Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The All Avengers Thread

So after avoiding new comics in general for the past six months, I've caught up on the most recent issues of the main Avengers books.

Avengers v.4 hit a new low with the conclusion to the Infinity Gems arc. Junior's art was crap as usual, and Parker Robbins was a snivelling twerp as usual. And...

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">...Steve Rogers would NEVER join the Illuminati, nor would he ever cut the Red Hulk the amount of slack he's cutting him.</span></span>

Issue 12.1 had nice art by the team of Bryan Hitch & Paul Neary, but the return of the Spaceknight turned out to be a red herring...

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">...which sets the stage for Bendis' upcoming Ultron "epic." I remain unconvinced that there's any way to make Ultron relevant, and I doubt Bendis will surprise me.</span></span>

And the thing with Spider-Woman was just tasteless, but all too typical of Bendis the misogynist.

Issue 13, a Fear Itself tie-in, was mostly talking heads. Chris Bachalo drew it, so it looks even worse than when Junior's drawing the book. Bendis is bringing back the soap opera into the Avengers, but, as usual, he's doing it in a clumsy way.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Hawkeye and Spider-Woman? Meh. And as gal pals go, Spider-Woman and Ms. Marvel are no Wasp and She-Hulk.</span></span>

New Avengers, on the other hand, has been a pleasant surprise of late. Or rather, the flashbacks to 1959 starring Nick Fury's Proto-Avengers have been a pleasant surprise. Howard Chaykin seems to be putting his heart and soul into the art. The present-day sequences are less involving. Mike Deodato's art is nice, but Bendis continues to write Hawkeye abominably, almost to the point where I wish the character had stayed dead. And I'm skeptical whether Superia can be re-invented as a viable villainess.

Bendis is so frustrating, because in some ways he's the most progressive Avengers writer since Harras, and I do give him begrudging credit for proving that a non-traditional approach to the Avengers can sell truckloads. But while he's just about stayed on the right side of interesting for the last couple years, he still hasn't delivered a story that I find wholly satisfying. And he's going into his seventh year as Avengers scribe. Talk about a learning curve!

That 12.1 was bizarre ... they should've released it closer to the Ultron epic since I read 12.1 and went promptly into the evil Asgardian hammer wielding 'breakers' epic.

what thing with Spider Woman was tasteless ... nudity?

the Fear Itself tie in was also pretty tasteless <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Spider Woman getting all girl with Hawkeye. Combined with the art the issue seemed like it was about pre teens. I don't buy it, and Hawkeye has been with almost every female avenger by now! is he over compensating for his lack of super powers! sad that t humanize spider woman and ms. marvel they are made to be like boy crazy pre teens. Really Jessica Drew and Carol Danvers are standing in the corner talking about who they are going to date? </span></span>

I buy Carol and Jessica as close friends because they're both kinda ruthless tom boy seasoned pros. I don't buy them in this story. I liked the issue sort of over all even despite the cheap story telling tricks to create tension without ever TELLING A STORY!!

(the interviews where every says how incredible the thing was that happened to them but no one says what happened except that it changes everything and is a really really big deal!

I dunno, I'm buying avengers regularly even though I didn't really growing up consistently ... (although i will put my hands in the air for some Wasp and She Hulk gal palling)

the banter in New Avengers is usually pretty amusing, and Immonen's art is better than even his Legion days. He draws a rockin Iron Fist.

For readers with sensitive stomachs, I'll put it in a spoiler box.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">The villains stripped her naked, which implies that they did things to her I don't even want to think about. It's sickening.</span></span>

I didn't quite get that, I just thought they wanted to disarm her ... I did think there was some sort of impending threat of that, which i found distasteful and unnecessary.

At the time of reading the book I also didn't want to think about it.

Yeah, it adds a lot of grossness to the story no matter what is implied or happened.

Just read through Fear Itself book three <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Bucky bites it. quite horrifically! And all the villains have Thor type hammers and 'Breaker' in their names. </span></span>

And I can't help but notice the chris hemsworth and anthony hopkins resemblance in Thor and Odin now. This bugs me, as I think the movies should be about the comics not the other way around.

Same thing with Tony Stark looking like Robert Downey Junior. It's a great look but ... It's troubling to so blatantly see the tie ins rather than autonomy.

oh and an appearance by Hermod! Haven't seen him in a while. at least I haven't.

