Great Pages: The New Avengers #31


There are certain events– usually national tragedies, unfortunately– that brand themselves on the surface of your brain with a hot poker in a way that ensures you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard about them. In this case, I had just bought my favorite book (among others) from the Fantasy Shop in Kirkwood on a Wednesday morning and had just enough time to read it before a meeting. I had heard a lot of whispers that this was the issue of The New Avengers that would change everything, but I had heard that before. And so it came to pass that, sitting in my car in the parking lot of the Anheuser-Busch visitor’s center, I had my soft little brain blasted out of my skull by Brian Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu.

“What?” I said, as I turned the page. “What?!

“What does this mean?” asked Iron Fist on the next page.

“It means I’m buying every frickin’ comic I can get my hands on!” I shouted at a piece of paper.

Yu’s style was rough and ready, and I had come to love it over the course of his arc on this book. I’m not sure anyone else could have depicted this revelation as starkly or as effectively. A year of delightful comics ensued. Yes, they did too.

Comments

  1. Yeah, this was a big “oh shit” moment. Good memories

  2. I just remember repeating Iron Fists line amongst various friends “What does this mean?” “I don’t know!”

  3. Yes, good stuff indeed…..I really liked all the Avengers stuff surrounding Secret Invasion and the Initiative and when the original Avengers all came back and they started that Heroic Age thing I didn’t/don’t see the need for “New” Avengers anymore, they’re not new and purpose for forming is no longer needed, if anything I thought there should have been two solid teams The Mighty Avengers (best title for the main squad) and then Secret Avengers as a black ops team was a good idea and is really good right now too, with those two teams they could’ve brought in the right members big and obscure and left characters like Spidey, Wolverine, Thing and DD for example to they’re own books instead of over using them in the Marvel U. Good stuff but thats my opinion to the aftermath and course I would’ve liked to see it run, anyone feel the same, or to a degree?

  4. Yu is great at drawing Skrulls the weird chins he puts on everyone doesn’t look out of place

  5. I mean… this one image recontextualizes the entire series. With the turn of a page, you get a whole new set of eyes; you can go back to the first issue and read the series anew for a second time. How often does that happen?

  6. Too bad this lead to one of the worst miniseries any comics company ever produced. It was a total waste of money and I then dropped Marvel completely following Secret Invasion.

  7. Swerves like this are a staple of the comics/tv/movie biz

  8. I was SOO stoked about this issue. This even got my friends reading comics for a bit. Then they all dropped off and now, again, only I remain.