About Heroes

This review was submitted by Knightwingbk:
Writer: Brian Micheal Bendis
Artists: Jim Cheung & Livesay

Well, after a terrible Spider-Woman issue and an okay Sentry issue, New Avengers finally got back on track with its last Civil War tie-in. This issue focuses on Iron Man, and like the other books there is a story happening in this issue. Iron Man's tower and armor are breached by a disgruntled employee who helped Tony design his new armor and the armor the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are now wearing. He holds Tony hostage and does the standard villain monologue. What’s great about this issue is its villain monologue and Maria Hill. The employee is really well written and his motivation makes sense. He did all this work for Stark to help the world, to make it better, freer, and Stark uses it to make "cape-killers" new super-cops to imprison people, the opposite of its intent. This super-genius doesn't want to live knowing that he helped imprison good people. While Stark is being held hostage, Maria Hill herself goes into Stark Tower to find out what is going on and where Stark is. She's still the same determined woman that she was in previous issues of New Avengers, but this issue highlights her status as a great S.H.I.E.L.D. operative. Giving her some background and insight as to why she was chosen to be the new director. Tony doesn't have a lot to do here in his own "spotlight" issue, but the last two pages of this book are crucial to the outlook of Civil War. If you read this weeks Iron Man and this issue or only read one of them you will have a good hint of what is to come, whether Tony's side wins or not.

Jim Chueng's art is great here, although not as sharp as some of his previous work, probably due to his inker. Some of the lines on the faces look thicker than they should, especially when you gaze at this beautiful cover. The panels where you are looking through Iron Man's mask are great, and the inter-cutting between those and Maria Hill's scenes on the same page do not feel awkward, thanks to Jim Chueng's beautiful art. Bendis is doing his best work with these tie-in issues, the Captain America, Luke Cage, and this issue are the best issues of New Avengers since the issue where Spider-man said -- "Oh yeah? I have clones." If you're enjoying Civil War or curious on the outlook after Civil War, pick this book up. A.