Avengers #11 – Review

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

The Story: The Avengers and the Illuminati raise to secure the rest of the Infinity Gems before the Hood does.

The Review: It’s always something of a treat to see a creator take a big creative risk on a major, mainstream flagship title, and that’s exactly what Brian Bendis does this month.  The entire issue is narrated, heavily, but Uatu the Watcher, with little actual dialogue, by Bendis standards anyway.

When I first realized that this would be the case, I’ll admit that I wasn’t enthused at the prospect of reading a comic with that many words on the page.  Admittedly, it does get a bit exposition-heavy and Uatu’s plot recap early on isn’t the most thrilling, but rest assured, it grows on you.  Over time, Uatu’s narration lends scope and importance to this story.  It makes Bendis’ narrative feel as huge, epic, and vital as it should be.  I mean, they’re battling over the Infinity Gems for crap’s sake!  Amidst all the punching, it’s often easy to forget just how great the stakes are, but Uatu’s solemn role in the comic brings the focus heavily onto that.  His narration also manages to add layers and nuance, essentially going out of his way to tell you exactly why all of this is very, very dangerous.

That’s not to say that there isn’t decent dialogue.  Spider-Man pulls a couple of funny jokes and Bendis throws a jab at Thor’s manner of speaking.  Little bits of humor in a story like this are a surprise, but also welcome.

More than that though, Uatu’s narration allows the comic to speed along at a much brisker pace.  The end result is a comic that is literally a mad-dash all over the world, as the Hood and the Avengers jump from one gem to another.  It lends the race a frantic and exciting pace, and that excitement is something that last month lacked.  In covering more physical ground in one issue, this really does feel like a competition between the Avengers and the Hood where every second counts.

Furthermore, John Romita Jr. helps this along even further by delivering quite possibly his best performance yet on this title.  A couple of his lay-outs are just awesome and his illustrations of the Astral Plane and the gems in action are positively gorgeous, while his action scenes are as fun and dynamic as always.

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?”

Wolverine: Weapon X #16 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Davide Gianfelice (art), Dave McCaig (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: Logan goes on a journey to fulfill Nightcrawler’s last wish.

What’s Good: I remember being pleasantly surprised a few issues back, when Jason Aaron’s Wolverine did a better job of welcoming Steve Rogers back to the Marvel Universe than any Avengers-related title.  Perhaps it’s not as much of a surprise now that with #16, the series’ final issue, Aaron’s Wolverine does a more touching, proper farewell for Nightcrawler than any of the X-books have managed.

Aaron, as he did with Rogers, makes his two characters’ personalities very clear, allowing their natural chemistry to tell the story and deliver the mood and message.  This is about two contrasting personalities more than anything else, and how they remained opposed, yet interlocking, through the years.  Better still, Aaron conveys a real sense of history between the two, but not in a way that requires any real awareness of actual continuity; impact isn’t determined by how many back-issues of Uncanny you’ve got stored in your longboxes.

As expected, much of the book finds itself focused on Logan and Kurt’s opposed religious beliefs.  At first, I was a bit underwhelmed by their dialogue and arguments over this subject due to the simplicity of their stances.  There’s not a lot of nuance to either character’s argument.  As I read on, though, it became obvious that this was rather the point.  Again, the issue isn’t about theology, but who Logan and Kurt are as individuals, and in this sense, their religious beliefs are only meant to represent who they are as people.  Kurt is filled with hope and optimism, while Logan is filled with a sense of doom; thus, this naturally translates to the faithful and the damned.

Similarly effective is Logan’s quest for Kurt, which sees him drag a piano up a mountain to a remote church.  This clear metaphor for the character’s burden, again reflecting on that above difference in stances, is one that’s been used very well in a great many stories, recently in Disney/Pixar’s movie Up, of all things.  There’s a reason for that, which is that it’s an effective one that carries a good deal of resonance, and that’s the case here.