THE NEW AVENGERS #51 REVIEW

THE NEW AVENGERS #51
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
ART: Billy Tan, Matt Banning and Justin Ponsor & Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend and Antonio Fabela
LETTERER: Albert Deschense

PLOT:

In the Hood’s appartment…
DORMAMMU: You must KILL Doctor Strange and take his place as Sorcerer Supreme!
HOOD: Okay.

THOUGHTS:
Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo share art duties this month, with Tan handling the Avengers scenes and Bachalo on the parallel mystic storyline. Unlike some, I don’t automatically hate Bachalo’s work, he rocked on the Death miniseries with Niel Gaiman, but lately he’s developed a hyper-busy cartoon style that poorly suits superheroes and only looks good when portraying highly abstract concepts like Dormammu’s dimention or the Hood’s demonic form. Surely, this four-part arc will offer plenty of fire and brimstone, but in issue #51 Bachalo mostly renders a mundane diner conversation where his pictures become unexpressive napkin doodles. Bendis collaborators like Mark Bagley and Mike Deodato know how to make the writer’s potentially boring expository dialogues visually dynamic, weaving meaning into the imagery through expression, scenery, shadow and layout. If Bachalo has the same chops, I don’t see them here.

It might help if I cared about the topic at hand, but my disinterest in Doctor Strange’s successor will heavily bias this review. I sort of see the appeal in Marvel’s mystic side, and I enjoy the magical battles taking place in Dark Avengers, but I don’t feel the stakes here. The only outcomes I see are either a villain becomes momentarily powerful and quickly contained or a second-teir hero takes Doctor Strange’s place and nothing important changes, except for Stephen Strange fans. It could be cool when it happens, but watching people talk about it isn’t.

And if Strange lost his powers for abusing them, how long could someone like the Hood or Von Doom keep them, anyway?

Another item on the list of things I should care about but don’t: Spider-Man’s unmasking. It makes enough sense; fugitives heroes with a baby can’t have some mystery freak crawling on their hideout’s walls, and Peter would realistically trust most of these people by now, but this reader remains numb to twists involving Spider-Man’s identity since Civil War and the subsequent copout. I already know the result of more people learning Peter Parker’s secret, and I know Marvel won’t let those consequences take their logical course. It carries no suspense. The only likely ramifications strictly involve relationships within this group of Avengers, none of which stand to suffer much effect. Bendis won’t push the potential love triangle between Pete, Jessica and Luke any further, both because ASM’s Brain Trust have their own romances brewing and because Marvel would never let Spider-Man broach a sordid relationship with a married mother. I do, however, like that Ronin wants to exploit Peter’s “in” with Norman Osborn, with Peter uncomfortable and reluctant, but we’ll probably have to resolve Doctor Strange’s problems before exploring that avenue.

FAVORITE QUOTE:
“Sweet Christmas…”

RATING:
1.5 webheads out of 5. Harsh, I know, but when I have to rate 22 pages of boring conversations drawn by boring artists on the same scale as comics that have literally changed my life, mercy tends to fail me.