Avengers - Review - FA Online

Avengers 12.1

This is a rarety, a .1 issue that not only stands on its own and makes for a genuine jumping on point but also introduces a big plotline for the future, as well as being a pleasure to read on its own.

Secret Avengers 12.1

I’ve been scathing about and disappointed with some of these .1 ‘jumping-on point’ issues, and I’ve praised a couple highly. I think this is the first one that seems to lie somewhere in the middle.

Avengers vs New Ultimates 1

This confused the hell out of me. The banner at the top, where we expect the title to be, says Ultimate Death of Spider-Man; at the bottom it says Avengers vs New Ultimates 1. Fortunately I didn’t have to work out what it was, since it’s by Mark Millar so an automatic buy for me. It’s a good thing that that was my reason, since there is no detectable connection to the upcoming death of Spider-Man.

Ultimate Avengers v3 #6

I’ve enjoyed this series. I said in a recent Shazam! review that I think writers taking on existing characters need to think about what makes them special, what their particular requirements and opportunities are. I know Mark has created most of these, but clearly the Ultimate characters are variations on established stars.

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade – Search for the Scarlet Witch 1

Bloody hell that’s an unwieldy title! The first two parts are the series title; the latter part is because this is a collection of the first three issues, still in comic book format, at $5, which is only a dollar more than each one individually – I like this format, which is new to me. Good encouragement to catch up on a series.

New Avengers 7

There’s a lot to be said against Brian Michael Bendis’ writing, and I’ve said most of it already; his overrated, sprawling style has become the industry standard, padding out storylines endlessly to fill the all-important Trade Paperback, with a multitude of costumes all saying the same ‘cool’ things in exactly the same voice, characterisation being subverted to a plot point or a ‘witty’ punchline.

Avengers 7

You can’t deny that at times Bendis is keen on LONG conversations with very little happening. He defines the tendency towards ‘decompression’ – which means telling stories that in years past would have taken one issue over six issues.

Avengers vs the Pet Avengers 1

Remember the 1960’s, when Marvel was ‘cool’ because they did flatulent cosmic bollocks like Silver Surfer, and DC wasn’t because they did all the stuff with Super-Pets? Well, time for us uncool ones to get our smug on, because Marvel, unexpectedly, has reversed the trend and restored fun to comics again.