The Bendis Era!

[woodside]

I'm putting this out there now, although you probably won't see it in full until "Secret Invasion" # 1 is launched. I plan on going through all of Bendis' issues of Avengers (as well as "House of M," "Secret War" and "Illuminati" -- not to mention a few one-shots). I have it broken down as follows:

1) Disassembled
2) Secret War
3) New Avengers: Break-Out
4) New Avengers: Sentry
5) House of M
6) New Avengers Annual # 1/Secrets and Lies
7) New Avengers: The Collective
8) New Avengers - Civil War: Disassembled
9) New Avengers/Mighty Avengers: The Intiative
10) New Avengers/Mighty Avengers: Secret Invasion - Infiltration

In addition to an Uncanny X-Periment-esque overview/review, I plan on writing an article discussing the good and bad of Bendis' Avengers run.

I know, at times, I've come off as a Bendis-lover. While I do enjoy his titles and what he does, I'm going to be looking at his run with as objective a point of view as I can have. There are a lot of things I've noticed with his run that I want to write about, but I want to do a full re-reading before I do that.

My hope is to have the article complete by the time "Secret Invasion" # 1 comes out in April.

[goldenfist]

Captain Britan's book will also have a tie in to Secret Invasion.

[woodside]

I know, but I'm keeping it Bendis only.

[dlw66]

Masochist.

[woodside]

Avengers Disassembled: Chaos
Avengers # 500-504, Avengers Finale

Overview:
It's the worst day in the history of the Avengers. The living corpse of Jack Of Hearts arrives in the backyard and when Ant-Man goes to confront him, they are both killed in an explosion. Following this, Tony Stark becomes mysteriously drunk at a UN meeting and threatens Latveria. As a result, he is removed from his position as Secretary of Defense and the Avengers are dropped from the UN.

Meanwhile, the Vision crashes a Quinjet into the remains of Avengers mansion. He stumbles out, no long in control of his functions, and half a dozen Ultron-style robots. They do battle with the Avengers, but this only enrages She-Hulk, who goes on a rampage, destroying Ultrons as well as the all ready damaged Vision. She is stopped by Iron Man, but not before Wasp and Captain Britain are injured. The Avengers take a moment to recover, but are soon recalled to the mansion, where former members have gathered in support. It's at this time, the Kree attack. The attack is illogical in nature - they teleport down soldiers when it's unnecessary. The attack is halted when Hawkeye sacrifaces himself to destroy their mothership. The Kree retreat. Suddenly, Doctor Strange himself appears and explains that it was none other than the Scarlet Witch that is at the heart of these attacks.

He explains it is due to her fragile emotional state regarding her history, and as she continues to use her Hex powers to alter reality, she begins to loss her sanity. They go and meet her at Agatha's house and after a battle with Doctor Strange, Wanda goes comatose. Magneto arrives and takes her away to Professor X.

Three months later, the Avengers gather again at the mansion, which has been land-marked. Tony Stark tells the Avengers that he is no longer able to fund the team, and on the heels of this announcement, Captain Britain, She-Hulk, Yellowjacket, Wasp, and Falcon declare their respective resignations. Following all this, the remaining Avengers discuss their favorite "best moments," then go see a crowd of loving fans.


Review:
I've read this story four times now. The first was issue-by-issue four years ago when it came out; the second was when "Avengers Finale" appeared and I read them all together. The third was right when "House of M" appeared. The fourth and most recent was for the Uncanny X-Periment. This marks the fifth time I've read.

Each time I've approached this particular story, it's been with a different intent, but I've made an effort to look for the good in it.

So let's start with what's good about this story, because for as bad a rap as this Avengers story gets, there is some good to be found.

There is an clean and neat effective-ness to which Wanda issues forth the horrors upon the Avengers. The living corpse of Jack of Hearts exploding, Tony's drunkeness, the crashing of the Quinjet, the destruction of Vision/launch of Ultrons, She-Hulks rampage, Wasp's being stuck small and injured, the Kree attacking . . . it's brutal, but rapid. Seriously, if my goal was to destroy the Avengers, that would be it right there.

Functionally, it's a well-plotted story. There's great suspense, nice pacing, and a strong script.

