Mighty Avengers #11 Review

[goldenfist]

Time for ign's review on Mighty Avengers #11.

I'm astonished how every month Brian Michael Bendis seems to find a way to make Mighty Avengers's thought bubble usage more insufferable. This month Dr. Doom cackles and threatens for three-quarters of a page, completely in thought bubble. How many times can I ask this: why? It's not cute, it's not effective, it's certainly not funny. I'd shut up and get over it if it weren't for the fact that it actually detracts from the scene at hand, slowing its pacing to a crawl and raising significant questions like "Are the characters actually taking silent breaks to speak these lines in their heads?" Is there anyone on earth who gets a hoot out of it? Please, speak up.

It's weird, too, because in many ways Mighty Avengers #11 is a thoroughly competent superhero effort. The team is in danger and they do things that are superheroic and cool. It would be at home at any point in the '70s or '80s Avenger books. Mark Bagley actually turns out the best work he's done on the book so far -- the character models are clean, the fight scenes work, and the progressions are easily followed. Mark Djurdjevic's guest pages featuring Dr. Doom and Morgana le Fay are just beautiful.

It's the ongoing minutiae that keep Mighty Avengers a completely inferior product, then. Like the d**n thought bubbles. Or that, yet again, Ms. Marvel blunders the entire team into danger and needs her teammates to dig her out. (I love the character personally, but maybe it wasn't the best idea to appoint her leader if she's just going to consistently mess everything up.) And it might be Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente's masterful handling of Ares in the pages of Incredible Hercules, but this version of him seems cheap and misses the point.

Nagging problems crop up everywhere in Mighty Avengers #11. If it sounds like I'm being hard on the book, bear in mind the rating I'm giving it correlates to a "Decent." And yes, there is an entertaining story buried somewhere here about a super-team facing down a very iconic villain. But there are so many things standing in the way of the story's overall effectiveness that it's hard to enjoy it without actively dumbing yourself down. Mighty Avengers is one of those books I really want to like, but it's teetered on the edge of quality for so long now and it's just frustrating to see it fall short.

Review Score: 7.3 Decent

[woodside]

While the first arc of this book meandered about when dealing with hard-core super-heroics, this second one has been really old-school. Sentry's take-down of Doctor Doom was stunning, if not a little sudden. I'm looking forward to Mark Millar picking up this plotline in Fantastic Four.

At the risk of sparking an arguement, there were a lot of complaints in the past in regards to the Avengers "not doing anything." This story - even the individual issues - have had a lot of stuff happening. And I don't just mean dialogue/emotional stuff, but actual action.

Part one was, okay, mostly dealing with Spider-Woman's presence, the Skrull conspiracy, and the aftermath of Ultron/set-up for Venom Virus.

Part two was mostly a battle with the Venom Virus and it's aftermath.

Part three was a battle at Latveria with Doom.

Part four was running around in the Silver Age.

Part five was a battle with Doom, his hordes, and his ultimate arrest.

Plus, the Sentry has been fulfilling his potential a lot lately, thought ballons have helped explain things (though only about half the time, really), and the characterization has been pretty good. Even continunity errors have been talked about, adding to the paranoia of the Skrulls.

[goldenfist]

Black Widow still doesn't seem to trust Spider-Woman.

[Tana Nile]

I just thought this was a very poorly written issue. The word balloons have become very annoying; they're not clever and add almost nothing to the story. It never felt like Bendis got Doom's 'voice'. All that moronic "I could kill you and no one would care" stuff was just awful.

This book may have action, but it still doesn't work for me.

[goldenfist]

Morgan La Fay was hoping that Doom would see her but she is
all alone.

