New Avengers #57 Review

The Wrecking Crew and Jonas Harrow have just used their power drainer to drain the powers of those who have powers.

Now, let’s continue…

NEW AVENGERS #57

WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis

ARTIST: Stuart Immonen

INKS: Wade von Grawbadger

COLOURS: Dave McCaig

LETTERS: Albert Deschesne

PLOT:

The Avengers (both New and Dark) are struggling with consciousness after getting zapped by their own power drainer, that they left behind after fighting Hoodormammu. Carelessness conquers all. The Wrecking Crew make Norman Osborn an offer, that they rule themselves and cut the Hood out, as they prefer to know who they’re working for. In return, Osborn gets the power drainer, his life and the New Avengers. Osborn wants his suit back (like now) so he can negotiate with Harrow. Suddenly, we get an Avengers plane zoom down (driven by Mockingbird) to save the New Avengers, not the Dark ones obviously. They fly off with the Iron Patriot chasing after, which leads to the best part of the issue.

Spider-Man kicks Iron Patriot’s ass. Easily. Damn.

Let’s check back in Cuba, where Loki is offering The Hood the Stones of Norn to give him powers again. He fully accepts.

The Avengers go to the Night Nurse as Luke Cage is having a cardiac arrest after the power drainage. She can’t do much as she can’t break through his skin. The only way to help him would be to reverse the power drainer, which the Dark Avengers have. Luckily, thanks to Wolverine-lite, they’re just outside. Luke Cage surrenders himself to let the other escape before collapsing to the ground…

LIKES:

-The art is great once again.

-Spider-Man kicks Norman’s ass!

-We see the story move along once again.

DISLIKES:

-Power drainers.

THOUGHTS:

Once again, we get a solid New Avengers tale. Dark Avengers get involved, as they have been in nearly every book now, trouble starts. Super villains trying to take over Hood’s role is believable, as they’re super-villains, not the most trust-worthy bunch. With the Hood gone, looking for powers, there’s a power vacuum, one that Jonas Harrow wants to fill. Again, Norman gets put on the back foot, a common theme recently, but he gets saved by nobody other than Mockingbird with a well timed distraction. Some good story here and a great cliff-hanger.

There is a little flaw; how do these power drainers work? Apparently, Cage needs it to get his powers back, but everybody else seems to be fine now. Clint Barton was struck hard by it and last time I checked, he didn’t have powers. It clearly doesn’t affect everyone, because last issue, Mockingbird was ready and able to fight and get a big Avengers plane. Needs some consistency here.

The art is once again amazing. I hope we see Immonen on the book for a long time to come, as it really is good. He’s changed his style from Ultimate Spider-Man and it works here. The colours really bring his work to life, so props go out to Mr. McCaig as well.

FAVOURITE QUOTE:

“SCAN READS NO IMMEDIATE THREAT”

“Well, clearly that’s not the case.”

OVERALL:

3.5 webheads out of 5

Solid issue again. Story seems to be picking up pace. No conversations at the breakfast table make for a nice change too.