But here's where we start to have problems. The characterization of a number of these characters is way off. Captain Britain is rather generic. Pym is (apparently) trying to redeem his jerk-ness. The majority of the "spare" Avengers are random and bland, save Spider-Man (who Bendis has a certain flare for).

Sometimes he gets Hawkeye, but he misses most of the time. Same goes for Cap, Iron Man, She-Hulk, and Wasp.

Falcon, Doctor Strange, Nick Fury, and a few others he manages to handle well.

Let's get right into Wanda, though. There's an illogical to her attack. It's even talked about by Beast in "Finale." Did she just snap? Was it gradual? Why did she kill Scott Lang and Hawkeye, but not others? I think if we looked hard enough, there is some method to her madness (Lang managed to have a child, even if he did have custody battle over her -- little stuff like that).

However, there are plenty of questions regarding her behavior and the nature of her attacks/mental break-down that have never been answered. And considering this was the kinda billed as the "end" of the classic Avengers, these are questions that needed (and still need to be) answered.

There are certain things and certain characters that Bendis later improves upon. His Ms. Marvel presented here is far behind the one shown these days in "Mighty Avengers." He's also more open in his story-telling. Less brutal, more emotional. Bendis manages to capture some of the emotion in "Finale," but "Chaos" lacks it beyond that.

It's funny to see this story, because you can visibily see the improvements in Bendis' writing. In this, he has a certain "Ultimate Spider-Man" type dialogue going on, which comes off as completely out of the norm for the Avengers. It has changed quite a bit since then, but in so many small ways that it's almost hard to tell that there's a big difference.

Ultimately, "Disassmebled: Chaos" is about as bad as Bendis' Avengers run gets. It's sloppy and lacks the talent that Bendis is capable of harnessing.

[woodside]

Secret War
Secret War # 1-5

Overview:
Out of nowhere, Luke Cage (and his pregnant girlfriend Jessica Jones) are attacked by a tech-armored super-villian. He winds up in critical condition at Mt. Sinai Hospital, where Nick Fury visits him. Shortly after, Captain America shows up, making strong accusations at Fury, and telling him that he was attacked at his home.

Flashbacks reveal that a year ago, Nick Fury discovered the Tinkerer and a number of tech-armored super-villains were being funding by Lucia VonBardas, the newly elected Prime Minister of Latveria. He sees this as a terrorist move and petitions the President to declare war. The President turns Fury down, so he recruits Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Black Widow, Wolverine, and 18-year-old SHIELD agent Daisy Johnson into helping him. They all go to Latveria.

Spider-Man is starting to have flashbacks of this event, so he goes to Daredevil, whom he sees in said flashbacks. Right as they decide to go visit Luke Cage, Daredevil's home is attacked by Diamondback and Scourcher. Spider-Man and Daredevil take down the pair and make it to the hospital . . . where they are attacked by a number of tech-armored villians.

The Fantastic Four show up and at last, Von Bardas appears, now cybernetic. She links the armors so that they would explode as punishment for Fury's attack. Daisy Johnson luckily shows up and saves the day. Shortly after, the X-Men arrive, Wolverine having been attacked at the mansion.

Fury reveals that he had launched an attack on Latveria with the said heroes and Johnson smashed Castle Doom onto Von Bardas. The heroes were so shocked that Fury had their memories of the events erased. Eventually, Captain America remembered. Wolverine, angry that Fury messed with his head after all he had been through, attacked Fury. However, it's revealed to only be a LMD with the real Nick Fury in hiding. Commander Maria Hill takes control of SHIELD and Johnson is taken off assignment, but remains in contact with Nick Fury.


Review:
While not officially part of "Avengers," this story has a lot of weight in terms of what happens here and how it effects the rest of the Marvel Universe - Avengers esspecially.

The ending is a little too anti-climatic, which is mostly due to its rushed nature and the apparent need to re-use art from earlier in the series to help explain the flashback story. This hurts "Secret War" the most, but it is explanable in that Marvel wanted to get the series out, presumably, before too much time had passed.

Other than that, however, "Secret War" is a good comic. Great characterization -- especially on the parts of Nick Fury, Spider-Man, and Luke Cage. The mystery is intriguing, with just enough here and there to keep things obvious, but also adding depths and small twists and turns.

