Hawkeye #13 – Review

By: Matt Fraction (story), David Aja (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors)

The Story: Rest in peace, Grills.  You were a grill great guy.

The Review: If Hawkeye has a flaw—which may seem like blasphemy to some people, I understand—it probably lies with Fraction’s errant storytelling.  The last arc, if you can call it that, has made major time jumps from issue to issue, often leaving one plot thread unresolved as it moves on to the next.  We’ve gotten some strong individual issues out of that, but there’s an absence of cohesiveness which makes serial investment in the title worth it.

You’ve never doubted for a moment that Fraction would tie things together eventually, however, and this issue does exactly like that, quite literally filling in all the gaps between Grills’ death, Kate’s departure, and Barney’s arrival.  Amazingly enough, despite the jumble of different scenes Fraction has to cover, he manages to maintain a logical and efficient narrative flow.  Since the earlier issues already got most of the substance out of the way, the story can move freely from beat to beat without slowing down for some necessary exposition or action.  The man has a plan, after all.

Dark Avengers #190 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Neil Edwards (Artist), Sotocolor (Colorist)

The Story: The Dark Avengers discover the secret of this bizarre future and manages to save themselves and the world from what would destroy it.

The Review: Jeff Parker is capable of many things. He is a talented writer that seems to have a gift for characterization and development. Give him a character that is in sore need of definition and love and he’ll make wonders. He did this with the Red Hulk, the multiple villains from Thunderbolts, the golden age characters from Agent of Atlas among other characters. He can create depth and new angle to old tired character which makes him very enjoyable to read or pick new characters that seems to be set in a boring direction and set them up for much more enjoyable adventures.

Believe it or not, while he seemed to have trouble sometimes in this current arc in this strange new world of his, he succeeds in giving us a potable story thanks to a satisfying conclusion. In short, what he gives us is an explanation that is genuinely new and interesting on just how this world came to be and how twisted the reasons for its existence. When the whole reasoning is given, it does manage to bring out some theory and makes the whole story stronger for it.

Dark Avengers #188 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Neil Edwards, Terry Pallot (Artists), Chris Sotomayor (Colorist)

The Story: The Dark Avengers are trying to convince Daredevil and his gang of their intentions as Reed Richards tries to understand what is wrong with the world along with Skaar.

The Review: This is hard to admit, but I am beginning to wonder just how Jeff Parker can even conclude this whole thing in a satisfying way in just under two issues. What started as a big world building exercise seems to have become just this, only with a title that does not seem particularly fitting.

Indeed, is it just me or are the Dark Avengers kind of boring in this series? For a very long period of time, they did close to nothing, then as soon as they went on as a semi-formed team, they got their ass handed to them by a team of freedom fighter composed of Misty Knight, Iron Fist, Shang-Chi and a more monstrous Spider-Man. They are not particularly explored as characters, nor do their actions scenes are particularly interesting to watch.

Dark Avengers #186 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Mirco Pierfederici, Neil Edwards, (Artists), Chris Sotomayor (Colorist)

The Story: More shenanigans happen in this dark version of Manhattan as John Walker and the rest of the Dark Avengers gets up to speed on the situation.

The Review: It seems to me that Jeff Parker had pretty much the same problems on both of his Marvel titles lately, namely Red She-Hulk and Dark Avengers. Both those series have some great artists and some terrific concepts backing them up, but the past issues were only building some setup for the series to actually jump onto, creating a situation without actually involving the main player in any significant way until later. Red She-Hulk latest issue had gotten out of that unfortunate problem, but did the latest issue of Dark Avengers achieve the same objective?

Dark Avengers #182 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Neil Edwards (pencils), Terry Pallot (inks), Chris Sotomayor (colors)

The Story: Thunderbolts versus the Dark Avengers = Michael Jackson versus Justin Bieber.

The Review: Much as we claim to prefer surprises and spontaneity in our lives, I’m guessing that in reality, we’d hate it if the real world was that unpredictable.  The random weekend trip or birthday party at work aside, I think most of us would be perfectly content if more things went the way we expect them to.  The one place where we will never enjoy predictability is in our fiction.  Lord forgive the story where you can guess what’ll happen next, without much effort.

Unfortunately, Dark Avengers doesn’t have a prayer left.  Last month, probably like most of you, I saw Boss Cage’s turnaround coming from a mile away, and once that happened, I knew the Thunderbolts coming back to the present day to kick their replacements’ butts and save the world from a semi-hypothetical dystopian future was guaranteed.  It’s one of those situations where I’m actually a little sad to be proven correct (and believe me, I love being right).

Dark Avengers #181 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Neil Edwards (pencils), Terry Pallot (inks), Chris Sotomayor (colors)

The Story: We solved all our energy problems and the world’s still ending anyway.  Figures.

The Review: I just caught wind of the upcoming, new Thunderbolts series, which will feature an entirely different cast and set of creators.  While I certainly understand the promise of putting a major badass in charge of some of the most recognizable Marvel antiheroes, I simply think the idea has been tried and tested in Uncanny X-Force.  Besides, I seriously doubt the replacements will be nearly as much fun as the current crew.

