New Avengers #48 Review

Now that Secret Invasion has concluded and Dark Reign is getting cranked up I am hoping that New Avengers improves in quality. For the most part, this title has been a rather pedestrian read since the end of Civil War. And it would be nice to get a story that involves the actual team the Avengers rather than just a series of spotlight issues focusing on a member of the team and most often that one being Luke Cage. Let’s keep a positive attitude and hope that Dark Reign signals a fresh new era on New Avengers. Let’s hit this review for New Avengers #48.

Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Pencils: Billy Tan
Inks: Matt Banning

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with the scene of the battle from the end of Secret Invasion #8. Captain America whispers something to Clint. Clint agrees and then whispers the same message to Spider-Man. Spidey then tells Iron Fist. And Iron Fist tells Wolverine. And Wolverine decides on his own to tell Spider-Woman.

We cut to the Bronx the next day. We see Spider-Man quietly following Wolverine from above. Wolverine walks through a brick wall outside of Bucky’s warehouse condo. Amazing Spider-Man then works up the confidence to swing his way through the holographic brick wall as well.

Inside Cap’s condo are Wolverine, Clint and Mockingbird. Clint explains to Spidey that the new Captain America is Bucky. Spider-Man asks “And we think he is not a Skrull because?” “Because we are done with them.” replies Clint. (And I hope this is Bendis signaling to the reader that we will never have to sit through that wildly entertaining and original mind numbing “You’re a Skrull! No, you’re a Skrull!” dialogue.)

Clint introduces Spider-Man to Mockingbird. Spidey comments how he and Mockingbird had a couple of team-ups before she “died.” Mockingbird admits to having a tough time with being back on Earth. She states that she has lost years of her life and that the entire world has changed. Clint is all Zen and relaxed and tells Mockingbird to sit back and enjoy that she is back. Clint then adds that he will also probably sit here and steam that they lost Janet as well.

Spider-Man starts rambling about how crazy the end of Secret Invasion was. Wolverine asks Spidey if he has seen the news. Spidey answers “No.” Clint asks what is on the news. Before Wolverine can answer Iron Fist appears on the scene and asks if any of them have seen Luke. They all answers that they have not seen Luke since the battle ended.

Suddenly, Spider-Woman enters the scene. Spidey, Iron Fist and Clint are less than happy that she is here and they ask her what she is doing here. Wolverine answers that he invited Spider-Woman here. Wolverine says that Jessica did not do anything. That the Skrulls kidnapped her and replaced her. Spider-Woman stammers that she came here because she had nowhere else to go.

Spider-Woman continues that SHIELD has folded. That is why none of them were interrogated after the conclusion of Secret Invasion. Spidey asks if anyone else is going to show up. Wolverine answers that Luke Cage and Ms. Marvel will probably be here as well.

Then Captain America makes his dramatic entrance. Cap states that the world needs the Avengers now. Maybe now more than ever. Cap says that he knows that Steve Rogers put this team together and that Steve would have been proud of them. Cap says that his warehouse condo is their home as much as it is his. That there are plenty of rooms, a place to work out and that they can come and go as they please.

Iron Fist says that he cannot be a part of the Avengers right now. That the Secret Invasion ruined the economy and that Iron Fist has to tend to his corporation. Iron Fist tells them that if they need anything then to call him and that he will be here.

Suddenly, Luke, Jessica and Ms. Marvel enter the scene. Luke yells that Skrully Jarvis kidnapped his baby. Wolverine states that the Skrull must have taken Luke’s baby as a hostage in order to have something to barter in order to get off this planet in one piece. Wolverine continues that the Skrull knows that the baby is only good to him alive. Luke begs the team to help him find his baby.

We cut to the New Avengers arriving at the Baxter Building. They ask Reed for his help trying to track down the baby. Reed fires up his Skrull detector that he built during the war. Reed says that the entire country is in code red which means the airports are shut down and the bridges in and out of New York are closed. That means Skrully Jarvis might still be in the city unable to escape.

Reed hacks into some intelligence satellites and says that there have been no Skrull sightings. Reed says that his Skrull detector will notify them if a Skrull shape-shifts anywhere in New York. However, if the Skrull does not shape shift then they might not be able to find him.

