Reflections #23 - New Avengers #19

So Jake has advised those of us who buy New Avengers to either stop buying it or stop complaining about it, and he used a father-related story from his childhood as an analogy, so I certainly can't argue with that. In that vein, I nominante Jake to be the one who reads the Civil War tie-in issues of New Avengers for the rest of us. Drink the hemlock for the greater good, Jake!

I was going to suggest Randy, seeing as he said he might stick with the book until #25, but it doesn't seem right to do that to someone still recovering from an illness, you know?

I think Carla hit on the problem in the comments of the above post, when she said Bendis knows he can't write team books, and is trying to learn. And that's great, self-improvement is always a good idea. Except, the Avengers are supposed to be Marvel's big-gun team (I suppose you could argue Fantastic Four, but that seems to be more family, sort of Lost in Space, without the "lost" part), and thus need to be written well. If Bendis wants to work on writing teams, switch him to Marvel Team-Up, and give New Avengers to Kirkman. Or Joe Casey. Or Len. Sure he wants to write X-Men, but if he could fix New Avengers, then I'm sure he could write his own ticket.

It's kind of sad, because Bendis has had these flashes, where I feel like he "gets" it, but he can't do it consistently. The huge breakout at the Raft, putting 42 (sorry, 45) super-villains back in play, including Count Nefaria, a guy who can beat down Thor, back in play? Captain America realizing the importance of getting some heroes together to catch them? Periodic appearences by Warbird? And the Collective was finally a threat worthy of the Avengers, big-time menace.

The problem is that's stuff is widely separated by all the missteps. Wasting 10 issues to get three members of the team. Putting The Sentry on the team. The lack of actually catching the escaped super-villains. Too much espionage/spy stuff. I get that Bendis wants to make Jessica Drew this character you aren't sure you can trust, but if he's going to use HYDRA in the Avengers, it should be because they want to blow something up, or kill many, many people, ala the New Avengers story in Amazing Spider-Man last year. The Sentry is on the team. Warbird is not. SHIELD has gotten more face time than Cage has. Did I mention The Sentry is on the team?

Hmm, I haven't said much about the actual issue. Well, I think it falters because he fails to get many characters involved. Other than Iron Man and Not-Thor Guy, nobody does anything. I can't decide whether the thing with SHIELD is like that South Park episode where the town of Beaverton gets flooded, what with Commander Hill being more concerned with finding out what "House of M" is, rather than actually dealing with the threat that has been caused by it. Time for questions is later, time for stopping immensely powerful mutant is now. Maybe Bendis is just setting up for a big, exciting conclusion. I can almost see a way this ends that wipes out House of M, as they draw the energy from poor Michael, and it returns to the original mutants. Hooray, Stacy X gets her powers back! Chamber, too! Except SHIELD would probably try to block that, end up hoarding all that power for itself.

Wasn't there supposed to some former SHIELD agent that Captain America told Commander Hill to bring? Is she planning on showing up?

I have however figured out what's up with Commander Hill, why she's such a royal pain in the ass to everyone. Simply put, she's trying to out-Nick Fury, Nick Fury. She's trapped in his shadow, and the only way she can see to step out of it is to be a bigger ball-buster than he was. Except Nick seemed to know when that wasn't neccessary, and when he could ease off. You don't have to play it like that with Captain America because, if the situation is serious, then Cap will already be taking it seriously. Of course, she could be picking up on the fact that some of the capes (Cap included) are resentful of the fact she seemed to get this job by helping kick Fury to the curb, and so she meets their hostility with hostility.

Or maybe she's just combative for the plot's sake. Whichever really. One issue to go in "The Collective", come on Bendis, wow me.

Or don't, then I've got an extra three dollars to spend on Heroclix each month.