Will the 3rd New Avengers book restore the series to the top of the shelf or did Sentry begin a downward spiral that there’s just no getting out of? Will this be the book where Daredevil finally joins the team? Will Spider-Man make any more booty jokes? Ok, so not so much the last one, but seriously this has to be the issue Daredevil jumps into a black costume and joins the New Avengers right? They keep showing pictures of a black clad ninja-guy, who else could it be? Well, the darkly clad stranger actually does get unmasked in this book, see the spoiler below.
The Avengers start out this book with a trip to Japan to fight some ninjas, not contrived at all. So… of course we get a little New Avenger on ninja action, which is nice. We also get to see our mysterious ninja like black clad figure doing a bit of ass-whooping alone. Hydra was there and so was the guest star of the night was the Silver Samurai. Turns out the Silver Samurai was apparently illegally imprisoned by Shield at the Raft and he just happened to escape during Breakout. That’s the reason why the Avengers are there, see how it all ties back together.
Ok, so now that their little Japanese adventure is over it’s time to get to the Secrets & Lies. One of the New Avengers has got a dark secret they may cost them their membership on the team. Oh please don’t let it be Spider Woman. I have an unhealthy attraction to her. I mean I know she’s just a drawing but… like I said it’s unhealthy. I think maybe they embedded her pheremones into a scratch and sniff on the pages. Come on, you know what I mean, drawn to perfection with thick black hair, who wouldn’t be attracted to her.
Ok, it’s her. I hate to spoil it here, but it’s kinda obvious when you look at the collected books that this TPB contains, which I love. Others may feel differently, but I appreciate the fact that Marvel goes out of their way to recap a story through a collected comic I would have never bought but directly relates to the Avenger story contained within this book.
When that little bit of nastiest is completed, the New Avengers decide that they can’t keep the reformation of the Avengers from the public any longer and hold a press conference that has mixed results. Throw in a cameo by Ms. Marvel and you’ve got the book in a nutshell.
So, how did it compare to the other trade paperbacks in the series? Somewhere in the middle actually; not as good as Breakout but not nearly as bad as Sentry. It’s good enough to make me give the next book in the series a chance. So it’s ordered and I’ll review it when it gets in. Until then, I have a ton of other TPBs just waiting to get a write up.
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| Can It Stand Alone | |
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