The New Avengers...finally Assembled, sorta.
New Avengers #16
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Steve McNiven
Yay, I get to do this review before Omar. So for starts I’m going to open the book to the first six pages…now I won’t tell you what is in the contents of the first six pages until the spoiler filled review, but lets just say I laughed very hard, on the floor, and rolling around, a lot. What the hell was Bendis thinking? I love New Avengers and I love a lot of the stuff Bendis has come out with (not all, but a lot). But I laughed when I turned the page three times to see full page or double page spreads with no words. As a guy who is against the notion that Bendis is a “filler” these first six pages don’t lie, with no words and two pictures I’ve already seen (btw I am not counting the opening recap page) I quickly flipped through the pages. To get to something I could actually read. I don’t know about you, but words impact me more then pictures in the case of comic books. Now anyone can read about the death toll in a foreign land, but the pictures are what make people cry, but we’re not dealing with real life we’re in the world of make believe and I want the writer to string me along and drop the bomb about how many people just died and what sounds I might be hearing if I were an on looker. Steve McNiven is a great artist but nothing looks more real then my own imagination, in this case I could have seen the “six-page-action-zero-words-prologue” in one page, maybe the last two pages, but I got the picture in about the time it takes me to read two words, and I would have preferred the two words. Now that I’ve gotten that off of my chest I can move on. I liked the rest of the book. I liked the way Bendis introduced this new and “destructive” antagonist in a way that McNiven’s one-shot work would not hinder the mysticism of the rest of the arc. I liked the characterization, yeah I like characterization a lot, but I liked the way we learn more about the new badass female S.H.I.E.L.D agent. She is set up to have a good yin and yang relationship with Cap, a good classic Avengers romp. Oh and then there is the “destruction” this part pissed me off a little bit but it’s comic books so I don’t invest too much heart into some of the antics that I see, especially in the pages of Avengers, anything can happen, and it usually will.
Great review amigo.
I love Bendis, but I agree this issue was a fast read. The artwork was beautiful, no doubt, but 6-8 pages of splash? Ouch!
Hey, the collective story arc is coming up though. I hope we'll get plenty of dialogue and action. Bring on Deodato Jr!
Sorry guys but those 10 pages of splash pages reminded me too much of the early image days. This story was lame so all the mutant powers are now one big mass of a man! It's funny but the people who bitch about how much Alpha Flight sucked anyway, will be the ones that pick up a new Alpha Flight book if Bendis wrote it....sad sad.
I made mention of that in the review, I would probably buy an Alpha Flight by Bendis cause its not the team I btich about its who writes the team, I love the team of characters, why you gotta hate on Bendis?