Post by goldenfist on Oct 10, 2008 10:37:37 GMT -5
Ign.com reviews Avengers/Invaders #5.
Obviously there are people who think there's something to this whole Avengers/Invaders concept. I just can't imagine why. From the beginning, the series has been an utter bore. Long, drawn out exposition and numerous fight sequences take the place of meaningful character development or actual story progression. Issue #5 attempts to speed things along, even finally addressing the means by which the WWII-era Invaders have been thrust into the present day. This by no means is an improvement, though. If anything, the series only suffers more by pulling the curtain back.
If you can remember the last issue from all those months back, you'll recall that the New Avengers have teamed up with the Invaders to pound the Mighty Avengers into dust. This wasn't exactly the type of inter-team dynamic I had hoped for when Marvel originally made the New/Mighty split. I'm not even sure I buy the logic of having the heroes come to blows, but I've stopped expecting much in the way of logic out of this book. Perhaps this worst aspect of this fight is the interaction between young Bucky and adult Bucky. I had hoped this dynamic might prove to be the defining moment of the series. Instead it left me rolling my eyes. This sequence telegraphs the ending of Avengers/Invaders, more or less, and if that's all I can expect from the book I might as well jump ship now.
As the story progresses, we do learn a bit more about the circumstances that thrust the Invaders forward. Calling it predictable would be a bit of an understatement. The more the script attempts to delve into the mystery the more the story becomes obtuse and confusing. At the end of the issue I was unclear as to some of the events, and I had to force myself to trudge through it again to clear things up. At times Avengers/Invaders is as simple a book as they come, and occasionally it becomes needlessly complex and scatter-shot. It doesn't help that, despite the long gap since issue #4, the series has taken on a second artist. The first half of the issue falls pretty much in line with the previous four, meaning it's decent-looking but nothing else. The second half, unfortunately, is all over the place in terms of quality. A few close-ups of Wolverine's face are particularly horrendous. His facial features seem to be pasted on a head several times too big, and his hair is just... wrong. Overall, the interior work fails to live up to the numerous snazzy covers in any sense.
The only real saving grace of a book this flawed would be strong characterization. I wish I could say Avengers/Invaders can boast characterization on the level of the similarly-inspired The Twelve, but it doesn't. Certain characters do stand out. Spider-Man is amusing, and I actually liked what Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger did with Human Torch in this issue. On the other hand, Captain America and Iron Man, the two characters who should be the ehart and sol of this book, fall flat to me. I feel that there's still a great deal of potential to be mined from Iron Man's guilt, but this is about as far from something like Civil War: The Confession as you can get.
Don't buy this book. Do yourself a favor and read The Twelve instead.
Review Score: 4.8 Poor(I really don't agree with this review)
Obviously there are people who think there's something to this whole Avengers/Invaders concept. I just can't imagine why. From the beginning, the series has been an utter bore. Long, drawn out exposition and numerous fight sequences take the place of meaningful character development or actual story progression. Issue #5 attempts to speed things along, even finally addressing the means by which the WWII-era Invaders have been thrust into the present day. This by no means is an improvement, though. If anything, the series only suffers more by pulling the curtain back.
If you can remember the last issue from all those months back, you'll recall that the New Avengers have teamed up with the Invaders to pound the Mighty Avengers into dust. This wasn't exactly the type of inter-team dynamic I had hoped for when Marvel originally made the New/Mighty split. I'm not even sure I buy the logic of having the heroes come to blows, but I've stopped expecting much in the way of logic out of this book. Perhaps this worst aspect of this fight is the interaction between young Bucky and adult Bucky. I had hoped this dynamic might prove to be the defining moment of the series. Instead it left me rolling my eyes. This sequence telegraphs the ending of Avengers/Invaders, more or less, and if that's all I can expect from the book I might as well jump ship now.
As the story progresses, we do learn a bit more about the circumstances that thrust the Invaders forward. Calling it predictable would be a bit of an understatement. The more the script attempts to delve into the mystery the more the story becomes obtuse and confusing. At the end of the issue I was unclear as to some of the events, and I had to force myself to trudge through it again to clear things up. At times Avengers/Invaders is as simple a book as they come, and occasionally it becomes needlessly complex and scatter-shot. It doesn't help that, despite the long gap since issue #4, the series has taken on a second artist. The first half of the issue falls pretty much in line with the previous four, meaning it's decent-looking but nothing else. The second half, unfortunately, is all over the place in terms of quality. A few close-ups of Wolverine's face are particularly horrendous. His facial features seem to be pasted on a head several times too big, and his hair is just... wrong. Overall, the interior work fails to live up to the numerous snazzy covers in any sense.
The only real saving grace of a book this flawed would be strong characterization. I wish I could say Avengers/Invaders can boast characterization on the level of the similarly-inspired The Twelve, but it doesn't. Certain characters do stand out. Spider-Man is amusing, and I actually liked what Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger did with Human Torch in this issue. On the other hand, Captain America and Iron Man, the two characters who should be the ehart and sol of this book, fall flat to me. I feel that there's still a great deal of potential to be mined from Iron Man's guilt, but this is about as far from something like Civil War: The Confession as you can get.
Don't buy this book. Do yourself a favor and read The Twelve instead.
Review Score: 4.8 Poor(I really don't agree with this review)
