The night is always darkest before the dawn. Can’t believe I just quoted Batman in my review for a Marvel comic. It must be all that time I’ve spent talking with Nate and Shaun. Horrible influences on me. Or maybe I just need to stop spending all night getting my reviews up so that it isn’t practically morning by the time I’m done. So tired. But anyway, before I get anymore senile from my lack of sleep, I’ll leave you all to enjoy the latest New Avengers review.
The New Avengers, vol. 2 #19
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Mike Deodato
Color Artist: Rain Beredo
Letters & Production: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover Art: Mike Deodato & Rain Beredo
The New Avengers: Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Thing, Iron Fist, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Mockingbird, Jessica Jones, Victoria Hand, Daredevil.
Plot: Daredevil, the newest of the New Avengers, arrives at Avengers Mansion looking for his teammates. Instead, the vigilante is greeted by Squirrel Girl who is eager to express her gratitude for Daredevil’s recent heroic actions during the Serpent’s attack. Daredevil turns down Squirrel Girl’s advances by pointing out that Danielle Cage needs to be changed.
The rest of the New Avengers are on site at Stark Resilient Satellite Laboratories where they are recovering from the Ultimo robot’s self-destructive blast. Iron Man throws his helmet in frustration and claims that Ultimo was after him and his suit. The New Avengers return to the mansion and reflect on recent events. Spider-Man blames Norman Osborn and says it’s his own fault that Osborn is loose. Jessica Jones quietly confides in her husband that Osborn had threatened to kill their baby before the criminal escaped.
In H.A.M.M.E.R. headquarters, Osborn meets with a collection of his Dark Avengers as Gorgon and Madame Hydra look on. Madame Hydra tells a combative Gorgon to put his pride aside and join the Dark Avengers while the two of them wait for their new leader to fail. Later, Osborn is questioned about his plans and how things will be different with his new team. He explains that these new members are better in every regard compared to their predecessors and this time he even has a man on the inside.
Back at Avengers Mansion, while the heroes enjoy another large feast, Victoria Hand and Spider-Man get into a familiar argument about Hand’s allegiances. Steve Rogers’ liaison to the team defends herself when she receives a message about a situation in Miami. Daredevil and Wolverine eye Hand suspiciously. The New Avengers take off in their jet. Jessica Jones stays behind to watch her baby, and Hand is alone in the dining room reporting to an unknown associate. The New Avengers arrive at the coordinates provided by Hand only to discover they were given the wrong information. When they arrive at the correct location they are surprised to see that Norman and his Dark Avengers are already on the scene and saved the day.
*
These are not dark days, these are great days: Deodato’s art is good once again, but this time it seems not to be as refined as usual. For example, one scene at the dining room table made Luke Cage appear similar to the internet meme troll face. Daredevil’s acrobatic pose in the beginning seems a bit reminiscent of his poses from earlier issues as well. Those are just minor issues I found because Deodato and Beredo remain a great team. It’s a real treat to see this collaboration month after month and I hope it continues.
The great attention to detail that I have come to expect of Deodato’s art includes the battle-torn attire after the large explosion at the end of issue 17. I even found it humorous when Dr. Strange cast his “Spell of self worth and cleanliness” to tidy up his ragged appearance. I liked seeing that Spider-Man had put up a web-shield to protect himself from the explosion as well.
I’m a fan of self-deprecating humor so I didn’t mind it when Spider-Man put all the blame on himself for Osborn being free. I don’t agree with him that it’s his fault, but I think it shows the hero’s overwhelming sense of responsibility. The interactions between Spidey and Victoria Hand are still enjoyable because of how easily she lets him get under her skin, but I hope that we will see a resolution to the Hand plot soon. It’s running the risk of getting stale at this point.
It’s good to see that Daredevil is suspicious of Hand as well, and I like that he seemed to sense something was amiss with her cover story. The story of Hand’s allegiance is still an interesting plot but I feel like there’s so much pointing at her being a double agent that it can’t be true. It would be too obvious. I’m still rooting for her to be working against Osborn despite all the evidence against her partly because I don’t want to see Captain America played for a fool.
