To be honest, I've given up reviewing Chuck Austen's books for the most part, because it's become clear to me that either there are merits I'm just not seeing or that people don't care about the writing as long as the characters they like (no matter how mangled their characterization) are in the book. And to be really honest, I haven't really been enjoying the Avengers for a while anyway, as Geoff Johns's take on the book didn't really agree with me. But still, I have a great deal of appreciation for these characters, just as I once did for some of the characters in Uncanny X-Men, and the thought of Austen writing any number of silly and unnecessary changes in the characters while putting them through the most mediocre and rehashed of super-hero plots still depressed me. This first issue did little to assuage my fears, and if you have 50 cents, my advice is to pick up two copies of Conan the Legend rather than Avengers #77.
The Avengers have hopped the pond to track down the Wrecking Crew in England. Why? Well, because Austen has a story he wants to tell about a young British boy and his scarred mom that relates, ever so tangentially, to Captain America. In the course of this story, we see that the Wasp can now use growth powers (for no real good reason), Hawkeye is spouting off misogynist crap and Captain America is coming off like a country bumpkin. Austen is going for the goofy, natural patter that Bendis handles so effortlessly when he's writing the latter scenes, but they come off as painfully forced and the farthest thing from natural instead.
There might be the germ of an interesting story here. Austen hints at some interesting things about the perception of America overseas these days and how that might taint the view of Captain America, and stories from the point-of-view of young hero worshippers have given comics some of their more poignant super-hero tales. Unfortunately, Austen's track record, which includes a single mom and young boy story in Uncanny X-Men that went completely off the rails, doesn't give me a lot of hope for this potential being realized. In addition, this seems like the kind of story that's best told with a focus on the kid and his family, all in one issue, rather than stretched out into a five-part storyline.
To give credit where credit is due, at least Austen tries for a blend of characterization and action here, and the heroes aren't embarrassed to wear their costumes. That the action is somewhat boring and not easy to follow could as easily be written off to failings on the part of Olivier Coipel, although if I had to guess it's a problem borne of the choreography in the script as much as the artwork. Coipel's work here does look rougher than I'm used to from him, with Captain America and Hawkeye changing body mass and facial features numerous times, giving the whole thing a somewhat inconsistent look. However, there's still plenty to be impressed by, including some spectacular detail on the backgrounds and a nifty modified costume for Hawkeye.
All in all, though, while this isn't the horror-filled destruction of characters and inane plotting that I've come to expect from Austen's work on Uncanny X-Men, there's nothing here that makes me believe Avengers won't slide into that pattern as time goes on. It is certainly conceivable that this issue is merely mediocre, and I'm just reading dire portents in because of Austen's track record on his other Marvel books. But to me this just reads like the same sort of "doesn't get the characters, doesn't really have an interesting story to tell" style that has made his work on Uncanny X-Men absolutely unbearable.
