Wins & Fails: New Avengers 59 Review

Really?! Another deceiving cover? Curses!

New Avengers 59

Story: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Stuart Immonen
Inks: Wade von Grawbadger
Colors: Dave McCaig

 

Wins:

• There’s a lot of action in this issue, which is always welcomed by myself and many Avengers fans. Some story arcs just wander around aimlessly, but this isn’t that type of story arc.
• Finally we’re beginning to see the New Avengers come up with a decent plan. I like the fact that teamwork is being stressed more than just going Leeroy Jenkins into battle.
• Spider-Man takes a page out of The Kingpin’s playbook. Well played, Parker! Sorry you didn’t get to say “Avengers Assemble!”. Oh well…maybe next time. At least you don’t die in every issue like The Sentry.
• The Avengers are aided by Doctor Voodoo, Daredevil, The Thing, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Misty Knight, Hellcat, and Valkyrie. Nice to see additional help shows up to a team that is often criticized for being on the low end of the power scale.
• Stuart Immonen does a fine job conveying emotion and urgency, and an even better job when it comes to accompanying Bendis’ writing. His splash pages are nice, and even when there are busy panels, he does a good job with individual characters. This book is getting better, now that it’s picked up the pace a bit.
• McCaig colored Moonstone/Ms. Marvel correctly in this issue.

Fails:

• Bendis couldn’t have written worse dialogue for Mockingbird and Doctor Voodoo. Maybe that was the point (?).
• Again, some of the dialogue was painful to read. The scenes with group dialogue felt like a Scooby Doo epiphany scene where they unmask the baddie. Zoinks!
• I wonder how many times they’re going to use the astral plane trick to gain access to a heavily guarded area, as Doctor Voodoo and Strange do to enter the helicarrier in this issue. The Avengers did the same thing to Stark when he was holding Cap prisoner during Civil War.
• This Avengers team really doesn’t have a leader. Luke Cage is too emotionally charged and lacks strategic knowledge. Clint Barton is too reactionary, shoot first ask questions later. Bucky Cap isn’t a leader, he’s an eternal sidekick. Ms. Marvel didn’t really step up and embrace the leadership role with the Mighty Avengers.
• Iron Fist is involved in the attack on Camp Hammond and the attack on the H.A.M.M.E.R. helicarrier, which are happening simultaneously.
• I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the Camp Hammond battle, but they jumped straight from the splash page to the next scene.
• The Thing appears in a battle scene, but doesn’t even say “It’s clobberin’ time!”. Maybe it’s because he didn’t do any “clobberin'” Bah!
• With the likes of Voodoo and Strange, you would think that they’d cast some sort of spell to determine the integrity of Luke’s body.
• Yet another New Avengers issue where the cover has little if anything to do with the story told inside. Next month’s cover would have been more appropriate.

Verdict: B-

Wins & Fails: Avengers: The Initiative 29 Review

Avengers: The Initiative 29

I dig the cover, but maybe that's because I have a soft spot for Penance.

Story: Christos N. Gage
Pencils: Jorge Molina
Inks: Victor Olazaba
Colors: Edgar Delgado

Wins:

• Gage’s story paired with Molina’s art makes this one of the best issues of the Initiative since its inception.
• Molina’s art is of the highest quality. You almost don’t need dialogue to figure out the story. All of his characters are so emotive and expressive.
• Gage wrote the best lines that Night Thrasher has ever uttered, and he uttered them to the half-wit know as The Hood.
• This issue pieces together a number of storylines that have been percolating for many issues, and even spanning different books (Thunderbolts, New Warriors, etc.).
• The scene between Penance and Trauma was tense great.
• The Constrictor/Diamondback duo worked well on multiple levels. I’m looking forward to that continuing.
• The final page makes you yearn for the next issue. The balance between art and dialogue is perfect.

Fails:

• Donyell (Night Thrasher: take two) is just as obnoxiously hell-bent on resurrecting his dead brother Dwayne (Night Thrasher: numero uno) as he always has been. He’s as mentally unstable of a character as Osborn or Sentry. That said, it’s no fault of Gage, he wrote him perfectly.
• I would have liked for Von Blitzschlag to have had more lines. He’s much like Taskmaster…the more lines, the better.
• Jorge Molina isn’t the penciler for every issue. His are is really fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, I like Sandoval’s work, but Molina is something special.

Verdict: A