The New Avengers then head out into the city to search for any information about the kidnapped baby. Iron Fist and Spider-Woman beat up some Hydra agents. Human Torch and Invisible Woman appear to be questioning mole men. Wolverine beats up Electro for information. (Really? That is the villain you are going to shakedown for information about a Skrull with a baby?) The Thing roughs up some super villains at a bar.

We shift to a bar full of SHIELD agents. They are all getting drunk and bemoaning the fact that SHIELD has been shut down. One of the SHIELD agents, Dave, is really drunk and rants how he will never work for a psycho like the Green Goblin.

Suddenly, Wolverine, Luke Cage and Jessica enter the bar. Wolverine points at a female SHIELD agent and says “You. Stand up.” The female SHIELD agent stammers that she just wants to be one of the humans. All the SHIELD agents draw their weapons. Jessica asks the female SHIELD agent if she knows where her baby is. The Skrully SHIELD agent turns into her Skrull form and runs from the bar.

Luke and Jessica then attack the Skrull and keep her from escaping. Jessica pleads for the Skrull to tell her whatever she might know. The Skrull at first says that she cannot tell them, but then she changes her mind. However, just as the Skrull was about to tell them the location of the baby, Dave, the drunk SHIELD agent, fires his gun and blasts a bullet into the Skrulls head and kills her. Dave says “Go to Hell, Skrull.” The other SHIELD agents hi-five each other. (Wow. How dumb are these agents? Did they not hear anything Jessica was saying? I mean, there is drunk and then there is drunk.)

Jessica begins crying that the Skrulls are going to kill her baby. Luke looks broken hearted.

We cut to Luke in a dark room talking to someone off panel. Luke asks the person if they have kids. The person says “Yes.” Luke continues that the person must understand how Luke is feeling. The person says “Of course.”

Luke continues that he came here to ask for help. Luke says that he has done everything possible to find his baby. Luke says that he will do whatever the person off panel wants. That Luke will repay the person off panel is any way that they want.

The person off panel asks Luke if he will sign with him. Luke says “Yes.” The person off panel asks if they have a deal. Luke answers “Yes. We do.”

We then see that Luke is sitting across the desk from Norman Osborn. Venom and Bullseye are standing behind Norman. Norman says “Let’s go find your kid.” End of issue.

The Good: New Avengers #48 was a dull issue for the first 15 pages and then noticeably improved and delivered an entertaining final 7 pages. Of course, there were some positive aspects of the first 15 pages of this issue. It was great to actually get an issue that featured all of the members of the Avengers operating as a team. It has been a long time since we have seen this in the pages of New Avengers.

It was fantastic to see Captain America back with the Avengers. After having the New Avengers roster dominated with so many C-list characters, it is nice to have one of the A-listers return to the title. I also liked Bendis’ move to have the New Avengers based out of Steve Rogers’ warehouse. This is a logical place for these renegade heroes to operate from.

I enjoyed how Bendis handled Captain America in this issue. Bendis has Bucky exude confidence as he wears the Captain America outfit like he owns it. With all the self-doubt that has plagued Bucky over in his own title, it was great to see him fully embracing his role as Captain America and understanding the important relationship between Captain America and the New Avengers.

Bendis also writes a good Spider-Man, which is no surprise given Bendis’ stellar run on Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis got me chuckling with some of the lines that he gave Spider-Man. Spider-Man is a character that is the perfect fit for Bendis’ writing talents. If Bendis ever leaves Ultimate Spider-Man then I would love to see him take over Amazing Spider-Man.

I liked the scene near the end at the bar where the drunk SHIELD agents are bemoaning the fact that SHIELD has been folded. This scene was important in that it shows that there are SHIELD agents out there who recognize that Norman Osborn is a psychopath and not deserving of the role as the head of HAMMER.

Now, there is no doubt that having a drunk SHIELD agent kill the Skrull just before she was about to reveal the location of Luke’s baby was certainly a bit hackneyed and predictable. We have seen this type of plot twist numerous times before. Still, it was well executed and worked nicely with the story. And Bendis is able to use this scene to convey to the reader the feelings of utter hopelessness that are in Luke and Jessica’s hearts.