It's also part of the introduction Bendi's' previous books into the larger Marvel Universe. While the events of "Daredevil" and "Alias" had both worked with themselves and were connected with the overall MU, this (as well as in "The Pulse") is where we see new characters like Jessica Jones and Maria Hill enter into the ring, adding new dynamics to classic and more mainstream characters.

One curious bit is just how this story plays into "Secret Invasion." I've noticed that Bendis' work contains a lot of parallel's and it would be foolish to assume that there isn't a connection between this and "Secret Invasion."

[woodside]

Break-Out
New Avengers # 1-6

Overview:
The Avengers are no more. It's been six months since the Avengers were effectively destroyed. Taking advantage of this, a mysterious person hires Electro to attack the Raft (high security super-villian prison). He attacks right as Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, and Luke Cage are being escorted by Jessica Drew to meet with Robert Reynolds (aka the Sentry). A prison break occurs, during which Electro takes on prisoner and the rest riot. Spider-Man goes to the Raft to help out and meets up with Captain America. As the pair contend with escapees, the group below are cornered by Mister Hyde and Carnage. The Sentry manages to wrestle out of a deep, deep depression and launches himself and Carnage into space, where he rips Carnage in two.

The group escape and meet up with Cap, Spider-Man, and the newly-arrived Iron Man. Luke Cage gives Purple Man a beat-down, but Cap stops him from doing any more than necessary harm (Purple Man messed with Jessica Jones mind a while ago). The Sentry then returns along with SHIELD.

Captain America, inspired by the events, decides to form a new team of Avengers consisting of those that were a part of group last night. The Sentry is locked back up and Daredevil declines to join, but the rest of them decides to become part of this new team of Avengers. When she goes to meet with the Avengers, Spider-Woman talks to someone mysterious who isn't the same mysterious person behind the break-out.

They track down Electro, but he doesn't give them any leads on who was sprung. Offering doughnuts to the 45 (out 87) convicts that remained captured, they find out that it was Sauron who was freed. The new Avengers head down to the Savage Land, where they immediately bump into Wolverine. Turns out Scorcher was offered the same job as Sauron, but he turned it down and told the X-Men. Wolverine headed on down to the Savage Land after the break-out.

The Avengers are then captured by the Mutates, but break free. Wolverine goes after Sauron, who is shot before he can reveal why he was released. The assassin turns out to be the blonde Black Widow, who is leading a rogue SHIELD unit in the poaching of Vibranium and the enslavement of Mutates. Black Widow has her body burned by Sauron and the entire area is suddenly wiped out the SHIELD Helicarrier

The Avengers reconviene, with Iron Man wanting to ask Wolverine on. Cap is very unsure. Further, they are all bothered to find out that 14 super-villians that escaped were reported dead years ago.

Finally, the Black Widow is promised her beauty and power by a mysterious man.


Review:
So, this is the new Avengers. It's a rather exciting opening and gives the characters a logical reason to come together. One thing that isn't made clear is just how long the world has been without the Avengers. I think accenting that would have made for a stronger need for a new Avengers team.

The story starts off rather exciting, but becomes a pretty mirky after they end up in the Savage Land. We are given two mysterious people to deal with, both of whom are not the same person nor even part of the same organization (or at least on the surface). The Savage Land/Vibranium/Sauron story is just too convulted and messy to really add any sort of proper conclusion to this opening arc.

Not a whole lot of character development is given to Cap, Wolverine, or Iron Man, which is okay. They are within their characterizations, for the most part. Cap comes off as a real dork at times and we see some of Iron Man's more "darker" side in wanting to bring on Wolverine (this was something he started to manifest back during the Busiek run when he had Justice and Firestar spy on the Triune Understanding).

Spider-Man is full of quips, most of which were funny, though some of them did get a little annoying. Spider-Woman actually really comes across well throughout this arc and Bendis found a way to make a character that I always thought was lame into someone interesting. Luke Cage brings some interesting dynamics to the Avengers and I really like his reasons for joining.

Not much on the Sentry, but that's mainly for next arc.

