A bit of an identity crisis: who brought in the clones?
The Avengers Academy travel to Europe, but are they in over their heads?
The Good
I've been loving Avengers Academy lately, and as I noted in my Spider-Man review, Marvel seems to be pushing them hard on their audiences. This is good, because they manage to come off as endearing rather than annoying; they're not totally incompetant, but they're not all-powerful, either. This really shows in this issue, as there isn't a cliffhanger to another issue; they go out, get beat up and scolded for it all in one book. I like the fact that they seem to be banned in a French city now, which really gives a greater weight to their work. I think that's going to be a bigger theme in the rest of this book - dealing with the haters, if you will.
The Sinister Six have been showing up with a greater frequency lately, which I think is a good thing. Otherwise, they just tend to show up individually in throwaway issues where the only purpose they serve is to give Spider-Man something to do while contemplating the latest drama in his life. Keeping them together really adds to their danger, especially having the Chameleon coming out of nowhere to fool even Finesse. I'm loving Doctor Octopus lately, especially in the pages of Invincible Iron Man; I have a new respect for him, and he seems more threatening without being hokey. His interception of Pym's portal was just genius: the fact the Six are manipulative and experienced keep them threatening, even if the concept is a bit old.
The Bad
The team seems to be really hung up on the fact they beat Korvac. The guy's name is mentioned four times on one page in this issue, and a number of times in the annual and the issue prior. It seemed like the equivalent of name-dropping a celebrity you just happened to sit beside on the bus - the story loses more lustre every time you tell it.
I'm not sure what it was, but Reptil really seemed out of character in this issue. His begging of Pym and Tigra to let the team out to fight Electro just came off as whiny, and for a guy who's usually the reasonable one on the team, saying "We really need a win, coach!" just seems like a bad way to get them to agree with you. Also, I have a fear he may be turning into the Beast Boy of the Academy; now that he can turn into full-sized dinosaurs, he's limited to just appearing on-panel, yelling a one-liner and headbutting a villain out of the way. This formula gets really tiring, especially when his dinosaur/human hybrids looked so unique.
The Verdict
The "clones" I refer to in the title refers to the fact that some of the characters just don't seem like themselves in this issue. Pym is his guilty self as usual, but some of the heroes just seem a bit... off. I'm hoping the squad gets a measure of revenge in the issues to come, as nothing really seemed to happen in this book. With any luck, Doc Ock's heist will come back to bite the team in the rear end soon enough.
