New Avengers #25

Released: November 15, 2006

Publisher: Marvel

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils: Jim Cheung

Cover: Jim Cheung

 

Since Jim Cheung’s normal job (Young Avengers) is on semi-permanent absence, because Allan Heinberg can’t be bothered to meet a deadline, then he might as well use his wonderful talents here. He does a great job with all the talking heads, only reusing images once or twice, creating consistent scenes that work well with Bendis’ normal style.

 

From Bendis, in terms of layout, we get the normal routine that has become his M.O. when he’s given an artist like Coipel or Cheung: lots of widescreen, repeating static images of talking heads. What we get in terms of the story though is fairly good from him in its variation from his other work. It splices the two storylines of Iron Man and Maria Hill until they converge for the finale. This isn’t new as a storytelling format by any stretch but it is done well here under Bendis’ hands.

 

The story goes that one of Tony Stark’s old scientist employees is disgruntled at having his work used for the Civil War, so he’s used his top level clearance to get access to Stark Tower so he can set off a bomb to kill himself and Iron Man. The hero is the unlikely Maria Hill, the hated head of S.H.I.E.L.D. who’s been portrayed as an evil bitch by Mark Millar. Bendis tries to mitigate some of that here by making her more like the spy version of Nick Fury, using gadgets and what not to stop the suicide bomber and save Tony. It’s the first real Pro-Registration issue among the lot, with the Pro-Reg side looking rational and heroic and not like a bunch of manipulative assholes.

 

These Civil War one-shots showcasing different team members has given Bendis a chance to show off his new found (or maybe he was just hiding it from us) versatility in using different artists. It hasn’t always worked out, Chaykin and Yu both had stories that fit with their art but the plots themselves were pretty boring. The past couple of issues on the other hand have really shined, the Spider-Woman issue two months ago is still being the best one so far.

 

But the New Avengers is not a book for Bendis to experiment on, at least that isn’t why people are buying it, so these series of one-shots is slightly exasperating. The book was not retooled into a new team of either pro or anti registration sides and it hasn’t even done a continuing storyline showing the conflict among the team members. Instead we get a continuing array of stories that mostly happen in the past and/or change nothing with the characters since they can’t be allowed to give away anything and/or affect the Civil War’s main title. It doesn’t feel like a team book anymore, in any way. Only one story has actually addressed the break-up of the members (Captain America’s) and that was admittedly the worst one.

 

I shouldn’t complain too much, after all this issue is good. The book just has no continuity from issue to issue so I’m not finding myself looking forward to the next one, and inexplicably, we have Hawkeye featured next. With the exception of the Spider-Woman issue, you don’t need to read this book to understand the Civil War and since it isn’t covering what the title implies it should, there is a real argument to be made that this is pointless, crossover drivel designed to make money. Maybe so, but with the exception of the Spider-Woman issue, of course.

 

Rating - 6