Of course, the best part of New Avengers #48 was the absolutely stunning ending. The fantastic final two pages rescued New Avengers #48 from getting a 4 out of 10 rating for the writing. Bendis impressed me by taking the stolen baby plotline that I found completely uninteresting and a bit silly and used it as the impetus for a shocking plot twist and an intriguing new direction for the title.

I loved the heel turn by Luke Cage as he is set to join Osborn’s Dark Avengers. And Bendis has Luke join Osborn’s villainous Dark Avengers for reasons that are totally understandable so that there is no reader resentment toward Luke. This heel turn is proof that you can have a hero make a decision that will be unpopular with his peers and on the surface appear to be evil without making that hero look like a Nazi.

And Luke joining Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers in return for Norman promising to help find Luke’s baby is consistent with Cage’s personality. Luke is a self-centered person and is highly emotional. Luke is an old Hero for Hire and he has sold his services to just about anyone in the past so making a deal with Norman was something not entirely foreign to Luke.

Plus, this heel turn by Luke Cage adds a bit of irony to the story. Cage has been the most outspoken critic of Tony Stark ever since Civil War. Cage has ranted on Tony for his supporting the Registration Act and the Initiative. And Cage has never for a moment ever tried to understand Tony’s reasons for accepting the mantle as the head of SHIELD despite how unpopular it made Tony with his peers.

So now we have Tony as the renegade outlaw on the run and fighting the system just like Luke was. And Luke is now a part of the system and working for a villain in Norman Osborn who will be tracking down the good guys. I am looking forward to the next time that Tony and Luke cross paths. This delicious bit of irony was well served by Bendis.

We got plenty of solid artwork in this issue. As always, Billy Tan’s pencils were excellent and Matt Banning’s inks were serviceable.

The Bad: The first fifteen pages of New Avengers #48 were unimpressive. They were slow and boring. The story plodded along with no sense of purpose or urgency. I know that this is a “new” direction for the team and a bit of set-up is necessary as Bendis implements the Dark Reign story. But, the ten pages of assembling the team at Bucky’s warehouse felt like an obvious stalling tactic and an effort to fluff up this issue and to burn panel time.

Even the search for the Skrull was unexciting. And the reason for that was that Bendis used a passive narration format to deliver the search scenes which removed the reader from the immediacy of the scenes.

Bendis’ dialogue was very ordinary. Outside of Spider-Man, none of the characters were particularly well written. Bendis continues to struggle with developing unique external voices for the various members of the Avengers. The characters continue to talk either in generic voices or in “Bendis speak.”

The character work continues to be largely absent from this title. All of the Avengers are fairly flat and one-dimensional. And the lack of character work and average dialogue translate into a noticeable lack of chemistry between the members of the Avengers.

I still find Bendis’ Hawkeye to be terribly bland. And the weak lip service that Bendis has Clint give Janet’s death just emphasizes how pointless and poorly executed her death was. I wish that Bendis would take notes from Millar on how to deliver an interesting and bad-assed Hawkeye. And that leads me to my other point. I cannot wait for Clint to ditch the incredibly lame Ronin gimmick.

I have to admit that I could care less about Mockingbird. I still find it odd that of all the dead characters that Marvel could have brought back that they chose Mockingbird. I never found her character to be that compelling before and the fifteen year absence of her character since her death in 1993 has done nothing to increase my interest in her character.

I am probably in the minority, but I have to wonder how many current comic book readers really care about Mockingbird. I would much rather have seen Marvel bring back a character like Mar-vell. Imagine what DnA could do with the original Captain Marvel.

While I love the addition of Captain America to the roster I really wish that Wolverine had been removed from the roster. This would have been the perfect time to take Wolverine off the team. There really is no point or need for Wolverine to be on yet another Marvel title. And this is coming from someone who adores Wolverine and collects all of Wolverine’s titles.

Overall: New Avengers #48 was largely a pedestrian read that was saved by an incredibly exciting ending. However, I have to say that I have a positive feeling about the future of this title. I think that this ending signals that Bendis may be ready to turn the corner on this title and finally start delivering some exciting Avengers-related stories. Without a doubt, Secret Invasion dominated Bendis’ attention and it showed in the pages of this title as Bendis largely phone in his effort on New Avengers over the past year. Hopefully, New Avengers will get back on track and flourish under the new Dark Reign direction of the 616 Universe.