The New Avengers #26 - Mobile Edition

Marvel Comics
The New Avengers #26
By Hervé St-Louis
January 21, 2007 - 16:31

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller(s): Alex Maleev

Hawkeye is resuscitated for the second time by the Scarlet Witch and this time he wants some answers. When Marvel’s sorcerer supreme, Doctor Strange fails to provide sufficient information, the archer known as Clint Barton uses his detective’s skills to find Wanda Maximoff the mutant with the power to control reality and bring people to life. Can a chance encounter in the remote mountains of Wundagore help either?

The pacing of this story is slow and odd as one is reading a story with Hawkeye, not Daredevil. Hawkeye is a swashbuckling adventurer always on a merry go round and fill with strange and wacky encounter. This introspective story would be great, if the encounter with Wanda Maximoff had been treated with as much insight as the beginning of the story. Although we know, Hawkeye used to love the Scarlet Witch way back in the 1960s Avengers’ stories, the link that unites them today, in this odd story doesn’t even allude to that. The pairing of the two feels as the writer’s wet dream.

Mallev is a great artist and the cover offer hints of what makes him special. It feels like one of those Renaissance statue where the Virgin Mary was opening her arms and holding a wounded adult Jesus Christ. Well, for all the glory of the cover, the inside is almost as good. My main criticism concerns the rendering of Maximoff. She looks like Jean Grey. Maximoff is not Jean Grey. Where are the coarse curly hair and high cheek bones that have given the Scarlet Witch her renown gypsy look? Here, she looks Irish.

7/10

New Avengers #6