Avengers #4.1, by Mark Waid (writer), Barry Kitson (penciler), Mark farmer with Rafael Fonteriz and Drew Hennessy (inkers), Jodan Boyd with Matt Yackey and Wil Quintana (colorists), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Christ, how many people does it take just to do this one issue?Cressida's attempts to shatter the team almost pay off. Pietro sulks in bed and lashes out at Wanda, Cressida has the Acrobat frame Hawkeye for theft, leading to a blow-up between he and Cap. But Steve pulls his head from his butt in the nick of time, and the team tries to right the ship by challenging the Frightful Four to a rematch, minus Quicksilver. They're doing OK until Cressida boosts Sandman's power, but Hawkeye is able to get Pietro back in the fight, and Cap confronts Cressida. Who appears to instantly kill the team. I'm assuming this all has something to do with whatever Kang is up to in this book's main storyline. Trying to unmake the Avengers in early days or something.
Waid writes a very good early Hawkeye. Always running his yap, always trying to spur people on with jibes and negative reinforcement. Always able to take a heated situation and throw some gasoline on the fire. Overall, Waid seems to get most of the characters, although I've gone back and forth on Jarvis getting back at Hawkeye with itching powder in the costume. It's a good gag, but seems too overt for Jarvis.
Kitson's artwork continues to remain clear and expressive, although you can see the influences of the different inkers (not that I can tell which is which). At the point when the team leaps into battle, Captain America's head is rounder than it was two pages earlier as they left the mansion. The shadows make the chin more pronounced, the "A" on the forehead looks wider. Just little variations. I like the outfit Kitson gave Cressida when she secretly hires the Acrobat. It's strange, the hood and cape combined with wrapping her face in bandages with almost a couple of robot eye things poking out. But it's fairly simple, and kind of cool, which is enough for me.
Great Lakes Avengers #5, by Zac Gorman (writer), Will Robson (aritst), Tamra Bonvillain (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Little surprised there's no "After MacFarlane" on the cover like you see sometimes with these homages. Still a solid cover.The team has agreed to keep quiet about what happened to Snerd, but Good and her brother are leaving town. Alive, which, as she points out to Flatman, is a leg up on what Mr. Immortal typically managed. Beyond that, Bertha reluctantly agrees to take a modeling gig as both the before and after for some weight loss drug. But it turns out to be a trap - one her agent is in on - to copy her power.
Seems Gorman has dropped whatever he might have been starting with Doorman's boss, Oblivion, being displeased with his work recently. Or even the stuff about Doorman having been away so long, and in such a strange place, he's kind of lost touch. Basically, it feels like once Mr. Immortal was back in the fray, there weren't enough pages for the team.
It is a recurring theme with most of the team that no one believes in them. I'm sure Bertha's agent is going to make her betrayal somehow Bertha's fault, for deciding to go a different direction with her career. Flatman can't get anyone to buy into him as a leader, or even as a hero. Oblivion clearly isn't impressed with Doorman, though the guy is slacking on whatever his job is supposed to be. But none of the GLA really stick to their guns. Mr. Immortal said to bury him alive for a year, and then changed his mind. Bertha had misgivings about taking the gig, but said to hell with it once offered 20 grand. Flatman is decidedly not rallying the team around him. They're all covering up what happened to Snerd, although I don't want to see Good jailed for it, so I don't mind that. They want to be Avengers, without acting like Avengers are supposed to (though hardly alone in that sense these days). I would say the one genuinely good thing they did was sticking up for Good, but even she realizes it's a smart time to get out of here, before her luck runs out.
I'm very surprised that Bertha falling on her agent's legs after they toppled out of at least a fourth or fifth story window didn't, you know, smash said legs into goo. The page where the photographer is encouraging Bertha (in her bigger form) to look as sad as possible ('Frown with your eyes. Perfect!') was some of Robson's better work on the title. The photographer's expressions, from dismay, confusion, irritation were good, too. Robson is capable of doing more understated stuff, but he keeps giving characters that extremely pissed off look, teeth-clenchingly angry, even when they shouldn't be that angry.
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