“BLACK SWAN”

Learn the history of the enigmatic Black Swan.

What answers can she provide the Illuminati?

And watch as the New Avengers do the unthinkable!

The Good

Art-Steve Epting is on art duty and it all looks mighty fine. Every Page, every Panel is simply gorgeous. The colors in addition to the use of shadows really enhanced the package significantly!

Alternate Cover- While the standard looked lazy, the alternate which featured the whole team floating through the either between worlds looked pretty good, though it featured the newly mutated Beast while the interiors didn’t.

Origin- Not the greatest origin story ever told but it does give us a peek behind the veil of who/what the Black swan is and hints at her greater purpose.

Interesting- Beast must be having the worst year ever when he realizes that throughout a great many alternate worlds he’s a much worse mass murdering monster than Cyclops and he’s now been put in a position very similar to Scott by joining this team. All New X-men by Bendis really should deal with this eerie similarity when writing the character,

Black Hero- T’challa the King of the dead is here and his new tech toys of cloaking, short range teleportation and that detonating necklace gets shown off. The Black swan acknowledges him as the greatest warrior of the bunch and we realize that Necropolis, the Wakandan city of the dead will serve as prison for a quite a few if not all foes that they manage to secure.

Potential- I’m hopeful for next issue since our heroes will journey to Latveria home of Dr. Doom who shares colorful history with Namor, T’challa and Reed Richards. Doom and Reed are lifelong nemesis while he ravaged Black Panther’s country, stole their treasure, killed his uncle, manhandled his ex-wife (Storm), captured his mother (Ramonda) (Detailed in Doomwar) and lead him to death’s door (See Black Panther [2009 #2 for details)

Action- The flashback fight of what went down between the New Illuminati and Terrax was very enjoyable especially without the clutter of any text whatsoever. It was like watching a movie, the silence added to how dramatic everything seemed.

The Bad

Cover- This month we get a very lazy mostly white cover with the black swan standing in the center while a bunch of cut and pasted New Avengers logos. No, this is not the best cover for this series or on the stands.

Impact- While I am enjoying this series I keep wishing we could see what’s happening in the wider Wakanda, more interaction between the new Illuminati and particularly  I want Black Panther to go bat$hit all up and down Namor’s @$$.

The Ugly

Overall I would say this issue wasn’t the best but certainly isn’t the worst thing out from Marvel 3/5

New Avengers 2013 #3

“INFINITY”

The Illuminati experience their first incursion since reforming.

 Can the loose brotherhood of end times trust each other enough to use the Infinity Gems in unison?

And a new member joins the Illuminati!

The Good

Cover- I like the standard cover where Captain Americas shield is lying on the floor, very symbolic!

Crisis- Creation is ending and our heroes manage to end the threat for the time being and may have created other problems for earth but hey, we’re safe for the time being.

Bye bye Capt- Sue me and call me a prick but I loved how Dr. Strange just layed out Steve Rogers with a simple gesture. That pompous a$$ wipe has needed a good kick in the gonads since AVX began. Sure it wasn’t a heroic move but I’ll be damned if I didn’t love it!

WTF- So Hickman plays his hand and what a hand it is, the destruction of the infinity gems? We already know it won’t last but it was a cool moment nonetheless.

The Bad

Exposition-I’m loving this certainly but New Avengers (2013) Is much too heavy on the exposition to be accessible to modern comic book readers.

Advanced Solicits and art- The fact that Captain America was dropped from this team was expected since he had been absent from all the art released before the book made their debut

Hypocrisy- Henry J McCoy, tsk..tsk..tsk. You must be spending way too much time with Wolverine because you’re becoming as a big a hypocrite as that midget nutcase. After all the bitching and moaning about Cyclops keeping secrets etc, Beast just up and joins the illuminati after he damn near endangered existence by time traveling in the “All New X-men series”. Yeah Cyclops is the worst thing to happen to mutants your shenanigans are so much less vile.

Boring- Honestly I was bored, and this is coming from someone who had high praise for the two issues that preceded this one.

Continuity forgotten- So the infinity Gauntlet was reassembled….um that should be impossible considering the living tribunal stuff that occurred before. (Whatever I guess!)

The Ugly

This issue didn’t fill with excitement half as much as the last two. This is supposed to be my Black Panther fix but I really didn’t get my fill this time. One thing is for certain though Hickman plans on taking all these characters in a dark direction which I‘m looking forward to but it just hasn’t gotten there yet. 2.5/5

New Avengers (2013) #2

EVERYTHING DIES”

The Illuminati gather to plan for the death of Everything.

Infinity gems, old wounds, lies, agendas and universal incursions.

“It breaks hope — it crushes what makes us decent and steals what little honor remains.” –Black Swan

The Good

Cover- I love the standard cover, where all of the members of this new Illuminati’s fingers are all touching while the infinity gems glow at the points of intersection.

Threat- I love how Hickman sells the level of this threat and the impending end of creation itself. It may have been exposition heavy but the illustrations combined with said exposition really sold the entire reason for this clandestine team up and the immediacy of the threat. Jonathan Hickman you and me in 2013 son! Sweet music together!

Egos- I’m still very intrigued by all the super egos on this team. Self righteous Steve Rogers/Captain America, Mister I know it all Reed Richards, alcoholic egomaniac Tony Stark/Iron Man,

Art-Steve Epting’s use of shadows really is the high point for the art despite the fact that his Namor looks like a hobo in need of a bath.

Continuity- In my Last review New Avengers (2013) #1 I was left a bit, peeved that T’challa/Black Panther would have allowed Namor to walk back into Wakanda in light of his actions during Avengers Vs. X-men (See Avengers Vs X-men #8 and Avengers Vs. X-men #9 for details). Here Hickman quickly establishes that this is strictly business. To save creation itself he will tolerate Namor but when that is over he will kill him! That, my friends is more like it!

The Bad

Cover- Hated the alternate drawn by Simione Bianchi. Some find his art sent from heaven but it’s always hit and miss for me, and this one is a total miss!

Action- Apart from a few what I’m assuming were flashes of the future this issue had no action to speak of.

Exposition- Some may find this book not to their liking because it’s very exposition heavy.

The Ugly

Overall I enjoyed it allot though it again falls short of anything happening in Hickman’s Avengers (2013) still  very solid though 4/5