By: Brian Michael Bendis (story), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Roger Martinez, Cam Smith, & Scott Hanna (inks), Rain Beredo (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)
The Story: Our mysterious body-snatching villain wreaks absolute chaos at Avengers Mansion. Also, someone dies.
The Review: Anyone who’s followed Bendis’ Avengers books for an extended period of time know that it’s been an uneven ride and often a rough one. That being said, I proudly confess to being a fan of the man, willing to give a look at just about anything the man does. Given that he’s written three of my favourite comic runs of all time (Alias, Powers, and Daredevil), I feel I owe it to the man. As such, I’m really happy to see that he’s closing out his New Avengers run in style.
This arc of New Avengers really does deliver Bendis’ strengths without the weaknesses – the characters feel human, more friends than team-mates, and there’s a personal touch to the characters throughout. I also love the fact that it’s a mystic storyline. Bendis ramps that aspect of the story up this month, with battles in the astral plane and even a light touch of horror, as mind controlled persons are forced to do bad things to themselves and others.
What makes this comic especially strong, however, is the villain. Bendis sets up a very effect conflict here, presenting us with a believable adversary with a very specific and understandable motivation for wanting the Avengers, particuarly Strange, to suffer. The villain’s identity was also a nice surprise, and also one that made perfect sense. It’s lovely to see Bendis get a chance to tie up a big loose end from his run.
That being said, this issue’s greatest strength is the complete sense of chaos that exists from cover to cover. It’s nothing but breathless mayhem throughout. I don’t really mean that in the sense of heroes punching each other, so much as the fact that things simply go from bad to worse, to even worse in remarkably short order, never giving the heroes or the reader a chance to breath or catch up. Bendis does a fantastic job in capturing the total chaos that this villain creates and the heroes’ basically being set adrift in the storm. To put it simply, everything feels completely and utterly out of control.
That this utter chaos results in a major character death only makes the issue that more effective; after all, chaos is only truly chaos when just about anything can happen.
As far as the art goes, however, it’s admittedly a mixed bag. Carlos Pacheco is a very talented artist and, admittedly, the scenes with Victoria Hand and Dr. Strange in the astral plane are stunning. The design for the villain is also a good one. That being said, once the action leaves the astral plane, things aren’t quite up to the same level. Again, Pacheco is a very experienced, able artist so as a result, things are detailed and are certainly passable, but it’s quite obvious that this was a rush-job on Pacheco’s part. Things don’t have quite the same level of polish, and there are even a couple of mistakes, with Luke Cage having a lazy eye in one panel while in another, one of Captain Marvel’s eyes seems to be growing out of her hair. I had the same feeling of rushed art reading this week’s issue of Avengers, and I think the book is, more than anything, a victim of Marvel’s double-shipping extravaganza in order to clear the way for Hickman’s upcoming run. If anything, with this also necessitating a totally different artist on each issue in the arc, I imagine this’ll make for one weird trade paperback collection.
Conclusion: A really fun, wild ride that rips by so quickly and with such energy, that you’ll forgive the little slips in the art.
Grade: B+
-Alex Evans
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