AVENGERS #6 REVIEW
by Michael McClelland


You CAN judge a book by its cover!  The cover to AVENGERS #141 is my all-time favorite comic book cover.  This tribute to that Gil Kane classic was masterful!  This is all you can ask for from a superhero comic book
cover.  Two powerful teams of colorful characters (The Avengers and the
Squadron Supreme) rushing headlong into battle! I was delighted to see
Vision return to his old spot in the corner box (if only for an issue).
 
The splash page: This is power!  I hope the crew in the new THOR series
are paying attention to the way Perez draws Thor. 

Page Two: All that splash page sturm and drang is taking place in the
Avengers' living room! Hilarious!  And there's Tony Stark (Iron Man) again
with his blasted heirlooms! (A running joke started in CAPTAIN AMERICA #3)
How did this stuff survive when Hulk was a member? Doesn't Tony have a
residence of his own?  Doesn't Tony know villains and superheroes are the
natural predators of heirlooms? Wasn't everything destroyed anyway when
the Masters of Evil trashed the mansion?  And isn't this a mansion that
the Watcher created and so the heirlooms would be from another dimension
or what not anyway?  Can anyone tell me what's going on here? (AVENGERS
continuity got a little weird for a while; but Kurt Busiek is doing a fine
job of getting things back on track).

This story basically deals with a brainwashed Squadron Supreme (again they
get mind-controlled?) accusing the Avengers of being frauds.  The Avengers
go to clear their name and of course they end up duking it out with the
Squadron (Marvel's version of the Justice League). The battle is done well
and this meat and potatoes aspect of the issue is great; but what is truly
superlative here is the character interactions.  There are so many nice
moments here it is hard to note them all; but the confrontation between
Hawkeye and Captain America that the last few issues have been building up
to was handled elegantly by Kurt Busiek.  In addition, Warbird, the
Avenger formerly known as Ms. Marvel is slowly coming apart at the seams.
She has a drinking problem (and probably a few other problems as well).
She is still an effective Avenger; but her emotional instability is a
heavy burden for the team to bear.  Again, Kurt Busiek is handling this in
stellar fashion.  Warbird is not being treated as a caricature; but as a
real person with real emotional difficulties.  I for one am very
interested to see how this thread develops.

But back to the fight! In the course of his battle with Hyperion (the
Squadron Supreme's version of Superman) Thor loses his hammer and Hyperion
beats the stuffing out of him because he can fly. Such humiliation for
Thor.  Couldn't he have jumped using his powerful leg muscles?  Why didn't
he grapple Hyperion when he closed in to hit him? Couldn't he have grabbed
piece of machinery (or wall etc) and tossed it at Hyperion ala Ben Grimm
(The Thing)?  I can tell you that Hulk wouldn't have been so helpless --
and for that matter why doesn't Thor's flying advantage ever come into
play when he fights HULK?  I just didn't believe this segment. Is Thor
really so helpless without his hammer? I mean I see Thing, Herc, Hulk,
Daredevil, Spiderman, etc etc etc fight flying opponents all the time and
they never fold up like cheap card tables.  I must say I lost a lot of
respect for Thor here. At least Hawkeye, when deprived of his bow was
still resourceful enough to get out of his own predicament. 

I wasn't surprised to see Imus Champion revealed as the mystery villain;
but I was surprised that Imus Champion is actually--Orson Welles!   I love
his Ultron head ashtray.
  
This issue was densely packed with story! I counted 148 panels. That's an
average of 6.7 panels per page. The highest compliment I can pay a comic
book is that it inspired me to do mathematics (in any way, shape, or
form).

I can't praise the artwork of George Perez enough.  Anything I might say
would be an insult.  His work is so good you can hear and smell and taste
the world he creates with a few lines on paper.  The man is a master of
detail. He is a genius at giving tremendous layers of depth to his
characters by the way they stand or what facial expressions they have or
what they are doing when they aren't speaking (i.e., Avengers' butler
Jarvis bending down to check and see if the carpet is wet after Thor
nearly makes it storm in the living room).  Perez uses his characters like
perfect actors that never miss a cue.

"Live, Kree or Die" (next months four part crossover) must be the super
friendliest crossover of all time! The advertising blurb reads, "Don't
worry if you don't buy all the titles, we'll fill ya in!"  Such
consideration!  Are you kidding?  I'm dying to buy them all!

All in all a fantastic issue.  My favorite so far.  This issue was
everything a superhero book should be: internal conflicts, mystery
villains, two powerful teams clashing, lots of talking, and lots of
fighting. 
 
Thirty days is too darn long!

--Michael McClelland