Wow, I have to
say I was really impressed with this issue. Honestly, I’ve been enjoying the
main story of Marvel’s current summer event book Fear Itself, but have been less impressed with some of the tie-in
books and that extended to Avengers
first tie-in issue last month. Luckily, the events of Fear itself #3 allow for some really great months in #14 that marks
what I would call the best issue of this volume of Avengers yet.
Most, if not all, of what makes
this issue great is Brian Michael Bendis’ writing. As far as comic book writers
go, Bendis can be extremely hit-or-miss, especially as of late as noted in my
review of New Avengers #13 last week.
Luckily, this issue knocks it out of the park and that is largely due to the
pathos that Bendis manages to write into the story. Most of this issue is made
of the talking heads (a strong suit of Bendis’) of various Avengers discussing
their
thoughts on the events of Fear
Itself after the fact. In last month’s issue, I didn’t much care for this
technique but it works much, much better here as it is used to frame the events
of the “present” that are also shown. These events exclusively follow what happened
in the aftermath of The Thing receiving one of the Serpent’s “Worthy” at the
end of Fear Itself #3 and the damage
he has caused and how the Red Hulk attempts to stop him.
Maybe for the first time, Bendis
shows the reader just how devastating, both physically and emotionally, these
Worthy can be. Unlike most of the other Worthy, The Thing is a good guy through
and through and the Avengers are all close friends to him. Bendis gets this
just right by making it abundantly clear how affected and saddened these heroes
(read: people) by seeing their friend rampage so out of control, especially
once he does something that I won’t spoil here
that should hopefully have some sort of lasting effect on the Avengers
post-Fear Itself so long as it isn’t
instantly fixed. The Thing’s tale intersects with the story of the Red Hulk, as
the Avengers put it, proving himself as a real Avenger. I have to admit that I
have come to really enjoy the Red Hulk as a character and Avengers #14 shows just how much he has changed since his first
appearance. It is a strong showing on his part and on the part of the Avengers’
as they reflect on the events.
Unfortunately, I cannot praise the
art as highly as the story. I’ve made my opinions on artist John Romita Jr.
clear before and it is not changed much here, though it is somewhat better than
normal. His characters still look incredibly stiff and flat and this makes for
some very bland looking art. It takes a very good artist to be able to make
panels upon panels of nothing but talking heads look visually exciting and
Romita fails at that. He does a poor job of conveying the emotions that
dialogues make abundantly clear that the characters are feeling and they make
these parts almost boring. His action scenes don’t fare much better as they
look awkward at best and his blows carry little weight with them, a fact he
tries to make up for with exaggerated violence that looks out of place; Red
Hulk versus The Thing should have been epic, but instead looks like an odd
dance when many of the punches don’t even seem to connect. However, I do have
to give credit for his depiction of the destruction in New York everything does
look sufficiently destroyed as it should and you really get a sense of the
level of carnage in the streets as buildings collapse. It’s a shame the rest of
the issue couldn’t look that good.
Regardless of how you feel about
the art in Avengers #14, as some out
there may very well love it, you should definitely check out this issue. It
really gives off the sense of despair and loss and event book should but rarely
does and, for those that feel like they never understood why he was so big, it
shows Brian Michael Bendis at his best. Even if you don’t care about Fear Itself, any superhero reader should
not pass up this issue, even if the art drops the book down a few notches at
times.