By: Christos Gage (writer), Mike McKone (pencils), Rebecca Buchman (inks), Jeromy Cox (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Bill Rosemann (editor)
The Story: Are Finesse, Hazmat, Veil and Striker really getting kicked out of the Avengers Academy? Also, Finesse goes to check out an old Taskmaster training facility to find out if he might be her daddy.
What’s Good: I LOVE these old fashioned “someone’s-getting-kicked-off-the-team” issues. Even though you know that Finesse, Hazmat, Veil and Striker aren’t going anywhere, because they’re all the interesting characters, it is so much fun to hear all the sanctimony from Tigra about how “This is NOT how we do things as Avengers, dammit! We don’t torture people! That’s what makes us better than the bad guys and if we lose that– well, I don’t even want to think about it.” And then some of the other characters remind her that none of them are in any position to throw stones; and then everyone’s happy again. Yeah! Good times!
The sneaky star of this mission is Finesse. She’s kinda the breakout star of this series so far and in typical Finesse fashion, rather than stay behind to whine at the teachers about how she doesn’t want to get kicked out of school, she goes to check out an old Taskmaster training facility. Of course, she runs into Taskmaster (who is a great kinda-villain), they fight with all their memorized moves, but end up with a conversation that is more heart-felt and moving than what you probably expected. One of my biggest complaints with some comic writers it that they seem dimly aware of current continuity, but Gage has clearly read Fred Van Lente’s recent Taskmaster miniseries. As a reader, you needn’t have read that mini to enjoy this issue, but it is so nice for us readers who have to see Gage make a couple of nods to that great miniseries (and make us feel like we didn’t waste $16 dollars on a miniseries that no one cares about). My feeling with all the continuity is that if Marvel wants to publish 100 titles per month, they need to make sure that their writers are aware of 100 titles per month and Gage does that in this case. Nice job!
McKone’s art is mostly a positive for me and he draws a really good fight between Finesse and Taskmaster. Actually, he handles Finesse very well and you really believe that she is a fluid athlete under his pen.
What’s Not So Good: Well, some people aren’t going to like the scenes where the instructors are debating throwing the kids off the team as much as I did. Personally, I think that Gage is aware of the silliness of a scene like that and is playing it up, but there will be those who will feel that this is not how it happens in real-life where the group has an alpha dog and she/he would just make a decree about the kids status.
I’m also a little concerned at how little of a crap I give about Reptil. Entering this series, he was the character that was kinda getting a push from being on the Super Hero Squad show, but he is just boring as hell. He simply does nothing but beat himself up for not being a good leader (kinda like 80’s Cyclops). I think we need a little more badass from Reptil.
The only negative I can find with the art is that Tigra’s face seems to change a lot from panel to panel. Some of this is due to the linework and some is due to the colored in contours of her face. This is another reason I’m less fond of a more realistic drawing style. I would never fixate on the shape of the nose from panel-to-panel of a character that is drawn in a more cartoony style.
Conclusion: Another very strong issue of Avengers Academy. Love the heavy focus on Finesse since she is the best character in this book.
Grade: B
-Dean Stell
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