MIGHTY AVENGERS #12

Review by: RaceMcCloud

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I want everyone reading to be able to say they heard it here first, so pay attention: when all is said and done, when Bendis’ career is wrapping up (hopefully a very, very long time from now) it will be said that the “Secret Invasion” saga was his masterpiece.

This will only stand true, of course, if he pulls off everything he is promising to pull off, and after the first issue of “Secret Invasion” and after “Mighty Avengers #12”, I have every reason to expect that he will.  This ultimate artistic merit of what is being attempted here rests not in the main “Secret Invasion” book, but in the success (creative, not financial) of issues like this.  The scope of what Bendis is attempting here could ultimately redefine the whole idea of the comic book mega-event, and I have to imagine that his own plot diagrams and planning webs for his “Secret Invasion” saga look somewhat like Rip Hunter’s chalkboard from DC’s “52”.  In fact, I sincerely hope for a glance into Bendis’ planning of “Secret Invasion” in a definitive hardcover or collection of hardcovers that package together all of his “Secret Invasion” tie-ins in chronological order.  And think about how far those tie-ins go back.  It seems that everything Bendis has published for the past five years (save “Powers” and “Ultimate Spider-Man”) may have included some “Secret Invasion” plot thread.  In the end, what will decide the creative success of this endeavor is how neatly he ties all of those threads up, something he has promised to do by story’s end.

What most impresses me with his effort is that it is the work of one writer.  DC’s upcoming “Final Crisis” promises to be about the “Great Disaster”, a prophecy that has been floating around the DCU since the seventies, and is a story that has longtime DC fans rightly excited.  What I admire about Bendis as a practitioner of his craft is that he is attempting something similar almost entirely by himself (although clearly with the support of the rest of Marvel’s creators, save Ed Brubaker, in the midst of his own work of comic book greatness, the “Winter Solider/Death of Cap” saga).  The roots of “Secret Invasion” do not run as deep as “Crisis” lore, perhaps, but they are potentially just as tangled.  What’s exciting is the prospect that we are in the midst of watching a plot-crafting wizard tie himself up in knots, only to miraculously escape unscathed.  There are plenty of months for “Secret Invasion” to go right or wrong, of course, but the early returns are very good, and if “Mighty Avengers #12” is any indication of how things will go (and I need to take a moment to sing the praises of some absolutely amazing Maleev pencils; love Fury’s reflection in the doorknob early on), anyone skipping at least the Bendis-penned crossovers is really going to be missing out, and anyone who didn’t read “Secret Wars” or the “Avengers” titles for the past several years would do well to go back and take a look-see now.  This could well be one for the ages.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

Comments

  1. hear!  hear!  nicely said.

  2. Pick of the Week!

  3. I thought this was a terrific read. My only problem was with the artwork. Now, I LOVE Alex Maleev. I think he’s terrific and i loved his work on Daredevil. My complaint is that Mighty Avengers is supposed to be the big, colorful book and New Avengers is supposed to be the dark, gritty, more espionage type book. Shouldn’t this have been an issue of New Avengers? If you were to take out the entire run of Mighty Avengers and read it back to back i one sitting, this one issue would be very jarring.

     

    But that being said, I DID love it. Am I nitpicking? Yes. It’s just that it thew me off a little when i opened it up. But hey, it was a great comic, and I guess I can’t complain about that!

     

    I agree with what you say: Secret Invasion is shaping up to be BMB’s masterpiece. 

  4. @JohnVFerrigno – It has been said in many places, and I agree with you, that this felt more like an issue of "New Avengers" than "Mighty Avengers".  I get the feeling that for the next eight months, however, the words "New" and "Mighty" will be irrelevant, as both books will just be used to further the storytelling of "Secret Invasion". And like you said, if that’s done as well as it was done here, I’ll find it hard to mind.

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