Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The All Avengers Thread

Finally gotten around to reading Avengers Prime #1 and agree with FL's feelings--this was a really great read showcasing some damn fine artwork by Ala Davis and some solid writing by Bendis. Bendis has purposely crafted his writing to fit Davis' style (like any good writer will do) and it really enhances the story in a big way and shows how far Bendis has come.

The story has the right amount of set-up and delves right into things, giving us some nice action-packed sequences.

The interaction between the three is solid and tension-filled but we aren't beaten over the head with it. The three are then soon separated so there isn't bickering all issue. Well played.

Alan Davis' Amora is a wonder to behold--only one panel and she looks ravishing and devious.

This is going to be a great miniseries, me thinks.

yes Amora looked very fresh and well rested.

Avengers Academy #1

I got this mostly for McKone's art. He's as good as ever, but the youngsters are not engaging to me.

I think Gage has a good handle on some of the trainers -- Pym, Justice, Quicksilver. How I dearly wish Tigra was not there, though. And Speedball seems to me like he's just being set up for more torture, self and otherwise.

Will be Byrne-stealing it in the future...for now.

Gonna read Avengers Prime #1 now. I have a basic passing knowledge of what's been happening, so let's see how accessable it is to someone picking it up with next to no knowledge of what happened before this.

Comments as I go...I'll assume you know that the art is great, but I'm sure I'll comment on it as well.

Well, lotsa arguing about Tony's role in all this...referencing stories fromt he last several years. Makes sense if you have a passing knowledge of what has happened.

Tony waking up wherever he is was funny. The whole coffin bit. Self repair kit...convenient.

Steve wakes up to two moons, "Well, I misread the room entirely." Good stuff, and Alan's art is just unbelievable here. Shield and blue armor...kinda convenient on the armor thing...

Ooooohhh...She's ba-ack! Too cool.

Not a bad read. Kinda quick, but good nonetheless. Plus a Siimonson art backup - BONUS!

New Avengers v.2 #1

For all his improvements elsewhere, Bendis is still hopeless when he writes anything to do with the supernatural.

This issue oscillates wildly between bad horror movie and good lite drama.

Immonen draws the hell out of it, good and bad.

The one Avengers title I was considering giving a pass to was Avengers Academy since I didn’t want to end up getting them all; but I figured, hey, I’m getting the other four titles, I may as well give it a try.

I’m actually quite glad I did. My expectations were pretty low and so they were far exceeded. Kicking off the issue is the gorgeous Mike McKone artwork, who is able to portray teenagers without making it “cuddly” and able to do clear, heroic action artwork while keeping it very dynamic. I hate saying things like “it was like ___ meets ___” but for some reason what jumped out at me was it’s like “Archie Comics meets Perez”; though I admit, that’s still off the mark.

Also really well done was the tight script provided by Christos Gage. I’ve noticed that Gage is a good writer in the past based on various works (an Iron Man annual a year or so back particularly sticks out in my mind) and here he shows he’s only getting better. What I noticed at the close of the issue was just how well paced the story was: there were no wasted scenes, everyone was firmly introduced with insights into their personalities (with 11 characters, no easy feat) and the issue flowed from beginning to end so you were constantly wanting to turn the page. The issue it most reminded me of? Thunderbolts #1 by Busiek and Bagley, which is a comic I’ve always loved. The ending here read the same way, with a very dynamic shift from what you expected the series to be about to something that seems much more exciting than another run of the mill superhero team comic book.

The various new characters are all still too new for me to feel anything for, but I did really like the introduction to Veil who seems like a strong, deep character complete with insecurities and vulnerabilities you would expect from a teenage girl while also having a quiet strength. I also quite liked Finese, the polymath girl who appears as a bit of a ‘know it all’ while also a bit of ‘mildly emotionally underdeveloped’. On the otherhand both Reptil and the big monster guy are complete non-entities as of the end of the issue and so far are a bit boring.