I think Marvel is pulling a DC with this Fear Itself business.

Also, There are many powerful characters in the Marvel Universe but we see a lot of time being shown on characters like Cap, Black Widow, and Falcon facing an evil Thor godess. in Washington DC no less while Ms. Marvel is off in some jungle with Marvel Boy fighting the Hulk. <--- another character transformed into an evil Thor. These panels seem a little out of relation to a realistic reaction to 7 evil Thor's popping up. We've still got characters like Wolverine, Wonder Man, Namor, Red Hulk, and Dr. Strange etc. that could handle these evil 'Thor's' much better than the Black Widow, Falcon, and Bucky.

Absorbing Man and Titania were already Thor class-ish, and Hulk goes a little crazy now and then ... the heroes have always dealt with them before

The writers are just being 'drama'.

I do like the new kid Loki loads!

Poor Immonen is working his butt off for this story ... the art is pretty great. The backgrounds especially.

and <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">we've got the return of Thor who was sequested on Asgard - In Space - Issue 1, we are on 3 now lol - while all this was going on</span></span>

June's SECRET AVENGERS featured a much-needed spotlight on Valkyrie. The story focused on Brunhilde's origin as Odin's chosen symbol told against the actions surrounding a couple of rank-and-file soldiers caught in the events of FEAR ITSELF.

It's a fine issue, but I can't help wishing that writers would concetrate on Val interacting with her teammates or with current Asgardians, villains, etc. She seems to be one of those characters whose pasts keep being labeled as complicated and therefore similar ground keeps being covered again and again. (See Donna Troy and Hawkman for other examples. Hmm... all particular favorites.) I don't deny the complexity, but are their stories really all that much more challenging than most superheroes? Stories firmly rooted in the fictional present are the best way to present the 'complicated'. Origin storiescare great, but they aren't everything.

Anyway, this particular story does examine a facet to Val's beginnings that I enjoyed seeing examined.

So while the Fear Itself mini sucks (itself), there have actually been some well written tie-in issues throughout the MU that focus on individual characters while only barely relating go to the overall crossover. Brian Bendis' two Avengers titles have done a good job producing some well done tie-in issues, though some are better than others.

Avengers #16 is one of the better ones. It focuses mainly on Cap (Steve Rogers) and what is jokingly called his 'avenging angels', the three major SHIELD female agents / Avengers liaisons: Sharon Carter, Maria Hill and Victoria Hand. Seeing them work together is a lot of fun; beyond the obvious homage to Charlie's Angels, we get to briefly see how different they each are from one another.

Cap is mourning Bucky here (see: worst death in years), but Bendis smartly is very subtle in showing it. He's much less subtle in his "Avengers speak directly into the camera" bits which he's been doing throughout this crossover, which sometimes works and sometimes is a little much. Overall though, I thought it was well done.

Besides, kudos for using the Exiles, the Silver Age era pals of the Red Skull.

Johnny Romita Jr fans like myself will love seeing him do his here. When Bendis doesn't have him doing taking head shots, you can tell he just draws what he likes, regardless of what was in the script.

What up! As I said elsewhere my CBS was SOLD OUT of DC today ... bleh! So I picked up two comics. IZOMBIE and ...


NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL #1

The cover is a nauseating violet with Simon Williams/Wonder Man looking like he just brought the Avengers Mansion down.

You might know that Wonder Man has come into conflict with the Avengers after the initiative and the Scarlet Witch events. Basically Wonder Man still believes super heroes are dangerous and should be registered/retired/imprisoned.


New Avengers Annual starts off with a 13. YES 13 page monologue by Wonder Man ... and it's awesome!

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> He goes over several reasons why the Avengers need to be put out of business and these reasons such as the mishandling of the Scarlet Witch, The invention of Ultron, The Civil War, Hulk rampages, and the Sentry are accompanied by ... fantastic splash spreads. They could all go straight to posters </span></span>

The Scarlet Witch spread is especially fantastic and sent chills up my spine. It looks satanic!

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> At the end of this monologue, We get to see a team of heroes and anti heroes that Simon has assembled to take it to the Avengers. Lots of guys I don't recognize but also lots of power on this 9 person team. (Goliath, Atlas, Captain Ultra, and some others I don't recognize) I really enjoy that these guys aren't well known to me, not the typical dark avengers or masters of evil</span></span>

Anyway, they stalk the Avengers, we get some cute stuff with Jessica and Luke for a mere two pages .... and then. BAM!!

