Avengers 27, Avengers Assemble 25

Avengers 27
Hickman (w) and Larroca (a) and F. Martin (c)

The Avengers are fighting the Avengers from an alternate universe, meaning that AIM has suddenly realized their responsibility in unleashing these Avengers on Earth and in losing their brand new super Adaptoids. It's not an enviable position for AIM and they certainly don't want to be tied into this whole situation. While the core of the Avengers fight their dopplegangers, Banner meets with the other Banner, learning that he's been lobotomized and had the part of his brain that recognized and enabled emotion removed. He no longer gets angry and he now turns into the Hulk by a remote control wielded by his Avengers, who act more as conquerors and slaughterers than heroes. Bruce decides to test the sociopath theory by striking him in the back with a wrench, believing that he still has the ability to Hulk. As the Avengers take down their counterparts one by one (along with shocking revelations like their Iron Man is a crazed Jarvis who killed Howard and a baby Tony and took the mantle himself and that their Captain America is actually a General), Hulk turns up, but all actions indicate that he's the other Hulk. Before anything can be conclusive or before the fight can be satisfactorily ended, AIM pops in and puts a temporal field around them, stopping time momentarily so they can capture the other Avengers and bring them back with no record of their interference. Meanwhile, the super Adaptoids have found AIM's multiverse gate and intend to enter it as explorers.

I'll be honest, I kind of keep forgetting this story is going on. That's not to say I don't like it. I think there is a lot to like here. The foes are interesting, seeing what the goal of these Avengers is has proven interesting, AIM's involvement is compelling enough, the dialogue and characters are working pretty well, etc. Still, I think the downfall of this series is that it started with such a boom, carrying multiple arcs that fit under the same umbrella for so long, that it's hard to parse it out into another story. I'm sure that will get better (and likely when the book starts double shipping again it will be easier) as we move forward but it is a little hard to keep this book straight. As I said, though, there's a lot to take away from this book and most of it is completely worthwhile. As a note, I'm not willing to go out there and speculate right now that the super Adaptoids who have just entered the multiverse to explore have anything to do with the Mapmakers or whoever else over in NEW AVENGERS because I have a blog to run and can't get into such speculation, but if everyone else wanted to go ahead and work up that theory and just give me the credit I'm sure I'd manage. FUN FACT: If you buy this book this week, it also comes with a free ALL-NEW INVADERS 1 at the end of it, so if you've been looking to check that out and maybe feel out AVENGERS for yourself, now seems like a prime opportunity. Or save your dollars for a fantastic issue of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN with a free copy of the also-fantastic BLACK WIDOW 1.

Avengers Assemble 25
DeConnick and Ellis (w) and Buffagni, Meikis, N. Edwards, and Ienco (a) and Redmond (c)

Toxic Doxie is on to her last AIM hideout, knowing that the Terrigen cocoon she's seeking is there and ready to strike some more retribution on the organization that attacked her and, in her eyes, stole her prize. The Avengers have been made aware of her attempts and go so far as to warn AIM (their newfound diplomatic immunity is proving irritating ALL OVER THE PLACE, says Cap) before sending out their own team to try to protect their enemies and recover the cocoon themselves. They burst into the hideout just after Covington and make their way through the AIM scientists that are still standing, leaving bodies and banter in their wake. Anya makes it to Doxie first, wearing a gas mask to protect her from a gas Covington's just dispersed that keeps the other Avengers out for the time being. A brief fight ensues and Spider-Girl comes out the victor, prepared by her various mentors over the last few issues. It's a complete success for the Avengers (though they weren't able to arrive in time to save all the AIM scientists and undoubtedly they'll all lose some sleep over that) as they apprehend Toxic Doxie and recover the cocoon. Steve tells Spider-Girl that they're available to her if ever she needs them and tells her that she'll fit in just fine with them, eventually sending her the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes ringtone she'd so coveted from Spider-Woman.

It's a fitting end to this book as we get to see a little bit of everything that this series built itself on. We see a team that enjoys being together and that works well together. We see a well-trained Anya managing to take down a villain by herself thanks to her preparation and skills. We see Spider-Woman and Hulk being friends, Hawkeye being taken down a few pegs, the Captains being leaders, Black Widow getting her information, and so on and so forth. It's a more classic superhero book with the team quipping and saving, unambiguously being heroes. I've repeatedly said throughout this blog that AVENGERS ASSEMBLE acts as the more mainstream, the more lighthearted Avengers title and now it's ended by putting a solid period at the end of that sentence. And as the book makes its rather sweet exit, so too does Kelly Sue DeConnick make a rather sweet exit from the book with a nice little poem, Goodnight Moon style. Goodnight, AVENGERS ASSEMBLE.