As a longtime Avengers fan, I naturally love seeing most of the staff, so I’m quite glad for Hank Pym, one of my absolute favorite characters and Quicksilver, one of the most dynamic personalities in all of comic books. I feel like Gage is getting them both right so far, unlike Dan Slott who reverted them to their personality extremes over the last year. I’ve only recently grown to become more interested in Tigra and Speedball given all that’s happened to them over the last few years so I’m curious to see more. Justice has been a favorite of mine ever since I first saw him as Justice in that costume when I was a pre-teen.

I was all set to just give this title a pass but #1 was good enough to get me to keep going. A team of totally new characters in the MU or DCU is a tough sell these days, but in the MU I feel that at least they aren’t likely to be killed off like in the DCU so I can really invest myself in them. But beyond that, I really need a solid creative team and story to get hooked like I did with Runways and Young Avengers, and I think there is potential here. (Of course, I have to wonder why I’m not getting good stories with those two teams for yet another new teenage team, but we’ll see how that goes).

Great opening issue with a lot of potential here. Of the 5 Avengers relaunched #1’s, I’ve read 4 and so far its 4 for 4.

I think I'm gonna have to check out this Avengers Academy, now. Darn you Cobie! You said it reminded you of Busiek's Thunderbolts #1! You might as well have just taken money straight out of my wallet...

I know, isn't that high praise? I think the parallel is there, so let me know what you think!

I hold that issue on a bit of a pedestal so I wouldn't say that this is *as good*, but it certainly is trying to be!

The Avengers #1.

Not bad, sets everything up nice, but doesn't interest me enough to get teh 2nd issue. Plus, as much as I like JRJr's art on the right project, he makes some of these characters ugly as hell.

I found Veil to be interesting! Gage is really trying to make a character you can root for with her, and I think he is succeeding (well at least with me).

Tigra is hit or miss, I think Firestar could've brought more to the dynamics.

I agree with Veil. I found her very likable and interesting. Moreso than some of the Young Avengers even.

Avengers 2 was good! seems weird not to have steve rodgers in it tho.

jrjr is better than he has been in a long time.

i liked new avengers last week but it's not as good as it was in it's prime. and immonen's art seemed way off this month.

So I picked up Avengers Academy 1 today along with LSH 2 (and X-Factor 206 and the Doom Patrol / LSH Brave & the Bold, making it a big week for me).

I loathe Veil's costume and the visual of it unraveling. She turns to mist. That's cool. But the visual they picked for her is dire.

Striker, with his overcompensatory 'alpha male' babble (as Finesse totally calls him on) is fun.

Finesse is fun, although she's, yet again, the 'smart chick with no social skills.' (It would be *far* more interesting if she was deliberately pushing people away with this 'socially abrupt' dialogue, to cover the one place where she isn't hyper-competent, in matters of the heart.)

I like that Mettle is *smart,* pointing out that Speedball, Justice, etc. are the *perfect* people to train teenagers of mass destruction such as themselves.

I guess I was supposed to know Reptil from his previous appearances, because he was a nobody in this issue, glossed over quite quickly, although his powers look pretty cool. His powers remind me a little of my favorite Wild Cards character, Kid Dinosaur.

Hazmat is a bit of a cliche by now. Negative Man, Wildfire, the Human Bomb, Antimatterman, the Radioactive Man, Chemo, etc, etc. How many of these wangsty emo 'I must wear a containment suit or everyone around me will be hurt!' people do we need, really? That well's been tapped a bit too much, IMO.

I like Pym's characterization here better than in Mighty Avengers (where he's a bit over-the-top in the self-love, methinks). This Pym shows some mature and humble self-awareness with the bit about wanting to be reminded that he screwed up, so that he doesn't get complacent and do it again.

There's a lot of self-awareness going on (or, at least, the writing hanging a lampshade on the obvious questions that will come up) with Tigra's comment about Quicksilver switching sides more often than a tennis player and Quicksilver's calm agreement with that assessment.

