Some Thoughts Before The Review: New Avengers #51 actually managed to get me interested in the situation surrounding the title of Sorcerer Supreme. I never thought that to be possible. Now it’s time to find out whether Brian Michael Bendis and his art teams can manage to hold that interest.
The Story: Dr. Strange goes to the New Avengers team in order to find some relief following his face off with The Hood. The team offers to help Strange with his search for the Sorcerer Supreme and soon the group is off to New Orleans. Meanwhile, The Hood tries to maintain his grip on reality as he fights to keep control of his power…
What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: The highlight of the latest issue of New Avengers is Chris Bachalo’s handling of the scenes featuring The Hood. Action-packed at the start and downright creepy later on, they are almost worth the cover price alone. In fact, I would go as far as to say that they end up carrying nearly all of the weight in an issue that turns out to be fairly lackluster half of the time.
While Brian Michael Bendis does a good job handling the witty, story-related dialogue and Billy Tan puts forth some decent visuals, everything feels rather dull when The Hood isn’t around. Superheroes sitting around exchanging banter and nailing out plot points just isn’t all that compelling when compared to the explosive opening scene or the disturbing breakdown that comes later in the issue. Things do pick up toward the end though, so consider me still hooked on the whole Sorcerer Supreme thing.
Conclusion: I wish I could say more, but not a whole lot really happens in New Avengers #52. It definitely has some great moments, but as a whole it feels like a series of starts and stops. As a result, it is frustratingly inconsistent.
Grade: C+
-Kyle Posluszny
Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Antonio Fabela, Billy Tan, Brian Michael Bendis, Captain America, Chris Bachalo, comic reviews, Dark Reign, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Justin Ponsor, Kyle Posluszny, Marvel Comics, Marvel Reviews, Matt Banning, Mockingbird, Ms. Marvel, New Avengers, New Avengers #52 Review, New orleans, Quinjet, Ronin, Sorcerer Supreme, Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, The Hood, Tim Townsend, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review, weeklycomicbookreview.com, Wolverine, X-Men
Thanks for the follow up. You definitely make a compelling argument for people to consider.
As a critic, I definitely try to treat each issue as something of a standalone product. While something that is part of an ongoing series (or even an arc) demands some consideration of what came before or will possibly come after, I make it a point not to let past feelings or future predictions dominate what I think of the issue I am currently reviewing. If say, using your example, I had decided Dark Reign was an invalid era in the Marvel U and based all DR reviews on that underlying premise, I would be doing a disservice to pretty much every reader. As a critic, I simply cannot and will not review in that way.
Now that definitely brings up the challenge every writer faces when dealing with comic continuity in relation to the conceptual issues that can arise when developing stories on characters and themes that have been tinkered with for years and years. Stepping on toes in almost inevitable. As a critic I have to take that challenge into consideration and decide when it is appropriate to nitpick (or take writers to task) about things like that.
-Kyle Posluszny
Very good point Steven and thanks for the comment.
I will admit that I’ve never been a follower of the more magic side of the Marvel U., so a lot of your information makes me think of the arc in a different light. Do you think Bendis is making the assumption that readers are familiar with the magic interation? Or do you think he either flat out forgot to explain it or is just choosing to ignore it in favor of a faster paced story?
My take on the overall situation concerning Bendis’s “Avengers” titles hasn’t changed over the years. He’s read a lot of crime fiction, and written respectable graphic crime fiction, so people, including reviewers, tend to assume that his superhero fiction will be at least competent. Some familiarity with genre conventions and the characters is required to spot mistakes and plotting absurdities when Bendis tries to handle SF- and magic-based material. The overall plot for SECRET INVASION fell apart for readers who are familiar with computer technology and DNA research, because that knowledge made the Skrulls’ machinations absurd. Real-world scientists could have identified imposters; the world wouldn’t have run on a single computer technology; the rationale offered in SI #8 for keeping the abductees alive (the Skrulls needed them for tissue samples) was ludicrous, because the Skrulls’ DNA technology was inferior to real-world technology.
In the case of Dr. Strange, specifically, Bendis apparently hasn’t studied Strange’s history in print, isn’t particularly interested in studying fantasy fiction, and just finds it much easier to write magic users as self-powered or with the sources of their power obscure. That evidently works for a lot of his readers, who tend to prefer crime-based stories to stories about “magic sh?t” (do a Google Web search on “Bendis” and “magic sh?t”), even if it’s wrong, extremely wrong, for particular characters.
A critic could take the stance that, since “Dark Reign” followed the invalid conclusion to SECRET INVASION, that the premise for “Dark Reign” is invalid and that Marvel Editorial is in the process of knowingly publishing garbage that shouldn’t be in print — but that forces one to condemn most, if not all, of Marvel’s “Dark Reign”-related material. I can see why a reviewer would try to regard each issue as a standalone product and try to identify what’s good in it.
In the case of Dr. Strange, however, Bendis’s treatments of Dr. Strange and sorcery are just wrong.
SRS
The biggest problem, by far, with the entire “New Sorcerer Supreme” story line in NEW AVENGERS is that Bendis doesn’t seem to realize that Dr. Strange does sorcery by invoking deities. NA #52 features a bunch of visual effects, but no actual sorcery, per se, since Strange invokes no one. Bendis seems to think that the Eye is self-powered; it’s not, and I doubt that he knows the Orb of Agamotto even exists. Both the Hood and Daimon Hellstrom are absurd as candidates for the “Sorcerer Supreme” title, since the Hood is Dormammu’s puppet, and Hellstrom, like Satana, for example, has no sorcerous abilities. And Wiccan — Bendis takes the attitude that, like his version of Wanda, he’s self-powered, which is ridiculous.
The result is that there’s no basis, for a storytelling sense, for anything that’s happening in Bendis’s storyline. If Bendis had read fantasy fiction, he’d know that identifying a source of magical power and describing the user’s interaction with it would be major factors in any story. But, to him, it’s special effects and nothing more. Having Bachalo draw Dormammu as a demon doesn’t disguise him as a demon — but that’s what Bendis has Strange mistakenly thinking. What terrible storytelling.
SRS