New Avengers #33 Review

NEW AVENGERS #33
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Leinil Yu

The countdown to Skrullmegeddon is on. I was disappointed to find absolutely no Spider-Woman or major discussion about her "betrayal" from last issue. In fact, almost no indication these people just crashed from an airplane is apparent in this issue. I am curious to find out how non-metas, like Hawkeye, survived this plane crash when the only padding was from Spider-man's webbing.

Another thing that stands out to me is the fact Luke Cage points the finger at Spider-man as being the resident Skrull on their team when he, himself, has been one of the most "Skrully"-like person on the team, along with Dr Strange. Cage went from tiara wearing, Christmas shouting blacksploitation character and is now leading the Avengers, married and with a child. While I do not think he is a Skrull, [Strange is my pick with the missing in Civil War and "my cape does not work under these conditions" from last issue and his whole lack of magic use in general] I find it really odd he would choose Spider-man simply because he switched sides in Civil War.

Having just read The Hood hardcover, as I missed the series when it originally came out in 2002, I was quite impressed with The Hood, also known as Parker Robbins for the uninformed. While I am still a bit concerned with how this low level street thug will become a Kingpin of Supers, I am willing to give Bendis the benefit of the doubt as he is building on an excellent new character and his work with the actual Kingpin in his Daredevil run gives me all the reasons I need to have faith in his writing.

This issue itself has a lot of stuff going on ranging from the team recouping in a Chicago hotel room and dealing with rampant paranoia concerning Skrulls. Combined with the behind the scenes action of The Hood establishing himself through his acquisition of Deathlok and putting The Owl in his place for trying to operate without The Hood's permission and The Hood meeting up with Wolverine, we are given plenty of bang for our buck. This issue has a lot of build up with just enough smattering of action to keep me wanting more and I look forward to next issue and the confrontation between Wolverine and The Hood, which will either cement The Hood as a top tier villain or job him out to the all encompassing Wolverine and end any build up he might have had.

Many people complain about the artwork of Mr Yu, but I personally love it and feel it suits the tone of this series perfectly. Along the same line, if he was the main artist on Mighty Avengers, I feel that he would be a terrible fit and probably call for his removal. The dark, gritty, washed out style of his work on NA adds so much to the book in my opinion and really compliments the characters he depicts.

All-in-all, this book was almost my pick of the week.

Verdict - Must Read

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