AVENGERS Volume 2 premier edition hardback graphic novel (Collects AVENGERS #7-12 and #12.1)
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: John Romita Jr and Bryan Hitch
Published by Marvel Worldwide
Review by Stewart Loud
Viscous, power hungry murderer, Parker Robbins AKA The Hood, has escaped from prison to ruin everyone's day by shooting plenty of people in the head and attempting to collect together the all powerful infinity gems which it turns out he has little to no clue how to control properly. To combat this potentially world buggering turn of events, the Avengers, New Avengers and Secret Avengers join forces with Red Hulk and the Illuninati responsible for firing Bruce Banner into space before World War Hulk. Sounds great doesn't it? Meh, it's not bad.
The Hood was one of my favourite villains before he was arrested and de-powered at the end of The Siege. Not because I like his character but because I hate him! There's something about the way he usually just creeps up and uses guns to execute people at close range instead of special powers that makes him seem a lot more cold hearted and spiteful than other Marvel bad guys. He is a genuinely evil man and he never has any qualms about manipulating and murdering the innocent in pursuit of his goal of power and dominance so it was great to see him as the main villain facing off against the majority of Marvels most powerful heroes.
Not as action heavy as the previous 6 issues, the first half of this book is mainly tense, well written plot development as the details of Robbins' jail escape are slowly revealed, the Avengers begin to learn of the new threat the world is facing and the illuminati members and some of their previous more questionable decisions get blown wide open when Steve Rogers and the rest of the Avengers crash one of their secret meetings. Let me tell you, Steve is furious with Tony.
It eventually becomes a race between Parker Robbins and Earth's mightiest heroes to locate and obtain the remaining infinity gems. The tension builds expertly right up until a big section seen from the perspective of and narrated by Uatu, The Watcher which ruins the pacing a bit. Then it turns out Parker doesn't really know how to control the power of the gems properly anyway which might explain why he's incapable of inflicting any casualties on the good guys no matter what he throws at them which takes away a lot of the excitement. Fires a bunch of them across the desert at one point and they all leave a big crater in the mountainside they hit but not so much as broken bone on any of them.
It's mostly well illustrated though. John Romita Jr does #7-12 (his standard drops a little bit towards the end) and Bryan Hitch does the art for an interesting short story in #12.1 where Spider Woman runs into trouble on a mission as an agent of S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation Response Department) to investigate a mysterious off world energy source. Ends with the return of an old and terrible adversary who -after what happened in the previous 6 issues- I'd bet big money is going to feature heavily in a future Marvel event.
It's good and bad. Or maybe great and then a bit disappointing is a better way of describing it. Shame Bendis seemed to drop the ball a bit with the climax after the excellent build up. Still. Quite a few important plot developments for the Marvel universe as a whole in there so fans of the series won't wanna miss this. Also this takes you right up to the beginning of the Fear Itself event.
SCORE 6/10
Here are links to my other Marvel catch up reviews:
Avengers Volume 1 (#1-6)
Secret Avengers Volume 1: Mission To Mars (#1-5)
Secret Avengers Volume 2: Eyes Of The Dragon (#7-12)
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