Maybe I should amend that last bit and say, “nearly as much fun as the current crew used to be.”  Once upon a time, I looked forward to this series each month because I could depend on it to provide a solid, entertaining read.  Ever since it got rebranded, the energy and personality of the series has steadily declined until it has now become this bloated, overdone mass of inert chaos.

Dark Avengers #180 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Neil Edwards (pencils), Terry Pallot (inks), Chris Sotomayor (colors)

The Story: Boss Cage better hope there’s a generous retirement package waiting for him.

The Review: I’ve made it kind of a maxim here that it doesn’t matter so much what the story is; it’s all about the execution.  I guess I neglected to mention that the story still matters; if you’re working off of weak material, the execution will suffer proportionately.  Parker’s work ever since this title became Dark Avengers must be the first time I’m experiencing a case where his execution is solid, but he’s just not telling a story worth hearing.

Even looking just at the Thunderbolts issues I reviewed, you felt a stronger investment there than here.  Part of the reason was at the time, Parker only had to write these time-traveling two-issue arcs, so he didn’t really have any loftier aim than to have fun and entertain.  Then, too, we had a tighter cast to focus on, so we had more time to listen to them argue and banter, again all for the sake of fun and entertainment.

Dark Avengers #179 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Gabriel Hernandez Walta & Kev Walker (art), Frank Martin Jr. (colors)

The Story: The Thunderbolts find a future not worth fighting for.

The Review: Lately, I’ve started to notice that this title is getting to be one of the harder ones to review week after week.  On the one hand, Parker always manages to deliver a technically solid issue with plenty of stuff going on, and he never writes anything that’s outright bad.  On the other hand, he doesn’t write anything all that remarkable either.  Sometimes I’ll read an entire issue of Dark Avengers (formerly Thunderbolts) and enjoy it, but forget all about it afterwards.

Maybe it has something to do with the cast of mostly C-listers, but I tend not to think so.  After all, Secret Six was composed entirely on nobodies, yet I followed their adventures with total devotion every month, while I sort of just breeze through this series.  No, I think what’s really missing from the book is a total dearth of character arcs.  To date, I still haven’t gotten a sense of change or growth from any of the Thunderbolts.  They proceed through all their adventures with a lot of enthusiasm, but they don’t come out of them any different than they started.

Dark Avengers #178 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Kev Walker & Declan Shalvey (art), Frank Martin Jr. (colors)

The Story: Invasion of the Dark Avengers!  The Future of the Thunderbolts!

The Review: You have to wonder why, of all the titles Marvel puts out, Dark Avengers now gets a twice monthly release.  It may be a solid series, but it’s not as if there was a huge demographic of readers demanding a double dose of it.  More likely than not, this schedule will keep on so long as the team itself continues to be split in two, requiring two issues to give a month’s worth of sufficient coverage to their exploits.

And while I don’t have any problem with that as a rule, it does feel a bit irritating having to divide your attention between two completely separate plotlines that have seemingly nothing to do with each other.  You really come away from the issue feeling like you’re reading two different titles in one—namely, a respectable Thunderbolts adventure and a just-slightly-north-of-dull Dark Avengers mission.

Dark Avengers #177 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Kev Walker & Declan Shalvey (art), Frank Martin Jr. & Antonia Fabela (colors)

The Story: Doctor Doom learns that when you want something done right…

The Review: If you hang out with me long enough, you’ll learn that I am a horrible creature of habit.  Once I get used to a certain routine, it takes a near miracle for me to break out of it, even when I really want to change.  On that note, I completely missed seeing this title on the stands last week because, I can only suppose, that the subconscious part of my brain that recognizes comics for pick up still had Thunderbolts inscribed on it.

(As further evidence of my habit-forming ways, I’ll add that this week I bought an issue of Supergirl even though I Dropped the series last month.  For what it’s worth: repetitive, doesn’t play into its potential, forced romantic overtones, and okay art.  Snap judgment grade: C.)

New Avengers #23 – Review

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

The Story: Norman’s latest Dark Avengers get their come-uppance.

The Review:  There’s really not much to this comic, which I suppose means that it can’t be any worse than strictly mediocre though converse, that it also means that it can’t be much better.

The entire issue is composed of action scenes and they’re really well done.  Mike Deodato and Will Conrad’s illustrations of the action are dynamic, exciting, and a pleasure to read and Bendis does a solid job scripting it; every character gets a chance to shine and are often paired off quite well with an opposing Dark Avenger.  It makes for a breezy read and this “pairing off” has a classic, Saturday morning feel to it.  Furthermore, despite art duties being split between two artists, I honestly wasn’t able to tell.  Deodato and Conrad have remarkably similar styles.

That said, all of this basically makes for a shallow issue – essentially, all that happens is that the Dark Avengers sustain a beating from Skaar, and then sustain another beating from the New Avengers.  We just see the same team of C-listers, who we’ve never become invested in, get embarrassed and beaten down not once, but twice, in quick succession.  Sure, there’s an innate satisfaction to seeing the bad guys get their asses kicked in humiliating fashion, but it’s also sort of vapid, particularly when that’s all the issue is composed of and said bad guys really haven’t been well developed.