Avengers #32 Review

The Avengers travel to the Microverse to find where the mysterious signal is coming from and find themselves reunited with an old friend.

Avengers #32

Tony Stark contacts Hank Pym to let him know about the mysterious signal they’ve received.  Realizing it’s possibly the founding Avenger previously thought dead Janet Van Dyne, Hank chomps at the bit to join the Avengers on the mission.  In the Microverse, the woman who sent the message is surrounded by those sent to kill her.  She’s able to trick them and begin laying waste to the city she found.  In Central Park, the Avengers assemble and, ultimately, Captain America decides that he, Iron Man, Hank, and Thor will be making the trip.  Before they leave, Wonder Man offers his assistance but is told that now isn’t a good time to be around.  Once inside the Microverse, the four visiting Avengers do find the girl, and it is Janet Van Dyne.  An overjoyed Janet kisses them all and celebrates a victory, but there’s more trouble on the horizon as Lord Gouzar, the top dog of the Microverse, arrives.

What I had hoped a couple weeks ago has come to pass.  Brian Michael Bendis brings back Janet Van Dyne.  While predictable, it was pretty awesome seeing her in full action again.  That’s not all that was pretty great to see in this issue.  Notice that the five Avengers gathered in the Microverse date back to the earliest days of the team.  You can’t get anymore classic than that.  In a way, it’s like I said in the previous review…  It really feels like Bendis is putting the toys away now and undoing much of what he built in his run so another writer can come and have his fun.

Remember back when Bendis first took over the team?  Remember how, in his very first issue, he utterly destroyed what the Avengers were?  By the end of that arc, the Avengers series was ended and the team itself was in ruin.  When he launched New Avengers a short time later, he was building his own legacy.  Things were never the same again.  The classic idea of the sunshine hero was replaced by a slightly more gritty version that wasn’t so much over the top, but didn’t deal with things quite the same way as we had always been used to as fans.  Now, to pay his respects to the team he’s leaving behind, he’s set up a story that will feature one of the oldest variations of the team.  In my book, that’s pretty classy.  Not only that, but it makes for a pretty nice story full of nice reveals and happy moments.  Is it going to go down as one of the greatest Avengers stories?  No, but it’s going to be remembered for not just being Bendis’ last hurrah, but a sentimental look back on what was.

From the two artists on this book, Mike Mayhew and Brandon Peterson, this last story is certainly a good looking one.  Every page and every panel is gorgeous.  You really couldn’t ask for a better duo to tell this story for this final arc.  It’s really everything you should expect from an Avengers comic.

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