The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by **MrBlack** » Wed May 19, 2010 1:50 pm

I'm caught up on my reviews for the last two books I managed to get (S.H.I.E.L.D. and Prince of Power). I'll be grabbing Avengers #1 in a few minutes.

I learned this weekend that my LCS is closing at the end of this month. I will be moving to a mail order service soon, which will further limit my participation in the Review Group. I will still give reviews when I can, but I would expect that they will be even less frequent than they have been since I will have basically no means of getting any books that aren't already on my pull list.

by **BlueStreak** » Wed May 19, 2010 2:17 pm

So review group...eh? Why the hell not, I'll give it a go.

Like some of the other younger members of the Outhouse, my first real experience with the Avengers was reading Avengers: Dissembled, which as I've been told multiple times was not really an Avengers story at all. Since then, the Avengers have been split up, fought against each other, gone into hiding, and finally reunited after 7 years, with a few changes. Now a new Heroic Age begins, and with it comes a new top cop, Steve Rogers, and a new Avengers team (not to be confused with the New Avengers, coming out soon to a comic book store near you!) So, with all that out of the way, let's take a look at the newest flagship of Marvel.

Like a lot of first issues, Bendis swiftly explains the new status quo, introduces the team and explains why it's been assembled. Then, he very quickly introduces the team to a threat from the Avengers past (or is it future?!) and ends the issue with a glimpse of the arcs' possible big bad.

While the writing suffers from the usual Bendisnitis (talky characters that sound alike, relatively little action), he does do a fine job of setting up the arc and teasing some new additions to the Avengers lore. I suspect that this issue will boost the sales (or rental) of a certain animated feature that I forgot existed before now. My only other complaint is the lineup of this Avengers team, which I'm not the biggest fan of, especially in light of the New Avengers lineup. As much as I love Spiderman and Wolverine's addition to the Avengers folds, why do we need them on a team that's supposed to respond to any and all threats? What exactly is Spiderman going to do if/when Galactus shows up? Pull out his cell phone and call Reed Richards on speed dial? Oh well, I'm sure Bendis will make it work.

As for the art, it's classic Romita Jr. I'm pretty sure that there are laws against criticizing his artwork, so all I will say that it's not his best work. Wonder Man, in particular looked a little off, but he's the only one out of around fifty Marvel characters that show up in the issue. However, Romita's art is still pretty darn good, though.

All in all, good show by both Bendis and Romita. Hopefully, the trend will continue to keep the flagship book of Marvel shiny and fresh for the foreseeable future.

Writing: 8
Art:8
Overall: 8

by **Mr_Batman** » Wed May 19, 2010 2:21 pm

New member :smt041

by **thefourthman** » Wed May 19, 2010 2:40 pm

YAY!!!

by **Mr_Batman** » Wed May 19, 2010 3:01 pm

thefourthman wrote:YAY!!!

?

by **thefourthman** » Wed May 19, 2010 3:04 pm

Mr_Batman wrote:?

DUTCH LIES!!!!!!

by ****** » Wed May 19, 2010 3:39 pm

This was fun! I want to read it again.

by **Chris** » Wed May 19, 2010 3:41 pm

This was good. Even the art. Except for Spider-Woman, who just looks fugly as all hell when drawn by JR Jr.

by **Flynn the Pirate** » Wed May 19, 2010 3:46 pm

The Avengers #1
[b]Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson, and Dean White

So here we go. For the last few months - even before Siege had begun - we have been told that this would see the return of heroes who acted like, well, heroes instead of outlaws. It was also promised that we would see a return to the sense of high adventure that some of the more classic Avengers comics harkened toward. And at least on the latter promise, Avengers #1 delivers.

Bendis has never really been bad at first issues and this is no exception. He comes out firing on all cylinders with a time travel/time paradox story which, to the surprise of no one who has any knowledge of the Avengers' cadre of villains, stars Kang the Conqueror right out in front. The Avengers themselves work well, though so much of the focus is on Tony Stark and Steve Rogers that the rest of the team kind of fades into the background. Even the revelation that Maria Hill will be the actual leader of The Avengers is somewhat (okay, a lot) overshadowed by the presence of Steve Rogers, who does the vast majority of the talking and leading in this issue.

The thing that Bendis gets the most points from me, though, is the way he actually approached this "return to heroness". As much crap as he got (from me included) for taking the Marvel universe down the dark and dreary direction it saw for the longest time, he very nicely has begun the march toward the hopefulness of the Heroic Age. The key here is "march". Bendis does a good job of showing that even the heroes themselves are not exactly sure what a bright, happy universe looks like anymore and there is an undercurrent of distrust. The scene with Simon Williams, which has gotten a lot of attention for obvious reasons, underscores this idea the most.

So now we come to the biggest sticking point of this book: the art. I've made it no secret that I have hated the art from the moment it was first previewed and that hasn't changed. All of the characters, especially Steve Rogers and Maria Hill, look almost deformed. It was somewhat distracting and hopefully he can step it up (the cover to Avenger #4 leads me to believe this might be the case, but I'm not holding my breath).

So all in all, a solid first issue. The story is engaging and the relationship between The Avengers and their future progeny is nicely teased out as to make the reader look forward to what the resolution might be. Hopefully we'll see Rogers fade into the background quickly so that the team itself can start to show itself. And for the love of god, let's get some better art.

7 out of 10

by **48THRiLLS** » Wed May 19, 2010 3:47 pm

BlueStreak wrote:So review group...eh? Why the hell not, I'll give it a go.

Welcome!

by **Greg** » Wed May 19, 2010 4:13 pm

amlah6 wrote:The black Next Avenger of course.

He's T'Challa and Storm's kid, WTF?!

by **GLX** » Wed May 19, 2010 4:21 pm

guitarsmashley wrote:I will wait to see a full list of books before making my choice. Though Gotham City Sirens a very good book, I read #11 last night and it would have scored low since it involved puppy eating.

http://www.diamondcomics.com/shipping/u ... leases.txt