This is not the best Bendis written Avengers book, that honor belonging to either Prime or New, but it still remains a solid, well done read. Now I am big John Romita JR fan, but I have to admit that the last few issues of this series where not the best showcases of his work. For whatever reason, whether new inking or more time, the art takes a real upswing in this issue, especially when Romita is called on to do several of those ‘everybody and their uncle’ two page spreads that remain a favorite of both mine and, judging by his previous work, George Perez. This issue its the writing that takes a hit, with neither the stand out character banter of new or the strong character work of Prime. There are moments of both, quality moments at that, but they tend to get drowned out in the overall chaos. What the writing does do well is capture the chaotic nature of the time travel insanity that the current storyline is focused around. Lets be honest, Bendis’s biggest weakness as a writer has always been when he is force to deal wit the kind of over the top epicness (patent pending Scott Pilgrim) that is the hallmark of Superhero comics. He is getting better though, with each major event or action driven storyline he has done being better than the last. Which is where Avengers comes in. To me, this seems the big where Bendis has decided to just cut loose and get as crazy he will be allowed to get in a mainstream comic book. Some growing panes are to be expected, and lets be clear, even at its worst, Avengers #4 is miles away from anything resembling a bad comic. Its just that Bendis is currently setting the Avengers bar higher in his other books, which causes this one to suffer by comparison.