The Race To Save -- Oh, Wait. Irrelevant Flashback. Sorry Bobbi.
New Avengers continues to suffer from the same problems as it splits its time between two storylines that simply do not mesh well at all. It provides a very disappointing reading experience with both stories feeling too short and only one of them feeling like it actually belongs in this book.
The superior story, the one actually featuring the New Avengers, sees the team dealing with some logical fallout from Norman Osborn's administration. It builds up the credibility of Superia as villain and further develops Victoria Hand and her new relationship with the team. Unfortunately, there is not much more to say about it than that due to it only getting half of this issue's space.
This is all due to the '59 Avengers story, which has now officially become the noose around this story arc's neck, strangling the life out of it. I believe that in this issue the flashback story has now taken over more than half of the pages, and it is rather frustrating. We are three issues in without any indication that this story has anything to do with the New Avengers. There is really no interesting dynamic developing with this strange cast of characters. All they seem to be doing is hunting down and fighting Nazis, which is a story everyone has read at least a dozen times. And when put in direct comparison with Mike Deodato's art style, Howard Chaykin's art comes off as rather dull and unappealing. This is not an entertaining story. Its material is boring, and the amount of space it steals from the interesting New Avengers story is annoying.
This may be my final word on this until the final issue of the arc or even the beginning of the next. There just really is no sign that things are going to change, and the pacing of the story is so crippled it hardly seems worth talking about it on an issue-by-issue basis. This is like reading two half-issues strangely stapled together. What exists of the New Avengers story is actually enjoyable, but there is not enough of it to make this a satisfying read. The '59 Avengers story is nothing but dead weight. It is disappointing that Marvel ever thought this combination was a good idea.
