Review: Avengers Academy #4

Three of the Avengers-in-training split off from their supervisors during the power outage in the Raft. They're looking for Norman Osborn, somewhere down in the cells, and revenge's on their minds.
 

The Good

Mettle gets the spotlight in this issue and his characterization's pretty compelling. You can definitely see how the mellow surfer dude can co-exist with the angry, armored heavy.  His extended metaphor about life preservers gave all these preceding a much greater urgency and importance. Actually, there were a lot of great character moments. Hazmat freaking the one inmate out by threatening to give him cancer, Osborn vanquishing these kids with mind games more potent than any pumpkin bomb... every character's got a very distinct, defined voice.

The Bad

Maybe this was taken care of in the previous issue (which I didn't get a chance to pick up) but I think it was a missed opportunity to not have these young Avengers interact the Thunderbolts more. They but heads with the Juggernaut and Luke Cage,sure, but I would've loved to have seen their dealings with the likes of Crossbones and Ghost.

The Verdict - 4/5

To be honest, the "I Am Avengers" promos that preceded this series made it look like it was going to be really cheesy and unnecessary. So I've been pleasantly surprised that this book has had such strong characterizations and a genuinely-interesting premise that doesn't encroach on the theme of any other team title. Actually, this is a great compliment piece to the Thunderbolts half of this crossover, which was rock solid on its own.