Avengers #25 Review
Before The Avengers can get into their battle with the X-Men, they do have one piece of unfinished business to wrap up. Click “More” to read our review of Avengers #25 by Brian Michael Bendis and Walt Simonson!
Avengers #25
Captain America has a lot on his mind. As the leader of the world’s peacekeeping force, the public is growing more accusatory of his actions and the things the Avengers are doing around the world. Thor drops by after his return from the dead in his own book to deliver a pep talk to one of his best friends. Noh-Varr rushes in with an announcement about the whereabouts of A.I.M. after Osborn was brought down. The Avengers zero in on A.I.M.’s secret facility and, as to be expected with A.I.M., they are brought down relatively easily. When special recognition goes to Noh-Varr for his help on the mission, he slips away and is contacted by the Kree’s Supreme Intelligence and is given a new mission… Intercept and contain the Phoenix Force rushing toward Earth.
The flow of this book is similar to last week’s New Avengers #24. There’s a start that connects to the events of Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 and the conclusion actually connects to events that came before the issue. The bulk of the issue deals with the bridging between the previous arc and AvX. It’s definitely serviceable as a combination of a tie-in and a bridge. Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch over the real lack of a direct tie-in, let me ask you this: Is it better to jump from the last story into the tie in or use these two issues from the flagship titles focusing more directly on individuals with very heavy things on their mind help understand where their heads may be during the lead up to the first shot and the actual battle itself?
For people already reading the Avengers titles, it will serve them better this way. Besides, it’s not like Avengers fans aren’t going to buy these issues anyway. People who only read X-Men titles may feel differently, but Marvel might be making a calculated risk letting these first two tie-ins play out in this manner. Overall, I actually very much enjoyed this issue. I loved the use of Thor and Cap’s relationship. Thor might be biased, but he’s saying the things that he not only feels, but also exactly what Cap needed to hear about how he’s doing his job. In fact, the relationships used in the book don’t feel like the typical forced dialog by Bendis. Honestly, when I was reading this issue, I kind of had a tingling in the recesses of my memories. It’s like this book had an old fashioned feel to it. Characters are interacting almost gleefully with one another. I actually felt good reading this book. Suddenly, I figured out why…
Walt Simonson is one of my all time favorite artists. In fact, he might be #2 directly behind George Perez. When I see or hear his name, I’m immediately flooded by memories of reading his now classic run on Thor in the 80s. There are few creators more closely tied to a run on any series in history than how Simonson is tied to his Thor run. When I discovered he would be working on this title, I nearly passed out. Now that his arc has come, his art doesn’t disappoint. He brings his unique style to each character. You can actually differentiate each character easily. Cap has that classic cow licked hair that he was drawn with in the 70s, and, holy crap, the first time you see Thor in this book, it’s so classically Simonson it immediately pulled me back in time about 30 years. Nevermind Thor has a new overall look from his armor to his more barbaric facial features, when Simonson draws the God of Thunder, it still carries with it the look of the character’s all time greatest era. This arc is going to be awesome just from an art standpoint. ’Nuff said!
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Classic feel to the book. Bendis writes the characters interacting with each other in a very fun, unforced way. Walt freakin’ Simonson! Need I say more? | Not much for me to dislike. Some people expecting this to be a 100% from to back tie in to AvX might be disappointed, but I thought it worked well to set up Cap’s deeper issues going on around him. |
| Rating |
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1 Comment
Filler. Avengers #25 is solicited as being an “AvX” tie-in, but it’s really not (even if the first 2 pages make it pass for one.) Despite that fact, I enjoyed Walter Simonson’s art. This twist with Protector bothers me, because it was clearly improvised. Cap & Thor was cool, though.
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