AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #10Written by Dan Slott
Art by Stefano Caselli
So much happens in every issue of Avengers: The Initiative, yet I still leave each issue craving more.
Case in point, this issue gives us New Warrior flashbacks for the numerous former New Warriors in the Initiative, deals with some fallout from Slapstick's attack on Gauntlet, builds the relationship of Hardball and Komodo, has an awesome Taskmaster and Ant-Man scene, progresses the MVP / KIA plot and a whole bunch of other random stuff. It's a cornucopia of super hero goodness.
However, with all the good comes the bad. Slott likes to play with the unloved or underused heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe. People like Constrictor, the ex-New Warriors, Taskmaster, Ant-Man, etc. With this, it feels like he thinks he has free reign to do whatever he wants to them, including maiming or killing anyone that pleases him.
While a lot of these shock deaths or maimings are shocking and attention grabbing, after the 20th random beating, dismemberment or killing it just becomes a bit tired and overused and I'm kind of losing interest in the characters because of how he's treating a lot of them. While I'm still loving the book, I'm also finding it hard to keep the faith sometimes.
The best example of this in this month's issue would be when Constrictor meets up with KIA and has his arm razor wired into tiny little pieces. It's a pretty shocking scene, but at the same time, this entire arc has had people getting torn to pieces, mutilated, burned and "killed in action", robbing any impact the scene has. It's completely glossed over as well and we never go back to see if he's okay or anything.
Looking over this review, it seems like this comic is complete trash or I'm being overly negative, but that's not what I'm trying to get at. Anyone picking this up for the first time is going to probably crap their pants at how much shit just went down in this issue. Anyone who's been reading along the whole time is probably going to be wondering if their favourite Initiative recruit is going to survive another issue or if it's even worth getting attached to any of the new ones.
One of the things I really liked in this issue was Cloud 9 stepping up as a leader-like character. She heads to the barracks by herself and rounds up anyone she can find, which amounts to the nekkid Hardball and Komodo since Vance seems to be reforming the New Warriors with all the former members based on the ending of this issue (how's this play into the actual NW title?).
Later, when everyone is fighting KIA, Cloud 9 is front and center with the group and, while everyone else is shocked to see MVP alive, she's got the unphased confidence of a vetern as she spouts off something along the lines of, "Seen that before, you'll get used to it.".
Mutant Zero shows up again this issue and uses some kind of power to make Gyrich and herself invisible to KIA. She repeated the same phrase about how they are not there and he cannot see them. I'm not sure if it was something she had to do for the power to work or just random dialogue. Still no idea who this girl is supposed to be.
Finally, Taskmaster and Ant-Man were the best part of this issue and they only had one page together. Ant-Man hid, shrunken, under one of the Initiative members during KIA rampage in the base last issue. He's seen here checking to see if the coast is clear and only finds Taskmaster. Both ignore the distress calls from the others in the base and deside to sit down and watch Chuck on Ant-Man's iPod. We need an Ant-Man, Deadpool and Taskmaster series. Only good things could come from that.
Verdict - Must Read. Again, I really liked the issue, but I'm also getting tired of the random killing just for the shock value factor. There are better ways to make me care about the characters and I hope Slott tones it down a bit in future issues.
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