Review: Avengers #21

On some books, Brian Michael Bendis has been full speed ahead and ready to go! On others, sadly, he has been his “buy it in the trades” self.

Case in point: Avengers #21.

Perhaps if Avengers #20 and #21 had been combined, there might have been a point to the matter. After going all Gardner Fox on us last issue and dividing this very, very new team into subsets, I thought, “Oh, boy! Here comes the action!” And #20 indeed had some stuff to compliment the overall HAMMER War plot. Not so #21.

From the beautiful cover – the best thing about the issue, IMHO – Storm is ready to rise from her defeat as she teamed with Red Hulk and save the day! As with most Marvel covers these days, the outside has very little to do with the inside as Ororo, newest of the Avengers, lies unconscious during most of the horridly boring tale.

Dividing and conquering is not a bad way to take on the Avengers, you have to give that to HAMMER and Hydra. But the miss-mash that is Avengers #21 needs to be either enhanced or thrown out with the baby and the bathwater.

All this, and the great art of Daniel Acuna is absent. That about sums it up.

I thought it was a bit too much for Bendis – who is obviously concentrating on the movie these days and not the Marvel U we all love and that brought him fame – to accomplish this HAMMER storyline, sneak in Ultron for the long-awaiting Ultron War, and still have a big “pop” of a bye-bye. Poor Vision, I can already see what is awaiting him. Can’t you? If not, check out Jocasta in Dan Slott’s final issues of Mighty Avengers.

All in all, after the Bendis-bye, it will be nice to get someone fresh on this magazine, if it is still around. Who knows what we can restore to a franchise that has been disenfranchised since Avengers Disassembled?

Nuff said.