While it's not explicitly stated, Tigra is also a classic case of someone whose powers were, like Veils, taking her apart at the seams, only, in her case, it was her mind she was losing with the devolution into atavistic behavior in West Coast Avengers.

I wonder if there is some sort of clear parallel between the teachers and the students?

Hank Pym / Striker? - overcompensatory / insecure?
Tigra / Veil - losing herself because of her powers
Speedball / Mettle - worried about misuse of abilities leading to mass destruction
Quicksilver / Reptil - overconfident?
Justice -

The New Avengers #1

Not a bad issue. I have to agree with FFL that the supernatural stuff was off for some reason. It left me very underwhelmed. aI may check out the next issue...might even buy it as well...not 100% sure yet.

Secret Avengers #1

Not a bad read at all. I like the team they have here, and the last page has me interested enough for issue #2.

Avengers Academy #1

Nice reveal at the end, interesting premise. I'll decide in shop on the next issue.

Hank's outfit is hideous.

Speedball and Justice are well written here.

The art, while very competant, lost some of the emotional impact that could have enhanced the story along the way.

Quicksilver - "Super-Speed. Google it."

Sooo...the verdict of the Avenger books.

Avengers Prime #1: Superb art makess up for any ultra conveniences in the plotting of this book. I'll be back for the second issue here. Plus, as a bonus, The Enchantress is here as well.

The Avengers #1: Not bad, but not engaging enough for me to really think about getting the second issue. The art left a bad taste in my mouth, and I usually really like JRJr.

Secret Avengers #1: Interesting, nice team of players. Last page tease gets me to grab issue #2. Good art, kinda moody.

The New Avengers #1: I like the characters on this team, and it was solid enough to give a shot at #2, but that had better really keep my interest to keep with it. Great art within as well helps.

Avengers Academy #1: I'll check this when it comes out...probably on board for another issue, then we'll see. Good art, but something lacking in several key emotional scenes in the face department.

Thunderbolts #144: I loved this book when it initally came out all those years ago, and this is the best I've seen since before that Jemas reboot of concept years ago. Art is good, not wild about all of the redesigns, but not too bad overall. On board for now.

6 books...3 yes for second issues, 2 maybe's and 1 no. Not bad Marvel.

I like what is going on in the Avengers books right now. I just wonder about some of the roster choices. Why is Valkyrie in Secret Avengers?

Reread Avengers #1...I'll probably give the first arc on all the books a try.

It was a bit annoying that the book was so rushed that we don't even know what Striker or Finesse's real names are yet. Ya think, with a page devoted to pictures of each of them, they could have written their names down?

While Cobie compared it favorably to Thunderbolts 1, I faintly remember there being some *action* in Thunderbolts 1, in addition to a fun surprise ending, not just a single panel of 'action' in the training room.

Indeed!

Great snark. Who knew he could be funny, and not just bitter?

Is there another Avengers book on the horizon?

Cosmic Avengers?

So after I hit up the Walking Dead, the first few comics I felt like checking out were some of the new Avengers titles since the first few issues of them got me really pumped up.

I’m glad I did! I read 2 issues of New Avengers, 2 issues of Avengers and Young Avengers and overall, I found them all to be highly enjoyable and was impressed. (And now I’ve got Secret Avengers and Avengers Academy to go…yikes that a lot).

Avengers
I’m really enjoying the Bendis/JR Jr Avengers title quite a bit. I figured Noh-Var was going to show up in one of these titles and I’m glad its this one since he’ll some more dynamic to the title. I’m enjoying the way Bendis is writing Iron Man and feel like after a few years, he’s finally found the character’s voice (with some obvious inspiration by Robert Downey Jr.). The Kang storyline is interesting but isn’t exactly blowing me away, but that’s okay—I’m enjoying seeing the characters interact. Adding Apocalypse to the storyline was a welcome surprise.

