Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Alan Davis.
They were friends, brothers and teammates through all of Marvel’s greatest adventures, but recent events turned them into the bitterest of enemies. In the wake of the Siege of Asgard Thor, Iron Man and Steve Rogers are brought together on the same side once more, but these great heroes can’t truly trust each other yet. They better start soon because something only the Big Three can handle is tearing their world apart. This all-new, grand and dangerous adventure will catapult our heroes into the explosive Heroic Age and will unite comics legend Alan Davis with Avengers scribe Brian Bendis for the very first time.
What did we at Multiversity think of the first conversation between Marvel’s Holy Trinity in it’s brand new and friendlier status quo?
Matt’s Thoughts: It seems like there has just been so much hype circling around the end of Siege. We’ve got the return of a classic Avengers title (with classic villains!), plus a new New Avengers series, not to mention two more Avenger related on-goings. Plus, there’s this little book with the tagline Prime which promises to deal with the unresolved issues between Thor, Cap, and Iron Man. And lo and behold, this week’s Book of the Week is said title!
And Book of the Week is a good title for it. This is certainly the biggest title this week, and it seems like every new Avengers book gets this spot. They, so far, have all deserved it. I loved the first installment of this mini series. I think that in the opening scene where Cap and Iron Man argue, it was the conversation that was basically something Steve Jobs could market well – it’s not something we needed, but now that we haven’t, I can’t see how we would have wanted to be without it! Cap and Iron Man yelling at each other is great, and I get the feeling that this will make the end of Siege feel a bit more natural. While I’m all for the happy Rainbow Bridge sitting on top of Avengers tower, there definitely was a lot of wreckage of Asgard that wasn’t really dealt with. It’s nice to see some attention being paid to it.
Of course, that’s the odd thing about it. The time line feels a little bit odd. Seeing as the end of Siege is pretty concise, I’m not entirely sure where this is exactly supposed to fit in. Is it right after the battle? Is it before the final party on the rooftop of Avengers tower? That’s what I don’t get. While I can see how this is going to go, I can’t exactly see where it’s going to go, and that’s the one thing I wish Bendis had worked a bit harder on. SO much happened after the end of Siege, and while we do see the opening of the New Avengers Finale in the review page at the beginning, Cap’s costumes don’t match up, so it leaves me with open ended questions.
However, ultimately I’m satisfied. As much as I adore Bendis’ talent at exposition and dialogue, it’d be pretty dry if we literally had five issues of talking. As interesting as that conversation would be, it wouldn’t be interesting without any action, and that’s something that Bendis has gotten pretty good at over the last 7 years. The characters, when separated, all have intriguing plot lines to move forward on, and I’m interested to see how they all resolve in order to bring our heroes back to being friends again. While I’m sure it will be a challenge, I have faith in Bendis here, and there are some great and memorable moments already.
Oh, and can we take a minute to mention how freaking glorious Alan Davis is in this book? Seriously – there is some FANTASTIC artwork here. The two-page spreads in the Nine Worlds, as well as at the beginning, are so great. Every chance we get to see him do new work shows that he hasn’t lost an ounce of talent. I love the way he drew Steve Rogers “reassembling” his Cap suit.
Continued belowI’m sure that, looking back, this will be one of those things that reignite people’s faith in Bendis as the main Avengers writer. I know some people are weary, but this is definitely a great start to the mini, and will hopefully grab a lot of people. With fantastic artwork and solid writing fueling it, it’s safe to say that Bendis and Davis have fully got this locked and loaded.
David’s Thoughts: Reading this comic feels a little dirty. Not because it’s bad or even necessarily a waste of money, it’s just such a complete and utter money grab it kind of shocks me. While it’s very well crafted by Bendis and Alan Davis, nothing in the first issue indicated that a) it will ultimately be worth the money or b) have any real ramifications on the Marvel universe, thus the whole exercise feels fruitless from the overarching point-of-view that you really have to look at the Marvel universe from.
Or to put it in pop culture terms, Avengers Disassembled to Siege was the bachelor party from The Hangover, The Heroic Age is the crazy day they have that comprises the movie, and Avengers Prime is where everyone is like “what the @%#% just happened?!”
The issue in itself has some really nice moments from the two big creators, particularly when the characters are by themselves and not working together. For example, my two favorite moments were Tony Stark and “Captain Rogers” (let’s not call him that, please?) first scenes in this new world. You have Tony sitting their fixing his 3.8 design armor with his sneaky self repair kit while lamenting his lack of coffee and then you have Steve coming into a Goblin bar in Vanaheim in which he thinks he finally has made sense of the world. Davis and Bendis nailed this perfectly together with a three panel corner shot, in which Steve looks bemused and says “Yes. English. Good. There was some sort of an accident —“, then the next panel is a group of goblins up in arms as they shout “EAT HIM!” The final panel in which Steve looks like he is pissed beyond words (or that he just had an accident) entertains endlessly.
