They tried to do the same thing for
Sentry: Fallen Sun, too. Will I like this issue any more...or less? From 2010,
the New Avengers: Finale #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis, pencils by Bryan Hitch and others, inks by Butch Guice, Andrew Currie, Mark Morales, and others.
I actually have read
Siege, and off the top of my head, the only things I can recollect are a pep talk for the bad guys that Asgardians were creampuffs and Thor was like their Spider-Man, the only tough one; and Norman Osborn unmasked in his Iron Patriot suit and found to be wearing...like Green Goblin facepaint underneath? It's a striking visual that does not make a helluva lot of sense: he had been crazy before, sure, but portrayed as a savvy master-planner always at least two steps ahead of everyone, not a drooling nutbag. This would be the end of Norman's time as everyone's villain and send him back to just being Spidey's. Anyway, with Norman under arrest, a ton of villains captured, and oh yeah, I guess Asgard had fallen? But, the New Avengers had been wanted by the law for quite a stretch, and weren't really sure if they still were at this point. Still, they were holding a grudge against the Hood, and even if he had lost his powers (again! How many times has that happened?) they had no intention of letting him rebuild power; either his own or organizational. The Hood had escaped with Madame Masque, who takes him to her dad, Count Nefaria, in the hopes of getting his powers back. Or some powers. Whatever. (I had mistakenly thought
Silvermane was Masque's father, or maybe wasn't going to let that get in the way of a joke!)
Weird, this would be two years before Bendis would shoehorn Count Nefaria into another attempt at a big finish,
Moon Knight #12. I suppose he's needed here so this isn't just a cakewalk for Ms. (Captain) Marvel, but the Avengers bring in everyone; which feels like should spell doom for the Hood, since I can't see him
not getting repeatedly shanked in prison. Steve Rogers is made "America's top cop," a title I don't miss. Their names cleared, and Luke Cage reunited with Jessica Jones and their kid, the team enjoys a rare walk in the sun.
This was the end of Bendis's long time with the Avengers. which was usually more miss than hit for me; even as he still has the occasional decent character beat; like Nefaria badmouthing the Hood, asking what Whitney saw in him. But, and I could say this was of its time, but it's also petty and mean? The Avengers go out of their way to intimidate and torture the Hood's cousin to get info (lightly torture, if there's such a thing) and their takedown of the bad guys is a bit over the top: Nefaria boasts of being immortal, so they bring Wolverine in to stab him a bunch? Moreover, I should enjoy Hitch art more than I do; but neither the Ultimates nor the Authority have aged especially well for me. Which I'm pretty sure wasn't his fault, but here we are. There's also a sizeable stretch of the story set under red lights, for...reasons? Like the colorist got it on sale? And then a pin-up section-slash-series retrospective by various artists, if that does anything for you.
1 comment:
That’s funny that said peptalk called Asgardians “cream puffs” considering Loki gave them all a significant power boost in order to wipe them out so easily. The only way the heroes won in the end (Besides Cap coming back) was the significant power boost they themselves got from the norn stones.
Bendis certainly enjoys the sound of his own voice on the written page doesn’t he? Sure one of his legitimate main strengths is writing believable dialogue, but he overdid it so often during his Avengers run that it became a monthly parody of a superhero comic.
Speaking of Dark Reign, overall it wasn’t so bad considering the bad guys were only allowed to run things for a year or so, unlike the Dark Reign that’s currently going on in our world. It’s bad enough it’ll probably last another 2 years, but it’s even worse that it’s a sequel to the first go round we had at this 😩
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