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Credits

• Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
• Artist: Mike Deodato, Jr.

Quick Summary

From space, where he and the Sentry are battling the Collective, Iron Man warns Spider Man, who is on the SHIELD Helicarrier with the Vision, against speaking too freely about the Collective’s possible nature. But Agent Hill overhears Spider Man mentioning the House of M and the depowered mutants who resulted from it, and orders Spider Man and the Vision arrested. Spider Man’s memories are forcibly taken from his psyche, while the Vision’s databanks are tapped. As Iron Man and the Sentry continue to battle their foe, Iron Man communicates his theories about the nature of the Collective to the Earthbound Avengers.

Captain America leads the Avengers onto the Helicarrier with the intention of freeing Spider Man and the Vision, but Agent Hill has finished with them and agrees to their release. Captain America threatens her for arresting them, as well as for probing Spider Man’s mind, but she laughs these off, implying that the President is one her side. After Iron Man contacts the team, the Avengers and members of SHIELD watch the battle taking place in space. One of the SHIELD agents suggests that the battle be abruptly ended, so all concerned can see what it is in the Collective wants and where his destination is. When Iron Man follows this suggestion, the Collective immediately turns away from him and back towards Earth, landing in Genosha as the Avengers and SHIELD look on in astonishment.

Commentary

New Avengers # 19 is probably the fastest-paced of all the Bendis-written issues of the title so far. Though the unimpressive Collective still lacks a personality, and the manner in which he has apparently come into being flies in the face of the usual understanding of the way the Scarlet Witch’s powers work, this issue is effective due to the rapid action and the large number of personal confrontations. In many ways, this issue harks back to the typical Marvel action-dominated stories of the 70s, and even its tone is something of a throwback to many of that era’s glorious escapist tales.

As usual, a few characters—both Avengers and non-Avengers—see most of the action and get most of the panel time, while the remaining cast rush about on the backs of their heels. Iron Man, Spider Man, and Agent Hill dominate the story, while the poor Sentry seems more like a brain-dead Marvel Zombie than ever, getting very little dialogue and apparently proving an inadequate opponent for the Collective, which should surprise no one, since conceivably all-powerful Avengers, from Thor and Photon to Sersi, have rarely been used effectively when push actually comes to shove. The rest of the cast, which includes Ms. Marvel and SHIELD agent Dum Dum Duggan, remain in the background.

Whether Bendis will be able to make the Collective an even remotely memorable character in the balance of the arc remains to be seen; but thus far the Collective is a completely forgettable sieve and has barely registered as a genuine threat subsequent to his initial appearance: he’s the glowing object in the story’s center that all the ruckus is being kicked up about, but little more. Which is rather sad, when one considers how, in Marvel’s Bronze Age heyday, the Grim Reaper, the Man-Ape, and even the Reaper’s one-time ally, the Space Phantom, were so effectively written that they acted as significant threats to the Avengers and, better, felt like significant threats.

In several ways, the Collective feels like another attempt on the Bendis’ part to justify and bolster his very tepid House of M miniseries. From Kang, Ultron, Magneto, and Arkon to Zemo, the Enchantress, Korvac, and the Grim Reaper, the Avenger’s best villains have always had substantial personalities---and substantial egos to go along with them. It’s good to see Bendis creating some fresh antagonists for the team, but thus far the Collective simply isn’t cutting the adversary mustard.

That the Collective has been trying to reach Genosha will come as no surprise to readers anywhere, and is an example of the kind of predictable idea that Bendis seems to think ingenious on his part.

Mike Deodato’s art is fair to good throughout, though inker Joe Pimentel’s work doesn’t seem to mesh well with Deodato’s pencils, giving the book a choppy, muddy, and inconsistent appearance; some panels are beautiful, others quite bad. Surprisingly, Deodato’s style has devolved since his days on the book 15 years ago; longtime readers of the book may miss his formerly clean but romantically stylish line work.