Starting right at the top, the pin-up style cover by Young Avengers artist Jimmy Cheung is excellent and fitting for an Annual. Cheung is always a joy and I look forward to his Avengers work in the near future, and anytime he portrays Earth’s Mightiest. The most startling thing about this cover is acceptance. It has finally sunk in. Three years ago I would have looked at this assemblage on the cover and the last thing on my mind would have been ‘Avengers’ – but it looks like they made it.

The ‘Previously’ page gives a solid undertaking of continuity thus far, no mean trick for writer Brian Michael Bendis. Usually he uses this page to fill in gaps and bring the Avengers titles up to speed, but here it is informative and accurate, he even mentions World War Hulk in an effort to square Marvel Comics continuity with Bendis Avengers continuity. Nice touch, considering that for the most part he ignored that entire company-wide crossover.

The best part of the ‘Previously’ page is the illustrated frame, consisting of a roll call of sorts of all of our players – good, bad and supporting. Nice to see Wong and Night Nurse represented. This is a good thing, because as much as I love regular New Avengers artist Leinil Yu, he has gotten sloppy of late, and it has become frequently less obvious who he’s drawing. In a crowd scene of villains, this is not good. At least now we know exactly who is on The Hood’s side.

Speaking of sloppy, the next two pages, Maria Hill of SHIELD is briefed on info we were just told on the previous page. Someone in the editing level has to get their butt in gear because this is becoming a more and more frequent problem. Either don’t tell us on the ‘Previously’ or don’t waste two pages on info we already know. The only thing we do learn is that apparently SHIELD has no defenses or intelligence regarding magic. You’re kidding me, right? I thought Nick Fury had files on everyone. I thought the Avengers and the Fantastic Four shared information with SHIELD. You can’t seriously tell me they know nothing about the mystical arts.

On the next two pages it gets worse, far worse. As if we haven’t had enough sexually charged assaults on women by men in New Avengers lately, Bendis brings us this. And what exactly does he have against Tigra again? BMB is certainly pushing the cringe factor lately. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tigra stuffed into a refrigerator soon.

Here what happens: The Hood, surrounded by his minions (88% of whom are male, that we can see, that is), is again in Tigra’s apartment – this time leaning on her on her bed with a gun to her head. He threatens her mother’s as well as her own life, as the others cheer him on. It ends with jigsaw giving her a smack. Here what I see: a group of men, one with a gun to a woman’s head, who is on a bed wearing only a bikini. Is it me, or are we only a step or two away from a gang rape and beating? I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

The discussion on these two pages is a whole different brand of madness. The Hood wants to know where the New Avengers are. Tigra tells him, at Doctor Strange’s home in Greenwich Village. The Hood says they were there and it’s not true. Tigra explains it’s an illusion, magic again, that old bugaboo that even SHIELD can’t deal with. She also expresses that she only told them so that the New Avengers can “mop the @#$^* floor” with them.

Now here’s where the logic completely breaks down for me. When asked how she knows, Tigra says, “Everyone in the Initiative knows. We just can’t prove it. Magic.” Wait, what? What?? Well, we’ve already established, that in the Bendisverse, SHIELD’s kryptonite is magic apparently, - but everyone in the Initiative is unable to get into Strange’s house and find the New Avengers? Everyone??

Doesn’t the Initiative contain some of the brightest minds in the Marvel Universe? I mean these are the guys who cloned Thor, shot the Hulk into space and built a prison in the Negative Zone – but they can’t deal with one tiny illusion? Oh, that’s right, they also couldn’t do anything to help May Parker either which sent Spider-Man off to make deals with Mephisto. Sigh. Seriously, you mean that Reed Richards couldn’t just shunt the boarded-up Sanctum Santorum into the Negative Zone? I won’t even get into the concept that if this is the truth, if Strange dies or gets defeated, apparently NO ONE on Earth could protect us from the likes of Dormmamu or any of the other mystical evil entities in the Marvel Universe – including Mephisto.

Sorry, I got carried away. I forgot that New Avengers is now a street level crime title, and there are no such things as devils or demons… except for the one hiding under The Hood’s cloak. I keep forgetting Marvel’s new slogan – “It’s magic, we don’t have to explain it.”

