New Avengers #27 Review

For the first time in what feels like forever, The Revolution actually enjoyed reading an issue of the Avengers. Of course, the fact that the last issue spotlighted one of my all time favorite Avengers in Hawkeye seriously helped. Other than finally giving some attention to Hawkeye, the Revolution has found Bendis’ Civil War tie-in issues to be absolutely dreadful. Is it possible for Bendis to turn out back to back good issues on the Avengers? Probably not. I have my doubts that Avengers #27 is going to be anything amazing. Let’s do this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Artist: Leinel Yu

Art Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 2 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 3.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Maya Lopez, otherwise known as Echo, sending an e-mail to Daredevil asking for his help. Maya was asked by the Avengers to stay in Japan and use her Ronin disguise to infiltrate the Yakuza in order to see if what was going on in the Japanese underworld was affecting the world.

Then the Civil War broke out and Maya realized that there was no longer an Avengers group for her to report back to. Maya didn’t know who to go to when she was ready to pull the plug on the Japanese underworld. Maya didn’t know who to follow. Captain America recruited her. Iron Man offer to stake her.

Maya then thinks how if Tony Stark lived in Japan then she would have probably already targeted him as a war profiteer. That seeing Tony Stark as she does know, Maya thinks that she hates him. That if Tony lived in Japan then Maya would have already sabotaged his tin can suit and probably sicced the Avengers on him. (That’s a good laugh. Like Maya would stand a snowball’s chance in Hell against Iron Man. Big bark from a little dog.)

Maya then decides that she doesn’t need the Avengers’ help. That she can do this by herself. However, Maya says that if Daredevil is getting this e-mail then it means that she failed. We then see Ronin crossing paths with the Hand and Electra one night. Ronin brawls with them and kills a bunch of the Hand ninjas.

Ronin and Electra then lock horns with each other. During the fight, Maya realizes that she can’t beat Electra. Electra ends up killing Maya in the exact same panel shot of when Bullseye killed Electra. (Original.)

We cut to Electra back at the Hand’s secret lair. Electra commands the Hand to bring Maya back to life. That they need her as a part of the Hand. Maya comes back to life and Electra tells Maya that she is a great warrior. Electra says that it was an honor to fight Maya and it will be an honor to fight along side of Maya.

Electra then orders Maya to be placed in a deep dark pit. There she will be indoctrinated in the ways of the Hand. Maya says in her e-mail to Daredevil for him to rescue her. That she doesn’t want to be brainwashed by the Hand. Maya begs for Daredevil to come for her. And if he can’t come for him to send someone else who can save her.

Suddenly, we see the Secret Avengers bust onto the scene. We have Spider-Man in his black costume, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, Spider-Woman and another Ronin. The Secret Avengers kick ass on the Hand ninjas. Luke Cage and Electra square off. Luke tells Electra that he has a message from Matt Murdock. That Matt told Luke if he saw her to give her this. And with that Luke kicks Electra in her vagina. (Ummm, ooookay. Right then. I really have nothing else to say about that at this moment.)

Spider-Man crawls down the pit and rescues Maya. Dr. Strange then transports the Secret Avengers out of the Hand’s lair. Electra staggers to her feet and orders the Hand ninjas that they know what to do. That the Secret Avengers must not be allowed to leave Japan. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: I can’t say that I enjoyed New Avengers #27. However, The Revolution’s Rule of Positivity commands that I must find something positive to say about this issue. There is no exception to the Rule of Positivity. Even if I am reviewing a Bendis Civil War tie-in issue.

Ok, so what did I enjoy about New Avengers #27. Hmm, let’s see. Well, we got treated to some pretty good witty banter during the fight scene at the end of this issue. Bendis is excellent at delivering fast paced witty banter. Plus, Bendis works in a little Star Wars reference with Spider-Man when he rescues Maya. I always dig any type of Star Wars references.

Ummm, let’s see, anything else? Hmm, well, Bendis managed to do a Civil War tie-in issue and not mention the Nazi Party or slavery. That is a big step for the little man. I’m impressed. Ok, I’m spent. That about completes what I liked about this issue.

The Bad: New Avengers #27 was absolutely amazing in how dull of a read it was. This issue sucked. I don’t know how else to say it. We got a ton of blah blah blah about a D-list hero involved in a totally undeveloped, pointless and nebulous mission in Japan.

Then we get “treated” to some generic fighting and get Maya killed by Electra in the same manner that Bullseye killed Electra. See, it was really mind blowing when Bullseye ran a sai through Electra back in the day. It was uneventful when Electra ran a sai through Maya. I honestly could have cared less. Actually, that isn’t true. I was actually psyched that maybe Bendis had killed off a pointless character in Maya.

Unfortunately, we then got treated to Maya involved in the Hand resurrection ceremony and then placed into indoctrination in the ways of the Hand. Wow. Original. Like we haven’t seen this done to a zillion characters before this. Honestly, at this point, who hasn’t the Hand killed, resurrected and tried to reprogram as one of their own?

