Avengers: The InitiativeThis title is 2 issues into its post Secret Invasion/Dark Reign stint, new writer, new arc and by the look of things a mostly new batch of students as we see the next class graduate and many of the trainers go out to initiative teams rather than face what Osbourne is likely to do at camp Hammond. All this and as a fail safe Clor has been switched back on. It is fitting with its disassembled theme that things are All change at camp Hammond. Story is quite entertaining, Christos Gage is still finding his feet but a clean house should help him with what has been Dan Slott's baby. Art, well they picked Ramos again, who I really don't rate at all but so far its not been a deal breaker. It will be interesting how the pieces fall on this one.
New AvengersWe're two issues into this now, and the search for baby cage has been quickly resolved although they had to go to Osbourne for help. It would be out of character considering how many times Cage should have gone to Stark before secret invasion, but he is searching for his kid. We have what look like a few lineup changes, Captain America has joined and offered his house as a secret base, the real Spider-Woman is on the team and it looks like Ms. Marvel has joined (Which makes sense since she'll be on a wanted list after events of Dark Avengers). To me, New Avengers was always the weakest title. Still this could be a new start. Nice that there is some great scope (and indeed virtually a promise for next issue) of a throwdown between New and Dark Avengers considering both teams have a Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Ms Marvel and I'm betting Bucky isn't too happy about Osbourne wearing Cap's Colours. If this title can find some solid direction it might turn out to be rather good.
Mighty AvengersI always preferred Mighty to New, and Genuinely Mighty's only problem was scheduling problems early on. Now being written by Dan Slott it stands out as being the least Dark Reign tied in of all 4 titles. Instead earth is being hit by a Chaos Cascade and in a roundabout way the Scarlet witch gathers a squad of avengers to face a dire threat in Transia. Slott has said that all selected Avengers won't be the final team, but for the moment we have (if I remember) Hank Pym (now Wasp) Jocasta, Jarvis, USAgent, Iron Man, Stature, Vision, Hulk, Hercules and his sidekick Amadeus Cho and of course the Scarlet Witch. Nice touch is that, aside from lacking a Hawkeye, this team is made up entirely of Ex-Avengers or Relatives (Well Cassie Lang and the Vision carries all the memories of the original) Indeed, it was a nice touch that the Scarlet witch initially looks at Bucky, but comments that "Captain America is dead" and goes for USAgent, who has previously been an Avenger. This is one of the most promising of the titles, and while I suspect that Iron Man, Hulk and perhaps USAgent (Mainly because I want more Omega Flight) will leave, we could have a good team here. The comic was fun, and that is often missing in these dark days.
Dark AvengersArguably the most anticipated of the Dark Reign Launches this is the New Official Marvel Universe Avengers lineup. And I was largely right, it is mostly the Thunderbolts. We have from Mighty Avengers Ares and Sentry. Noh-Varr, Marvel boy, now called Captain Marvel, Moonstone, now called Ms. Marvel, Venom, Now Spider-Man, Bullseye, Now Hawkeye and finally The Iron patriot, in fact Osbourne himself using suits that he found in Tony Starks carelessly abandoned armour store in Avengers tower. Now this is was a good read, but I do wonder how long it can carry on, Ideally we'll have a significantly less moral and more fragmented team (They already don't get on too well) and this could be interesting, but is there a long term future, and are they going to pull a Thunderbolts, I doubt it from the likes of Moonstone (been there, Done that) Bullseye or Osbourne (Too damn crazy) and Ares just likes to fight, but who knows.
Later I'll post on some of the non-avengers titles, and ones coming soon.
I must admit, I've used Dark Reign as a jumping off point for various books I'd only just started collecting during Secret Invasion, so most of the Avengers books (New, Mighty and Initiative) have been dropped (although New and Mighty would've been struggling to keep me anyway. Still bitter about that Captain Marvel issue I bought).
ReplyDeleteDark Avengers I really enjoyed although its very much a setup issue. I'm intrigued to see what kind of direction they take the title in though. Is it basically going to be a re-branded Thunderbolts title or is Bendis going to use it to look more at the wider effects of Dark Reign, and focus on Norman abusing his position?
I'm currently only buying 3 Dark Reign books (Iron Man, War Machine and Dark Avengers), but as an event I'm really loving it. There's a lot of fun to be had with Norman taking over and high-profile heroes like Ms Marvel being driven underground.
I notice Joe Q hinting on Newsarama that it'll probably wrap up later this year, so I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Obviously Tony's tied up with trying to protect the armouries. I'm really hoping the wider implications for Norman finding the one in Avengers tower really needs looked at, as it makes Tony look a bit stupid.
I'm very interested by Ms Marvel trying to dig up dirt on Osbourn as well. I wonder if she'll be the one to take him down?
Dark avengers I'm interested to see where they go, as you say, is it a Thunderbolts re-hash or are we going to see a properly decadent corrupt super team, and if so will it be like that Authority story where they replace teh Authority?
ReplyDeleteGood to see you buying Iron man again. Invincable has been a really good title. I'll post my thoughts on other Dark Reign Tie ins shortly.
Hells, with new and mighty, I'm just glad to have Avengers books with Avengers in them.