[starfoxxx]

Wow, after really loving #10, the only parts of #11I liked was the Morgan scenes. The characterization seemed off for most of the characters. The thought bubbles are annoying enough, but what's up with all the assumed profanity (the #$&*'s ,etc.)? Believe me, I'm the most liberal, anti-censorship, anti-rules person you'll meet, but any good writer knows to use expletives selectively is key to express emphasis or maybe humor. But having pretty much every Avenger cuss continually throught the issue is overkill, even for me, and another example of poor , or lazy characterization. Yes, BMB, we KNOW Black Widow is a bad-a**, she doesn't have to develop an inner monologue with Tourette's to prove this. Or how about some Russian expletives/sayings like how Colossus used to yell <Tovarich!> or <Lenin's Ghost!> instead? Then, when you really need that big, shocking moment, hit the reader with an "Oh $#*%!". Just my opinion.

[mart]

starfoxxx said:

BMB, we KNOW Black Widow is a bad-a**, she doesn't have to develop an inner monologue with Tourette's to prove this.

I am so jealous of that line

I do agree, it's just annoying, childish and cheap.

And as I'm lazy, mind if I just copy in the note I sent to Marvel on this ish?


Dear Tom,

I didn't think this issue was as bad as the previous ones - not having much Sentry helps - but Mighty Avengers is still not working for me. A second Avengers book to appease non-New Avengers fans isn't really going to do the trick while it has the same writer, Brian Michael Bendis. By all accounts he's a thoroughly nice fella, and I appreciate that he's trying to go old school by using thought bubbles, but for me, the personalities are just off - surely not everyone is a Skrull? It doesn't feel like the Avengers.

So once again this issue demonstrated how Brian's forte isn't showing Avengers in action, with everyone bar Spider/Skrull?woman literally hanging around in the face of Doom, thinking worried/stupid/shallow thoughts. How about bringing on someone genuinely old school, such as David Michelinie, or Roger
Stern, to work from Brian's plots? (I'd prefer no BNB involvement at all, but you guys seem nearly married these days. . . )

One last thing - this issue's cover: Ms Marvel is one of the few Avengers with her own monthly, if you're going to solo feature a member who, let's face it, doesn't have anything happen to them that the rest don't, how about one of the non-marquee members? I would, though, prefer team shots.

Nice art from Messrs Bagley,Djurdjevic and co.

[von Bek]

community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/5243355.html?nc=68&page=1#comments

kali921.livejournal.com/215623.html

[freedomfighter]

vonbek said:

community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/5243355.html?nc=68&page=1#comments

kali921.livejournal.com/215623.html

I hated the above pages not because they're so out of character, but because they're such a waste.
Millions of women suffer distorted body image and instead of a bad throwaway line uttered out of character by a usually very elegant and eloquent if malicious villain, during a fairly intense and danger filled moment, this could've been used as a real plot point.
Janet Van Dyne has always been into fashion, yet her body height and likely weight make her an unlikely candidate for a fashionista. her proportions simply aren't right for haute couture. Add to this a failed marriage, and her constant need to flirt with men, possibly a show of her need to get approval through physical attraction and there could've been a storyline there that actually resonated with something millions of women go through every day.
So instead of having Doom utter a wholly out of character slander at Carol whose somewhat restored mind is at least partially Kree warrior and would have little concern over the slight, it could've come from a villain like Enchantress, a vain and petty creature who's concern with looks is well established, and might have slung an insult of this nature at Janet, and this could've resonated later as a real plot point.
But instead it's very likely a throwaway for Bendis, just something he can point to and say "my characters are more real" which seems silly given that Carol is charging into battle wearing a skintight leather swimsuit and black hooker boots.
Unless of course this is just another subtle thread that he's laid out and in five years we'll be seeing The Biggest Loser: marvel heroines edition.

[woodside]

I thought it was stupid. But funny.

[goldenfist]

I heard that Joe Q was supposed to get fired in two weeks but
the link I read about it from is now nowhere to be found.

[steed]

How did I miss this? This is in incredibly bad taste. It is a prime example of how Bendis can't write these characters. They all talk alike or think alike. They're all vulgar. they all sound alike. Take away the panel art of these thought balloons or word balloons and you wouldn't have a clue to who was saying or thinking it. If I had read this without being shown it was Doom mouthing this gutter trash, I'd never had guessed.

[woodside]

www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=15978

If you scroll down a bit, you'll see that John Bryne actually "re-imagined" that panel. Needless to say, Bryne did a better job.