Avengers - The Initiative #6 Review

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #6
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Steve Uy

This issue was the long awaited Gauntlet beat-down issue. I'll be spoiling the mystery behind this, so if you want to avoid knowing who the assailant was, skip to the next review.

My first impression is the art and it is such a drastic change from this issue's cover and regular artist, Stefano Caselli's work. It's not that it is overly bad. It has an odd stylized look to it, but it does not fit this series or the tone of the book and really detracted from my enjoyment of it. For such a high profile issue, one that's been advertised quite a bit for the New Warriors ties, I was surprised at the guest artist and disappointed as well.

The story itself was quite good though. They did a good job building up the suspense and mystery around the attack on Gauntlet and I enjoyed Gyrich's attempts to cover up the going ons at the camp while the military police were there. The prime suspects are basically the ex-New Warriors and the people that went rogue during WWH, like Rage and Slapstick. Pym and Gyrich keep the people with knowledge of MVP out of it so they can't reveal anything to Stark's military police. Even Justice was placed in jail based after an altercation with Gauntlet, as seen in flashback panels.

Later, it appears Hardball is the one that attacked Gauntlet, as he is revealed to be following the MPs and communicating with someone named "HH" on a PDA. They find the cape killer armour Hardball wore near where Gauntlet is attacked though and that ends up being what he is following them for - to cover up his break-in during World War Hulk. He covers up his tracks and leads the MPs back to Pym's lab with some easy to follow clues. Gyrich, not wanting the death of MVP or other secrets revealed, quickly opts to use drugs to pull Gauntlet out of his coma, regardless of the fact it might kill him. Gauntlet reveals his assailant as being one of Iron Man's old enemies, The Ghost, and Gyrich promptly accepts that and kicks the MPs off the base with the mystery solved.

The issue ends with a very freaky looking Slapstick recalling how he beat Gauntlet half to death in one of the coolest, and most disturbing, scenes I've seen in a while. I never took Slapstick seriously before, but damn this was a cool scene. Look for it in the Comic Book Moments of the Week on Friday.

Verdict - Must Read

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