Bendis’ Spider-Man is just a fun time to read. In fact, the witty banter is a blast. In New Avengers, Bendis really lays it on thick but here it’s held in check. I think thus far the way he’s done both has been fitting to the characters.

I’m also quite curious as to what the plan is with Wonder Man and appreciate him having a storyline finally.

New Avengers
I was wondering exactly what this title would be and so far it really feels like Defenders with just a free for all sense of Bendis using whatever characters he feels are interesting (it almost feels like a crossover story). And I’m really enjoying that vibe—there is a big sense of fun here.

I love that the Thing is included—why not? Spidey and Wolverine are there, might as well add Marvel’s old ‘second most popular’ character. Bendis writes Luke Cage so well he’s become a favorite. I like that he’s figured out a way to have Hellstrom, Dr. Strange and Dr. Voodoo all there and show each of them a lot of respect. Ms. Marvel, another favorite of Bendis, adds a certain level of ‘real A-list superhero’ the series.

I think the series has been great so far.

The Oral History of the Avengers
When I read the initial description of this in the solicits I thought it sounded uber-lame. I have to say, I was dead wrong. I’m enjoying these quite a bit! As someone who recently has been reading a lot of Silver Age Marvel, I’m delighted (and frankly, surprised) at the level of respect and knowledge that Bendis is showing of Avengers and Marvel history. He’s also at long last found a voice for the Wasp and Hank Pym and is having them portrayed (albeit in interview form only) in a respectful manner, which is refreshing. I like the idea of the Avengers recalling their earliest days and some remembering certain parts and forgetting some. The description of Zemo (the father) was both hilarious and terrifying. These are great…I wish they would do all the way up to the Celestial Madonna Saga.

Young Avengers: the Children’s Crusade
This was a big one for me: did I still care about these characters after all these years? The last time I collected one of their series, I was living AT HOME. That was quite a number of years ago. But I gave in and got it—and man, am I glad I did. I thought it was a terrific first issue and all at once I remembered why I liked Wiccan and Hulking (and hope I’ll feel the same for the rest shortly). Heinberg really is a talented writer.

And the Jim Cheung artwork is simply to die for—man, I forgot how good he was. I’m tempted to go back and reread some of Scion by Crossgen which is how I first became aware of him.

What’s exciting is Wiccan opens up the possibility: maybe the Scarlet Witch was not really responsible for all that terribleness? Like Wiccan, I so desperately want to believe that is true! But I also suspect Heinberg could be opening this story up to be a hard lesson for the kids and thus, the readers. Still, I’m holding onto hope and that is a tribute to Heinberg’s writing. It also makes me realize I want the Vision to be restored to the Vision again, especially if these are his sons. I just want to see that scene of them reunited! Up until right now, I never felt that strongly about it before.

I’m here for the duration of this series and am looking forward to it. Now it better not be late because I’ll complain like a mutha&%&$er.

All in all, I read up on 3 of the 6 Avengers titles thus far. All three are A+. Pretty good, Avengers.

Also, Set, I hope I didn't mislead you with the Thunderbolts comparison! I meant the reveal felt very-Thunderboltish.

While I liked Avengers Academy #1 quite a bit, I don't think it was as good as Thunderbolts #1 (not by a long shot). I hold that issue in high esteem!

I wouldn't want to see Vision Jr. (hereafter Jonas) killed off to bring back Vision Sr (hereafter VSr). Sure, by all means bring back VSr - I'd love to see a Visions series with the "father"/"son" team running a Robot Rescue business to reflect the raw deal artificial life gets in the MU. Send them after VSr's "sister"/Jonas' "aunt" Tara from New Invaders for the first arc to expand the artificial family a bit more - but NOT at the expense of Jonas.

^I can totally get behind that idea! I'd love to see them go that route. And bringing back the original Vision (Vision Sr.) shouldn't have to mean killing off the Young one, I agree.

A Visions series would space-rawk!