Mighty Avengers Vol. 2: Venom Bomb

Collects Mighty Avengers #7-11 written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Mark Bagley.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first volume of this series, and therefore I was really looking forward to this one, even though Frank Cho is off the book. Therefore I was really disappointed to find out out that this is no way near as good as the first one, in fact, it's not very good at all.

Venom Bomb contains two stories that are vaguely connected. In the first story all people on Manhattan turn into symbiotes and Mighty and New Avengers must join forces to save the day. In the second story the Mighty Avengers and their S.H.I.E.L.D. friends invade Latveria (it turned out the symbiotes were created by a virus of Latverian origin), and Iron Man, Sentry and Doctor Doom go back in time and slug it out while the rest of Mighty Avengers are busy fighting Doom's forces. Although the back of the book wants this to be Secret Invasion-related, there is almost nothing here related to that event, as far as I can see.

There are many problems with this book, lets start with the script-related ones. The more a writer wants the reader to feel that a situation is really serious, the more pages are required to set up this feeling. You cannot save the world within the time frame of a tv commercial, and expect your audience to be gripping their seats all the way through. For the reader/viewer to grasp the seriousness of the situation buildup is required, and buildup takes time. The first story, the symbiote one, sees Manhattan in a dire situation which takes two teams of Avengers to solve. This story is told in one issue (and a couple of pages). Needless to say, I never got around to feeling the direness of the situation before it was all over. I think the idea of having Manhattan swarmed by symbiotes and having the two teams team up is good, but it is really badly executed here. Usually Bendis seems to have a good grasp on pacing, but this is an obvious exception.

The problem with the second story is not one of pacing, but one of focus. Mighty Avengers is a fairly new title, and one of the things I found most interesting in the first book was the team dynamics and the storytelling tricks Bendis used to describe these (e.g. lots of thought bubbles and such). There's a little of that here as well, but it simply feels like a sad recap of the first book, and it doesn't add anything to the story here. But what I disliked the most is that Bendis decides to split up the team in the second story, so only Iron Man and Sentry have any kind of significance to the story. Iron Man even has his own book and it's not like Sentry hasn't had his share of spotlight the last couple of years, so why the hell should these two be the only ones in the story? I expect Mighty Avengers to be a team book, and therefore it disappoints me to see a story that doesn't benefit from having access to the characters on the team.

The last thing I want to comment on is the art by Bagley. Bagley is no Cho. He may be a great Spider-Man artist, but I was disappointed by his contribution to this book. Marvel has access to some really great talent such as McNiven, Yu, Finch etc., and I would expect talent of that caliber to be applied here. I mean, Mighty Avengers is supposed to be Marvel's premiere team, so the editorial staff should treat them as such. I should note that the sequences that take place in the 80's are actually well done. For these sequences Bagley changes his style to something that reminded me of 80's Byrne. I wonder why he doesn't always draw this way, because it looks much better than his usual style.

I was disappointed with this book, it's not up to Bendis' usual standards. Fortunately, I know that the talented Khoi Pam will be taking over the art from the next book, and longer down the track Slott will take over the writing, so there's definitely hope yet. I think it's a shame for the series that the second volume is such a misstep, but I expect this to be rectified very soon. Of course, that doesn't save this particular book from a hard case of mediocrity.

4/10

Mighty Avengers Vol. 1: The Ultron Initiative

Collects Mighty Avengers #1-6 written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Frank Cho.

The Avengers are back! Not the new beat working-in-the-shadows New Avengers, ooh no. This is the Avengers as we know them, facing off against the best villains the MU has to offer with the stature of a real powerhouse team. Iron Man, newly appointed leader of Shield, decides to build a new team of pro-registration Avengers and chooses Ms. Marvel as their leader. Together they assemble a team of old and new faces and immediately they're thrown into battle against a new version of Ultron, this time appearing in female form (and nakkid!).

Pretty much the whole book is about the Avengers fighting Ultron, and I probably won't reveal too much by saying that they do win in the end. But this book is not so much about Ultron, although the story is pretty good, this is about the characters - what they think, what they say and how they interact. In a stroke of genius, Bendis reintroduces the thought bubble, and uses this to reveal to us what each of the characters actually think of the others, and it's not all nice! My favorite example is Hank Pym's conversations with Ares, whom he obviously thinks of as very intellectually challenged and refers to as Thor-Lite.

In spite of all the big muscles and great action, this book is really about the characters. Before reading the book I was sceptical about the new roster, but Bendis makes it work to perfection with great characterization. Not using classic Avengers characters, such as Thor and Cap, gives Bendis the freedom to do whatever he wants with the team, and to create an as of yet unseen team dynamic for the Avengers.

So the Avengers are back and they are the powerhouse of the MU, as they should be, but they are different. I remember reading The Ultimates and thinking "Wow, wouldn't it be cool if MU Avengers was like this!". Bendis manages to give Mighty Avengers the same kind of coolness factor, while still infusing the book with it's own voice.

Cho is an excellent choice as the artist for this book. His clean line work and detailed panels make the Mighty Avengers seem that much more mighty, while at the same time showing the darker side of the characters just as well. Cho's action scenes are epic and his conversation scenes are filled with atmosphere. When leafing through the book you really notice the attention to facial expressions that Cho is putting into his work.

I'll recommend this book to anyone with a taste for super heroes. Not only does this book re-establish the Avengers right in the center of the MU, Bendis and Cho also re-restablish the Avengers as one of the Marvel books you just need to read. So go get it now!

9/10