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AVENGERS #44
"Down Among The Dead Men!"
Recommended (8/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Manuel Garcia
Inks: Bob Layton
Colors: Tom Smith
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN |
See, now this is the kind
of thing I was hoping to see in DC's "Our Worlds At War." Busiek is doing a
convincing job of portraying multiple hot zones popping up around the world,
dealt with by a variety of heroes, but all stemming back to one common threat
who is stirring up trouble. I'm really enjoying this quasi-military "task force"
style of operation for the team, and I'm impressed that even through three
different artists on the arc so far, the book has been remarkably consistent.
While this is a team book as always, the focus this issue is on three
individuals: Stingray, Warbird and Thor.
Stingray is one of those characters who
should be used sparingly. He's very much a character specific to certain
situations, since he's best suited for underwater action and he's a scientist
and reluctant hero, but when used sparingly, he's a lot of fun. Seeing him act
as sort of a scout/saboteur for the Avengers in a realm where few of their
members (save maybe Namor) could have been so effective was a lot of fun.
What I enjoyed the most about all the
character vignettes was that while they all tied into the same storyline, they
were all very different. Stingray was all business, but Warbird's challenge was
something that spoke directly to her personality, and the same was true of Thor.
The notion of immortals and their attachments to mortals has been dealt with
before, and his rage wasn't anything terribly new in that regard, but Busiek
wisely plays up Firebird's growing concerns that she might be immortal as she
sees what the price of that might be, and plays her religion against fighting
alongside a "pagan" God. The end result is a really nice bit of action for those
who are just looking for Thor blowing things up, and some interesting character
interaction for those of us more interested in that.
You've got to feel sorry for Manuel Garcia,
who is following legendary pencillers George Perez and Alan Davis on the title,
but he steps right up to the plate and delivers some really solid artwork,
covering all the different settings of the issue well and doing some great
action sequences, particularly the enraged Thor vs. the Presence.
This is a good, solid super-hero book. Given the decline in quality of Captain America, Iron Man and the other Heroes Return books, it's nice to see that one of them
maintains the promise and excitement it had back when the books were
relaunched.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
