Avengers #31 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Brandon Peterson & Mike Mayhew (art), Jason Keith (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story:  In the day after the Phoenix calamity, a lost Avenger triggers her emergency beacon.

The Review:  This review is a tough one to write due to the fact that I could easily come at it from two different angles, one positive and the other negative.  Let’s do the former first.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed the feeling of “the morning after.”  After all the AvX craziness, Bendis does a good job of giving the feeling of a new day having dawned and our heroes relaxing in their own unique ways, finally able to unwind and release tension.  As a reader, reading this, I sort of shared that and reading this issue felt like letting out a giant sigh and getting comfy in readiness for the next thing.  And hey, there’s a Wolverine beer joke, which is always good.  I will also say that Mike Mayhew’s art during these portions also suit that tone perfectly.  His photo-realistic, almost painterly style has that natural lack of tension, that grandiose, relaxed tone that matches Bendis’ script.

WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best of the past week: Fashion Beast #2 – This wasn’t a perfect issue or anything like that, but it shows such attention to detail and a striving to be excellent that it’s really hard to pick anything else.  This isn’t going to be up there with the great Alan Moore works, but even dilute Alan Moore is pretty good.  Further, it’s just nice to see a comic that seems like someone gave a crap about the entire package: story, writing, every panel, the paper, etc.

Most anticipated this week: 1). Punk Rock Jesus #4 – I’m really loving Sean Murphy’s story.  He had a LOT of ground to cover last issue as he aged J2/Chris from a baby to a teen and he did it pretty smoothly.  Now Murphy can use the last 3 issues to tell the meat of his story.  It should be great and you know it will look incredible.

2). Morning Glories #22 – Such a shame that no one chatters about this series anymore because it is still one of my favorites.  Given that issue #25 has been solicited as the “end of Season 1”, I would imagine that Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma have some shocks and revelations coming in the next few issues.

3). Secret Service #4 – How can you not enjoy Mark Millar’s slightly off-color take on James Bond?  The concept of the series has felt slightly naughty to me and then I realized that it’s because Millar is a Scotsman and he’s probably having fun lampooning a sacred English character (Bond).  There’s nothing horribly original about the story, but it has flair and the art is very attractive. 

4). Batman #13 – This one is purely a vote for the creative team.  I’m not a huge fan of the Joker (gasp!), but he’s the type of demented character that Scott Snyder should write the hell out of and I’m also curious to see the Capullo/Glapion/Plascencia team illustrate him.

5). Uncanny Avengers #1 – I said a few months ago that I didn’t care about Marvel NOW, but that was probably an overstatement.  I’m just not putting any of these comics on my pull list.  I’ll buy them digitally and as long as they are high enough quality to get me to keep pushing that “$3.99” button on my iPad I will continue to read them.  But, write for the trade or substitute on any of Marvel’s B-list fill-in artists and I’m gone.

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Alex’s Top Picks

Pick of the Week: Action Comics #13 – Why can’t every issue of Morrison’s Action Comics be this good?  He manages, in one issue, to do a really cool, creepy Hallowe’en issue as well as a watery-eyed Krypto story.  Just as shocking is Travel Foreman’s artwork, as Foreman really shows his range here – this is very, very different from what we’ve seen from him in Animal Man and, prior to that, Immortal Iron Fist.  Just a great comic that makes me lament the current overall lack of good Superman comics.

Most Anticipated: Uncanny Avengers#1 -I can’t help it, I’m excited.  I just really, really like the roster (Rogue and Scarlet Witch along with the Big Three?) and the creative team is excellent.  The previews have also seemed to show that Cassaday may be back in prime shape as well.  I’m really interested to see where Remender goes with this.

Batman #13 –Scott Snyder, also known as the man who can do wrong, starts his big Joker story.  There is no reason not to be excited about that fact.  I’m excited to see Snyder lend his trademark horror to the Joker.

Avengers #31 -Let’s get this out of the way:  those AvX tie-ins were absolutely dreadful.  That said, I’ll admit that I’m very interested to see what Bendis has in store for his final Avengers arc and how he is planning on going out.  And hey, no more AvX.

Fantastic Four #611 – While I”ll admit that I’ve not been a fan of the last few issues of Hickman’s Fantastic Four or FF, this is the final issue of his epic run and, as such, I’m hoping for a really nice farewell issue (even if you could argue that we already got that a few months back….),

Wolverine & the X-Men #18 –AvX really weighed this usually awesome book down and nowhere was this clearer than last issue’s Doop feature, which indescribably awesome.  With this issue, Aaron gets back to business as usual, allowing him to reset and go back to his story now that he’s no longer burdened by AvX.  In other words, the good times are back.