Book of Doom: New Avengers #35


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketThis week we chose Marvel’s Brian Michael Bendis flagship title, The New Avengers, for our roundtable review. I figured we’d be stirring up for a good blog slapfest, since Jim Doom is one of the biggest Bendis fans around, and Fin Fang Doom bleeds in his intestines just from reading a Bendis-penned comic. Me? Call me a fence-sitter. I used to love Bendis, then I got sick of him, now I think he’s pretty good.

I started reading New Avengers a few months back, then broke down and bought last month’s issue and now this one, both of which focus heavily on new villain The Hood, who’s trying to organize a criminal syndicate. I was looking forward to this issue, since the last one was pretty darn slow (the heroes sat around for the last two-thirds of the book and talked), and the cover to this one shows a symbiotic Wolverine with claws bared. Excitement!

Except… Not so much. We get one panel of symbiote-infused New Avengers attacking the Mighty Avengers, on one of the book’s last pages. So, thanks to Marvel marketing, this book really had no chance of living up to expectations. Instead of showing us how the New Avengers were overwhelmed by the symbiotes, or any of that earth-shattering fight, we get two-thirds of an issue of the villains sitting around and talking. For once, I didn’t ever feel like Bendis left a huge thumbprint on the issue. It was just boring. Incredibly boring. Those yawner scenes had some predictably nice dialogue and character moments, sure, but they could’ve advanced the plot just as much and been trimmed considerably. It’s especially frustrating since we didn’t learn much more about the Hood, except that he’s well organized and he wears jeans.

There were a couple of nice scenes at the beginning and end of the issue, but all that does is qualify it as a turd sandwich. Yum.

Now, Marvel marketing mistake number two: I really liked the first scene with Tigra, particularly how Bendis wrote Scarface (Leinil Yu also draws him better than anyone), and the last scene where she gets thrashed by the Hood should have been a really heavy moment. But Marvel chose to promote the issue with the kitschy line: “Guest starring Tigra. Poor, poor Tigra.” So, first off, I knew exactly what was going to happen before I read the issue. Second, all I could think about as I read it was how Marvel chose to promote the issue with a cute little joke about a female character being beaten within an inch of her life. “Tigra gets pwned!!! LMAO!”

Maybe I would’ve liked the issue without those two stupid decisions, but I definitely wouldn’t have loved it. Honestly, I think this is the end of my New Avengers experiment. Let’s see what the rest of the League thinks:

Fin Fang Doom:

Well that was not a good issue to start reading New Avengers. You see, generally when one picks up a title called “New Avengers,” one expects it to be a comic about New Avengers. Or at the very least, have the New Avengers appear for more than a panel. I guess that element of unpredictability must be what makes New Avengers one of the top selling comics in the industry, because honestly, I don’t see why anyone would buy it otherwise.

Remember a few weeks ago when we were doing Justice League of America #13 as our Book of Doom? Most of us were ripping on the story because it was the same old lame “all the supervillains team up” story we’ve read a thousand times before. New Avengers #35 was that story, except instead of spending just a few pages establishing the villains, the entire issue was used. And instead of heavyweights like Lex Luthor, Deathstroke and the Joker, it’s lame-os like The Hood, Purple Man and…a bunch of other guys I’ve never seen before (and of course the Constrictor, despite that guy now being a hero in the pages of Avengers: The Initiative). Did I really need an entire issue to explain to me that the villains are teaming up to make more money, better protect themselves and be better organized? Because I think I could have gathered that information on my own, considering I’ve read a super-villain team-up story before and I’m not a complete moron.

And I think at one point, Tigra was supposed to be talking on a cell phone, but Leinel Yu forgot to draw it in. That was weird.

So this issue sucked. Starting to read a title during the fourth part of a story during which the stars of the series don’t even appear is not a good idea. Good thing not every issue is somebody’s first.

BENDIS SUCKS! Dammit, I thought I could get through this review without mentioning that. “That Wolverine guy”? You mean Wolverine? So just fracking say Wolverine!

Jim Doom:

So, I’m really tired of Villains United over and over. I’ve become a huge fan of New Avengers, and each month my standards keep getting higher. So when I started reading that same-old “We’re going to unite and fight the superheroes!” speech, I was sad that I was going to have to turn on another of my favorites.

I wound up not hating it. I’d say it’s probably due to Bendis’ background in true crime comics (and McDuffie’s background in cartoons) that this one seems more gritty and dangerous than the disastrous Villains United retread in JLA. And if the Marvel Villains United has been headed by Kingpin or Magneto or Dr. Doom or some other Marvel Mastermind, I’d have likely rolled my eyes. But I really like the fact it’s being used to elevate someone I’d never heard of before (that being The Hood).

Real-life applied to superhero comics has become such a cliché – even more than Villains United – yet there are still enough new applications here that I find myself surprisingly not as disgusted as I usually am. I really enjoyed that situation in which the police can’t keep straight which superheroes are legit and which aren’t. Poor guys. One quick scene makes you understand the perspective of several layers of characters all at once.

I am also exceedingly glad that the obligatory meeting room exposition scene did not include one of those “No way, I’m not going to be a part of your villains club!” guys who doesn’t want in, only to be quickly made an example of either at the meeting or quickly upon leaving. Sure, they made an example out of the Owl, but that was a few issues ago, and it advanced the story. It wasn’t just a crime-union cliché that any writer could sleepwalk through.

I’m also glad that this issue didn’t dwell on “Who’s a Skrull?” I love that intrigue but the story needed to move on, and now it quickly has. Not only do we not know who’s a Skrull, but there’s an angry group of United Villains with a sadistic and capable leader ready to take advantage of a hell-breaking-loose scenario involving both teams of Avengers and a bunch of venom symbiotes.

And Leinil Yu’s art continues to amaze. My favorite part of the story was likely just as much thanks to Bendis as it was Yu, but I loved the way in which it abruptly went from villainous planning conversation immediately into Deathlok laying waste and then right back into the money counting scene. The storytelling there was a jolt, and it’s just another example of how two talented people are taking some risks and having fun with how they’re unfolding this story, and it’s turning into a blast to read month after month.

So the Villains United retread made me extremely skeptical as I was reading this issue, but the way it was handled and its subtle differences from the DC Formula won me over (it was also a bit of a bummer that the cover image was only a tease). I was very close to dropping New Avengers before Civil War, but it has become my absolute can’t-miss comic each month.