New Avengers #39 Review

NEW AVENGERS #39
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by David Mack

Up until now, I had been on the fence with the whole Secret Invasion / Skrull nonsense. I was intrigued, but pretty much all the suspense and hype for it was coming from Bendis in interviews. Not once did I feel like the book actually reflected any kind of Skrull threat and what little there was seemed to be the exact words Bendis was using to promote the book on Newsarama, Jinxworld and the numerous other comic sites. The ending to the Illuminati series was the first time I thought this could actually be really cool.

However, this issue killed any kind of interest I have in the book or upcoming event. I'll probably still pick it up, as I'm that guy buying all the crap events, bitching about not buying them anymore and then going right back for more. But that doesn't change the fact this issue consists of Bendis disguised as Wolverine and Echo and preaching his Skrull speech for an entire issue.

I usually enjoy the whole Bendis-speak, where every character magically has the same sense of humour and verbosity, but this issue wasn't like that. It was Marvel characters with Bendis' words coming out their mouth. It felt like I was reading every piece of promotional propaganda that Bendis has spewed out over the last year or so. It's like he finally realized the so called event is starting next month and there is literally no build up other than one random Skrull body the team ran across in Japan.

It feels like everyone is drinking the kool-aid and I'm the only one still standing with the full cup. Where is this threat? Where is the proof or even an inkling of a Skrull invasion? How are they getting an event out of this?

This issue goes way out of its way to prove this point by having Echo, who doesn't really believe in the whole invasion thing, take off from the hideout to go patrol or something (it never explains where she's going, seeing as she doesn't have a home or place to go other than the base) and conveniently runs into a Skrull Daredevil imposter. This imposter, who has Cyclops' optic blast, Nightcrawler's teleportation and Human Torch's flames, among other things, can't take down Echo, even after telling her she's just a human and has no chance. When Wolverine shows up, it just becomes a joke of a threat and the Skrull has to actually run away from two relatively unpowered heroes, in comparison. This makes a believer out of Echo and I guess I'm supposed to buy into this whole invasion now, too.

The only thing I actually liked here was the nod to Echo being deaf. It seems Bendis has been reading fan outcry over the whole Echo "hearing" things when she can't see the person's lips moving and he put a scene in here where Wolverine tried to tell her something and he even points out she can't hear him. It could have been a simple way to show she's not a Skrull as well, but I'm not sure I'm going to give him that much credit for this.

Verdict - Check It. It's not that this is outright bad or not worth reading, but the sudden shift in tone and the feel that this is just Bendis trying to hype his, as of right now, non-event by having the characters spout the same garbage he's been saying all year long in magazines and online. Just felt like he was reaching in a desparate attempt to say, "Look at me! SKRULLS! INVASION! See how crazy this is! Big event coming and the heroes are scared, you should be too!". It might just be me, though, so your mileage may vary.

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