Should the Avengers Fear Bendis?
A tie-in to Fear Itself, but kind of a slow moving issue for the big "SURPRISE EVENT too SHOCKING to be revealed" that it was marketed as.
The Good
If you are a fan of an old fashioned slug-fest between to heavy hitters, then look no further. Red Hulk versus Thing would be good enough but this is Rulk battling it out against Ben as Angrir the Breaker of Souls. These two battle it out and let's say it doesn't end well for one of them (SPOILER- It's Red Hulk).The Bad
Bendis has now (IMO) stalled out on two of his titles. The train wreck that was the 1959 debacle over in New Avengers and now the overly calm storytelling in this issue (and #13 as well). We have different Avengers basically being interviewed about trusting each other and how they feel about certain members. While this works in theory, I have to say that I felt it made the story drag. I mean, sure Rulk is duking it out with one of the Serpents chosen, but what's everyone else doing?!? I doubt they paused for a soundbite. Also, these "interview" are from various points of time since we see Wasp, Black Panter, Quicksilver, and an obviously Steve Rogers Cap talking along with Spidey, Hawkeye, and Wolverine. Perhaps Bendis thought it would be clever to make this look like it ties into his Oral History of the Avengers that has been showing up in the books for the past year or so or maybe he had to pace himself because he's not ready to dive headfirst into Fear Itself. It could also be that since it feels like Bendis writes half of Marvel's titles and is possibly stretched too thin and so a flagship book like The Avengers has to suffer. Hard to say.Another gripe I will through in is one I and others have had before. Fear Itself is happening right now in the Marvel U, it's kind of a big deal, so you would think that writers would be communicating with each other. But, whatever Red Hulk's fate, I know that either before or after all of this he goes on a mission into space for Steve Rogers (or so reads the blurb for his book). So does this happen before or after the events here? A big issue with these massive crossover events is so often the creative teams really don't seem to be communicating with each other. We are almost halfway through Fear Itself, whether a book directly ties in or not they at least need to acknowledge that this huge mega event that readers dare not miss is at least happening (or has happened).
Also, we see New York and Avengers Tower destroyed...again. Nothing new here.
The Verdict
Well, it does look like my Bad overshadows my Good and that's accurate. For being The Avengers, this book felt sluggish and not worthy of being about the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. While I can appreciate Bendis trying to show that Red Hulk does have what it takes to be part of this team, the fight itself could have been summed up in a couple of pages. Remember when Onslaught punched Juggernaut in Canada and he finally hit the ground in New Jersey (X-Men Prime I believe, but I could be wrong)? We had a similar situation here where at the end of the day we just need to know that Angrir kicked Rulk's @$$. That's it, end of story. I am mildly interested to see what happens next, kinda to Rulk but based on what Jarvis said. My anticipation is what tipped the scales to give this issue two stars. I might be generous, but oh well. They are the Avengers. PS- I didn't mind the art as much as others seem to, but yes JRJR has a style that will not appeal to all or feel right for every book/issue.
