About Heroes

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Frank Cho

I'm torn on this issue. I knew the line-up last November thanks to Wizard. I saw preview pages in there, basically showing me the entire fight. What I didn't see was the discussions between Iron Man and Carol Danvers. Tony tells Carol that he wants her to lead and help pick the team, but the entire time I was reading it, it felt like Tony was still leading and picking. Tony picks Sentry, Black Widow, and himself to be on the team. If he's director of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't he have other things to do other than stepping on Carol's toes? Carol picks Ares, Wasp, and Wonder Man, saying that they were the best Avengers ever. 'Excuse me? Wonder Man one of the best Avengers? Okay, maybe out of "those Avengers still alive and registered," but not ever. She picks Ares because he is "Thore and Wolverine rolled into one." Tony adds Black Widow because of some stupid reason like "In this day and age, you have to have a ninja." Yeah Tony, because ninja's are so in now. Bendis used to write Tony better than this, but this Tony feels like he is drunk while he is talking. I miss the New Avengers Tony, now that was a cool character, not this one. And since when can Black Widow fly? I though she was simply a former russian spy that carries a gun, but Frank Cho makes her fly. Another thing that bugged me about this book was the return of word balloons. Rather than make them neccessary, Bendis puts them in the middle of Carol and Tony's conversation with things like, "Did he just say that?" exclamations of "Man!" "Yes Good" and "Oh my God!" Did we really need these? A lot of these felt really superflous, thrown in there to make the book funny. The only good one was one of Iron Man's where he told himself to let Carol lead the team. I don't know if this is one of the ways to bring comics back to the classic ways, but if it's only used in this capacity, then I will pass on the idea. You don't need thought balloons to express emotions, that is what the artist is for. Put in some useful information and I might welcome the change.

This book is geared for Frank Cho. Wasp, Ms. Marvel and Black Canary all have boobs and butts, and Cho does his usual thing with these. While the other male characters are drawn well, his Iron Man really lacks something. He look's like a posed action figure in every panel. I don't know if it is because of the way Cho draws the suit, but it feels like that is the one character he's not putting the effort into. Take some effort off the asses, and into Iron Man. Please. That said, the action in the book is framed and drawn well. You have a sense of motion and fluidity in between panels whenever Iron Man is not in them. This being the first issue, maybe something is off, as Bendis has written the darker New Avengers for about 3 years and now he has to switch to "happy" Avengers. A lot of the other reviews on the net really enjoyed this book, but I felt it was lacking some real pizazz. It feels like Bendis is reaching for humor here, but without Spider-Man's wisecracks he just can't reach that. Read the book and judge for yourself, it's a better investment than that Initiative one-shot. C+