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> Simon's team attacks with authority. Atlas leads the charge with a 3 page tackle of the mansion that dosn't come off as cheap since each page is filled with detail and energy.

Then the fight begins. Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man take each other out of the game while the rest fight in the mansion.

Jessica Jones finally gets her fight on! Not usually in on the action of the New Avengers ... this time Jessica is breaking faces! Victoria Hand also shines as she tries to organize the team during the fight.

Wolverine dosn't get much spotlight but he does have a funny line.

The house collapses, Thing is the last one standing and he goes down hard. Wonder Man finally gets the better of Ms. Marvel.

Simon's team leaves everyone on the ground ... (which is one of my only criticisms since the Avengers weren't killed or imprisoned. Does Simon think a butt whipping is enough to change the world order? ) ... and they head off to kick the crap out of the Avengers in Avengers Annual #11. </span></span>

This review may seem like a retelling of events but this Annual was really just .....

butt kicking + canvas worthy pages

I find Simon' motivation entirely believable. What I find almost unbelievable is that the Marvel Universe went back to the status quo after the events of Civil War, (which is one of Simon's reasons) I think there would realistically still be a schism between some big name heroes. More than Cap and Tony hugging it out.


I personally liked this annual a lot, it was intense, I suppose we will have to grab Avengers Annual #11 to have the story come into focus and to get some resolution on the Wonder Man vs. Avengers plot line.

I will also be paying attention to where the artist GABRIELLE DELL'OTTO is going next.

(The coloring by IVE SVORCINA is also fantastic BUT some pages have a hue cast over them in their entirety making them a bit dim. )

With so many Avengers comics these days, its probably hard for some of them to find their audience. That is probably the case with the best of the best among them, Avengers Academy. There are good Avengers comics (both Bendis ones *are* good) and ‘meh’ Avengers comics (Bru’s recent Secret Avengers run was pretty meh); this is a great comic book. Fans of the original New Mutants, the New Warriors or the 80’s Teen Titans are very likely to like this comic.

With #18, the Avengers Academy students are embroiled in the Fear Itself war, though one clearly does not read to read that mini to understand events here. Essentially, the build-up of the first year and half is about to reach a big turning point (which you can feel by the pacing of the series). I’ve come to really care about these kids now, and I’m really anxious to see what happens. I’m certain at least one of them isn’t going to make it (although that may not mean dying).

Writer Christos Gage really has done a fantastic job. He captures youthful superheroes better than any of his peers right now in comics. On top of that, he can write a damn good story, whether single issue or multi-issue. Each character has a distinct, quirky personality with the usual teenage hang-ups enhanced by their powers and tragedy, and each one elicits some empathy from the reader.

On top of that, the usage of the faculty has been excellent. Paramount among them are Giant-Man, who is being written better here than he has by anyone since Bob Harras and Roger Stern. LWers may know I’m a major Hank Pym fan and I’m thrilled to see it—its long overdue. Tigra is also written really well, and she’s a character I’ve never cared about before; suddenly I do. Lastly, Quicksilver really shines as well in a big way and his usual abrasive self is pure fun on the page as written by Gage. To a lesser extent, Speedball, Justice and Jocasta are also used well.

This large cast is enhanced by the artists on the series: the incredible Mike McKone, who has only gotten better with age, and Sean Chen, who is equally as exciting and dynamic. Their styles are great examples of fun, yet serious superheroics.

This is a fantastic series and I highly recommend it. Its one of the most original, ‘new’ things going at Marvel and probably the best ‘teen’ comic out there by the big 2.

Just read NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL #1 ... well, the second Annual #1. So NEW AVENGERS v2 ANNUAL #1. Anyway! I reflect a lot of Power Boy's opinions - pretty art spreads and lots of action, but not much else to offer.

I liked the issue but at the same time don't feel satisfied by it. Wonder Man, becoming even more zealous over the idea the Avengers are a detriment to society, gathers together a team to ... pretty much beat up the Avengers. That'll teach them to stop, sure.

