Credits

• Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
• Pencils: David Finch
• Inks: Danny Miki and Mark Morales
• Colors: Frank D'Armata
• Letters: Comicraft
• Editor: Axel Alonso

Synopsis of New Avengers # 3

The morning after the jailbreak at the Raft, Captain America and Iron remember the events which took place: Luke Cage beat the Purple Man within an inch of his life when the PM’s powers failed, and the many of the other criminals surrendered to the heroes and SHIELD forces. Cap feels that “a new team [of Avengers] has assembled itself,” but Iron Man is hesitant.

Cap proposes membership to Spider Man, Matt Murdock, Luke Cage, and Spider Woman. All accept but Murdock. Later, some of the members meet in the newly build Stark Tower, where Iron Man has offered them a headquarters of sorts. Jarvis has returned as their butler. But Spider Woman talks to a shadowy figure about secretly gathering and passing on information.

Commentary

Issue # 3 was a huge letdown, a sheer case of coitus interruptus. There is virtually no characterization of any of the Raft escapees (like 90% of the assembled Avengers during Chaos), and we’re asked to believe that more than half of them simply surrendered because Iron Man suggested they do.

Some of the villains, like the Griffin (drugged or not), Vapor, and ZZAAAXX, should have been capable of escaping immediately. I don’t buy that, under the circumstances, most of the bad guys would stand around and fight rather than seize the opportunity to flee immediately. Tiger Shark, who we never see, should have dived into the East River and made his escape within seconds. In a sense, it seems like the ‘87’ villains who ‘escaped’ were merely pretty-picture window dressing.

It also seems incredibly callous of Cap to seek out a new team without first contacting and asking Photon, Hank Pym, the Wasp, Wonder Man, the Black Knight, the Black Widow, the Black Panther (…), Hercules, and other key historical Avengers that may have not only led the team before, but risked their lives for society’s sake---as Avengers--on dozens of occasions.

The key Avengers affected by the events of Chaos—it’s reasonable to think Cap would understand they need time to recover—but asking all of them, including She Hulk, simply to be respectful, seems like a must. To my way of thinking, this is not the Captain America we know and admire. Especially since the Raft breakout seemed, all things considered, relatively benign—certainly, as readers, we don’t feel a genuine sense of threat, drama, or, a-hem, chaos.

Great to see Jarvis again—but why Jarvis and not Photon, Natasha, or Namor?

We do learn is that Luke Cage lives in a tumble-down apartment with plaster missing from portions of the wall. Where did all that ‘hero for hire’ money go? Or is Bendis simply keying us in to Luke’s aesthetic?

The scene in which Cage pummels the Purple Man, whose powers are not working due to the drugs he was given, was ludicrous, completely rote, and expected: another cliff hanger set-up without a believable or dramatic pay off. Wouldn’t the Purple Man know, by this time in his existence, whether his powers were operational or not?

Finally, the scene in which Spider Woman is revealed to be a double agent of sorts was also banal—we’ve seen this kind of thing too many times for it to have teeth. I’ll gladly wait and see where Bendis takes it; however, Chaos didn’t offer any real surprises, despite a lot of moody foreshadowing, and the Raft escapees and Purple Man scenarios also fell flat.

The first several issues seemed to promise a superb battle and confrontation ahead, and we didn’t get one. The villains surrendering merely furthers the trend within the MU to portray its classic villains as losers, canon fodder, flunkies, and simply, in some cases, morons and simpletons.

I certainly remember several real-time MU decades in a row when this was not the case by any means. To me, this is the failure of the writers: they seem to lack the imagination to get inside the skins of the villains on a grand scale, something Marvel used to excel at decade after decade.

Marvel’s villains—second and third tier as well as first—used to be evil, intelligent, capable, ingenuous, scientifically capable, tenacious, and confident in many or most cases, though most or all had a tragic flaw. They were the dark children of High Romance, just as our heroes here. What happened? Today, most writers seem to hold 85% of Marvel’s villains in contempt: which I protest.

--Tiger Shark