Credits

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

Quick Summary

Having landed in the Savage Land in search of Karl Lykos—otherwise known as Sauron—the team’s new quinjet is immediately destroyed by a raging dinosaur just after they disembark. As Iron Man battles the dinosaur, Spider Woman is attacked from behind by Wolverine, who, in response to call to the X-mansion, has come to Savage Land to investigate. Spider Woman neutralizes Wolverine in painful fashion, and then Logan informs the gathered team why he is there. A group of ape-like creatures attack, led by Vertigo, who effortlessly lulls the team into sleep.

Waking, they find they are stripped naked and bound by some form of energy bands. The gathered Savage Land Mutates sit before them, led by Brain Child. Karl Lykos appears, and the mutates’ plans to sell vibranium to SHIELD is openly discussed. Iron Man activates his armor from a distance, and orders it to attack Lykos, which it does. Some of Brain Child’s equipment is destroyed, freeing the Avengers. The mutates scatter, but attack en masse while the team is dressing. Wolverine notices Lykos escaping and attacks him, piercing Lykos’ body with his claws, causing Lykos to transform into Sauron. Just after Sauron starts to explain his part in events, a bullet rips through his skull, and he falls to the ground, apparently dead. Some governmental agents have apparently arrived, and the second Black Widow appears to be leading them. She tells the other agents that “there are to be no witnesses.”

Commentary

New Avengers 5 provides ample evidence of why the book no longer carries the sub-heading ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.’ These aren’t Earth’s mightiest heroes, but Earth’s mightiest dolts. Nothing underscores this more pointedly than the sad fact that Karl Lykos and Brain Child both express themselves far more intelligently and far more eloquently than any of the Avengers, including Steve and Tony.

New Avengers 4 was far better than the previous 3 issues, but also revealed that Bendis, by and large, was writing attitudes instead of characters; Spider Man and Luke Cage were the worst offenders, but Iron Man and Captain America were merely expressed as more milder attitudes as well. Of the Big Five, only Spider Woman seemed like a three-dimensional, human character.

Another major problem with New Avengers 4 was the constant stream of insipid jokes: few things are more pathetic than a creative product that tries to be funny and isn’t, and thus far there hasn’t been one funny joke. What’s presented instead is a constant stream of quips that try painfully hard to be funny. This continues in New Avengers 5, with Spider Man calling his footwear ‘booties,’ and Bendis seemingly unaware that half of New York City—and bohemians everywhere in the West—simply don’t bother with underwear under any circumstances. If some of the would-be humorous lines were merely dropped into the team’s conversation, they might be funny as asides; but instead, Bendis writes each attempt as a small bantering interchange between two or more of the Avengers, not unlike those we saw in Chuck Austen’s Uncanny X-Men and Milligin’s X-Men. And Bendis was supposed to be the answer to—not the echo of—Chuck Austen. Wasn’t he?

The plot itself is not bad, but again, much of it just doesn’t come off. Iron Man blasts out of the dinosaur’s mouth, and the scene should have had some Zing, but it has no more energy than Sentry’s earlier ripping in half of Carnage. The attack by Iron Man’s armor and the team’s battle with the Mutates are also clearly meant to be dramatic, but aren’t. But Lykos’ transformation into Sauron is cut short almost immediately, and Finch’s Sauron—while the story does happily return the character to his evil, tortured roots, however briefly—is thick-set and awkward looking (Come back, Neal Adams—Neal, come back, thrill us again).

Three good points included the characterizations of Brain Child and Lykos; it only makes sense that Lykos would be a bitter man by this time of his life. The mention of the Weapon X program and Sauron’s forced involvement was another nice touch, since it connects the story to broader MU continuity. And if that was in fact the second Black Widow in the last panels, that’s a very nice surprise indeed, especially since the original Black Widow has strong ties to the historical team.

As Savage Land stories go, New Avengers 5 is one the visually darkest, which doesn’t do much for the issue as a whole; readers may want to compare it to Claremont’s and Davis’ excellent current arc in Uncanny X-Men, which also takes place in the same locale and features some of the same characters. Crowded battle scenes do not appear to be Finch’s forte; the splash page of the Avengers battling mutates completely lacks power just as the pages of the phantom Hulk et al battling the Avengers did in issue 503.

New Avengers 5 is a step up over the first 3 issues of the series, but a step down from issue 4, which promised more than its follow-up delivers. Cap and Iron Man still aren’t recognizable as Cap and Iron Man, and Sauron’s apparent, almost immediate death cuts the forward momentum in half, leaving the reader with a definite sense of coitus interuptus (as well, it’s yet another example of how easily disposed of most Marvel villains are today). As in ‘Chaos,’ Bendis seems to set up situation after situation, and then do very little with them—events stay on the page in a bad way, and the reader stays out.

Which means there’s only one more issue for this first arc to redeem itself in a big way, and Bendis doesn’t have a very good track record, Avengers-wise, thus far. Readers may get the feeling that this is what the book is going to be from here on in, a pastiche of unrealized scenerios, attitudes instead of characterization, and strained humor. Finch’s art is definitely carrying the title at present, though this issue was one of his weaker outings.

--Tiger Shark