New Avengers #14 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike Deodato (art), Rain Beredo (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The New Avengers race to defend New York against Sin’s attack while Mockingbird tests her newly gained powers.

What’s Good:  When he puts his mind to it, Brian Bendis is capable of truly fantastic, intimate character-work, and that’s exactly what we get this month with Mockingbird.  The issue is divided up between a monologue by Bobbi and scenes of her and her comrades battling those pesky Nazi robot suits.

The best thing I can say about this issue is that even if you never gave much of a crap about Bobbi Morse, you will come to love her over the course of this issue.  Bendis captures her voice perfectly and makes her so innately likable, both adorable and heroic, that it’s impossible not to like her, want to hang out with her, and root for her.  She comes across as completely and utterly human, with a multi-faceted, fully realized personality complete with humour, doubt, and, of course, heroism.  She just comes across as being so real, which is no small feat in superhero comics.   Funnily enough, she even manages to make light of the fact that up until now, she’s not been the most interesting Avenger and has frequently been put in the background by Bendis.

Well, not anymore, apparently.  The scenes of her kicking ass are almost as much fun as her monologue.  There’s such joy and exaltation in her discovering and exploring her new powers.  It’s uplifting to see her jump twenty feet in the air and blow shit up with her fists.  It’s empowering and you can’t help but root for her and feel good for her.  Frankly, it’s issues like this that turn otherwise unremarkable characters into fan favourites.

Better still, this close-up work with Bobbi makes the most of Fear Itself.  Essentially, Mockingbird decides to make the events of Fear Itself as a means to make the most of this second chance at life.  Basically, seeing Avengers Tower crumble and the world in flames, but finding herself also newly empowered, Fear Itself has become her mission and an event by which she hopes to define herself as a superhero.  That’s a really, really cool idea and a great use of an event tie-in, one that keeps the explosive “big” stuff more personal.

Ghost Rider #1 – Review

by Rob Williams (writer), Matthew Clark (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Robert Schwagner (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story: A new Ghost Rider rides into Dayton, Ohio to confront Sin.

What’s Good:  There are definitely some good ideas, here.   While I’m sure Blaze and Ketch enthusiasts won’t be wild about it, I love the fact that Williams and Marvel and trying to do something completely different in giving us a female Ghost Rider.  It’s a dramatic move and, honestly, who doesn’t love kick-ass female characters?  More than that, though, is the fact that from the little we know of her, this character, “Alejandra,” seems to be a kind of warrior, trained by some underground cult/sect.  It’s a total 180 from the rock star or country badass type we’ve gotten before, and there’s an unexpected proficiency and confidence on Alejandra’s part.  Frankly, this sudden shift is enough to get me to want to check out the next issue.  There’s tons of potential and I’d really like to get to know Alejandra.

Then there’s the cliffhanger, which is a really, really great one and a fantastic development.  Suffice it to say, depowered or not, Blaze will have a big part in this comic and the character who shows up on the final page is one that always brings the fun to any comic, particularly one like this.