Review: New Avengers # 4
A review of New Avengers # 4 by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen.
The New Avengers continue to battle the demonic force from another dimension with Danny Rand aka Iron Fist still in the realm of what seems to be their opponent who was apparently the Ancient One, Doctor Strange‘s former teacher.
In this issue: The Truth about the possession and invasion and who’s really to blame.
Strength:
- Stuart Immonen‘s art is definitely the book’s strength. The cartoony but dynamic style of artwork for the New Avengers book was really awesome. Too bad we missed his work during the books’ last few issues (which was the tie-ins for Siege). But now he’s definitely back and it looks really awesome. From Miss Marvel‘s behind to Spider-Man‘s fluid movements. Even Iron Fist‘s change of attire looked nice thanks to Immonen’s art.
- Brian Michael Bendis‘ quipy dialogues in between action also adds more depth to this book, which is his baby come to think of it. From Strange’s explanation of what was supposed to happen to Miss Marvel even down to Danny’s angry confrontation with Strange, the dialogue is spot on. Oh and he does a good voice for Mr. and Mrs. Cage.
- Iron Fist was the clear cut winner for this issue. His re-emergence from the void and his confrontation of with Strange left readers wanting to know more. More about his “alternate costume” change as well as what’s really pissing him off. Being the master of mystical Kung-Fu, we’ve seen Danny go from mild mannered billionaire to bad ass kung fu master. And now were seeing a very angry Iron Fist.
Weakness
- The lack of exposition for each and every member of the New Avengers was IMO the biggest weakness for this book which was selling pretty good. Too bad since in my humble opinion again, this was way better than the adjectiveless Avengers book.
- My always hated “Oral History of the Avengers” is still in the book. Is anybody annoyed with this? Are you guys still buying this? I mean, honestly, this is just like Bendis trying to be the voice of each and every power player in the Avengers history. Your just deluding yourself into believing that these are the actual characters and not Bendis. Although the approach is novel, its not just holding up to my taste and I believe that its just a waste of what could have been added pages for an engaging story.
- Not enough Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Yes I mentioned that already in the first bullet point but hear me out. The couple has been kicking ass and taking names in their solo book and I think that element of their relationship should make it every month unless Bendis wants more of the dynamics of Luke and Jessica Jones.
Verdict:
The book’s story continues to engage and tickle the New Avengers fans fancy. I had a misconception from reading a few months back that this was going to deal with the more street level threats but it seems like this team of Avengers are doing more “Earth Shattering” stuff rather than the “big three’d” team who just runs around the timestream to show off John Romita Jr’s “astig” artworks.
I give this book a big A+
Earl Maghirang is the owner of thefanboyseo.com.
