Comic Info
Comic Name: New Avengers (Volume 1)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Steve McNiven/Mike Deodato Jr.
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2007
New Avengers (1) #17
Reprinting New Avengers (1) #16-20 (April 2006-August 2006). When the Scarlet Witch ended the House of M and declared “no more mutants”, the power taken from the mutants seemed to disappear. When a man named Michael Pointer in North Pole, Alaska is hit from energy from space, the New Avengers find themselves facing a new enemy of immense power. Tearing through the countryside at a rocket’s pace, the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. must determine what the cause is and stop it before it is too late.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis, New Avengers Volume 4: The Collective is a Marvel Comics team-book collection. Following New Avengers Volume 3: Secrets and Lies, the series features art by Steve McNiven and Mike Deodato Jr. The issues in this volume were also collected as part of New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection—Volume 2.
I loved Marvel’s X-Men series, and House of M threw a big wrench in the series which took a lot of interest out of the titles for me. The New Avengers series also began to lose steam at this point. I had hoped that this storyline was the means to restore the mutants who lost their powers…but instead, it ends with a whimper.
New Avengers (1) #20
The series is really unbalanced. Certain events in the collection are rushed through and skimmed over while other parts are painfully drawn out. The fact that Bendis casually slaughtered Canada’s Alpha Flight (which had their own series which ran over one hundred issues) is a problem…because not only is it kind of disrespectful for the fans and the characters, but it also demonstrates the lack of significance of the storylines. You know Alpha Flight will be back and the death has no weight. It just feels like filler (and bad filler at that).
The House of M wasn’t very good itself, and this series had the opportunity to fix and clarify aspects of it. Instead, you get a limp expansion of the story with a few bits of resolution. It feels like New Avengers are just there to make time for the next event series (Civil War) while not thoroughly exploring the ideas presented by Pointer’s character. Pointer’s character went on to try to redeem himself, but it feels like New Avengers should have done a better job incorporating this new (and supposedly important) character into the Marvel Universe instead of just tossing him off at the end of the story.
New Avengers started out with such gusto and hope. I had liked Bendis work in the past and thought he had the potential to bring new life to the Avengers. New Avengers 4: The Collective just goes to show that was a mistake to assume that a writer known for small non-team character focused books could pull off a solid team book and big event series. Unfortunately, it took longer for Marvel to realize it than it took me. New Avengers 4: The Collective is followed by New Avengers 5: Civil War.
Preceded By:
New Avengers 3: Secrets and Lies
Followed By:
