Avengers World 3, New Warriors 1

Avengers World 3
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and F. Martin w/ Fabela and Delgado (c)

With the nation of Madripoor raised up on an ancient dragon's back at the hand of Gorgon, Shang-Chi summons all of his strength to fight a much greater opponent. Shang does what he can, fighting in the dark to avoid Gorgon's gaze and, when that fails, using Gorgon's own torch to blind him, and drawing on the power, boldness and resilience of three of his predecessors (whose stories we see briefly as they flash through Shang's mind). In the end, though, it's not enough and he falls to Gorgon, who walks him to the edge of the moving landmass and drops his limp body off.

Not much by way of summary here because there's not too much to summarize. What there is a lot of, though, in this issue is characterization for Shang-Chi, an often forgotten (if somewhat reasonably) member of the Avengers. The book's writing and its focus on Shang as someone who connects deeply with his past and his heritage as well as on his own makeup and his own fortitude is what really drives this issue. And it works, thankfully. It's a pretty quick read and it's worth picking up, at that, even if what you get is a long fight scene that doesn't necessarily provide any new information. I don't know guys, this is a pretty weird one to review. I can't really point to anything that's particularly great about it but I'd definitely slide it to the "pick this issue up" side of the pile over the "worth a miss" side. Stefano Caselli's art is, as ever, impressive and Frank Martin brings his A-game to an issue that relies heavily on dark and on fire to set its tone. Solid work, overall, not a real game-changer of an issue but they don't all have to be, do they? It's the journey. If you want more Shang-Chi after this issue, well, you won't have long to wait. On top of me speculating he's probably not dead by issue's end, he'll be appearing in a new miniseries brought to us by Mike Benson and Tan Eng Huat (he of X-MEN LEGACY fame) in May called DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU.

New Warriors 1
Yost (w) and To (a) and Curiel (c)

Speedball and Justice are still dedicated to re-forming the New Warriors and, though they haven't really picked up supporters beyond an on-call and very hesitant Nova, they've set out to start righting wrongs. They start in New Salem, home of the Salem's Seven and their leader Vertigo. Justice and Vertigo get to talking and Justice learns the history of New Salem, a refuge for the magical born. As they talk, they're surprised by robots (Iron Man-esque robots) descending on the town to destroy what they call "half-breeds." Justice and Vertigo aren't the only ones running into this problem as Sun Girl runs into the robots attacking some mutated peoples in the subway lines of New York, and Nova runs into them in New Mexico, where we find that the robots are Evolutionaries and are led by what seems to be the High Evolutionary himself. Scarlet Spider and Aracely, meanwhile, find themselves on a beach in Mexico that is suddenly full of dead Atlanteans and Faira Sar Namora of Atlantis looking for heroes.

Geez, first issue and Yost didn't waste any time covering ground. We've met just about all of our players and, in good comic book form, they've all run afoul of the same enemy. This team should be assembled in no time and, though we knew plenty of the players well in advance, it seems like it will be a really fun one to watch. One of the things I've really liked about Chris Yost is that, on top of writing stellar ongoing titles like SCARLET SPIDER, he seems able to slot into just about any book for an issue or two and can write just about any character pretty well for whatever story he intends to tell. That will be put to the test here as he wrangles plenty of different heroes from different ends of the fame spectrum, ranging from new and unknown to older and unknown to older and moderately known to newer and moderately known. What I'm saying, guys, is that this isn't the Avengers and Yost isn't aiming for it to be. Justice even says that he's not sure there's room for the New Warriors in a world with the Avengers. All the more reason for everyone to check this book out. Even if you're not familiar with all the characters (I'm certainly not, particularly when it comes to the Salem's Seven), it's a quick read and one that explains just about everything you have to know for now within its pages without having to bog you down with exposition. Very well-handled and should be a refreshing read issue to issue.

This week's picks

Solid week for comics this past week. There were 15 new issues out for review and nearly every one of them was interesting or worth reading for some aspect or another. Can't complain when that's the case. Still, I'm only to pick three of those issues for this, the most elite pull list recommendation I can muster.

