New Avengers #6 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Stuart Immonen (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Laura Martin & Rain Beredo (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: A mystically roided up Wolverine takes on Agamotto for the fate of the universe.

What’s Good: This arc has bothered in a way; Bendis seems so intent on convincing us of the scale and stakes of this conflict but, perhaps due to the facelessness of the bad guys, I never quite bought into it.  Last month’s issue promised a mystic battle of epic proportions, yet again, but this time, we get an issue that truly delivers on that.  New Avengers #6 is just as big in scope and action as it promises to be.

The duel between Wolverine and Agamotto is well done, with Agamotto taking on various forms from the Marvel Universe and Wolverine’s past.  It feels explosive and, well, powerful and in that sense, it does what it’s meant to.  What really helps out the duel, however, is how Bendis emphasizes the Avengers team and keeps it from being just “Wolverine vs. Agamotto.”  By watching the battle, showing concern, and giving support, the battle with Agamotto instead feels like a team effort by friends and, as such, it becomes a lot easier to root for Wolverine and emotionally invest in the battle itself.  It’s one of those situations where Bendis is really able to highlight the chemistry this team has.

The conclusion of the conflict will no doubt be a source of some controversy, but the event itself is well done.  Bendis delivers on his promise of a major character death and, all told, it’s done in good taste.  The character goes out in truly heroic fashion and it feels appropriately important and massive in scale.  Better still, it leaves behind a new and very compelling villain.  It also leads to an excellent final page where Daimon Hellstrom wonderfully sums up who the New Avengers are and what makes them unique as a team.

The real star this month, however, is Stuart Immonen.  His action scenes are as exciting as ever and his characters are, as always, very likable.  What’s really awesome though is how he alters his style when depicting Wolverine’s duel, which is rendered in a really awesome, almost painted feel.

New Avengers #5 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Stuart Immonen (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Laura Martin (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: The Avengers learn who is behind the mystic attacks and devise a plan to challenge him/it.

What’s Good: By this point, it should go without saying that I’m loving this as a Marvel mystic storyline.  It makes New Avengers feel distinct, it helps bring in some real power players from an arena that is largely ignored.

Focusing on the mystic corner of the Marvel Universe has also brought the best out of Stuart Immonen and Laura Martin, who are able to make the kind of bright, vibrant, Saturday-morning artwork on steroids that they clearly excel at.  New Avengers, even moreso now with all the mystic lights, spells, and blasts, is just downright fun to look at.

This issue’s plot had enough twists and turns to keep me interested.  There’s a constant sense of things getting increasingly large, both the story and the villain.  Things keep getting exponentially bigger and by the end of this issue, from a mystic perspective, the conflict is positively massive in scale despite its really only involving one team of Avengers.  Certainly, putting an identity on the bad guy (and it’s a huge one) helps a great deal with this.  Not only is the revelation both interesting and surprising in its gravity, but it also helps to make the story feel more important, something that has been lacking lately what with all the faceless, formless goons the Avengers have been fighting lately.