The Heroic Age is in full swing in the Marvel U. and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say, “what’s with all these Avengers teams?” There are the regular Avengers, featuring Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and other classic heroes. There is the Avengers Academy, featuring Quicksilver training some rookies. Meanwhile Steve Rogers is leading the Secret Avengers into space, including War Machine, Nova, and Beast from the X-Men. Last month though, I felt compelled to take sides as to my favorite Avengers team, and that would be Brian Michael Bendis’s current New Avengers.
Tony Stark has sold the old Avengers mansion to Luke Cage for a buck, and Cage is out to run his own team. He brought along with him his wife, child, and best friend, Iron Fist. But no sooner do they move in does the craziness ensue. Something bad is going on in the mystical world and Doctor Vodoo has sent Cage the all-powerful Eye of Agamotto for safe keeping. Unfortunately the Eye has worked it’s mojo over on Cage and has made him big and mad; and cue issue number two.
Doctor Strange and Damien Hellstrom are possessed by something that wants the Eye of Agamotto, but Wolverine knows the best way to get out of a demon possession is to stab the host body, or does he just like to stab things? The team plays catch with the Eye for most of issue, while Spider-Man and Wolverine try to bring Strange and Hellstrom back to a conscious state. In the end Iron Fist ends up with the Eye and then vanishes, with everyone wondering that the hell is going on.
I love the jokes that Bendis puts into this issue; especially the rapport between Spider-Man and Wolverine. However I’m not sure if I’m delighted or annoyed by the idea of Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Hawkeye all being on two Avengers teams. Spider-Man also has his own comics, as well does Wolverine; plus Wolverine is still an X-Men. I know Marvel is trying to put their most popular characters in everything to try and sell books, but I think it may be overkill for faithful collectors. Even the Thing is now on this team and the Fantastic Four. Before you know it everyone will be on two teams. I can just see Colossus being an X-Man and subbing in for Thing on FF.
Anyway, getting back to the issue, I’m not one for mystical adventures, but it’s really this team of mainly B-squaders that make the book enjoyable for me. I recently started loving Iron Fist, and am thrilled to see him being Cage’s right-hand man. I hope Bendis keeps this book’s focus on Cage leading his own team. I think the balance of being team leader and still being a family man could add some great layers to the series.
Stuart Immoen has a gritty drawing style that I think works perfectly for this group. I’m sure Bendis will interchange characters from his two Avengers books in time, but for now I’m enjoying them separately; even though they share about a quarter of the same members.
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