Post by goldenfist on May 1, 2008 9:40:54 GMT -5
Read Ign's review on Avengers The Initiative #12.
Avengers: The Initiative was, at one point, supposed to be a miniseries. You can clearly see that idea resonating in the pages of issue #12, which ties up most of the threads concerning the first class of Initiative recruits and looks head to the future, both of the characters and the title itself.
After the madness of the KIA storyline, issue #12 is decidedly more low-key as Iron Man & Co. try to figure out how the hell something like that could've happened. As such, it's little more than talking heads - but thankfully Dan Slott and Christos Gage deliver a pretty good script that covers a lot of ground. This issue is one part S.H.I.E.L.D. investigation, one part pilot for the new-older-but-newer-than-the-newest New Warriors, one part survivor head count and one part "season finale" as the surviving Initiative trainees suit up and ship out.
That last part is what has me a bit confused. The trainees who we've watched blunder through training, kill their teammates, narrowly avoid getting smooshed by the Hulk, and get massacred wholesale by KIA are now considered competent heroes. A case can be made for one or two, but I feel like if Avengers: The Initiative has done anything, it's demonstrate how amateurish these characters are. That's part of their charm. But to pass them off as accomplished and capable in service to a different direction for the book sits uneasily with me.
Perpetual contributer Steve Uy turns up on art. You might remember him from A:TI #6 - one of the most visually inadequate issues Marvel's ever put on the stands. To say I was dreading his return to these pages is quite the understatement. Unfortunately, A:TI suffers in much the same way now as it did then, made marginally better by the script's shift away from action. Uy only really has to show characters sort of standing there, and that's probably for the best. But you know there's a major issue when you have to scan a scene for names to figure out who's who in a book that's been around for a year. Similarly, the trainees' new uniforms don't help clarity - I can't shake the feeling that if Stefano Caselli had rendered that scene, you wouldn't have to wonder who was who.
A bit of an awkward close to this chapter of the book's life. With the horrendous fill-in art and the breezy, systematic feel of it, I can't help but wonder if this couldn't have supported one more issue. It'll be interesting to see what comes next for the title.
Review Score: 7.0 Decent
Avengers: The Initiative was, at one point, supposed to be a miniseries. You can clearly see that idea resonating in the pages of issue #12, which ties up most of the threads concerning the first class of Initiative recruits and looks head to the future, both of the characters and the title itself.
After the madness of the KIA storyline, issue #12 is decidedly more low-key as Iron Man & Co. try to figure out how the hell something like that could've happened. As such, it's little more than talking heads - but thankfully Dan Slott and Christos Gage deliver a pretty good script that covers a lot of ground. This issue is one part S.H.I.E.L.D. investigation, one part pilot for the new-older-but-newer-than-the-newest New Warriors, one part survivor head count and one part "season finale" as the surviving Initiative trainees suit up and ship out.
That last part is what has me a bit confused. The trainees who we've watched blunder through training, kill their teammates, narrowly avoid getting smooshed by the Hulk, and get massacred wholesale by KIA are now considered competent heroes. A case can be made for one or two, but I feel like if Avengers: The Initiative has done anything, it's demonstrate how amateurish these characters are. That's part of their charm. But to pass them off as accomplished and capable in service to a different direction for the book sits uneasily with me.
Perpetual contributer Steve Uy turns up on art. You might remember him from A:TI #6 - one of the most visually inadequate issues Marvel's ever put on the stands. To say I was dreading his return to these pages is quite the understatement. Unfortunately, A:TI suffers in much the same way now as it did then, made marginally better by the script's shift away from action. Uy only really has to show characters sort of standing there, and that's probably for the best. But you know there's a major issue when you have to scan a scene for names to figure out who's who in a book that's been around for a year. Similarly, the trainees' new uniforms don't help clarity - I can't shake the feeling that if Stefano Caselli had rendered that scene, you wouldn't have to wonder who was who.
A bit of an awkward close to this chapter of the book's life. With the horrendous fill-in art and the breezy, systematic feel of it, I can't help but wonder if this couldn't have supported one more issue. It'll be interesting to see what comes next for the title.
Review Score: 7.0 Decent
