by Punchy » Sat Sep 15, 2012 1:01 pm
This final AvX tie-in for New Avengers is, in a character sense, a sequel to the first one. Heavily focused in on Luke Cage, and his choice between being an Avenger or his family. In the end, Luke chooses Jessica and Baby Danielle, but I’m not sure how long it can last Will he still be around for Bendis’ final arc? In many ways, his leaving makes sense, he’s been a presence and main character for all of Bendis’ Avengers, so their runs ending at the same time would be very appropriate. But maybe Hickman has something planned. The centrepiece of this issue was a fight between the New Avengers and a bunch of Purifiers who were out to get a now depowered and imprisoned Emma Frost. This fight was enjoyable, with some nice one-liners from the likes of the Thing, Daredevil and Mockingbird, but it’s real purpose was for Luke to have his revelation about what choice to make. Fights like these have to mean something more than just a punch-up, and this one did. I also really enjoyed the opening scene with Luke and Daredevil chatting in the back of the van, with Emma Frost chipping in, classic Bendis dialogue there. Oh man, his run is almost ending, it’s crazy, he’s been on Avengers so long, it’s gonna be a weird feeling not having a Bendis Avengers book to read each month. But luckily, he’s going out on a string of good issues.