By Don M. Ventura
Back in July I decided I wanted to get back into regular comic book reading again. For the past four years I had only mildly been reading things that caught my interest, maybe buying a few books a month and couple of trades every once in a while. After Blackest Night and Siege ended I decided I would go back to reading regularly because the end of a big event tends to be a good time to jump back into things. I’m one of those anomalies that has no strong affinity to either DC or Marvel—just give me some heroes fighting bad guys and I’m usually a happy camper.
The first books I picked up were the characters I like written by the writers I like. In fact, the creators who have almost single-handedly guided each of the big two comic book companies for which they work. I bought the first three issues of The Flash (and only now realize how late this book has regularly become) and New Avengers #1 by Geoff Johns and Brian Michael Bendis respectively. Interestingly enough it was Johns’ Flash and Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man that caught my fancy when I began reading comic books regularly again in 2001 after a long break during the 90’s (I know what I missed).
While I wasn’t taken with Bendis’ post-Siege Avengers title, I really enjoyed what he was did with the inaugural issue of The New Avengers. My feeling has been that this was the Avengers team with the characters whom Bendis really enjoyed playing with: Wolverine, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Mockingbird, Doctor Strange, and their leader Luke Cage. Over the first six issues my affinity for this book began to wane as the story plodded along in an arc that felt two issues too long. I had decided that my New Avengers reading had come to an end.
When I saw New Avengers #7 on my pile this week, I thought “Put it back. This isn’t your thing anymore.” And while I am drawn to writing more than anything when it comes to my comic book enjoyment, that Stuart Immonen cover just called out to me; while hard to pinpoint a favorite artist, Immonen is easily one of my all time favorites.
Each issue of this title has, at the very least, been a marvel to look at. Immonen can draw any character with an individual look and body type. His backgrounds are equally fantastic; check out that formerly grandiose Avengers Mansion that looks like it should be knocked down instead of repaired. Wade Von Grawbadger’s inks Immonen’s work nicely with excellent colors by Laura Martin.
New Avengers #7 took me right back to what I originally enjoyed about the book. It is a transition issue in which the team deals with the effects of the last arc; the Avengers mansion is in shambles and everyone is trying to get a grip. The book opens with Luke discussing repairs to the Avengers Mansion with a member of Damage Control, who also happens to be an old flame who’s still interested in a spark or two with the muscle-bound hunk.
Luke’s wife Jessica has some of my favorite moments in the issue. First when Luke has to accept Steve Rogers’ financial support to repair the damages to the mansion. She says “And this is what it looks like when Luke Cage quietly gets off his high horse.” She later has a scene of complete authenticity in which she puts Luke in his place and accepts being on the Avengers payroll. Pride isn’t going to feed and clothe their new baby she argues.
This also brought me to another my favorite scene in the book. Victoria Hand, Norman Osborn’s former right hand woman, distributes paychecks to the team and everyone gets one except for Spider-Man. While reading The Amazing Spider-Man over the last few months I’ve been wondering why Peter Parker continued his destitute existence. Wasn’t he enjoying some solid Avengers money? When I was a kid I remember Cap and Iron-Man having to announce to a 15-member team that they were going to have to cut the team in half because the government cut their funding, so I’ve grown up with the idea that these heroes were also Earth’s Mightiest wage earners.
Spider-Man confronts Victoria about her connection to Osborn and says that he is not willing to provide his identity, the only way he can actually take home a paycheck. Victoria hand acknowledges that Spider-Man and Norman Osborn have a past and Spider-Man says “Oh, no you don’t.” As a longtime fan of the character, it was this scene that was so powerful because of what we know of the character. Of course he’s not going to give up his secret identity to a woman with ties to the man who murdered his girlfriend, no matter how hard it gets to make ends meet.
I also appreciated that Spider-Man was given a scene after being relegated so long to quips; he was has often been the equivalent of background noise in this series and in The Avengers. This issue also serves as the introduction of Squirrel Girl, as Luke and Jessica’s new nanny, and Dr. Strange onto the team along with his man-servant Wong as a self-described “second-rate Jarvis for a second-rate pile of Avengers.”
Second-rate my hiney.
