see lots of old avengers make the rounds: justice and firestar for sure. maybe living lightning will get in too.

i like nova, i like valkyrie, i even like beast but i'm not feeling the secret avengers line up together. and why not just call them the defenders. and they're not the most murderous immoral ex avengers i would assemble to be a black ops team.

Drake, you've just helped me figure out exactly what my problem is with this book and its apparent direction. The Avengers is all about characterization; without it, it's just another team book to me.

just picked up Avengers Prime, Dark Avengers, and Thor. it's a siege aftermath comics day.

Dark Avengers was pretty cool, character driven, i especially liked the last scene where Norman turns out to be talking to <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">his crazy ass self</span></span>

and of course Daken lives to fight another day.

I really liked the scene with Thor and Phobos. I'm picturing little Phobos running around wearing an over sized helmet and dragging a really heavy axe behind him.

Avengers Prime, Alan Davis is in great form, the Steve Rodgers fight scene reminds me of the great fight scenes he used to do with nightcrawler in Excalibur. and the panel where Tony is tinkering with his helmet could easily be a poster. btw, i really like that old armor, it is from my era, but i also like how it looks more human or super hero-ish than some of Tony's later clunky gadget armors that look like tanks. i think a stream lined more human looking armor is more sophisticated anyways and would be harder to construct in real life. anyone can build a tank to sit in, only tony stark could build a suit of armor that looks like spandex


oh and they're totally <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">going to find jan on their inter-dimensional adventures: since thor was the one who banished her magically with his hammer - she should be in some asgardian dimension .....but mighty avengers i think said she was in some sub micro universe .... which makes less sense to me. </span></span>

but one thing i was confused about when enchantress is speaking to Thor at the end she calls him <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">the last of the true odinsons? what's that mean. Balder is alive. </span></span>

and in the follow up story Loki calls Thor his half-brother. but he's his adoptive brother.

Avengers: Prime #1

Power Boy already spoiled it, so I'll shout it out loud:

THE ENCHANTRESS IS BACK!!!!

Ah, my beloved Enchantress, cruelly cast out by JMS for not being "authentic" enough or whatever. Bless your heart, Bendis.

Davis seems to have brought out the best in Bendis. There's no reason to complain about extended sequences without dialogue when you've got Davis at the helm. And the pacing is brisk and the action is crisp.

Dare I say it, thanks to Davis, Bendis may have turned over a new leaf. Check it out!

Is Farmer on inks here? Daviss is one of my favorite artists no matter what, but with Farmer...to quote Queen... "it's a kinda magic."

Cool. Another Queen fan.

Farmer, the peanut butter to Davis's chocolate, is indeed on inks.

I may have to get this for no other reason.

I love Queen. Not the thing touring since Freddy died...but true glam Queen. Possibly my favorite band, but The Police always seem to mix it up for the top spot all the time.

I just might do a tribute to Queen at my Fantabulous Land of Eighties Enchantment (and of course, I won't neglect their equally if not even more classic 70s work.)

AVENGERS PRIME is a pretty good read up to the big 'reveal'. I'm glad Amora's back and that she seems, at least here, to be in big-time villainess mode. 'Cause there ain't no rarer beast than an effective recurring super-villainess in comics.

I read in an article or a posting somewhere (not here) that she was at one time revealed to be Freya and/or Iduna going by different names. That nonsense just needs to be ignored. Maybe there can be a flashback where she's shown to be impersonating those goddesses for some reason or other (earning their enmity?)

I know you can't expect fully authentic mythological takes on these characters, particularly as time goes on, but c'mon! It was bad enough when they made Ganymede a woman...

A preview of AVENGERS ACADEMY had been making the comic site circuit-- it features the character Veil... who is like Gas Girl mixed with Kid Psycho with a little bit of Marvel's Spider Girl thrown in. I liked her immediately and now feel better about this title. I feel sort of proprietary towards her, since I suggested changing Gas Girl's name to Veilmist some time ago. An amusing coincidence, huh?

I liked SECRET AVENGERS #1 lots-- I like the line-up and the m.o. quite a bit. Make no mistake, though- all this title needs is Kyle Richmond to be a new take on THE DEFENDERS. That wouldn't net the numbers a new AVENGERS title will, though.

From what I've read, the Valkyrie here is Brunnhilde, no human host. Which I've long thought is who Peter David was writing in those great Lady Liberator scenes from She-Hulk. I liked the way Val and Black Widow were relating-- they should be a fun duo to read.

Avengers: Prime #1, and specifically Amora's return, has convinced me even more that Bendis really is a hardcore Avengers fan and it wasn't just a fiction to deflect criticism of his early New Avengers work. After all, only a true Avengers fan would know that Amora was a recurring villainess for the first 100 issues of the original Avengers book.

sorry i'm so out of it i didn't realize enchantress was gone or it was a big detail she is in the story!

oooppssieee!!!!!

No worries. I actually enjoyed being able to post it in caps without spoilers.

haha. I assumed she was just too clever to be involved in this Siege messiness.

Okay, so I picked up a big pile of comics yesterday and the first comics I read after Adventure were Avengers #1 and Secret Avengers #1.

You know, I thought they were both great! They've both got me pretty excited about where things go from here.

Bendis' Avengers was a solid introductory issue and the upcoming plotline has me curious. I'm thrilled to see Thor & Iron Man back in the Avengers and like that Bucky-Cap is there as well. I've grown used to Spidey & Wolverine, and I naturally love the inclusion of Hawkeye. I think Bendis has really come a long way these last few years and has learned how to better write a team comic book.

I'm a fan of JR Jr's work and think it looked spectacular here. I know he has his detractors on Legion World, but I think he's a great talent and a definition 'Marvel' artist. Art is all subjective and that jazz, but JR Jr. does many things really well. His heroes are iconic and grandiose looking and he's able to add a sense of energy to Bendis story. A lesser artist might cause this issue to feel like there isn't a lot happening but Romita Jr. makes sure that is not the case.

Over in Secret Avengers, I thought Brubaker did a great job opening up the series, and I think it carried the spirit of his Captain America run really well, in being an ensemble spy superhero comic. I like that Bru has upped the ante in scope and look forward to what he has planned.

Of course, Deodato's artwork is what really shines and I think it was excellent. He's really matured over the last few years and his art has taken on a really moody and atmospheric tone while also maintaining the explosive nature of his sequences and the beautiful depictions of the leads he's always done so well.

I was quite pleased with both of them!

I agree this is the case as well. I think what Marvel has done with the Avengers for the last few years has been a brilliant tactical plan that has paid off dividends. And now Bendis can showcase his love of the Avengers in a way that is different enough from what he's done before that it will feel fresh.