Avengers Disassembled Part 4
Summary
The culprit behind the mysterious disasters and their motive is revealed as The Avengers race to put an end to the madness. However, there is one problem: The villain is someone a lot closer to home than they expected...
What I liked
Resolution: Continuity errors aside, this issue has resolve, and to me (someone who is quite ignorant about Avengers titles that pre-date Disassembled) had a pretty decent conclusion. However, this did, in no way, feel as dramatic as I think it should have. Believe it or not (and if you read the previous issue, you will probably “Believe it”), the ending is seriously downplayed. A long-time Avenger goes mad and basically destroys themselves; which sounds dramatic when you say it like that, but in this issue you could almost blink and miss it. But this is the section where I’m not meant to bitch and moan, so enough about that!
The reason I liked the conclusion so much was that it made the previous issues make a bit more sense. I can now read the Kree armada scene in the previous issue (who am I kidding, that scene WAS the previous issue) and actually know why it is happening. This is certainly an arc you’ll want to read twice... if you can be bothered.
That ONE scene: There is one scene where Captain America tries to talk to our villain by delving into a mindscape that they have created and sees what they can see. This moment is key to the whole story because both Captain America and we as the readers understand the strife and madness that have been thrust upon this hero-turned-villain. Shame it only lasts two pages!!
Doctor Strange: Who needs the Avengers when you have got this man? No, really, he figures out what is going on and then he solves the problem. Why did we need any other character in this story when Doctor Strange took care of the whole situation in around twenty minutes?
What I didn’t like
Continuity: Okay let’s get this one over and done with to begin with. I didn’t know this myself (so this isn’t so much a “What I didn’t like”), but for long time readers of this series, there are apparently continuity issues with how much the villain knows and apparently (as I again do not know this as fact), the events that transpire with this character are totally contradictory of previous arcs. I’m sorry for being so vague on this point, but I thought it’d be better to highlight it, than not.
Pacing: Seriously?! We have the villain revealed, their motive explained, the heroes intervening and the situation resolved in the same issue—despite the last three issues having no direction or purpose other than setting the mood and killing off characters who aren’t needed (Read as: who need to be dead) in order for the following stories to work.
Flashbacks: I may be wrong here, but I probably am not... There is a scene at the very end of the issue which is taken from an old Avengers issue, showing how our villain ended up joining up with the Avengers. I get the nostalgia factor that this is meant to give, but really, just rewrite this scene. The writing in older comic was a lot more primitive (and I’m sorry if I’ve upset anyone, but characters narrating everything they see and do, and explaining every single plot point in painful detail isn’t good writing) and really makes the end of the issue feel out of place and lazy. Hey, let’s just slap that old scene on there and have done with it.
Spiderman: Don’t get me wrong, I love Spiderman, I was a child of the 90’s we were pretty much forced to, but it is apparent that Bendis does not. All his comments are terrible lines of wit, with no substance. To further add insult to injury, he does a little scene where Falcon berates Spiderman for making a bad taste comment about The Vision and eventually ends up asking him “what are you even doing here?” Yeah, Bendis – it’s not like you gave Falcon any bad dialogue... “He did seem shaky and sweaty. He’s not a shaky-sweaty guy” two issues earlier, hmmm.
Verdict
This run-through is hindered by me not wanting to give away too many “Spoilers” (although I’m sure you can decipher who the villain is if you think about it for a second), so, if you don’t mind having the story spoilt for you, check out my Avengers Finale run-through, which will go through the whole arc as well as the conclusion to the story in more detail. As for this issue, it was a good resolution to the arc, but probably not the best conclusion to The Avengers as a series. Those who are long time fans of The Avengers will spot more problems than I did, but taking the issue on its own merits I was strangely satisfied. Up until this point I did contemplate the possibility of there being no real explanation for anything that had transpired in the arc, but I was proven wrong. It was a particularly rushed conclusion which could have been explored a bit earlier on in the series, but at least we got a conclusion!
6/10 – Fans of The Avengers will probably be less generous than me, but as it stands I am content with the resolution
