At least one of you has been wondering where the next Mighty Avengers review as we got a couple issues in lovingly drawn by the Mighty Magic Machine, Mark Bagley. I’ve been wondering when I was going to get around to the start of the next arc of Bendis’ more ‘traditional’ Avengers rock’em-sock’em comic.
Funny how the books that say the least I have the most to talk about…
So, where is it? Well… it’s over here, in New Avengers #36. Remember that time-bending issue where the events of Mighty Avengers were quickly described in the pages of New Avengers by Luke Cage in bed, causing some to wonder if there was an issue in between they missed. Well, here’s the start of the issues you missed! So yeah. Symbiote invasion on New York City, innocents need saving, heroes pull together, yadda yadda. I think I’d be a lot more interested in this storyline because I will admit that the start of it has a great horror movie start with a baby’s infection and screaming and panic… it certainly feels like something New York City is threatened by (again). And it’s not that we didn’t know the heroes were going to win, I mean come on! But… its a bad taste in my mouth that I’ve been waiting to see this go down, that the end result has been explained, that another comic is now what… three issues ahead of time itself?
I think it’s a little like those awesome Countdown posters DC gave to the fans that showed them a bunch of clues to what’s ahead for certain characters and it took the actual comics AGES to get to the points everyone figured out in the clues. Okay, Mary Marvel goes ‘evil’ thanks to Eclipso, we got it, why did it feel like they took forever to hook up? Are we as fans impatient? Is there a way to tell us the end of the story and still keep us interested?
Probably. There are no bad stories, just bad writers, so anything is possible. How many people figured the all new, all different Bucky Barnes was going to be handed the Captain America mantle and how incredbly natural and exciting does it feel to see him take on the legend? We knew it was going to happen and yet what comes next sounds just as good as what I was anticipating. So it is good writing, time taken, build up generated that’s just as good as they hype itself.
I give the man credit where credit is due: Bendis has some of the most snappy dialogue out there. His characters talk with a sense of time and natural ease that makes two people sitting in a room just as exciting as slugfests. But then…
Yeah. Just…. take that in. Breathe it like a fine wine and wonder… did you pick up the wrong book? Is that really what all that business in the first part of Mighty Avengers was about?
Of course not! This is more of that snappy Bendis dialogue! He writes the way people speak! It’s a natural flow to people’s words that brings you into the comics and empathize with our heroes and villains. Or so I hear. But I can tell you, the moment I hit that word balloon, I doubted myself. I doubted I could possibly go on with the rest of this book. I doubted God in his infinite wisdom. I cried out to the heavens, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?” and I was answered:
No.
Now, I’m not saying the Avengers can’t have a wacky adventure or two. I’m not saying you can’t make fun of Tony Stark for having his gender rewritten on a genetic level by a malevolent robot bent on the destruction of mankind but… where do we go from here, folks?
I thought a lot about this and then I remembered that I don’t have to think a lot about this. There’s being fair and being honest and this? This is a bad book. I’m sorry to those of you who had to read through it. I’m sorry Bendis felt that this was the way to go to making an Avengers book high octane and fun again.
All you need to know? Spider-Woman was allowed on to the Mighty Avengers. Make of this what you will