There were also a few odd moments — the verbal sparring match between Steve and Tony early in the issue felt out of character, only to be dragged back to reality by Thor who simply states “If you two are here on my behalf…please feel free to take your leave.” The latter half rocked, but the first bit just seemed really off to me. Would a futurist and the world’s greatest patriot really get into a shouting match randomly with a civilization destroyed at their feet? Seemed odd.
Alan Davis does nice work here — his work has influenced so many artists (like Bryan Hitch, Trevor Hairsine, and Paul Pelletier) — and considering it’s his first time working with Bendis he acquits himself well. His rendering of the Iron Man armor is more than a little awkward (too many teeth! Faceplate looks crazy bent out all that way!), but he makes a regal Thor and a badass Steve Rogers to more than make up for that.
I enjoyed this book, don’t get me wrong. But considering how much I’m cutting out of my stack recently and the cover price of $3.99 and how little I think it will ultimately matter, I’ll likely not be picking up any issues in the future. Which is a shame because Bendis and Davis really do work well together, but such is life in the world of modern comics.
Gil’s Thoughts: Let’s face it, over the past 7 years, the Holy Marvel Trinity had been through a lot. Some died and some became bitter enemies. It was time to hug it out, bitch. The book was fun for the most part, but it also has some shaky place in continuity. It takes place directly after the events of Siege, which I get, but Steve and Tony seem to have the same issue that they did in the first issue of the Adjective-less Avengers title. Either their issues will never be resolved, or the continuity is all off, which says a lot about Bendis’ handling of…Bendis’ books. How strange.
Continued belowBrandon’s Thoughts: I had wondered how this book would play out. Would this mini series be the three main characters on a fishing trip talking out their problems over a rack of Miller High Life? Would the three, formerly close, friends slug it out with one another till they decided to team up against the issues of Darfur? That’s so two years ago you say? Yeah, I suppose it is. Well it turns out this issue is something else entirely and while it was a pleasant surprise was it enough to warrant picking up an entire mini series? I’m not so sure.
If you ask me the answer is no. I found it to be much like when I get drunk. At first it seems like it’s going to be all-awesome all the time and then as things progress I lose track and everything just kind of becomes tired and then the tie tie sets in and it’s all over. This isn’t to say the writing and arting are no good because that just wouldn’t be true. The art in my opinion was actually surprising good.
So what about the writing? Bendis has strong points here as well as low points. The beginning was really good. I found the argument between Tony and Steve compelling as all hell and found myself cheering the argument on as I imagine many other fans found themselves doing as well. It’s just the conversation that we’ve all been waiting for since Captain America #25. To say it’s been a long time coming is a ridiculous understatement. After that though I felt it all just kind of slowed down and became a story much like any other story that leads to reconciliation.
The art for me was the best part of the book outside of Steve vs Tony. I mentioned before that the fact I enjoyed the art so much was a surprise. Why might you ask? Well to be honest it is a dirty shameful secret of mine that Alan Davis’ art isn’t always my cup of tea. This issue though I found Davis’ work to be rather excellent. His facial expressions during Steve vs Tony were really a highlight and I found myself loving the emotion that was blasting through those pages.
Now when it comes down to it I just don’t feel that picking up this series in its entirety will pay off in the end. While I love Bendis’ work and tend to buy everything he does I just didn’t feel the magic I expected from a title such as this.
Walt’s Thoughts: Man, this more than made up for my disappointment with Siege #4. Everyone has been waiting for the inevitable confrontation between Steve and Tony, which has so far been glossed over in all the other post-Siege books. So far all we have seen is a bit of uneasy tension in the new Avengers title and a bit of a reference in Invincible Iron Man, each of which take place after this mini. I’m sure there’s nothing really spoiler-worthy that occurs in this series anyways, but I’m glad that it looks like if anything does happen we won’t be told a couple of weeks in advance (though I could be calling this a bit early).
As I’ve griped about before, I don’t really like Brian Michael Bendis’ higher-level superhero work. However, I think this issue shows that if he’s only focused on a small group of characters, Bendis can really shine in this field. I was particularly glad that it didn’t just turn into a shout-fest at Tony, because I feel he’s suffered enough. Then again, considering Bendis wrote The Confession (the best thing to tie into Civil War), I’m sure he definitely knew what the character had been through after Steve’s death, though Thor’s sudden acceptance of Tony in all the post-Siege books has been a bit odd after their last encounter.
Working with Bendis was a little guy called Alan Davis. You know, that guy who did Captain Britain and Miracleman with some guy named Alan Moore, among many, many other things. I shouldn’t have to tell you that Davis’ art in this was brilliant, but I’ll say it anyways. It’s absolutely great. Even more noticeable than technical abilities such as perspective and proportions is Davis’ excellent perfectly clear storytelling ability. I don’t think I’ve read anything in which Davis handles the pencils where I’ve gotten the slightest bit confused by what was going on in the page.
Overall, this was a good start to what I hope will be a good mini. Check it out if you haven’t yet, especially if you’re a fan of Marvel’s big three.
