Avengers, Xerxes, Spider-Man

New comics!

Avengers 1

A new era starts, brought to us by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness.  I will not be sticking around. Aaron starts us off with the One Million Years Ago Avengers, and I don’t find them interesting in the slightest.  Matt Fraction’s the only person to make previous Iron Fists fun. Odin’s been a boorish entitled asshole for the entirely of Aaron’s Thor run, and doesn’t change here.  Black Panther’s only interesting in movie form. Hulk+Starbrand just no. Phoenix needs Jean Grey to make me care. I’ve never cared about Ghost Rider. And I couldn’t make it through Aaron’s run on Dr Strange.  

It would have been hard enough for me to like an Avengers team with the modern incarnations of that lineup.  A version with those archetypes but none of the familiarity had practically zero chance. And Aaron can’t pull it off.  

What’s more surprising is that he also fails when portraying the actual present-day team.  This is an uninspiring lineup, even with the return of the Big Three. Ironically, perhaps Marvel did too good of a job promoting their next generation - I’m a lot more invested in Ironheart and Jane Foster Thor these days.  But it’s not entirely that - I’m still most interested in Thor, Cap, and Iron Man in the MCU. I don’t care about the Celestials. They’re as generic as you can get when it comes to global threats. Silent powerful beings from outer space with no discernable motivation.  Yawn.

This is also far from McGuinness’ best work. Odd anatomy and faces abound.

Panther and Cap look so awkward.  Heads too big?

An immediate cut.  Makes me sad.

Xerxes 2

More of the same.  Still enjoyable.

Spider-Man 240

Bendis did it.  He finished his eighteen-year run in a most satisfying fashion, something I didn’t think possible after reading the previous issue.  There was just too much left to do. He wisely opted to leave the plot threads untied, and focused instead on delivering all the right emotional beats, providing closure with all the important relationships in Miles’ life.  So good. I read it through a second time immediately after the first, something I rarely do.

Love Goldballs, and love how everyone else loves him.

Love Ganke.  It’s so perfect that the series closes on his friendship with Miles.

This epic, epic run is the best thing Bendis has done.  I don’t see how he can surpass it. I want to read it from the beginning now.  

Thank you so much, BMB.