An enormous amount of energy inexplicably erupts from the earth and descends on an Alaskan town, causing mass destruction. A fiery figure rises up from the rubble.
An enormous amount of energy inexplicably erupts from the earth and descends on an Alaskan town, causing mass destruction. A fiery figure rises up from the rubble.
Director Hill of SHIELD and Tony Stark engage in a somewhat hostile discussion about the Avengers team going public and the recent loss of most mutants= powers. Tony denies the Avengers and the X-Men had anything to do with the later event, stating that the trip to Genosha was "for sight seeing" purposes only.
SHIELD receives a red alert call about the events in Alaska, and is unable to determine the nature of the energy involved. After a plane is sent to investigate, a streaking figure is seen moving through the sky. The figure appears to turn towards the plane, and moments later the plane is crashes to the ground. Alpha Flight is called in, but moments after the figure approaches them, the entire team is observed to be lying unconscious, perhaps dead, in the snow. The figure is now approaching the United States, and when the Fantastic Four do not respond to a call, Director Hill hesitantly puts in a call to the Avengers for assistance.
New Avengers 16 doesn’t feature any of the actual Avengers team except Tony Stark sans armor, suggesting once again that Bendis writes his best Avengers work when focusing on other characters (as in The Sentry arc, which featured an impeccable depiction of Emma Frost). The issue also suggests that penciler Steve McNiven, who also illustrated The Sentry arc, is Bendis’ strongest artistic alley yet on the title.
Despite the overuse of splash pages (the book opens with nine) this issue provides a powerful and effect set-up for events to come. The fiery being will apparently be known as "the Collective", and makes a dramatic entrance to the Marvel Universe here. Though the figure is perhaps too physically reminiscent of the Silver Surfer, at least thus far, its mowing down of the near-classic Alpha Flight team in a matter of seconds is eye-opening, and the story gathers momentum as the SHIELD team watches the presumably unstoppable figure approaching the continental United States. It’s also good to see a brand new menace in the book=s pages, especially since Bendis’ use of classic Marvel villains, like Electro, Sauron, and the Viper, has been tepid at best.
As with Emma Frost earlier in the series, Bendis does an excellent job of portraying the strident, tough-minded, but-smart-enough-to-be-doubtful Director Hill.
With the Sentry, who has the “power of a million exploding suns” at his fingertips, on the team, the Avengers should be able to neutralize the Collective, and how Bendis will navigate their confrontation is something most readers will look forward to, especially since, perhaps with the exception of Iron Man, most of the other current Avengers lack the raw power to confront such an adversary.
McNiven’s art is emotionally nuanced, detailed, and beautifully designed throughout, especially where he includes maps of the world in the background so readers can follow the Collective’s flight path as Director Hill attempts to deal effectively with the approaching crisis in the foreground.
Despite the absence of the actual Avengers, this suspenseful issue is one of Bendis’ very best on the book so far.