Avengers 26, She-Hulk 1

Avengers 26
Hickman (w) and Larroca (a) and F. Martin (c)

After the events in Perth right on the front end of INFINITY, AIM had managed to get DNA from many of the unconscious Avengers. Now they're putting it to use in the form of new and improved Adaptoids, which is never never never never NEVER a good idea and I don't know why everyone continues to think it is. More of the story from AVENGERS 25 comes to light as the new Adaptoids are set upon the dimension-hopping Avengers in the middle of New York right around when they're putting a big old crater into the city. The factions fight with the Adaptoids containing the majority of the Avengers, killing their Pym, and destroying the device that Wasp used to control Hulk. With that device destroyed, their Banner returns to his normal self and we can see that he's not really there of his own will. He wanders off and, realizing that he's in another dimension, makes for Avengers Tower in the hope that things are roughly the same there as in his world. It is and he runs across the other Banner. ANYHOW, the fight breaks up as the other Avengers flee the scene and the Adaptoids return home from testing. While AIM evaluates the information and the real Avengers try to put the pieces together, the Adaptoids do what they always every single time do and adapt, becoming something more powerful and gaining self-awareness.

I know, you were settling in to a story that was maybe a little LESS complicated than INFINITY. Sure, we had to deal with two different Avengers teams, one from some alternate dimension, but we can handle that, we're savvy, smart, regular AVENGERS readers, we had worse to contend with in issue one. BOOM, Adaptoids are back on the scene and they kind of look like Avengers, or like those toys that the back of every single Marvel comic seems to want us to care about, the ones where you can interchange parts to create an inexplicable new mash-up of a hero (GUYS, those things are clearly a scam and I don't have to tell you that but I kind of resent that this issue practically makes them canon). Anyway, things are a bit more complicated (though helped by the fact that the Adaptoids lose the mash-up Avengers look by the end of the issue) than they had seemed and now we're fully embroiled in a big story involving robots and AIM and parallel dimensions and SHIELD being terrible and multiple Banners. Geez, this got a lot bigger a lot faster than I anticipated.

She-Hulk 1
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c)

Jennifer Walters finds herself out on the street after leaving a terrible employment with a jerky law firm that, though she performed admirably in her year there, expected her to bring in more superhero clientele. She leaves the law firm (with the promise of intrigue about a "blue file" she's forced to take with her) but almost immediately picks up another case in the form of Holly Harrow, wife to the late criminal Jonas Harrow, who claims that her husband's designs were stolen by none other than Tony Stark and Stark Industries and that they haven't seen a dime of the money. She-Hulk promises to talk with Tony and get it worked out but ends up being routed through Stark's impressive and heartless legal counsel. Unable to actually reach Tony, Jen ends up in court with Stark's men, who are content with simply delaying the case for as long as need be. She-Hulk manages to go to Jonas' old warehouse, filled with weapons and old tech, and find the evidence she needs, a tape recording of Harrow's meeting with one of Stark's engineering heads. She brings the evidence straight to Tony, preferring to fight through robots that try to keep her from reaching him in the matters of legal counsel and shows Tony the evidence. Tony hadn't been trying specifically to keep her out but anything to do with "legal matters" has been practically automated so he didn't even know about the case. She finally talks with him and he agrees to send a sizable check to Holly, who pays She-Hulk a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for her help. Jen quickly uses the money to set up a law office of her own in New York.

I called an audible here, folks. Hopefully I'm able to get my hands on SECRET AVENGERS in order to slot it where SHE-HULK had previously been slotted (second post Thursday, see, I have a plan typically). Anyway, this was worthy of making its way to a day-one review as Charles Soule brings the same sort of fun and natural dialogue and exquisite characterization that he's brought to his other current major Marvel product THUNDERBOLTS (hoping for similar results when he kicks off INHUMANS). Jen has a definite personality here, one matching the confidence and competence she's always brought to the table but one that ultimately distinguishes itself from its past. It's a smart book with a fun core and one that I think really has a lot of potential. Not too often we get a rip-roaring legal tale (though it's one of television's favorite genres) with a confident and powerful superhero as its star. I mean, not too often ASIDE from DAREDEVIL. Look, it's still pretty fun is all. Check it out. Should be fun.