snap judgments

Mighty Avengers #12 promised in its solicitation all those months ago to let the reader in on the little secrets of Nick Fury. Where has he been? What has he been doing? And I do quote:

The Eisner-award-winning team of Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev (NEW AVENGERS ILLUMINATI, HALO: UPRISING) reunite to answer the question that has been on every comic fan’s mind for years…WHERE THE HELL HAS NICK FURY BEEN?? Rewinding the clock to Fury’s time in SECRET WAR, follow Fury as he puts together the pieces of his life and starts finding clues to a Secret Invasion that makes him TARGET NUMBER ONE. A major Skrull reveal happens in these pages!

Well, reading through this issue I hate to have to do this but … if you haven’t been reading anything of Bendis’s work in the past couple years since Secret War, you might want to rethinking having the Avengers on your pull for a little while (if these reviews haven’t made you drop an otherwise ‘meh’ book already). Thanks to being able to take a book into the back on a break every so often, I like to think of myself as well-read regarding the Marvel Universe and boy, this issue proves me wrong.

All you need to know is that Nick Fury went underground after Secret War because of his actions during the series. Contessa goes to see him, turns out to be a Skrull (THAT’S THE BIG REVEAL? You serious?) and so after he shoots her, Fury goes… uhm, even more underground and keeps tabs on SHIELD using all his awesomeness and Jessica Drew because she’s the superest super agent ever. Me, no I’m not bitter.

A lot of this is stuff we already knew, right? Who didn’t know Nick Fury was underground? We’ve been told for the past few months he knew of the Skrull threat to Earth, so him going around and checking on the Skrullometer of SHIELD isn’t all that new and/or exciting. Nick Fury beating his former base of operations at their own game should be rather thrilling, but there’s no danger of being caught and Maria Hill isn’t all that dangerous faced with the awesome might of Nick Fury. He goes to see Director Hill once she takes over his old job (as she sleeps in her underwear), gives her the ol’ narrow eyes and jumps away to safety. They ask her if he took anything while he was rooting about and then… we cut to Spider-Woman. It’s as if the book really wants to tell us something but doesn’t trust itself to be as exciting after the reveal.

And for Heaven’s sake! If Spider-Woman isn’t on EVERY side she’s a remarkably flat character. A lot of this is rehash and the details require your back issue collection if you’re curious about the timeline from ages ago until now. I’m sure it’s rewarding to go back and find out how this book overlaps with Secret War, the Avengers titles, Civil War and Spider-Woman: Origin but I really miss the little yellow footnotes. I know it’d disrupt the art (which would be a real crime), but even Wolverine: Origins when they started used to put notation in the back from all the issues they referenced.

Mind you, the art is spectacular (uncanny even!) and is nearly worth the price of admission right there. But as far as content, it’s on the light side.

What everyone is going to be talking about is the final page of Nick Fury and his big wall o’ poloroids. Some people are circled! Some people are not circled! The circles are different colors! WHO DO YOU CIRCLE?

Blue Circles: Spider-Man, Daredevil, Lockjaw, Stature and Namor
Red Circles: Wolverine, Sentry, Hulkling and Doctor Strange

You can infer about these circles until the cows come home but considering on how light this issue was on serious clues with discernible information, then I wouldn’t look back until one of these characters rears their Skrully heads. This book is going to enjoy being smarter than its readers for awhile. Settle in.