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domarzioneGeez that was disappointing. The preview panels were so promising, but like the trailers to certain movies, they contained the best/funniest parts.
The bottom line up top is that this is Warren Ellis writing a Warren Ellis book, he just happens to be wearing an Avengers t-shirt while taking the jacket photo.
Every Avenger sounds off -- except for Captain Marvel, thank goodness Ellis has been co-writing with Kelly Sue DeConnick -- and he's clearly using the Wolverine of recent vintage whose superpower is to be a sanctimonious asshole impressed with his own resume. Cap is showing bruises from being whacked so hard with the stick of Man Outta Time, Natasha's a heartless bitch, Tony's curiously stupid in action...
Plotwise, it's like a greatest hits album of Ellis's biggest hits from the last decade, with his America Is an Evil Warmonger Doing Awful Things (Haliburton Is the Real Villain of the Story remix) and Lovecraftian creatures and humanoids and whatnot.
But what bothered me most is that he chose timebomb over team. These Avengers don't like each other very much. I's not banter between them, it's bitchery. The Avengers are nasty to each other in mean ways. There can (should) be a sharp edge to their teasing of each other, but this stuff has barbs and essentially no countervailing moments of kindness or respect or friendship. All of the snappy patter we saw in the preview panels gets much more sour when it's surrounded by such a complete lack of affection. They're a veteran team who have historically lived together for long stretches and yet here they act like the JLA, who can barely function in each other's presence if there's no bad guy to hit.
I'll give Ellis props for making the story about Steve and Thor and not Steve and Tony, although he sort of started with Tony and then dropped that thread completely, but I read two other books this week (Captain America: Living Legend #1 and the back half of A + X #12) that gave Steve much better service as teacher and student of learning from life's mistakes and forging your way. Thor's also been much better served elsewhere, just maybe not this week because I didn't read anything else with him in it yet. The Bruce business could have been better because it felt completely shoehorned in, like he'd written the entire story and then Editorial told him he needed to use The Hulk.
In conclusion: meh.
The bottom line up top is that this is Warren Ellis writing a Warren Ellis book, he just happens to be wearing an Avengers t-shirt while taking the jacket photo.
Every Avenger sounds off -- except for Captain Marvel, thank goodness Ellis has been co-writing with Kelly Sue DeConnick -- and he's clearly using the Wolverine of recent vintage whose superpower is to be a sanctimonious asshole impressed with his own resume. Cap is showing bruises from being whacked so hard with the stick of Man Outta Time, Natasha's a heartless bitch, Tony's curiously stupid in action...
Plotwise, it's like a greatest hits album of Ellis's biggest hits from the last decade, with his America Is an Evil Warmonger Doing Awful Things (Haliburton Is the Real Villain of the Story remix) and Lovecraftian creatures and humanoids and whatnot.
But what bothered me most is that he chose timebomb over team. These Avengers don't like each other very much. I's not banter between them, it's bitchery. The Avengers are nasty to each other in mean ways. There can (should) be a sharp edge to their teasing of each other, but this stuff has barbs and essentially no countervailing moments of kindness or respect or friendship. All of the snappy patter we saw in the preview panels gets much more sour when it's surrounded by such a complete lack of affection. They're a veteran team who have historically lived together for long stretches and yet here they act like the JLA, who can barely function in each other's presence if there's no bad guy to hit.
I'll give Ellis props for making the story about Steve and Thor and not Steve and Tony, although he sort of started with Tony and then dropped that thread completely, but I read two other books this week (Captain America: Living Legend #1 and the back half of A + X #12) that gave Steve much better service as teacher and student of learning from life's mistakes and forging your way. Thor's also been much better served elsewhere, just maybe not this week because I didn't read anything else with him in it yet. The Bruce business could have been better because it felt completely shoehorned in, like he'd written the entire story and then Editorial told him he needed to use The Hulk.
In conclusion: meh.
