Comic Info
Comic Name: New Avengers (Volume 1)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Billy Tan/Chris Bachalo
# of Issues: 4
Release Date: 2009
New Avengers (1) #53
Reprints New Avengers (1) #51-54 (May 2009-August 2009). Doctor Strange has lost the title of Sorcerer Supreme and now he is trying to help find his own replacement. Unfortunately, the Hood and his master doesn’t intend to let a new Sorcerer Supreme be discovered. With the help the Avengers, Doctor Strange finds himself in a race against time…and a new Sorcerer Supreme will be chosen!
Written by Brian Michael Bendis, New Avengers Volume 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme is a superhero comic book collection. Following New Avengers Volume 10: Power, the issues feature art by Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo. The issues in this volume were also collected as New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection—Volume 4.
I haven’t enjoyed much of Brian Michael Bendis run. I held on to it for too long when it was new and going back and re-reading it further points to its weaknesses. I hadn’t read these issues when they were new, but of the New Avengers comics, I do enjoy it more.
The Avengers themselves are putting themselves in a position to go to war with Norman Osborn. Hawkeye finds himself facing off against Osborn and the conclusion of the collection has Hawkeye calling out Osborn to a public audience (something that Osborn has seemingly avoided most of the Amazing Spider-Man and with his tenure as the leader of H.A.M.M.E.R. It shows a plan for an end of Bendis’ Dark Reign storyline that wasn’t very cohesive to begin with.
New Avengers (1) #54
What makes this collection stand out a bit more is my love of minor characters. Even the Hood was on my radar back during his limited series (though I found Bendis ruined him as well). The appearance of Son of Satan (yeah, I still have a hard time calling him Hellstrom) and Brother Voodoo are pleasing…plus, Brother Voodoo finally gets his due in this volume. It is a bit too short, and I almost feel that Doctor Strange should have had a limited series to really do this storyline justice.
New Avengers is a problematic title because the issues often don’t stand on their own nor do they really flow together as a whole. The shortness of this collection is unfortunate and I wish that this story had been expanded upon (when other stories presented in New Avengers often feel too drawn out). I look forward to Brother Voodoo’s tenure as Sorcerer Supreme (though as a typical comic book reader, I know it won’t be permanent). New Avengers 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme is followed by New Avengers 12: Powerloss.
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