Avengers Disassembled Part 1
Summary
The story which is set to shake the foundations of The Avengers, leaving the team never to be the same again, begins here. When a series of catastrophes results in casualties, disgrace and even death, it quickly becomes obvious that someone is gunning for the Marvel Universes’ greatest heroes. Who it is, and why is currently unclear, but one thing is obvious – this is personal.
What I liked
That Bendis “Charm”: This is a Brian Michael Bendis series. So I probably don’t even need to say this, there is a lot of dialogue that sounds unrehearsed and realistic. By giving minor characters a bit of texture and making the superheroes sound a bit more human; this can make this totally unbelievable world just that little more believable. I like the idea of this more than I enjoy the execution of it, however, as you’ll see in the next section.
Hawkeye: This issue features a lot of heroes (it’s an Avengers book, I’m not complaining), but none really standout as being heroic. The only two heroes I actually enjoyed in this issue were Hawkeye and Falcon; everyone else seemed to be acting unreasonably by doing something destructive or just whining. The fight scene with Ultron is all about those two, and is the only time where I remember characters doing something right! Then again, Lionheart may have done something, but she is such a bland character that I don’t even notice she is there half the time.
What I didn’t like
Banter: As I mentioned earlier, whilst Bendis’ “realistic writing style” is pretty much boundary pushing stuff, it is by definition—totally pointless. Do I need to see two soldiers having a witty exchange as stuff is blowing up? I would argue, no. Bendis is a talented writer, but I find his dialogue works better when it is fully on topic. This “realism vibe” that he appears to be creating does still bleed through into the more serious stuff, so more of that and less chatting shit, please.
Rarrrrg! I’m in ya face!!! ARRRG!!! BANG!! WOOO!!: This issue is all about stuff going wrong, with the minor possibility of these instances being unrelated (but c’mon, of course it isn’t). This feeling of helplessness, as lots of stuff goes wrong at the same time, adds a sense of desperation to the comic. This is a good idea and, to be fair, works reasonably well for the first half of the issue. We see: an explosion, a death and Tony Stark being racist to a guy—it’s all is reasonably paced. But by the time we have reached the end it just feels like a mess and makes the reader feel exhausted more than panicked. This isn’t helped by She-Hulk, for some reason (which I could be unaware of) deciding to kick-off and start screaming at everyone.
This goes nowhere: A character comes back from the dead, two more die. There are two explosions, team disputes, a sinister plot at work and more... yet I feel like it went nowhere. Maybe all these incidents will be pieces to an overall puzzle, but I’m not entirely sure I can believe that. So much gaudy, sensational stuff happened and it surely can’t all be accounted for by the end.
Verdict
This issue starts well, with the classic conversation that has nothing to do with anything to make you let your guard down, only to surprise you with the shocking story opener. It even continues to be pretty good after that: with the alleviation of tension which then turns ugly as Tony Stark begins losing it. From this point on the tension just skyrockets with a mess of inferno and screaming; this left me feeling a little overwhelmed (in the bad way). In short: It’s an okay issue, and if you want a single issue that has three issue’s worth of action in it, this is the one for you. The Ultron fight scene is even pretty good. But I really hope that this story finds a narrative soon, because it’s starting to give me a headache already.
5/10 – Half of the issue is good, so half marks.