Avengers #10 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), and Dean White (colors)

The Story: The Avengers check to make sure that Xavier and Namor’s infinity gems are safe.

The Review: Avengers #10 is, unfortunately, something of a stumbling block for the series after a couple of solid outings.

The main culprit is the story structure, which sees various Avengers checking on the locations of Xavier, Namor, and Stark’s infinity gems.  Clearly, Bendis intends for us to be impressed with where and how each character has hidden them, each in his own distinct fashion.  Unfortunately, it’s honestly not that interesting.  Each character basically puts them in just the sort of place you’d expect them to.  Worse still, there’s something bland and formulaic about the narrative structure: we follow the characters to each location, Bendis tries to wow us with each locations security feature, and then we get a look at each of the gems.  It almost feels like a tedious video game, with each location being a level to play through.

The other thing that dogs Avengers #10 and, I suspect, is something that will hinder the series for some issues to come, is just how many freaking characters there are.  Avengers #10 began to feel a bit like a bad issue of Uncanny X-Men, where any sense of an actual team is thrown out the window and there’s basically just a mob of X-universe characters moving about.  Here, it’s just that, but it’s the Avengers universe instead.  Bendis has slammed all the teams together, and I can’t even say that it was really all that necessary.  I mean, even the Secret Avengers show up and, as Iron Fist awkwardly points out, isn’t that a little off if they’re supposed to be, you know, “Secret?”

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Thunderbolts #153 – Loved the way the Tbolts came together as a team to pound Hyperion while their handlers were kinda looking the other way.  I want Jeff Parker to get his paws on an in-continuity X-book asap.  The guy really knows how to handle a team book!

Most Anticipated: Scalped #46 – After a bunch of one-shot type issues, Jason Aaron got his next big Scalped story cranked up last week.  This will be a highly anticipated comic for a long time.

Other Picks: Detective Comics #874, American Vampire #12, Morning Glories #7, Turf #4, Amazing Spider-Man #655, Who is Jake Ellis #2

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: S.H.I.E.L.D. #6 – The worst thing about SHIELD #6?  The fact that we won’t be getting any more for a while as the series goes on hiatus.  That said, it goes out with a bang.  This is epic craziness unleashed with absolutely mind-blowing art and a ridiculously huge scope.  There’s no book like it and SHIELD #6 is, for me, one of the best issues thus far.

Most Anticipated: Iron Man 2.0 #1 – In a week so packed with quality releases, you’d think picking what I’m looking forward to most would be hard.  But it’s actually pretty easy.  Nick Spencer is on absolute fire right now and a smart, high-tech book like this new War Machine title seems right about his alley.  I’m really curious to see how Spencer fairs in the Marvel Universe and the short preview we got in Invincible Iron Man #500 certainly has my hopes up.

Other Picks: Fantastic Four #588, Detective Comics #874, Action Comics #898, Morning Glories #7, Amazing Spider-Man #655, Thor #620, American Vampire #12, Avengers #10, Secret Avengers #10, Captain America #615, Invincible Iron Man #501, Scalped #46