The other highlights of this issue involved seeing some of the Dark Avengers interact with one another, specifically Madame Hydra and Gorgon. I like that the two criminals are planning and waiting for Osborn’s inevitable fall and I’m eager to see how pivotal they will be in his demise. It was nice to see that Madame Hydra does not shy away from calling Gorgon out on his wounded pride even when he reaches out to strangle her twice. These are two evil people and their role in Osborn’s latest plot will be interesting to see.
*
These are dark times there is no denying: I like this story but it seems as though the break from the New Avengers’ angle in the last issue did the arc some harm. Two months have gone by since we saw the New Avengers fight the Ultimo robot and because of that time away I nearly forgot what they were up to. The introduction to the new Dark Avengers, seen in issue 18, may have been better served before the New Avengers’ fight at the Stark lab so there wasn’t that much of a gap in their action.
I enjoyed the comic, but it was just a good filler issue at best. The main problem I am going to have with this story though, is the belief that anybody would accept Norman Osborn and his new team of Avengers. The character had a very public breakdown when he tried to lay siege to Asgard. I know he has a cult of followers right now, but I would think that the majority of people would have enough common sense to know they shouldn’t trust this man anymore.
I don’t want to say that Tony was out of character, because he is a bit of a conceited hero, but he came off as obnoxious at the beginning of this issue. Tony wasted no time letting everyone know the Ultimo robot was after his suit. Sure he’s an industrial genius, but his overly cocky statement about how far we could advance as a technological species if lunatics didn’t get in his way every ten minutes was annoying to me.
I felt a little bit for Squirrel Girl after Daredevil pointed out that the baby needed to be changed in the beginning of the comic. She may have come on a bit too strong for Daredevil, but he seemed a tad harsh with her. Deodato did a good job physically displaying Daredevil’s awkwardness, especially when Daredevil thought to himself that the combination of baby smells and squirrel musk made him want to throw up. Overall though, that scene didn’t really seem very necessary.
*
Most Valuable Avenger: Jessica Jones. Never thought I’d see this happen, but I really liked Jessica Jones showing some concern over her child’s safety. She seems to be taking some maternal responsibility and finally reacting to Osborn’s threat on her child’s life. I’m hoping that her staying behind at the end of the issue is the start of her rethinking her place on this team since she hasn’t contributed much anyway.
*
Least Valuable Avenger: The protestors. The mob is not a member of the team obviously, but they did a good job of detracting from the story. I am not sure why people would be protesting the Avengers after they just saved the world from the Serpent and countless other threats, but I guess maybe they don’t feel safe enough, just as Luke Cage said. I have no idea what they hope to accomplish though, other than to make it seem a bit more plausible that Norman Osborn can rise to power again.
*
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Moment: When Victoria Hand returns to Avengers Mansion from being away for a meeting.
Spider-Man: “So how was lunch with Osborn?”
*
Rating: Good, art. Meh, characterization, story and writing. Bad, action. 3/5 Avengers Assembled
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@Doc Folsom:
Althoug I realise this isn’t the same level of crime, but imagine if during its mandate, President Bill Clinton warned everyone about Al Quaida. Then, the lewinsky gate happens, and he gets inpeached. George Bush Junior takes control of the country during the next election and then 09/11 happens. Don’t you think people would be CLAMORING for Clinton’s return, even if he did something moraly wrong? Well the way I see it, it’s the same thing for Osborn: Even if He did kill a blond girl years ago (and even that isn’t well known or believed by most citizen, as Urich book on it was run in the mud) and had a public breakdown during The Siege of Asgard, what he said DID come to pass. People can only see that ATM, and not the fact that he is the craziest guy around.
That’s my theory anyways.
Great review Brian, your always so punctual 🙂
#5 a lot of protesters (including myself with occupy LA) on both sides are doing the only thing there is to do in our country where the average joe doesnt have much of a voice in between elections. To call them all stupid, no matter what your politics are, is insulting, to say the least.
Thanks everybody, I was definitely not seeing it from the angle that Osborn could have been protecting people from the Asgards, especially with Fear Itself essentially being a bad Asgardian destroying everything making Osborn look like a genius. Hopefully theres still some push back from people now that he is going public again… guess we’ll find out how the press responds after the events of the end of this issue.
Well, that I could believe! OAM (Occupy Avengers Mansion!) could include people who thought Osborn is tragically misunderstood.
