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Review: New Avengers #7

By | December 10th, 2010
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Written by Brian Bendis
Illustrated by Stuart Immonen

After the devastating fallout of last issue’s fatal battle for this dimension, the New Avengers have to figure out who really belongs on the team. Plus, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones need a nanny, and not just any nanny, they need to find a superpowered nanny. Who. Will. It. Be?! Plus: another illustrated chapter of the oral history of the Avengers!

The first arc of the new New Avengers is over, and already the mansion is destroyed. How does the beginning of the new storyline read, though? With a title that I’ve noticed most people universally agreeing on, what could my take on the latest issue possibly be? Find out my thoughts after the cut.

Without a doubt, this is the best issue of the second volume of New Avengers since the first issue. That statement is not to knock the adventure Bendis created with the first six issues, because for all intents and purposes New Avengers is just as strong now as when it originally began after Avengers Disassembled. However, what makes this issue excell in the writing category are two very simple things: it’s a funny talky.

Bendis has always been a wordsmith. New Avengers proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Through scenes of tremendous violence and horror as legions of demons infested the world, Bendis managed to insert enough humorous dialogue with perfect pacing throughout the action sequences to create a steady line of quotable jokes and Ghostbuster references. It’s the kind of thing that might seem odd to those not used to Bendis’ writing style, but for the rest of us it’s a rather welcome change to the grimness that has been filling his writing for some time with Dark Reign and Siege. It’s been a while since Bendis really let go this much, and the pay-off is great.

The last time we saw our New Avengers sitting around a table, it was right before the world went to Hell. Now that the world is saved, our heroes once again convene around the table to discuss their future in the Marvel Universe and how they fit in to the big scheme of things. To be quite honest, as much as I’ve always liked Bendis as a writer I find his ability to make scenes that literally revolve around a table just as entertaining and well paced as his real super-heroic scenes of high flying action and adventure. This is something Bendis clearly learned from years of watching classic movies, but to me it’s always rather amazing at how well he incoroprates this element into his writing. Just hearing that this was a “talking” issue alone made this the issue that I was most looking foward to, and my patience was rewarded. Bendis covers all the topics – financial income, relation to the real Avengers, who is staying and going, and how each character will function in the dynamic. We even get a nice scene of Spider-Man flat out calling out Victoria Hand for her association with Osborn, the result of which is both an intriguing scene and a humorous payoff. While a few characters are decidedly quiet (Mocking Bird and the Thing, specifically), the way the issue wraps up in creating a functional dynamic for this team is a testament to Bendis’ ability to juggle the cast. Without a doubt, this is the better Avengers book for scenes like this alone.

Of course, then there is the moment we’d all been waiting for: the nanny reveal. While the news had been slipped at New York Comic Con, the scene itself is still a surprise, as it is much funnier than one would originally have assumed. The whole idea of bringing Squirrel Girl into the story was already rather humorous, but in seeing her emotions change between two pages due to an interaction with another character is one that had me laughing out loud. It’s one of those moments where a writer retcons an event into the timeline in a quiet fashion that in any other circumstance would probably upset fans (see: Sentry: Fallen Son). However, given that it’s Squirrel Girl, and given that she has defeated Thanos and Doctor Doom, and given that the character she’s interacting with is …. well, it all makes sense for an awkward and incredibly hilarious scene.

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Ultimately, this issue works so well because this is the most relaxed and humorous read of the series. All the characters are hanging out, Bendis is clearly firing on all cylinders, and we the reader merely sit back and watch a group of heroes take a break from being heroes.

Of course, that’s just one half of why the issue is great. The all too talented Stuart Immonen knocks it out of the park with this issue. From a whole slew of brand new characters in talking head format to a series of expertly placed and hilariously positioned panels, Immonen helps move the story along in an additionally comedic fashion. Not only that, but Immonen is providing some of the smoothest and most refined inks of his career to date. Immonen has always been a talent who could efficiently change his style per book (like that time he drew the last issue of Fantastic Four by Mark Millar and we all though it was Bryan Hitch until we looked at the credits), and the new style that he is bringing to the table with New Avengers is remarkable. The book had looked great when he was the artist back during Siege and earlier, but now it just looks absolutely astounding. Without a doubt, Stuart Immonen is one of the most talented artists in comics, and I couldn’t even imagine a better artist to be working on this book.

So should you be buying New Avengers? Without a doubt. This issue alone proves why it’s one of the more enjoyable super hero comics. I love the fact that it can take an entire issue to have a bunch of costumed heroes do nothing but kvetch and eat for 22 pages and make it just as entertaining as the issue before, when all the characters were battling against demons and incredibly powerful magic users.

Final Verdict: 9.8 – Buy


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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