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Review: New Avengers #22 (Tiger Shark!)
Credits
- Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
- Artist: Mike Deodato, Jr.
Quick Summary
Iron Man and Ms. Marvel visit Luke Cage and Jessica Jones in their Harlem apartment to ascertain whether Cage and Jones intend to sign on to the Superhuman Registration Act. Cage and Jones respond negatively; an argument ensues in which the various aspects of the Act are heatedly debated. Iron Man tells them that if they don't register by midnight, they will become criminals under the law. After Iron Man and Ms. Marvel depart, Jessica suggests they flee to Canada, but Cage insists that he will stay in his home in Harlem. Jessica takes their baby and leaves for Toronto.
At midnight, SHIELD agents appear at Cage's apartment and a vicious fight breaks out after Cage hesitates to open to the door. Outside, neighborhood children watch and videotape the battle; when it breaks into the street, some of the local people are accidentally shot, while others panic and take up arms themselves. Captain America, Daredevil, and the Falcon arrive to fight for Cage; their combined effort defeats the SHIELD agents. Commandeering a SHIELD vehicle, they flee. When Agent Hill tells them that SHIELD can track them anywhere, Cage informs her that 'the Revolution is coming." Meanwhile, on the Canadian side of Niagra Falls, Jessica learns that Luke has escaped.
Commentary
New Avengers # 22 may be the worst issue in the entire run of Avengers history.
From the first page, all the events of the issue are as predictable as a row of dominos collapsing. We've seen this simplistic, maudlin story told thousands of times in second- and third-rate crime dramas over the decades, in both movies and television.
Cage, recalling slavery, is an angry urban black male who resents the attempts of the system to push him around. Tough and defiant to the end a la Rocky Balboa, he fights rather than flees as a point of honor, almost killing himself in the process. Formulaically, downtrodden innocent bystanders are accidentally killed by ricocheting gunfire. The Calvary arrives at the last minute, "saving the day." Even Luke and Jessica's bitter parting stinks like stale cheese.
Like most of Bendis' work, New Avengers 22 is nothing but recycled clichés which appeal and seem fresh to the young and the culturally naïve. To make it all worse, the whole issue is subtly covered over a trendy and unintentionally hilarious gloss of faux-liberalism. At least we now know that Jessica and Luke's baby drinks soy milk, and presumably is fed tofu, rather than whey, crackers.
These are sad times for the Avengers indeed.