Hawkeye Annual 1

One of the stand-outs about Hawkeye throughout its current run is just the impressiveness with which it's been constructed. Every issue jumps around in time a little bit or jumps around in time with the rest of the series. It's never so excessive that you can't follow what's happening but it's enough to keep you on your toes and to break up a regular narrative. More than that, it's great to let us in further to how the characters are feeling. The time will often jump around to indicate how a person is feeling or to go to a memory that spawned the current situation or mirrors an emotion the character may be feeling now. Hawkeye Annual does that a lot with Kate (double size issue means it can happen twice as often) and it works really well. We get a look into who Kate is and why she does what she does, which has been left out a lot of most books Kate has appeared in. On top of that, it's a really good story with really good characterization and a very nice theme for everyone's favorite Hawkeye. Javier Pulido gives us outstanding and different art from the rest of the series (minus the two issues he was the artist on) and it works really well for the change of pace Annual. Solid book all the way around.

New Avengers 8

I'll be honest, this book was the closest it's probably ever come to not making this list. It was a bit of a slower issue than we've seen (which is saying something, as there's a major war breaking out and an alien invasion in its pages) and there was a lot of steady competition. Ultimate X-Men, Captain America, Uncanny Avengers, Superior Spider-Man, and Scarlet Spider all had a shot at this spot but I think my love for Black Panther and Namor fended off the rest of the entries. One of the things that's always fascinated me about Black Panther, Namor, and Black Bolt was that they were mostly heroes to the world but, while that's a role that they play, it's not the role that they play. They're kings and they owe first to their people. Black Panther cares about the world at large and about the Avengers and so forth, but his decisions are made for the people of Wakanda first. He's the best example because he's the one with the least resentment towards humanity. Here we see some of the weight of being king as he understands what the best path would be for the people but he must cede to the will of his sister, the actual queen of Wakanda (T'Challa is the King of the Necropolis right now, officially). The weight of power is something that every member of the New Avengers feels and it shines through here best with Panther and Namor.

Young Avengers 8

This book continues to be one of the best Marvel has. From its nicely defined character relationships (that still have more defining to go) to its intricate plots and intriguing villains to its cheeky writing loaded with equal parts fun and weight to its absolutely amazing art every single issue, Young Avengers has everything you could want out of a comic book. This issue saw multiple universes, which was all very fun before delivering three could-be book endings. Any one of the last three to four scenes could have been used as an ending to the issue but it just kept pushing forth. It wasn't an ending that pushed on too long, either, like in the best example for that, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, wherein the movie ends about eight times before it plods on to the chagrin of the watcher. Here, each ending just ups the stakes for the characters before they move on. No one could say that this book continues past its welcome as every issue, and this one is no different, feels like it ends far too soon. I've read this series issue to issue, obviously, but I imagine this is a great one to read in trade form. So if you're not buying this book on a regular basis (mistake), pick up the trades when they become available. It has the feel of a series that reads well continuously. And that reads well in general. Just a good series, you guys.


Character of the Week

New segment for me because I had a whole load of best-panels/best-pages but they were all spoilery from, well, pretty much from Young Avengers, which also had the best cover and guys, I didn't want to oversaturate all of you. I still am going to, given who I'm picking for character of the week, but whatever. Character of the week is just, to me, the character who had the most impact on a given week. In this case, it was almost Captain America, who had a huge week in his own book, obviously, but also a bit of a revealing one in Uncanny Avengers. That's the gist of it. However, the real winner is, of course, Kate Bishop who had a fantastic starring role in Hawkeye Annual and a solid narrator/co-starring role in Young Avengers. I'd love to see more from her in Young Avengers but being the leve-headed one in such an eccentric group probably means she needs to talk more in authority situations than in the typical situations the YA find themselves in. Still, she has solid heart in this book as she breaks down for the audience the way that the team has been dealing with the horrors they've seen and there's a nice moment between her and Noh-Varr about who Oubliette the Exterminatrix is when they run afoul of yet another Earth a different Noh-Varr had conquered. Solid performance out of Kate this week and it's nice to see her strong re-emergence in the Marvel Universe after a couple years off (well, not including Children's Crusade, I guess, which merely felt like it took nine years to come out).