Scene change to the Sanctum where the New Avengers have returned victorious from a battle, which one we’re not told, but I would assume it was the one against the Venom plague with the Mighty Avengers. Doctor Strange gets sick and Spider-Man takes off his mask. I’m not going to get into the question of why-is-he-even-a-member-any-more, but I thought his identity was secret again, from everyone. Why is he jeopardizing what Joe Quesada fought so hard for, especially when he’s only going to put his mask back on in the very next panel?

Meanwhile, across the street, The Hood and his minions are gathered for an assault. The iTunes joke was funny, don’t get me wrong, but would Piledriver get it or even understand the humor? Would he even put up with it? To my mind, intelligence and patience have never been among his better assets. Also on page nine, I liked the Wrecker making mention of the Mansion siege. That’s dead-on character that he would brag and be proud of that. I’m surprised he made no mention of nearly killing Hercules and Jarvis. Or since Bendis is so fond of thought balloons, perhaps he could have wondered if he made the right choice not to follow Zemo with his Thunderbolts like the other Masters of Evil.

Then on page ten it really gets good. The Hood manages to do what no one in The Initiative could do, he sees through Doctor Strange’s illusion. The best part however is Madame Masque asking The Hood to come clean about who, and what, he is. I love it, love it, love it. Even the villains are hesitant to become involved with a demon, not like that idiot Peter Parker. Speak of the devil (pun unintended) the villains see him outside the house, and attack, knowing the jig is up. And in the most anticlimactic moment I have seen in some time, it is Chemistro who gets inside the Sanctum, by changing “the chemical constitution of the wood that held the seal.” Wait, what? Chemicals vs. magic, chemicals win??? And Reed Richards didn’t know that one?

As the battle begins, this might be a good time to welcome artist Carlo Pagulayan to the Avengers family. I know he’s only in so far for this Annual but I hope he sticks around and we see much much more of his work. He has a very crisp, solid and substantial line that only serves to contrast regular New Avengers artist Yu’s work. As a Leinil Yu fan it’s difficult to praise Pagulayan’s work because everything about it makes Yu look bad, because Carlo does everything right that unfortunately Leinil doesn’t.

First and foremost is the identification factor mentioned earlier. Even without the roll call on the ‘Previously’ page I could tell who’s who in these huge battle crowd scenes that Bendis seems so fond of. I really liked and could easily identify all of Pagulayan’s New Avengers. That said, I must say I prefer Yu’s Luke Cage and The Hood, but still, this was a superior job visually. His Clint/Ronin, Wolverine and especially Iron Fist are top notch. Danny under Yu’s pen usually sinks into the background sometimes. Here, I was constantly reminded – oh yeah, Iron Fist is a New Avenger, cool! Welcome aboard, Carlo!

Now let’s talk about these battle crowd scenes. It seems that this is getting to be an ooold trick in Bendis’ bag. When he needs to inject some non-talking heads action into what has traditionally been an action comic, we get these crowd scenes. Whether it’s ninjas, Venoms, Frank Cho’s giant monsters, Jimmy Cheung’s Skrulls, prison inmates or gobs of costumed super-villains – it is always our heroes in almost silent miscellaneous background combat (almost always hand to hand) with these crowds.

Now I know Bendis is an old school Avengers reader, and whether anyone wants to argue the point, he knows his Avengers history – so he must know this isn’t the status quo. Avengers tradition is more in line of the heroes one on one with the villains, trading blows and clever quips evenly. The only instance of this we actually see is on page seventeen with Spider-Man and Jigsaw. Luke does talk to the Wrecker although he is unanswered, but who among us wouldn’t have loved an interchange from the Wrecker we see earlier on in this issue, the one so cocky about having beaten the Avengers once before?

That’s what these fights should be, and with characters like Spidey, Luke, and especially the former Hawkeye, it feels like serious missed opportunities for dialogue and characterization. And isn’t dialogue supposed to be one of Bendis’ strong points? Like I said, missed opportunities.

