Dex's Comic Awareness

The New Avengers #9
written by Brian Michael Bendis
pencils by Steve McNiven
cover by David Finch, Danny Miki, & Frank D'Armata

The best team book continues. Too bad we don't actually get the team in this issue but that's ok. We finally get some movement on the Sentry story. And by movement I mean we go ahead by about ten minutes in the story. Sheesh this is the fastest moving slow book ever.

We learn the Sentry is really the Void. Who he made up to keep himself from ever using his powers. We also learn that Mastermind was the one who made this all possible by using Sentry's mind to wipe everyone else's memories about it. But before we can find out who hired him in the first place, we are cut off as Sentry can't handle it all and freaks out.

The scenes of the actual battle being waged outside the tripled shielded bubble around Sentry and Emma is quite funny actually. Between Spider-Man's quips and the funny scenes, I chuckled a couple of times. You might miss it but watch out for the panel where the Void has Captain America literally under foot and Spider-Man is hilariously trying to rope the Void off of Cap. Good stuff.

Every time I think about this team of Avengers and who is in the line up and it just makes me think of how perfect it is. Bendis really picked the best set of characters. Because of their ties to other organizations, the Avengers are finally a microcosm of the Marvel Universe as a whole. This comic is great but can't we get a shot of speed or something to get it moving faster Bendis? I mean we haven't even gotten around to the loose baddies in a while.

Rating - Good

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The New Avengers #8
written by Brian Michael Bendis
pencils by Steve McNiven
cover by David Finch

We start the issue with a read through one of the "fake" Sentry comic books by Paul Jenkins. It's drawn by Sal Buscema and I can only guess was really written by Paul Jenkins seeing as they put him in the comic book itself. They did a good job to tease him a little, by having him faint, to make it not look like he's just clamoring for attention. It's a good way of introducing the Void, who is the Sentry's arch-nemesis. The whole effect is a nice way to give the reader some background incase they don't know the Sentry's story. His wife pleads with him and then the Sentry pretty much runs away.

We go back to the fight with the Wrecker. He's subdued with the help of Jessica's "alluring" power. I was afraid at first that they were going to do one of those, "it's not your fault you’re a bad guy, it's ours for not listening." But lucky they didn't. I don't know enough about the Wrecker, but is his crowbar magic in some way? They get a call to come quick to help with the Sentry. We find him with a hair cut and looking normal. All the good guys are there from the Fantastic Four to the Inhumans. Then he bemoans that this is what the Void wanted. We get a nice teaser of black tendrils behind the collected gang to announce the Void's arrival, and cut.

Bendis is moving along at a nice and steady pace, but this issue is mostly setup. He just tricked us into thinking there wasn't going to be one because he delayed its arrival by having the first issue be a fight with the Wrecker. Not saying it's bad to have setups, I just thought Bendis had changed his stripes for this book, guess not.

McNiven's art continues to be brilliant. I just love the way he draws people. Oh, man. I like the way he does hair. I've said this before and I'll say it again: if you draw the hair well then it makes the whole panel look dynamic because it adds wind and movement similar to a cape. But none of these people wear capes so it's necessary to show the movement through another dynamic object. It's a style of using such things, clothing, hair, "movement" lines, etc, that really adds a sense of energy to a person's drawings. Speaking of capes, notice that the Sentry is the only one on the team that has one. This is a new Avengers in the more modern sense that these are Marvel's "modern" heroes who don't wear capes. That's why the Sentry looks so odd on the team. He is an anachronism, but one that is needed to help tie this team back to its roots as a classic superhero group. Sentry is the perfect touch to this team, filling the Thor power vacuum and adding a touch of old-school feel.

Wolverine on the other hand is really just there to give ratings a boost. I'd imagine that Spider-Man was destined to be on the team too for similar reasons. But Bendis is a good enough writer to make the characters part of the whole in a way that makes them seem like they were desperately needed when a character with similar attributes could have done. Peter is the comic relief and the voice of the skeptic. He's the author's way of reconciling the goofy things they do, posing, and living in a skyscraper, with the real emotions that they feel as characters. Wolverine's excuse is also a good one: he can do what they, specifically Cap, won't or can't. He'll kill and do the dirty work. He's the voice of practicality in the group. This is where Bendis is leading these characters. I'm wondering if he can truly keep them in those roles or will he suffer as the book wears on? Also makes me wonder about the Ronin character.

This is a great read through and through. Bendis always writes in those cool cinematic effects, blurring Wolverine during a strike, etc. that really make the book feel like a movie in the grand sense. I pity the fool that ain't reading this.

Rating - Great

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New Avengers #7
written by Brian Michael Bendis
pencils by Steve McNiven
cover by David Finch

David Finch takes a break and what that really means is that he is probably working on the next story arc, he's known for drawing a little slow. Steve McNiven is just as amazing though and they really couldn't have found someone that much closer to Finch's style, that's working in the House of Ideas already that is. So it really isn't noticeable with McNiven's crisp lines and just as beautiful women.

Even when Bendis picks up the pace, it seems drawn out. He's done a fine job up to this point but I must admit that at the rate of one bad guy rounded up per every 6 issues, out of 53, then this whole plotline is going to take a long time indeed. I imagine however that we'll find that many of the bad guys still out will be rounded up by other groups and we'll just hear about it.

The team finds themselves sifting through the aftermath of their run in with the new shield and the recapture of Sauron. I had been so shocked when Sauron had been killed I was joyful, they had finally shown that a simple bullet can take down the strongest mutant in no time. But NO, they had to bring him back. But it was at least an understandable explanation and one that once I thought about it, made perfect sense. The really cool parts of this book so far have all been the down times, the interactions between the characters that aren't normally together. This will wear off so I suggest everyone enjoy it while it lasts. The "secret" meeting of the really powerful super-hero leaders was very cool to see as well. I especially liked Bendis' nod to the notion that the Avengers go to Chicago or somewhere else to "spread the wealth" as Reed Richards put it; kind of weird that all the super-heroes and villains are in NY when you think about it. You'd think the really smart villains would go to Europe or something.

Did I mention Bendis picks it up a bit? His fight scene in the end of the book is very good. Much better than the super drawn out "it takes six panels for a missile to hit a building" fighting from the Blockbuster story arc of Ultimate X-Men. The lesser members of the team face off against the Wrecker and Bendis' witty dialogue allows room for the Wrecker's rehashed lines of "killing them all," etc. without seeming stale. None of the real big boys is on site to help take the Wrecker down as the first test for the newest members goes pretty badly. But that's what makes it so great, getting to see Wolverine get beat. I'm tired of watching him save the day, the dynamics of him on a team where he is not even in the top three strongest makes for a great read.

If you'll notice, all the members but three are close quarters fighters. Spider-Woman, Iron Man, and the Sentry are the only ones on the team that don't move in to pummel, punch or slash. This makes for some very visceral battle scenes as long as they don't get lazy with the panel work. The Sentry is the obvious filler for the hole left by the death of Thor. They needed someone on that level of power to really be able to fight some of the top villains. READ THIS COMIC.

Rating - Great