NEW AVENGERS #52
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: pages
Price: 3.99
I love The Office.
It’s
quirky and silly and everything that I would want in a non-traditional
sitcom comedy on network television. The driving force of the show is,
undoubtedly, the dialogue and interactions between the characters. It
just works. It doesn’t work for comic books. Now there are moments when characterization and
interactions similar to The Office work for superhero team books. Take
Guardians of the Galaxy for example; they even borrow the “candid
moment” technique so each team member gives their individual spin on
something. In this case it works. Why? Because a team like Guardians of
the Galaxy actually fucking does something in their book.
To this day I am still dumbfounded by the fact that New Avengers is
hailed as a flagship Marvel title and a definitive team book. Bullshit.
Comic book teams are supposed to be the go-getters, the mightiest
heroes, the ones that come striking down like lightning justice. I have
not seen that in who knows how long in this book. Month in, month out,
it’s just “talk talk talk talk – ‘Look at me, I’m Spidey!’ – talk talk.
Talk? Talk. Really? Talk talk. Talk…”
In fact, the only time we ever do see action in this book as of late is
when The Hood is around being awesome and interesting. These are the
only pages worthwhile in this book, since you get more of the same
office-meeting crap that we got from issue #51, only now it’s Doctor
Strange prattling on about whatever.
The art? Well, again, the art was nice during the Hood (& Madame
Mask) pages, but that’s it. The namesakes of this book are still
suffering from a severe case of Billtanititis, which causes cases of
face warps, scar-like markings, and a general fugly appearance. Good
thing it’s not as rampant as the Swine Flu.
I wish I could give this book an even lower rating, but the pages that
had included the Hood were just too good to look past. Once Jeff Parker
– mastermind behind Agents of Atlas and the newest volume of Exlies –
takes over Dark Reign: The Hood and schools Bendis in how to write the
New Avengers (in Agents of Atlas #5), the bald buffoon will have to stop slacking with his
water-cooler banter and actually get some work done.
Art: 2 - Average
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While I don’t share your venom, I do share your opinion that this series has grown dull over time. I find that the dialogue is fairly generic, which is to say that I don’t see a lot of unique turns of phrase or speech patterns. It reminds me of watching the West Wing, where everyone has the same pace of speech and general dialgue patterns. It’s interesting to watch for a while, but grows old quickly for me. I did enjoy the Hood sequences and would have rather read more pages of that storyline.
For future reference the ‘candid moments’ are called ‘talking heads’.
I like the dialogue, and that’s what Bendis does well. Unfortunately, action is not his forte. Fortunately Mighty Avengers came out this week to give me an action junkie fix. What’s also sad is that Mighty Avengers did more in one issue, even if much of it was off-panel, than either Dark or New Avengers have done in three or four. Maybe this is the status quo- New is introspective/U.S.-New York based, Mighty is global/action based, Dark is just bad guys being bad while trying to look good. If so, O.K., just be up front about it.
Couldn’t agree with your sentiments more. Though he’s obviously capable of doing great work (I loved his Daredevil), everytime I see the name "Bendis" I can’t help but associate it with endless, annoying hipster dialogue. I think it’s really a sad sign of the times that a book like New Avengers is the best-selling regular title in the industry. I think its sales and its appeal has to do with how much like a stupid sitcom the series reads like. This is comic booking that caters to people who like topical sitcoms; a lot of people like to watch those things, thus this title is a top seller. Is there any need for these characters to wear costumes or to have powers? I swear, there’s issues of this series where all people do is talk about their new apartments, and there’s typical baby momma drama. Half the time the characters may as well be the cast of friends. But put Chandler in spandex and you can sell it has a superhero title. These "heroes" rarely do anything heroic, nothing to attract the next generation of young readers. Instead this series is tailormade for 40-somethings still reading comics, so they can read new issues in-between watching the Office and 30 Rock. I love the comic book artform; all I see New Avengers doing is in effect saying "I can’t be much like a superhero comic anymore, so I’m just going to give up and take on all the motifs of the most typical tv shows." There are many titles that do this now, but no one is willing to make more sacrifices to cater to the middle-aged masses than Bendis.
One of the biggst books that DC put out in the late 1980s was JUSTICE LEAGUE. It was a huge seller. It also makes NEW AVENGERS seem like an ection extravaganza.
I read it when I was 10 and I loved it. Kids like talking too.