Despite getting off with a bang and going out with a whimper, I find this story to be one of Bendis' better ones. It's far from perfect, but it's a stronger effort than "Disassembled" and some things to come. He draws nicely from his own canon and avoids having to deal with a lot of continunity (which is good, because honestly, with history and continunity, he's not very good -- we'll be covering this later).

[woodside]

The Sentry
New Avengers # 7-10

Overview:
Iron Man and Captain America go and confront the Sentry, revealing to him that the only evidence they can find of his existence is a comic book written by Paul Jenkins. Not only that, but the Sentry's wife is alive, unlike what he believed.

After the rest of the team deal with the Wrecker, they all join in with the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Inhumans. Emma Frost goes into Sentry's mind and reveals that Mastermind and an Army General turned super-villian tampered with the Sentry's mind. Void shows up and battles the heroes, but he is contained in due time by the Sentry. The Clocktower then appears on top of Stark Tower.

Review:
Other than "Disassembled," this is the worst storyarc from Bendis. It's far too long (four issues in what could really be contained in two). Despite some strong moments (the Illuminati meeting, the battle with the Wrecker), these are drawfed by the Sentry's story and it's sheer confusion. The strong moments we seen (Wolverine's flashback among them) are detachted and isolated (for the most part) from the larger plotline.

The Sentry has no sense of personality here. He doesn't feel real to me. The addition of the X-Men, FF, and the Inhumans makes for nice visuals, but it seems to indicate that the Avengers just aren't strong enough for any sort fight. Which is really the wrong signal one would want to send. In fact, seeing the mostly lower-powered New Avengers take on such a powerful being like the Void would have been a treat. How would they do it? How could they pull it off? It would have been a great "trial by fire" -- more so than the more evenly matched battle in the Savage Land.

The Sentry himself does very little, too, which furthers hurts this story. All in all, it's a disappointment.


On a somewhat off-handed note, there's a flashback where we see the Sentry battling Super-Skrulls as well as other Skrulls. In his recoreded message, the Sentry even tells his fellow super-heroes to "shoot him off to the Skrull Empire" if he becomes a threat again. Maybe it's just paranoia or overthinking later story developments, but this raised an eyebrow.

[woodside]

House of M
House of M # 1-8

Overview:
The Avengers, the X-Men, Dr. Strange, and Professor X gather at Avengers Tower to decide what to do about the Scarlet Witch. Her powers are still major danger and Professor X has had no luck helping her. They decide to talk to Wanda themselves.

Meanwhile, Quicksilver goes to Magneto, convinced the Avengers and the X-Men are going to kill Wanda, but Magneto has nothing to offer his son. When the super-heroes arrive on Genosha, Professor X vanishes and as they look for him, the world burns away in white, revealing a new world in which Mutantkind is dominant species and everyone in the X-Men and the Avengers get their greatest wish granted.

What's Wolverine's greatest wish? To have his memories back . . . which ends being a huge flaw for the new House of M universe. He is eventually picked up by Luke Cage and his underground . . . including Hawkeye. Turns out Luke had his memories of the real MU "unlocked" by a girl named Layla Millar. With Layla in tow, the group unlock the memories of various X-Men and Avengers, then decide to go to Genosha to confront Magneto, the new leader of the world and the one they believe is behind this.

A battle follows, in which Layla unlocks Magneto's memories right when Strange finds out from Wanda that it was Quicksilver that told her to make this new reality. Magneto goes after Pietro and nearly kills him for doing all this in his name, but Wanda intervines and declares that Mutants are freaks because he made them that way. She then erases all the Mutant gene, leaving only 200ish Mutants left on Earth. In the aftermath, Hawkeye might be back and there's an energy field comprised of Mutant powers hanging in orbit.

Review:
As an overall, House of M is pretty good, if not slow in some areas. Magneto, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are all well handled, showing us some true, raw emotion that was missing from "Disassembled." Wolverine, Cyclops, Luke Cage, Emma Frost, and Spider-Man are all well handled.

My biggest complaint is that there isn't much in terms of Avengers here. The X-Men are the main characters here, with the exception of Spider-Man, Hawkeye, and Luke Cage. Dazzler gets more lines than Captain America.

A decent story and has a surprising amount of impact on the overall MU for something that takes place mostly in an alternate reality.

