New Avengers #33 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (story), Michael Avon Oeming (art), Rain Beredo (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Daniel Drumm continues to wreak havoc as Dr. Strange looks increasingly murderous to SHIELD.

The Review:  Without a doubt, the star of this issue is the artwork.  Of course, I’m also left thinking how bloody WEIRD this arc is going to look when it’s collected, as we’ve gone from artists as wildly different from each other as Michael Gaydos to Carlos Pacheco to, now, Michael Avon Oeming.  And apparently next issue, we’re going to Mike Deodato, because why not?

New Avengers #32 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (story), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Roger Martinez, Cam Smith, & Scott Hanna (inks), Rain Beredo (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story:  Our mysterious body-snatching villain wreaks absolute chaos at Avengers Mansion.  Also, someone dies.

The Review:  Anyone who’s followed Bendis’ Avengers books for an extended period of time know that it’s been an uneven ride and often a rough one.  That being said, I proudly confess to being a fan of the man, willing to give a look at just about anything the man does.  Given that he’s written three of my favourite comic runs of all time (Alias, Powers, and Daredevil), I feel I owe it to the man.  As such, I’m really happy to see that he’s closing out his New Avengers run in style.

This arc of New Avengers really does deliver Bendis’ strengths without the weaknesses – the characters feel human, more friends than team-mates, and there’s a personal touch to the characters throughout.  I also love the fact that it’s a mystic storyline.  Bendis ramps that aspect of the story up this month, with battles in the astral plane and even a light touch of horror, as mind controlled persons are forced to do bad things to themselves and others.

Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural #4

By: Rick Remender (writer), Jefte Palo & Alessandro Vitti (artists), Jean-François Beaulieu (colorist)

The Story: Nightmare has taken over the world. The other heroes of the Marvel Universe, including Doctor Strange, are his captives. Only Doctor Doom has escaped the clutches of Nightmare, and his fortress is falling.

What’s Good: Remender’s take on Nightmare is brilliantly conflicted. He’s made Nightmare a creature of irrational appetites, but of cunning intellect. If that’s hard to understand, let me put it this way: Nightmare has been slowly materializing Jericho Drumm’s nightmares for decades, signs of hyper-intelligent cunning. However, pages later, when Nightmare is on the verge of conquering Doom, the last holdout of humanity, he doesn’t care that this will result in their mutual destruction. Even when Doom points it out to him, it’s like Nightmare doesn’t care, not because he doesn’t understand the consequences, but because they seem disconnected from what he wants. It’s an interesting and disturbing take on such an old and powerful Marvel villain.

Remender’s vision of Drumm was equally compelling. I liked the visible arc of Drum growing into the role of sorcerer supreme (arcs similar to those being followed by Bucky, Donna Troy, Dick Grayson and Wally West) over the last couple of issues, but the revelation that Drumm himself, in combination with Nightmare’s influence, was creating the curse he is suffering, was awesome. Suddenly, I saw why Drumm had been tapped as the sorcerer supreme. It made sense, as much as it had when Strange had taken on that mantle. Remender did some great work here.

And, although I’m running out of space to praise Remender, I have to point out the great world building he did here. Those of us following Dr. Strange thought we’d seen all that could be seen of Marvel and magic. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Remender’s magic, and the introduction of the Lao, and a different set of cosmic (who all seem to be minor, compared to the ones Strange had tapped) is really, really cool.

And the art was great. It was not realistic. The stylistic, gritty take on Drumm’s magic is great. Nightmare never looked better or creepier than on the cover of this book. The spookiness evoked by Palo and Vitti works, through the dangling, shrunken heads on the staff of Legba, the clawing hand at the entrance to Bondyè and the scary supernatural creatures now working for Nightmare (including the spirits of vengeance!). The action sequences were dynamic, the faces expressive, and the world and people textured and real. All in all, art and story matching really well.

New Avengers #54 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Billy Tan (pencils & inks), Batt Tan (inks), Justin Ponsor (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: The battle with Dormammu comes to its conclusion as Brother Voodoo makes use of his newfound power.

What’s Good: Brother Voodoo really is a very fun character and Bendis does a great job of playing up the dynamic Voodoo has with the spirit of his dead brother.  It’s good old-fashioned, schizophrenic fun with solid comedic legs. Speaking of comedy, Spider-Man was also on a roll this issue.  Pretty much everything that came out of his mouth made me laugh.  Son of Satan also continues to be a refreshing character as he continues his nonchalant attitude towards Dormammu

Most of this issue is spent on the actual action scenes between Dormammu and the Avengers.  Ultimately, though, the best moments of the book come at its end.  Loki’s appeal to the Hood is interesting to say the least and promises big things to come.  This is also definitely the case with respect to Clint’s last words in the book concerning what must be done with Norman.  Both scenes show great promise and left me itching to know what’s going to happen next.

Art-wise, there’s a whole lot of fire.  It’s all solid enough and the characters look good; basically, if you’re familiar with Tan’s work, you know what to expect.  The man most deserving of props is colorist Justin Ponsor who does a fantastic job with the all the flames and shadows.  Ponsor truly enhances Tan’s work and makes for an impressive Dormammu and a fairly pretty book overall.

What’s Not-So-Good: Unfortunately, while I do like Brother Voodoo as a character, towards the end of this issue, I really started to feel that the book was beginning to feel like too much of a shill for the upcoming “Dr.Voodoo” on-going.  From Son of Satan’s foreboding words of the upcoming challenges for Voodoo to Clint’s dubbing him “Dr. Voodoo” on video, it’s a little trying.

The biggest problem for this book though is definitely in Tan’s artwork.  When the majority of a book is spent on a giant action scene, it’s not good when there are several frames that are utterly confusing.  There were a few times where I just couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on during the fight.  There’s a particularly heinous pair of frames of Ms. Marvel on top of the demon that have me at a total loss.  Whether it’s due to Dormammu’s size/design or the flames, things just get a bit hard to discern.

Lastly, maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but Cap’s shield smacking Dormammu or, worse still, Mockingbird drop-kicking Dormammu just looks stupid, all the more so when I’m supposed to believe that Dormammu actually felt it.

Conclusion: A decent book with an interesting set of characters, but unfortunately the Avengers themselves play second fiddle.  An interesting ending can’t change the fact that this arc’s purpose was to sell a new series.

Grade: C+

-Alex Evans