New Avengers #11 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writing), Mike Deodato & Howard Chaykin (art), Rain Beredo & Edgar Delgado (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Doctors try to save Mockingbird while in the past, Nick and friends raid a Red Skull base.

The Review: New Avengers #11 is a very frustrating issue to review.  On the one hand, it’s unquestionably better than last month’s debacle.  In fact, it does a lot of things really, really right.  Unfortunately, it also has many of the same major flaws from last month, which ultimately hamper the entire package.

The biggest example of this is the division of the issue between two stories, in two different timelines, in a constant back-and-forth.  We’re well into this arc now, and there is still absolutely no correlation between these two stories.  There’s no hint of an explanation as to why they’re occupying the same issue.  At this point, Bendis should quite with the back and forth and just call the book a double feature.  There’s nothing significant in common between these two plots and no narrative interaction whatsoever, leading to a bizarre reading experience.

But it honestly wouldn’t be so bad if the two stories were of equal merit.  Of course, that’s far from the case.  The present-day story is simply head and shoulders above the Nick Fury story and it feels like a chore whenever we return to the latter.  While Howard Chaykin’s art, while still idiosyncratic, does improve from last month’s disaster, the bottom-line is that the tale itself just isn’t very interesting at all.  While that jazzy, old time tone is there thanks to Chaykin, this is nothing more than a standard Nick Fury Nazi-hunting story, with nothing at all unique or exciting about it.

Which is a shame, because Bendis does so much right with the present day story.  Mockingbird’s critical condition creates real human drama and emotion.  The tension is palpable and sincere, which is really quite the accomplishment given that “certain death until the last moment” is usually so tired.  But Mockingbird really does feel threatened here and the reaction of the Avengers is genuine.

Madame Xanadu #23 – Review

by Matt Wagner (writer), Amy Reeder (pencils), Richard Friend (inks), Guy Major (colors), and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Madame Xanadu faces off against Morganna in a final bid to save Betty

What’s Good: It’s sort of neat to see Madame Xanadu behave, in many respects, like an honest to goodness superhero.  Her final confrontation with Morganna and the magical battle that ensues is the kind of epic clash between good guy and bad guy that I wouldn’t necessarily expect from this book.  That said, it works, largely because Nimue is so naturally likable and Wagner continues to do an awesome job in writing Morganna.  I could not imagine a more humorously cackling villain.  I mean, how can you not laugh when a villain says “goblin balls!” as a curse?  With wonderfully written narration that always carries that simultaneous air of determination and vulnerability, it’s impossible not to root for Nimue, while with her continued mad arrogance, it’s equally impossible not to root against Morganna.

Then there’s John Jones/J’onn J’onzz who continues to be a joy to read under Wagner’s pen.  The character is continually written with that sly little wink as Wagner makes so much use of our knowing something that the characters do not.  He also makes us desperate to see J’onn in his true form, but he never quite lets us have it.  Instead, Wagner gives us little hints here and there of the Martian beneath the human form, always, delightfully, just on the periphery of Nimue’s awareness.  A blur of green might rush to her rescue and at one point, we even see a distinctly Martian looking hand reaching out to grab her.  Wagner teases us as much as he does Nimue herself.