Spoilers for New Avengers #50 by Brian Michael Bendis, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #4 by Eric Shanower, and Echo #10 by Terry Moore
New Avengers #50 by Brian Michael Bendis
It’s not overly surprising that the New Avengers didn’t face off against the New New Avengers. Obviously, that will be some extra big battle and probably what will bring down Norman Osborne. Maybe. People buy the big battles.
The comic does make you feel even worse for Spider-Woman and how she’s just so screwed. We’ll see how her comic coming out in June is. But at least it was an awesome combo of her powers and Ms. Marvel’s that got them out of the fight with the Red Hood’s gang (under Osborne’s paycheck).
While I thought Bendis writing everyone’s internal dialog was a little cheeky, it was fun and to see which artists were drawing who. I do think Wolverine’s thoughts were the weakest; whereas, I loved his Clint and Mockingbird. Bendis’ Spider-Man is also always hilarious. During the big fight, I also thought about how I’d completely buy a comic about the Red Hood and Madame Masque, but not the rest of them.
I loved Clint going to the media and making his exclusive with them. I loved it because it was something Steve Rogers would’ve done and is just another peak into how much Clint uses Captain America as his moral compass.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #4 by Eric Shanower
This is probably the weakest comic in the series. The meeting of the Wizard of Oz was never my favorite part in the book either so some of this weakness can definitely be blamed on the source text itself. It was cute like all the others; but after the five-star excellence that was issue #3, this just doesn’t live up to the rest of the title and leaves me a little disappointed, while still looking forward to the next issue.
Though I am glad that Dorothy pointed out how Toto was probably starving by now.
Echo #10 by Terry Moore
Echo is really getting back on track. Moore does an excellent job setting up Julie’s dilemma of who to trust more and more. I love how smart and smooth Ivy is, but how she’s starting to realize that she’s been lied to about the beta suit. She’s really great in a no bullshit, professional way, who’s still willing to bring Julie in by using Pam.
And holy cliffhanger! I was rather waiting to see this showdown. I’m looking forward to next issue and to keep getting back story and clues about just what Julie is becoming.
I thought ‘New Avengers’ was lots of fun, and since I really haven’t *enjoyed* any Avengers books since before Civil War, this is a really nice change. I really love Bucky-Cap being on this team — I think he’s a thousand times more interesting here than in his own book, just because we really get to see him interacting with people — and I’m of the opinion that, though Bucky’s wearing the cowl, Clint Barton is Captain America, until Bucky steps up and shows me otherwise. (I’m hoping this is a deliberate subtext of this book and not, “Hey, Clint blows everybody away with his awesome, he should have been Cap all along!”)
I sort of wish I’d stuck to trades with ‘Echo’ — I got the first one, and then new issues started coming out immediately. I may sit down and read it all together soon. In issues, it feels a little uneven, but I’m loving the sweep of the story overall, and this last was particularly great.
Haven’t read ‘Wizard of Oz’ yet, but I’m planning to get the trade (and hoping it might be appropriate for my niece as well).
@Caroline — I definitely agree that I hope Clint being Cap is subtext. I do think that since Civil War, there really hasn’t been a character building issue. And while Bendis does a pretty good job at event building, I think he particularly shines when it’s small issues, dealing with tight character building. I do think New Avengers has particularly suffered from “event fatigue” given how prominently it’s characters were featured in the really big crossover events.
I almost think that Moore’s writing is more suited to a graphic novel read than single issue. He is so involved in the intricacies of telling the story that it’s closer to a novel read than a one-off comic issue.
Wizard of Oz is a very child-friendly publication. It’s no scarier than the book or classic movie, and if you think your niece could handle that, she could definitely read these. Plus, the art is just adorable.