Another problem with the battle crowd scene in this issue in particular, and it’s exacerbated by the roll call on page one, is the villains included in The Hood’s gang. As I said, most of these fights, and this one in particular, are melees. Hand to hand combat and simple gunplay. Think about that. Super-villains, costumed super-villains with super powers and they are punching and shooting the heroes. And let’s face it, more than a few of the villains involved are not the type to get their hands dirty.

There are folks like the Corruptor and Dr. Demonicus who are more master planners than henchmen who engage in fisticuffs. And then there’s the Purple Man, who under Bendis’ hand was elevated to major threat status, rather than just a flunky – why is he here? Of course there is also the very real possibility that these characters are Skrulls, so who knows? There are one or two exceptions here, as we can see Centurius and the new Living Laser using their powers, but that’s about it. And going back to what I said above, as a frequent Avengers foe, the Laser should have had some choice things to say – especially considering that they do beat (and possibly kill) the New Avengers.

That’s right, the bad guys win. They defeat and/or kill our heroes before Doctor Strange inexplicably blows up and annihilates everybody. Wait, what? In another example of a Bendis trick that’s getting old, he uses the hated writers copout of dues ex machina. The words mean literally ‘god out of a machine’ and it usually implies that the writer pulls something out of his behind to resolve an unsolvable situation. The deus ex machina is always notable for its convenience. How will I ever pay the rent? Oh my, look, I found a bag of money. How will the New Avengers win? Strange will exhibit weird new powers and beat everyone. Lame. And just the fact that BMB indirectly blames it on events from World War Hulk just proves he really had no idea how he was going to end this. Lame and disappointing.

There were moments that I liked. Bendis gives Tigra a tiny bit of a reprieve when she shows up to help fight the bad guys, of course she immediately gets shot, just before Doctor Strange kills everyone. Again, why does Bendis hate her so much? I also liked that Spider-Man immediately thinks to save Little Baby Alias before things get too dangerous. Great move, he acts like a hero. Too bad Spidey couldn’t, or wouldn’t, save his own baby, ahem.

Speaking of the baby, I did like the last page where Jessica goes to Stark Tower to register. While I understand her maternal need to protect her baby, it does throw suspicion on her as being a Skrull, which I fully thought she was. Now I’m not so sure. The other event that I liked, and also throws my Skrull suspicions askew, was Ms. Marvel letting the New Avengers escape. I concur with Ronin/Clint’s “That’s the Carol Danvers I used to crush on.” Yeah, me too. I also enjoyed the very subtle flirting between the former and current Ronins.

Among the other things I didn’t like include the fact that Wong does more in this issue and this fight than some of the New Avengers. That’s high on the list. As is Spider-Man once again unmasked at the end of the story. The dark colors on pages thirty-two through thirty-five really brought Pagulayan’s art as well I thought. The ‘magic’ was over so I didn’t feel it was needed.

And then there’s the fact that The Hood gets away. I’d really like to know how he did it. He was occupied when Strange appeared and did his dues ex machina thing, so how did he know it was time to bail? It just stinks of that idea that the heroes never win and the villains always get away. It’s also one of the reasons I hated the Distinguished Competition’s recent “Sinestro Corps” storyline. You had an epic story where heroes made great sacrifices to win, and then at the end, you find out none of it matters because the bad guys get away. So, bottom line, if The Hood just walks away, really, what was the point? Perhaps most frustrating is that we’ll never see that Strange/Hood showdown we were all looking forward to.

All in all, this was an Annual filled with glitches and illogic, but much like many of the first six Mighty Avengers issues, it was saved by the art. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Carlo Pagulayan. I give New Avengers Annual #2 three stars out of a possible five even though it seems like a padded issue of the regular series with no real ending. Hopefully now Bendis can concentrate on the “Secret Invasion” and less on The Hood. Onward and upward.

	Glenn Walker
	Glenn has been a fan of Marvel Comics' Avengers since the early 1970s, when their current adventures were chronicled by Steve Englehart and their early exploits by Stan Lee in classic reprints featured in Marvel Triple Action. He has persevered through many incarnations of the team and he still loves the Avengers to this day.