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By Jason Bourgeois
So, the Civil War has ended at Marvel Comics. Most of the fears and predictions I posited in the previous installment of Grey Matters has come to pass, sadly enough. Including a few I didn't post about, because they seemed rather out there and while my gut said they would happen, I refused to believe it. Predicting Captain America's death was not something I wished to commit to having occurred to me, but it turns out it would have been quite the prediction to have made.
Since I last wrote those words, I have had some time to reflect on the new state of affairs in the Marvel Universe. While many of my feelings of uneasiness at this new status quo remain much the same, I do have to admit that despite the rather poor storytelling and hamfisted nature of Civil War, the playing field with which we have now been presented with is indeed an interesting one. On top of that, it's interesting in a good way, for the most part. It has set up a land where we are being introduced to new heroes and teams, as well as new ideas. It is treating the super powered beings as the true vigilantes they always have been, unless they register, and with Captain America's assassination, the realm of Marvel has become a place which is truly teeming with possibilities and unexpected events.
Which isn't to say I wouldn't love to have someone come along, wave their hands, and make the last year or so of storylines go away. The character of Iron Man has been almost completely ruined for me, having been turned from a troubled hero, into someone that is an utter bastard, starting wars and killing people in order to further his own goals and get his way. The man calls himself a futurist, but when one takes steps, especially ones across moral lines, to make that future happen, is that really being a futurist, or is it being an opportunist? I am also unhappy with super powered beings defaulting to the 'bad guys' and being chased around, sometimes by people who actually are villains. I covered that amply enough last column, though. Those concerns do remain, however, and they take some of what could be an interesting new set of rules to play with away from the post-Civil War MU.
One of the best things to come out of Civil War is one of Marvel's new titles, the Mighty Avengers.
Wait for it, I'm about to say good things about Brian Bendis. Why do I keep doing things like this when I know it will be mostly read on April Fool's Day, I don't know. I speak truth, though.
Ever since Brian took over the Avengers, things have felt wrong. Much of that was Wanda's manipulations, but a lot of it has come from his choice for Avengers. His initial team lineup for New Avengers was not terribly inspiring, and things only got worse with the post Civil War lineup. The team chosen for Mighty Avengers simply feels much more like the Avengers than they have in a very long time. Avengers isn't about the big guns of Marvel, or Cap, Iron Man, and Thor. There's simply a feel to an Avengers team, a quality about them. I'm not sure I can quantify just what it is, but the recent Avengers teams, you could look at them and just say, no. Those were not proper Avengers teams.
Brian has picked a very good team, with a mix of classic, recognisable Avengers, and a new face or two, making everyone feel at home with the new guys. There's Iron Man, naturally. The team is lead by Ms. Marvel, stepping up into the leadership role some would say she's been being groomed for since she first appeared. Wonder Man, Black Widow, Wasp, and Sentry round out the old guard coming along, although Sentry is newer than most, and was barely used in the New Avengers title. They've also brought Ares into the title, from Bendis' frequent partner Michael Avon Oeming's critically acclaimed Ares miniseries from a few years ago, which I quite enjoyed. He adds a nice level of power for the team, and is a wildcard for interesting interactions between characters, particularly with a woman leading the team.
Surprisingly enough, Bendis also manages to write quite an interesting story this time around. He's got a new playing field to set up, and he does it quite well, and spends the issue gathering his new team, which he does in a fairly standard manner, picking the 'best Avengers team possible' now that Iron Man has every superhero on Earth to choose from, and it works. This is an all-star team, without representing the big guns of the Marvel Universe. It may not be the most inventive way to start a new team book, but it does the job well enough.
To top it off, Bendis has been paired with one of the best artists in the business right now, Frank Cho. He's an expert storyteller, and his work is full of energy, and just straight up quality draftsmanship. Ok, sure. He draws his girls with big boobies, and flashes a bit of their rear ends a bit often. However, he draws them quite well, and they often times seem to fit on the way he draws his females. Frank tends to make them more muscular, suiting the larger bodies a superheroine might have. Not always, but sometimes. He's also quite good with facial expressions, even if his faces do have a distinct similarity to them. Good expressions seem to be almost a lost art these days, and Frank manages to bring it back to the fore, doing more than gritting teeth and shouting.
My only main complaint is the lingering Bendis style, which overrides anything he does. He has his verbal tics he puts in almost everything he does, and they still remain here. The quality of the overall product brings it up to a level where the Bendis nature is lessened for me, but I can still tell who it is writing this title.
Brian also brings back an old tool with this title, which I am glad to see making a comeback; the thought balloon. I felt that getting into a character's head was one of the unique things about comics, gave valuable insight into the character and their thought processes. With their loss in recent years, characters and their worlds have been kept at arm's length to the readers, and it has been harder to get to know these people. However, Bendis is using them in a way I don't really like. He's using them in Mighty Avengers to show what characters are really thinking, but he's using them to show when a character is thinking something different from what they're saying. This follows in with the usual Bendis tic of repetitious dialogue, adding an extra level of slightly varied repetition. Yes, I realize that might be somewhat contradictory. The other problem with it is that it was heavily used in this issue. Bendis has a new toy to play with, and he's going to town on the title. Hopefully, he'll settle down, and the joy of using his new technique will quiet down, letting this old tool being used in a new way be put to use when it is truly necessary, and not just Brian Bendis showing off the new thing he has to show off.
While there are some issues with the final product, this is probably the best Brian Bendis comic I've ever read, and I am definitely on board the book for the near future, as the cast is made of characters I am interested in, the writing has yet to offend, and the art is simply gorgeous. If this was the worst of the books that came out of Civil War, then the new status quo, and the story setting it up, will have been worth it to go through.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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