New Avengers #30 Review

I’ll take a cue from the first page of New Avengers #30 and warn you to go no further if you haven’t read Avengers Vs. X-Men #11…  Spoilers ahead!

New Avengers #30

The Thing, Mockingbird, Daredevil, and Luke Cage are transporting the defeated, and arrested, Emma Frost through San Francisco.  In the back, Daredevil and Cage have a heart to heart about the things that Cage struggles with as an Avengers, a husband, and, most importantly, a father.  Before anything can really be determined, the mutant-hating, zealot group called the Purifiers show up to quote bible verses and blow everything up – mutant or mutant sympathizer, they have no real preference in the matter.  The Avengers battle the whack jobs off and after winning the day, Luke Cage makes a long overdue call to Jessica to tell her he’s coming home right away…  and forever.

I have to say I really liked this issue as a tie-in.  For the most part, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the tied in material to AvX, but one thing I especially liked with these taking place in The New Avengers is how this takes place in between the pages, like a true tie-in should, but still without having super important plot points outside the main story.  The biggest problem with major events like this from both DC and Marvel recently has been that very thing – if you aren’t buying everything with the event’s header on the cover, you aren’t getting the “full” story.  Nevermind that often dupes people into buying issues that have little to no connection to the event itself.  Avengers Vs. X-Men has been different.  Brian Michael Bendis, Rick Remender, Christos Gage, Jason Aaron, and Kieron Gillen aren’t stealing in these issues.  They are showing different things that wouldn’t belong in the main story and wouldn’t be mentioned in the main story.  Kitty Pryde going on a really awkward date with Colossus after he Phoenix-ed out wasn’t mentioned in the main series, but made for a nice side story.  We don’t 100% need to know everything about the X-Men’s incarceration processes, but seeing it in a few places made for some nice extra stories.  These stories have definitely added scope, but not taken away from logic jumps from one issue of AvX to the next.

Bendis also gets to use this issue for some more closure to Cage’s status as an Avenger.  Just before the event, lots of talk happened about his role on the team in comparison to his duty as a father.  Here, that’s finalized, and it’s handled pretty well and consistent with how Bendis has written Cage over the past several years.  On top of that, We’re getting a look at the regular world’s reaction to this whole thing that’s going on between the two teams.  It’s incredibly one-sided, but yeah, you have to think there will be zealots out there willing to kill any mutant or mutant sympathizer if that’s what “God told them to do”.  Hell, just open up a newspaper (if they still make those things) and you’re bound to run 50/50 chances of running into a story about religious zealots selling you their interpretation of their own holy book through any means necessary.

All in all, Bendis and Mike Deodato have shone in these AvX issues.  They’ve certainly elevated both Bendis series toward the end of the writer’s long run that has been full of ups and downs.  For me, these issues have done exactly what I wanted them to do – tell solid enough stories about satellite situations in this “war” while not making me feel like I will need to remember this thing or that thing, or have to pull these issues out as well when I re-read Avengers Vs. X-Men.  They are directly connected without being invasive to the main story.  To me, I can’t really ask for much more.

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Tags: Avengers Reviews Avengers vs. X-Men Brian Michael Bendis Mike Deodato New Avengers Slider