I also didn’t dig Avengers #27 because I simply can’t stand Echo. Maya is just a totally lame character. I hated her the first time she hijacked Daredevil’s title when David Mack was doing the story and art. Yeah, that was really cool. Mack gave us a story arc that centered on Echo for four issues. No Daredevil at all. Just Echo. That’s right. You bought a Daredevil comic book and surprise! You got Echo instead. C’mon, that is why there is something called the mini-series. So lame characters like Echo don’t hijack another character’s title.

Any rate, sorry for getting off on that tangent. The point is that I find Maya one incredible boring and dull character. There is absolutely nothing about her that I even find remotely interesting. So, having to read an entire issue centered on her boring ass was mind numbingly tedious.

And this brings me to another rant. What is the deal with the lack of a single cool Hispanic hero in the Marvel Universe? Look at the cool black heroes in the Marvel Universe. You have Luke Cage, War Machine, Bishop, Black Panther and The Falcon. What do I get? Arana? Silverclaw? White Tiger? Echo? Talk about a seriously lame ass collection of characters!

And is there a chance for a cool male Hispanic hero? All we have is Rictor over in X-Factor and he doesn’t even have his mutant powers any more! Considering we are the largest minority group in America and the fastest growing group in America, you think Marvel could do better that the pathetic characters I just mentioned.

Sorry, got off on a tangent again. Anyway, Avengers #27 seemed totally pointless. Of course, it did provide Bendis the opportunity to engage in more character assassination on Tony Stark. Oh yeah, we get to read how Tony is a war profiteer. That Maya would have lumped him together with the rest of the criminals she is fighting in Japan. That she would have gladly killed Tony. That she hates Tony. Wow, Bendis just keeps doing his level best to totally misrepresent Tony’s character and do his best to drag Tony through the mud.

Maya is clearly one of Bendis’ pet characters, because there is no other reason a D-list hero like her would be in the Avengers otherwise. And it is painfully obvious that Bendis paints Maya as a sympathetic character that the reader is supposed to support. That is another subtle way of making sure that the reader hates Tony just like Maya does. That Maya is good and Tony is evil. I know, Bendis just can stop himself from bashing Tony’s character at any and every possible chance.

I get it already, Bendis. Enough. Tony Stark is evil. He is a Nazi. He is Iron Dick Cheney. Thanks. The horse you’ve been beating has been dead for about six months. That is just a puddle of glue at your feet, little man.

I really wish Marvel would place another writer in charge of the Mighty Avengers and limit Bendis to writing the New Avengers. That way we could get a real rivalry brewing between the two Avengers teams. With Bendis writing both you know that he will portray all the characters in the New Avengers as the sympathetic good guys and the characters over in the Mighty Avengers as tools.

If Marvel gave the writing duties for Might Avengers to the Knaufs or Millar or some other writer that likes and gets Tony’s character or at least is capable of being a professional writer and presenting the pro-registration side as something other than Nazis. then we could get a serious rivalry brewing.

Each writer would try and outdo the other. Each writer would try their best to cast their particular team as the good guys. Personally, I think the Knaufs would be great for this job. The Knaufs already have pretty much given writers like Bendis and JMS the middle finger with their work on Iron Man.

Unfortunately, we aren’t going to get that. Instead, we are going to get “treated” to more of Bendis’ fabulous handling of Tony Stark and the pro-registration side over in the Mighty Avengers. We get to look forward to more one-dimensional, poorly developed and totally un-compelling storylines. Sweet.

I found the Luke Cage/Electra scene to be absolutely bizarre on so many levels. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a female character get “nutted” before. And the reason for that is because they don’t have nuts. I would imagine that begin kicked in the vagina would hurt, but I never thought that it would be anywhere near the pain of a dude getting hit in the nuts.

And I just didn’t get why Bendis would have Cage kick Electra in the crotch. It didn’t make Luke Cage look cool or tough. Instead, it made him look more like a total bitch. What kind of guy kicks a woman in the crotch?

And why would Matt Murdock want Luke Cage to kick Electra in the crotch? Didn’t Electra show up in Daredevil during the “Murdock Papers” story arc to help her ex-boyfriend with his problems? And then in Daredevil #88, didn’t Electra and her Hand ninjas save Foggy from getting killed by some corrupt FBI agents and then tell him that they would be watching over him and protect him from anyone else? So, why again would Matt want Luke Cage to kick Electra in the crotch?

I just don’t dig Leinel Yu’s style of artwork. If this was Daredevil or some Vertigo style title then I’d probably have no problem with his style of art. It would work on some edgy dark off beat comic book. But on a big flagship super hero team title like the Avengers? Nope. It is totally the wrong style.

Overall: New Avengers #27 reverted back to the boring and painfully uninteresting Civil War tie-in issues that we have been treated to for what seems like an eternity. This issue pretty much was another wasted issue. I could care less about Maya and whatever she is doing over in Japan. Of course, if you dig Maya then you will most certainly enjoy this issue. If you enjoy how Bendis has been handling his past Civil War tie-in issues then you will also definitely enjoy Avengers #27. If you don’t fall into one of those two groups then I’d suggest you save your money and bypass this issue.