My summation reflects how I felt about the overall idea and execution of the story. The set-up and initial parts of the story I enjoyed. I was excited to see Simon, Atlas, Century, and other forgotten heroes in action. I was interested in learning Simon's rationale and could even agree with it to an extent. Even as cliched as hero vs hero battles are, I enjoyed some of the banter New Avengers has become known for (love it or hate it) and liked seeing some of the match-ups of powers and skills. It was great to see Jessica Jones scrap a bit. However, I kept waiting for there to be a point. When Goliath mentioned "the lab," I thought maybe the Revengers were after something and all the mayhem would make sense.

Nope. At the end of the issue, <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">mostly thanks to structural damage landing a hand, the entire New Avengers are defeated and the Revengers leave them in the ruin of their HQ to go after the Avengers proper at Stark Tower (...wait, wasn't that destroyed...?). The story I was more or less enjoying kind of derailed when I was left with the feeling of, "Wait, that was it? What was the point?"</span></span>

I like the Revengers premise. Wonder Man makes some great points in the beginning of the issue, especially about the Civil War. The execution of their mission though just bothers me - the hypocrisy of causing mass destruction and beating up the Avengers to get them to stop doing the same thing. I'd almost be more interested to see Wonder Man's cause as a subplot, with him rallying legal action against the team or other, more practical means to get them to desist. Short of killing them, which he won't, I'm unsure what Simon hopes to do to make the Avengers reconsider their ways.

I'm curious to see how this will all end in the Avengers annual if only to see if there'll be more rationale to Wonder Man's methods. If not, I'm afraid the whole story is coming up short for me. I wouldn't be so let down by that fact if the initial premise of the story wasn't so good. Hopefully the next installment and Wonder Man live up to their potential.

I second a lot of what's been said about the recent New Avengers Annual: great to see so many long unseen faces, awesome fight scene, but pretty sketchy game plan for the Revengers. Just beat them up?

What I like about Bendis' Wonder Man subplot is that he does give him a decent motivation for opposing the idea of the Avengers. They've made some stupid moves and some dick moves and now the current status quo is largely the same. Wanda suffered, the Sentry suffered and so did many innocents. I hope Bendis doesn't go the cheap way out and make Simon out to be crazy--it's a reasonable POV. Where Bendis does fail however, is explaining why the rest of these heroes are along for the ride. Maybe thats to come in part 2.

Other than that, this was a great fight sequence, masterfully drawn by sometimes Bendis collaborator Gabrielle Dell'Otto. That's about all it was--one big fight--but at least done well. For an annual, you usually expect a little more. I mean jeez, give D-Man or Wong or Mockingbird a subplot or something.

Could've been a bit more substance. Still, what was there was fun, albeit not long-lasting.

Does the Wonder Man characterization flow with how he's being portrayed in Children's Crusade? (In that one, he's not so much anti-Avengers, as anti-Wolverine's plan of killing Wanda, because he's on Wanda's side, which follows with his previous characterization as being in love with her.)

Its kind of like the next evolution of his viewpoint as his opinions grow increasingly extreme. So yes to an extent and then no since they take it to a whole new level.

Secret Avengers has kind of been the weak sister of all the Avengers comics for the last year and a half. While Ed Brubaker is one of the best writers in comics, he just can't find his full mojo on team comics.

That all changes now, with #16. Warren Ellis has stepped in as writer for 6 issues promising to deliver a fantastic run, and the first issue already lives up to that promise. This is all the good of Ellis, with none of the bad.

Each issue stands alone using different members of the team. The missions are serious and high stakes so they aren't filler; yet they are totally accessible to new readers. The plot for the first issue is, frankly, brilliant, combining bits of Marvel continuity with awesome science-fiction. The pacing was fantastic, the characters crisp and capable and the plot great. Just good writing.

The artist on this issue was Jamie McKelvie, who I dont recognize, but did a bang-up job. His depiction of Moon Knight is especially awesome, even evoking bits of Michael Golden and John Cassidy.

I'm actually quite impressed. I'm not a big Ellis fan at all, but I can't deny this exceeded expectations. Ellis loads the story with tons of spy stuff and sci-fi stuff that even they previously used ideas, they still are just fun.

I'm suddenly looking forward to the next 5 months of Secret Avengers.

Thanks for the SECRET AVENGERS update, Cobie. I had been reading it until around Valkyrie's spotlight, then I let it go. There were some things I really enjoyed about it, but it just wasn't taking off enough for me. I'll give it another look.

Fear Itself 'book six' of 7.