[woodside]

Secrets and Lies
New Avengers # 11-13, Giant-Sized Spider-Woman # 1, New Avengers # 14-15

Overview:
The Avengers catch wind that the Hand has arranged for the escaped-from-the-Raft Silver Samurai to be taken back his home in Japan. Captain America asks Daredevil to investigate, as he has ties to the Hand and knows them well. Daredevil declines and recommends someone by the name of Ronin. Ronin goes and discovers that the Silver Samurai is meeting with the Hand and Hydra, who want to build an alliance with the Clan Yashinda. Ronin informs the Avengers, but is followed by ninjas from the Hand.

The Hand eventually retreats and Spider-Woman meets with Madame Hydra before knocking her out. The Avengers show up and Silver Samurai rejects the Hand/Hydra's offer. On their way home, Spider-Woman lets Madame Hydra go. Back at the Tower, Cap confronts Spider-Woman about who she's working for.

Jessica Drew tells him (and the others) that she was a double-agent for Hydra and that Fury was keeping her save. However, even though he's underground, Jessica still keeps in touch with Fury -- despite being out of the field. The rest of the Avengers still trust her.

On top of all this, the Avengers must finally come out publically. Ms. Marvel shows up to watch it . . . as it turns into a disaster.


Review:
I think the fundamental problem with "Secrets and Lies" is that it's simply serves as another part of the whole "conspiracy" subplot, but doesn't have any real closure to it. It progresses the subplot forward, but not as much as I think readers (or myself) would have liked. The New Avengers battle the Hand, then confront the Silver Samurai.

That's pretty much it. (okay, well, there's more, but in a minute)

But now that things have come out a bit more about the whole conspiracy sub-plot, there are certain parts of this story that are stronger. The concept of SHIELD being rotten was introduced back in "Secret War," but now we're told Hydra is too and that Madame Hydra formed an alliance with the Hand in the hopes of creating a new power base to stand against the forces behind SHIELD and Hydra. The goal is to ally themselves with Clan Yashinda.

There's even a line from Madame Hydra about not being able to trust the Silver Samurai.

In retrospect, this story is stronger and less murky.

Now, there's another story here. The Spider-Woman spotlight issues are pretty great. Spider-Woman, to me, was one of the C-level characters in the Marvel Universe. Bendis' obvious love for this character has launced to A-level.

Ms. Marvel gets some nice moments, esspecially the one with Captain America.

Spider-Man and Luke Cage remain the best male characters of the title. Iron Man and Captain America shine through at times, but not always. There are plenty of times they seem kinda like pale imitations of themselves. Ronin's reveal isn't that stunning, but Echo is a pretty interesting character.

The Avengers going public is a fun little sequence and I couldn't help but notice that the double-page spread when they're revealed is a parallel to the one where the Avengers shut down in "Finale."

Overall, it's decent. Better in retrospect.

[woodside]

The Collective
New Avengers # 16-20

Overview:
The Mutant energy fields in orbit slam into a postal worker/Mutant power absorber by the name of Michael. Michael goes on a rampage, ripping through Alaska and Canada, destroying Alpha Flight on his way. SHIELD tracks him and the President orders Maria Hill to get the Avengers to take care of him.

The Avengers are in Detriot, doing what Luke Cage calls "impact super-heroing" when they get to call. They go Cleveland and Iron Man tries to make contact. Ms. Marvel gets in the way, fights him, then absorbs some of his energy. The rest of the Avengers show up then and just as Iron Man and Ms. Marvel are about to buy it, the Sentry comes in and takes Michael into space.

Iron Man sends Spider-Man and the Vision (from Young Avengers) to the Hellicarrier to do some research to stop him. Spider-Man eventually realizes where all the powers are coming from and then is arrested, his mind picked for information regarding the House of M. The Avengers allow Michael to return to Earth because with each battle, he learns more about his powers. Michael goes to Genosha.

On Genosha, he gives his powers to Magneto, revealing himself to be Xorn. Xorn abandons Michael's body. The Avengers show up and fight some zombie Acolytes. Iron Man has Daisy Johnson use her powers on Magneto's brain, which releases Xorn and the powers. The powers/Xorn are collected in an energy field which the Sentry takes to the sun. Magneto then vanishes when the helicopter taking him away explodes.