Marvel protesters are written completely in character as how real life protesters would be. Right down to the stupidity.
@Sthenurus
Shouldn’t this same Average Joe be at least somewhat aware of Norman’s original arrest by Luke Cage/Spidey after he very publicly donned the Goblin attire and tried to kill people. And also somewhat aware of Norman’s very public confession for his transgressions as the Green Goblin (or at least some of the GG’s crimes). And shouldn’t the Average Joe be somewhat aware of the fact that Osborn lost complete control during Siege, painted his face green and then set the Sentry on an Armageddon-like killing spree? I don’t see how a majority of people could be aware of Osborn the hero (ie Skrulls, and Asgardians) yet blind to everything else…
The question to me isn’t whether or not the MU Average Joe thinks Osborn should be in jail, the question is whether the MU Average Joe thinks Osborn should be running the country (or at least leading the heroic efforts)! To me, that is a no-brainer. But if, as Bendis seems to be doing, these average citizens have the gall to despise Spidey and the rest of the true Avengers for whatever reasons, then yeah, sure i can buy these people are ridiculous enough to support Osborn…but they’d have to be total dolts!
The fact that people trust Osborn isn’t that much of a stretch. Don’t forget we are almost omniscient: we know Osborn past, his intention ec. Place yourself in the shoes of the marvel universe’s Average Joe. He saw norman go to war against Asgardians a few months back, warning people they were going to invade U.S and that they must be deal with. Fast forward to Fear itslef. In the guy’s eyes, Norman Osborn was right. Asgardians attacked, killed Captain AMerica (Bucky) and countless million people over the world. It’s no wander that people would just ask for the man who warned them to come back and protect them. Star was seen as responsible for the secret inavision. Osborn tried to kicked the Asgardians out of america. Cap was responsible for the Asgardian invasion. And his bout of madness can easily be explain by mind control or trickery.
Nice work Brian, and you got this one up quick too!
Couple of things that crossed my mind when I read this one…
I’m still waiting for Bendis to distinguish this theme from his last Osborn theme (DR + Siege) because now we have Norman with a group of faux-Avengers and a high profile allegiance (Hydra, AIM, etc) in which he plans to win over public opinion while his co-conspirators await his downfall…dude, we just read that in 2009-2010. The only thing saving this is the so-called ‘man on the inside’ (which on its surface you would think should clear Victoria but…), this ambiguous plot point is the only thing that is sending Osborn down a different path from before…i hope this is legit.
As far as the Hand/Spidey dynamic, it would be better if Spidey followed his allegations up with a little bit of investigation…I don’t know, secretly track Hand and confirm that she is on the up-and-up. Otherwise, I’m not sold on the fact that Spidey cares enough about mistrusting Hand if he doesn’t do anything about it. In the Goblin Legacy one shot during DR, Hand came to Peter essentially looking for dirt on Osborn…if nothing else, Peter should suspect that Hand doesn’t totally trust Osborn and never did.
The general public’s positive opinion about Norman was certainly a stretch during DR and it shouldn’t even come close to working now. The Marvel civilians even slightly trusting him while hating the true Avengers makes no sense in light of Osborn’s recent escapades and the fact that we are still within the Heroic Age…aren’t we??
One last nitpick…the cover is totally bogus, imo. Not only did i get a ASM 510 vibe from it, but talk about misleading! The prior issue teased this cover with “Who’s your Goblin daddy now?”…I know this happens all the time in comics (irrelevant covers), but still…Norman better solely target spidey at some point in this arc! If its supposed to be a metaphorical cover representing the angst Spidey has b/c of Norman’s escape, why put Madame Hydra, Gorgon, etc on the cover as well? Plus you could argue that Norman is tormenting Jessica Jones just as bad, why isn’t she on the cover? Ah well…
Great review as always..
I agree on Tony being arrogant in the comic, but I did like the one part you didn’t… He was just quick to be an arse to everyone.
I personally laughed at the “I’m taking the blame, don’t take that away from me, it’s all I got.” bit from Spider-Man and it felt very in character for him to say that, even sarcastically.
I don’t see how either the Osborn or Hand acceptance can continue after this and you make a good point with Daredevil being suspicious, he has the powers to reveal her lying to the group.