Fear Itself has been pretty awful. So was Flashpoint (I'd say they are equal in terms of quality) but FI has 2 more whole boring issues to go. It's hard to find anything redeemable about the miniseries.'

It IS boring! Despite all the melodrama it is just ... boring.

damn .... I just dropped the Avengers YESTERDAY.

Guess i'll have to start reading it again ... I love Daniel Acuna.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=34522

Although I think there is some sort of marvel engine where artists on these big titles are moved to change their style. Immonen and Coipel's art seems to have 'mainstreamed' (become more classical, less gestural) since they've got these big titles.

So I cancelled Fear Itself after #4 because, frankly, it sucked (I go into more detail elsewhere), but somehow my CBS must have accidentally pulled #6 for me and I ended up buying it unknowingly. This happens when you let 4 weeks of comics build up.

So I read it, and as I thought: it was just awful. Whereas I’ve been saying that it and Flashpoint were equally awful throughout, I now am ready to commit to the notion that Fear Itself is the *most* awful of all the recent big 2 crossovers. Why? Because it’s the most boring, unnecessary and pointless crossover I can remember. It’s like Marvel’s Millennium.

Fraction has Captain America, Thor and Iron Man doing some stuff—none of which is interesting or emotion-provoking. They don’t seem too far out of character, but it all feels like its going through the ‘high stakes, oh shit’ motions. The big bads are a combination of Asgardian mythological bad guys and Nazi’s, two of the most over-used tropes at Marvel since, oh I don’t know, 1962.

Meh. Its hard to feel outraged at this since it all feels so ‘blah’ to me. Huge waste of $$.

AVENGERS ACADEMY #19: An exciting wrap-up to the team's battle with the 'fear-hammer' wielding Titania and Absorbing Man set initially in the expanding-from-less-than-tiny HQ built by Henry Pym. The idea's a good one, if somewhat abstract. And it leads to a quite dramatic Decision That Must Be Made scene. It kind of reminded me of the sacrifice of Ferro Lad in ADVENTURE.

Luckily, the unconscious Dr. Pym comes to in time to play cavalry, with Quicksilver, Justice, etc. in tow.

There's some really great moments for Finesse, Mettle and Hazmat here. Followed by the somewhat abrupt (but not if you think of the past couple of issues...) departure of Veil, as she announces that she's quitting the team.

Figures, she's my favorite of the initial Academy students. New ones are coming, though. I wonder if any will capture my superhero-loving heart, and take her place? I kind of doubt it.

SECRET AVENGERS #17: I didn't care for the art, at first- and still think the characters didn't look 'right', but the action scene was great. They should have just started with the team in pursuit of the monster-truck, since the opening pages were less than they could have been. Once in action, though, the issue takes off. Cap, War Machine, Valkyrie one by one face the speeding machine. It's sort of old-fashioned and fresh, all ot once. Nice job.

Reignited my interest in this title, which flagged a bit with the solo tales (though I sort of liked, with reservations, the Valkyrie one).

Well, Daredevil has joined Luke Cage's New Avengers team, being probably the last of the MU heroes that should never join the Avengers to do so. But with Spidey and Wolverine on the team, it's clear nothing is sacred. Expect Ghost Rider and Cable shortly.

That major annoyance out of the way, it was a nicely done issue. DD was heroic and awesome with Deodato drawing the hell out of it. Bendis even pokes fun at crossovers in general by DD and Luke's dialogue at the issues end where DD doesn't know or care about what happened with Fear Itself (welcome to the club).

With a Defenders series on the horizon, its hard not to admit that this is the best Defenders series in 30 years right here. That new series--written by Matt Fraction--will have a tough time measuring up (and I don't think it will).

Ditto. To me, it suggested a pop version of Global Frequency, by the same writer.

Meanwhile, the Bendis Avengers continued to bumble along semi-amiably, with the occassional jarring lapse of taste. Membership shake-up ahead -- will comment if it doesn't bore me.

I jumped off the Avengers boat ... BUT I did get the Ant-Man and the Wasp Origin one shot ...

and it was nice, above average art, a couple nice moments between Jan and Hank ... and a retelling of an origin I'm not sure I ever got to read. (has it been written?)

I sure wish they were going to be in the new movie.

I love the Wasp period. Always will ... unless they have her shoot people in the head like they did Professor X.

(That said I hope she dosn't come back as an evil psycho! egad!)