Review:
This first time the New Avengers go up against a higher-level threat (other than the Void, but we're not counting that, remember? ). It's a pretty old-school type battle, but having Xorn turn out to be the bad guy just hurts it. He barely made sense in X-Men and putting him in Avengers is just . . . not a smart move.

In spite of that, this is one of the better Bendis stories. Michael/Xorn comes across as an intense threat. Having a whole issue with SHIELD setting him up is a misfire, but I guess it works overall. The characters are nicely used. Guest-stars the Vision and Ms. Marvel are appreciated and I wouldn't mind seeing them join the regular cast. Oh, duh, Carol does.

Luke Cage's idea is very progressive and it's a shame that we don't/didn't see more of this sort of thing.

Characterization is pretty good here and Bendis seems to be getting a better feel for Iron Man. The Sentry gets a little bit of development here, but not much.


Was it just me or did the President really want to nuke the Avengers? I mean, it is Bush, but still . . .

Also, nice touch on the book that Fury's little apprentice (Johnson) was reading. "Alien Agenda" indeed.

[woodside]

Annual # 1
New Avengers Annual # 1

Overview:
The New Avengers and Ms. Marvel are all gathered at Stark Tower, where Jessica finally tells Luke Cage she'll marry him (after she had his baby -- it happened in the Pulse). Shortly thereafter, as Cap, Iron Man, and the Sentry meet with the mayor, the blonde-Black Widow returns as the new Super-Adaptoid. She gets into fisticuffs with the New Avengers, mimicing their powers, until Spider-Man figures out how to defeat her. Iron Man throws a bunch of his old armors at her, overloading her. It causes her to manifest her own Void (having taken Sentry's powers as well). Hydra (with AIM's help, created her) blow her up before she can give any answers. Iron Man scolds Jessica Drew, thinking that she might have known more about this than she led on. Cap comforts her.

In the aftermath, Luke and Jessica Jones get married.


Review:
This was a fun adventure with some great character moments tossed in. Jessica Jones is actually among my favorite additions to the Avengers cast and her relationship with Luke Cage is (also) a fave. Even though they don't exactly fit in with the rest of the Avengers characters, they make a great fit and remain to this day a source of great drama.

The Super-Adaptoid as . . . gross, but kinda fun. Good work all the way around.

[woodside]

Civil War: New Avengers Disassembled
New Avengers: Illuminati, New Avengers # 21-25, Civil War: The Confession

Overview:
After the Kree-Skrull War, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, Professor X, Namor, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange, and Black Panther got together to share information. All but Black Panther agreed they should meet more often to secretly handle "the big things." Years later, they discuss shooting the Hulk into space because of a recent rampage. Namor disagrees and Professor X is still missing post-House of M, but they do it anyways. In the present day, Iron Man brings an early draft of the Super-Human Registration Act, telling them they need to agree to it. Namor, Doctor Strange, and Black Bolt walk away.

Shortly afterward, SHIELD sends Dum-Dum Dugan after Captain America, who has rebelled against the US because of the SHRA. Cap escapes and meets up with Falcon. They approach Hank Pym, who tries to capture Cap. Cap and Falcon escape and start the Secret Avengers.

Iron Man and Ms. Marvel go to Luke and Jessica, telling them they need to register. Luke rejects it and sends Jess and the baby to Canada. He remains, fights SHIELD, and is rescued by Cap, Falcon, and (a) Daredevil.

Spider-Woman is captured by SHIELD, but then rescued by Hydra. She breaks free from Hydra, blowing up their island and joins Cap because she has no where else to o.

The Sentry goes to the moon, unable to decide what to do. He meets up with the Inhumans, who embrace him with open arms. Crystal and he kiss, but Iron Man shows up and brings the Sentry home after a tense meeting with Black Bolt.

Iron Man is ambushed by a disgruntled employee. Maria Hill saves him and Jarvis and then suggests that maybe Tony should be the new director of SHIELD.

Finally, Iron Man confesses to Cap (now dead) that everything that happened during the Civil War wasn't worth it.

