Review: Marvel Adventure Avengers 28
Hello? Is this thing on? (taps the mike)
A few years ago, you couldn’t pay me to read an Avengers comic. What had once been a team of big guns had become Wasp, Namor, some guy who breakdances with lightning, Fake (but not clone) Thor and Iron Jarvis or something.
Nowadays, I get them all. But while New Avengers and Mighty Avengers are fun (even though it’s been all Secret Invasion backstory for a few months), my favorite is Marvel Adventures Avengers. And you know this, because I tell you all the time.
But maybe I’m not making my argument clearly enough, so let’s turn to Issue 28, Verse 15: Yea, did Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin split up writing duties for this issue with two stories that are interconnected. And it was good. Verily.
This issue introduces the Marvel Adventures version of Luke Cage and also does a bit of universe building. Luke, like his 616-counterpart, likes cleaning up the streets and lecturing fools who be trippin’. So when the Avengers come a-calling, he’s not very interested.
This is Jeff Parker at his best. The story is clean and simple, without too much continuity, but there’s a lot of funny asides and running jokes for those who like to keep up. Luke pretends he’s never heard of the Avengers, but once at the tower, he wonders where Storm is. (Which prompts Giant Girl, towering over all of them, to ask, “Do guys think I’m not approachable for some reason?”)
If Bendis ever gives up on the Avengers proper, I am praying that Jeff Parker is tapped to take over. He’s got good ideas, he can balance the team dynamic and his writing is just plain funny.
Tobin is no slouch, however, as his story involves Captain America, Spider-Man, Storm and a cat from another dimension. There’s one giant leap, storywise, when music attracts a creature from the Negative Zone. It’s not exactly canon, but it moves the story along.
Honestly, when I get my comics, this one is near the top of the pile and, unlike some series that are good for a shocking revelation and that’s it, Marvel Adventures Avengers are the kind of done-in-one stories that you can re-read without getting bored. And I plan on re-reading these for a long time to come.
- Greg Elwell
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Comments
I’m digging Thor, and I believe Greg is also — Greg, feel free to chime in if you’re reading this.
- Matt
On the Thor subject.. I love it. It’s a title that every month i forget it’s so fantastic until I read it. I think the writing is some of JMS’s best of late, and the art is.. wow. Fantastic.
I think it’s weird it takes place in OK, in an OK of Marvelland that is so different from what I know, but it works. And at some point, it will be cool to see how that plays into Marvel proper.
But i’ve really enjoyed the mythology that JMS is playing with, particularly Baldar’s relationship, and the issue when Don Blake went to find Jane Foster… splendid!
I keep telling people to read it. They ignore me.
Hmm I may have to give this one a shot didnt really know anything about it.
What do you think of Thor so far? I just put up my thoughts on it
http://hudshideout.blogspot.com/2008/09/thor-volume-3-2007-overview-issues-1-10.html