Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by John Romita, Jr.The Avengers team up with the incredible RED HULK as the Hood makes a crazy power move to bring the Infinity Gauntlet together once more. But the Hood has no idea the power he is toying with and who is coming to earth to challenge him for it. Another earth-shattering chapter of Avengers crazy by Bendis and Romita Jr! Plus: another illustrated chapter of the oral history of the Avengers!
So far, this arc has really been making the Bendis plus a classic Avengers set-up seem like a match made in heaven. Will it continue? Check out my review after the jump.
This issue was all kinds of fun. Like everything we could have wanted from an Avengers book written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by John Romita Jr. type of fun.
This issue is two different storylines running concurrently: how The Hood started getting Infinity Gems and the showdown between the Illuminati and the combined New and classic Avengers. Bendis tied both of those events in together perfectly, interweaving the two with the style and panache that is to be expected from Bendis at this point. With all of the major story beats that are hit here (how The Hood got the gems, the revelation of the Illuminati to the assembled Avengers, the inevitable Tony/Steve showdown), one or a couple of these moments could have been minimized in power in another writers hands, but Bendis takes them and soars with them.
I have to say, I particularly enjoyed The Hood’s storyline. Bendis has always taken a special interest in the character, and the way that he makes him still dangerous even though he’s just a guy at this point is marvelous. I really enjoyed the cunning and intelligence that radiates off the character.
While Romita Jr. is definitely not my favorite current Avengers artist (that falls on the recently departed – from the book not life – Stuart Immonen), he does a lot better with the more conversational style of this issue than I’ve come to expect from him. To me, his style has always been a bit more befitting the more action packed stories (although I really enjoyed his Eternals and Kick-Ass work), but he managed to make these conversations feel action packed thanks to clever paneling and storytelling ideas (although there are a few lapses in logic with background imagery that get to me, as well as one moment where Ben Grimm looks like a rocky Peanuts character).
All in all, I’ve really taken a liking to the second arc of this book. While the first wasn’t a huge hit with me, this one has been damn solid and really shows Bendis bridging the gap between classic Avengers storytelling and his more verbose, witty style of writing. Nice work sir.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