Review:
These stories are all rather clunky without Mark Millar's "Civil War" supporting them.

The Illuminati story is intriguing, but Iron Man's prediction of what's to come is just . . . dumb. I like having these characters together and the concept is good, but that futurist stuff is very "meh."

Cap's story is good, but really makes Pym out to be a total tool. Luke's story is just as good.

Spider-Woman's issue lacks depth. The Sentry's and Iron Man's stories are dull. I don't mind the Inhumans stopping by because they needed a presence/opinion in "Civil War." I would have rather seen Spider-Man and Wolverine. Wolverine ended up being a bit of a wild card in "Civil War," so maybe an issue with him.

"The Confession" goes on and on, but I love that two-page spread of Iron Man sitting next to Cap's corpse saying "It's not worth it."

[goldenfist]

Here's a link to watch Bendis being interviewed on G4's Attack
of the show.

forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=152333

[woodside]

New Avengers/Mighty Avengers: The Intiative
New Avengers # 26, Civil War: The Intiative, New Avengers # 27-31, Mighty Avengers # 1-6

Overview:
Clint Barton, awakening after the House of M, goes to Doctor Strange so that he may find the Scarlet Witch and question her for killing him. He ends up at Wundagore Mountain, but doesn't find any answers from the now perfectly normal Wanda Maximoff. They sleep together, then he leaves.

Back over in the states and in the aftermath of the civil war, Iron Man reviews the up-and-coming operations spinning out out the Intiative: Omega Flight and the Thunderbolts. Further, he meets with Ms. Marvel, who tells him that she encountered Spider-Woman and told her that Captain America is alive and is being held at the Raft. She lied to her so as to lure her and the renegade Avengers back in.

The New Avengers (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman) are confronted numerous times by Iron Man, SHIELD, and the New Avengers. Eventually, they learn that Echo has gone missing. Before leaving for Japan to investigate, Hawkeye shows up and takes up the mantle of Ronin. The New Avengers head to Japan, rescue Echo and battle the Hand. They eventually retreat to Yashinda fortress, where they are then attacked by the Hand. The Avengers engage the Hand, this time with the help of the Silver Samurai. Echo then steps up and kills Elektra. As she dies, Elektra is revealed to be a Skrull.

MEANWHILE, Iron Man and Ms. Marvel assemble the Mighty Avengers. The new team (Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, Wasp, Ares, and the Sentry) are barely brought together when suddenly, Mole Man attack. His attack is shut down rather quickly by a new female Ultron, who takes Iron Man's place and plays chaos with the world for a while. Pym shows up soon and uses Ares to destroy Ultron. At the end, with Iron Man restored, Spider-Woman appears with the Skrull-Elektra's body.


Review:
The problem with these stories is not so much their substance nor their style, but instead, it's the chaotic nature of the story itself. There's a huge continunity problem with these books. The Mighty Avengers are formed an hour before Ultron's attack -- which just screws up the timeline big time. In fact, had that not been in there, this whole thing would have played off much better.

And that's the big rub with this particular era of Bendis' writing, but I think we'll save that for next time as it's more relevant there. However -- like I said, the big timeline inconsistency between Mighty Avengers and New Avengers is huge and glaring.

That being said, let's focus in on the stories' themselves. The New Avengers one is chaotic and messy. I really wish this was told in a more straight-forward manner. The characters are all well-written, which is fine, but instead of what could have been maybe 1-2 issues of fighting the Hand, it's spread across 5.

The big reveal . . . is a big reveal and that's the grand moment of it all, isn't it? It is shocking and it is out of nowhere. But looking back at the various little clues left here and there, it fits. Plus, the implications are so well-handled, it makes the whole reveal work well.

Over in Mighty Avengers, the story is a lot flatter. It's Ultron (kinda). He-She is a bad-ass. Let's have this super-powerful Avengers fight her and her crazy situations. Yay! They one. It's flat and not very exciting, to be honest. Some of the characters are okay and the Sentry seems to finally get some development, but in the long run, the whole story is just too predictable and not interesting at all. The thought balloons are only occassionally well-used and instead are lame and un-funny.

[woodside]

New Avengers/Mighty Avengers: Infiltration
New Avengers # 32-35, Mighty Avengers # 7-8, New Avengers # 36-37, New Avengers Annual # 2, Mighty Avengers # 9-11, New Avengers # 38-39

Overview:
The New Avengers, on their way back to New York City via one of Iron Fist’s private jets, find themselves trying to trust each other. Spider-Woman votes to take the body of Elektra/Skrull to Iron Man, but is denied by all her fellow members. When the jet falls victim to Ultron’s EMP, she takes the body away. The rest of the Avengers make their way to New York to figure this all out. Once there, they debate as to who is a Skrull and who isn’t – even to the point of using Doctor Strange’s magic. Wolverine goes investigating and comes across the Hood.

Turns out the Hood is gathering together super-villains in the hopes of building an alliance of villains. This includes stealing Deathlock’s body, which he hopes to use against the Mighty Avengers. Wolverine catches wind of this and goes to the New Avengers to help. They charge to the Mighty Avengers rescue – only to face down a couple thousand Venoms.

Earlier, Spider-Woman revealed to Iron Man Elektra’s body and she joined the Avengers in the hopes of helping him. Not long afterwards, the Venom Virus is unleashed, transforming just about all of New York into Venom/Carnage-type creatures. Iron Man uses the resources of the Baxter Building to create an anti-virus and they release it. The Mighty Avengers and the New Avengers help people recover. As the Mighty Avengers gear up for a battle with Latveria (whose satellite the virus came from), Wolverine confronts Spider-Woman about her actions. He takes off after finding out that none of the others save Iron Man know about Elektra.

The New Avengers track down Deathlock and – eventually – go after the Hood and his Trust. They all get taken away to the Raft, save the Hood himself. The Hood rescues most of them and they attack the Sanctum. Tigra joins the New Avengers, as she was beaten up as an example of the Hood’s determination. Doctor Strange unleashes magics he had gained during World War Hulk upon the villains and with all of them re-captured (save the Hood again), he asks the Avengers to leave so that he can recover.

Meanwhile . . . the Mighty Avengers storm Latveria. Doom and Iron Man battle and accidentally (with Sentry) crash into the time machine, which sends them into the past. From there, they work together to return home. When they do, Iron Man and Sentry discover the Doom arrived before them and managed to capture the Mighty Avengers. Iron Man and Sentry show up after Spider-Woman is able to free her fellow Avengers and they are all able to arrest Doom for crimes against humanity.

Back in the states, Luke Cage and Jessica break up since she went Stark Tower to escape the lifestyle that being with Luke offered. Soon afterwards, a Skrull goes after Echo, but she and Wolverine are able to defeat it.

Review:
Read like this, we can see that Bendis is really writing one big story, just in two books. He does a great job of tying both comics together, forming them into one large story. With the Skrulls looming above them, the threats are different. They’re distractions, but with a feel of paranoia attached to them. Is that really Doom? Is Tigra a Skrull? Was Ultron’s attack that released the Venom Virus? Or was the Skrull? Has the Trust been infiltrated? Have the Avengers? Who can you really trust?

See?

And that’s really where the positives are. There are just little things here and there. From the question of trust between Luke and the Avengers (and his own wife) to the Black Widow’s regard of Spider-Woman. Echo being attacked, Iron Man’s constant questioning of the events around him, Lindy’s odd behavior, etc etc. The character interaction is on high and there are some nice developments in terms of the Sentry, Echo, Luke Cage, and many of the others. It also great to see villains are the enemy, too. The Hood is a real threat and the battle between he and Strange is nicely done. The Avengers attack on Latveria is natural and well-done.

BUT . . .

There re some real stinkers in here. The Tigra stuff is just horrible and makes little sense. Doom’s infamous rant to Ms. Marvel is cringe-worthy. I see what Bendis was trying to do and say, but ultimately, he fails at it. The thought balloons are annoying and don’t add much to the story.

And let’s harp on continuity. When exactly are “Fallen Son” and “World War Hulk” supposed to take place? I mean, “Back in Black” and “One More Day” are pretty easy to fit in there. But somebody really messed this up. Big time. It’s frustrating and impossible. Not that don’t mind the events being referenced, but a general idea of when they were supposed to take could have been nice.

Gah.