I doubt they’ll wait more than six months before doing this with either Spider-Man, Iron Man, or Wolverine. Maybe Hawkeye.

This entire issue could have been credibly relayed in about four pages. This is about the equivalent of that Batman/Joker showdown from early in the original Crisis series, where the Flash of several issues later is passes back through time, says a few words, and disappears. That didn’t take a whole issue back in the day, but I bet it would now.

Finally, @Cory…I’ve had my share of rants here and about the general interweb. You aren’t going to win over your fellow commentators by pushing buttons, throwing insults, and then acting all defensive about it when you’re asked–nicely–to tone it down. If your immediate response to that is “I don’t care what other commentators think,” then I have two questions: 1. Why respond to the criticisms if you don’t care; 2. If that’s the case, why should we care what you think in turn? Or are you criticizing to hear yourself criticize?

(I guess that’s three questions.) Excelsior! *snort*

First, I will agree with Matthew and others that this issue didn’t feel like a full issue. It left me wanting more, but just about every monthly comic that I pick up leaves me wanting more. So, I am going to buy next months to try and get that.

Secondly, I will agree with Josh P. and say that I really liked the background story. Was it essential to the story line? Probably not, but what it did do was set up some future drama. I thought that Bendis was trying to push the idea that the skrull impersonators are “people” too. They could have families. I personally would have liked to see this developed on. I like the idea of creating empathy for the enemy in a story. I also thought that by explaining the thurough process of impersonating a super hero and how completely the skrull mind is wiped has openned a huge door for another writer or for Bendis himself.

Let me through an idea out there that has my mouth watering already. The skrull invasion has been repelled and the world is saved. Years pass, and life seems to return to normal for our super heroes. And as time goes on, the mind wipe that was done to “a fan favorite” super hero starts to fade. He/She starts to remember things of the past. The things are confusing, but this hero starts to feel connected to this race of skrulls. But, he/she doesn’t know why. Now, the internal conflict starts. This character has both memories of being a human and a skrull. Which is it? Can it be both? Was I part of the invasion? Who can I tell? What do I do? All questions running through this characters head.

Obviously I am not a writer, but I know I would want to at least pick up this story. Matthew has said in his reviews on the podcast that a comic needs a hook to get him to pick it up, and I think this issue of New Avengers sets some “hooks” up for future titles. I would agree that this comic is only a 2.5 out of 5 stars, but if this is built on in the future people could look back at this comic and say, “Oh that was what that was about”. And I think that is what makes some of Bendis’s stories so good.

Thank you Stephen, Matthew, and everyone else involved with this great website/forums/podcast for all ther great work that you do.

You’re right about Bendis … when it works it works. For a while there MA would totally kick ass when NA would suffer … and vice versa. I like having one voice telling the story across related tales, but that could just be me.

I enjoyed the portrayal of a Skrull who so strongly beleived he was who he was masquerading as even when slapped in the face with being a Skrull he wouldn’t acknowledge being a fake. With how angry Cap was acting in the previous issue I had really thought he sounded more like Walker-Cap than Rogers-Cap.

I also enjoyed finding out the intricacies of the Skrull invasion plot. I thought this issue was better than say the Crap-On-Yellowjackt! issue of Mighty Avengers last month (more based on the continuous crapping on Hank and Jan by every writer in the Marvel U. for the last five or so years (seriously, Busiek and the Johns gave them a happy ending so to speak)).

And as for the discussion tangent, I come here because of the lack of fanboy rant. If I wanted to read how “retarded” Joe Quesada, Dan Buckley and Brian Bendis are, I would go to Newsarama or CBR and post. I enjoythat while the majority of us who post will not agree on everything, we keep away from personal attacks on anyone (creator, publisher or poster). I don’t agree with the direction DC is going, so instead of decrying Didio and Morisson (ok, I have decried them once or twice (but i didn’t call them schoolyard names)), I just don’t buy the books.

Because when they work, they work really well…

And when they don’t, it’s noticable because of how well the others worked…

At the end of the day, giving Bendis control over the Avengers was a great idea. Let’s face it, more people are reading Avengers now than they have in years. Which always brings us back to the argument, if we’re so disappointed in these books, why are we still reading them? I digress. Bendis is a good writer, but like most talented writers with an ego, he needs to be reined in editorially when his storylines sprawl and go on forever. All the cool moments get diluted by pages of nonsense.

On to the other part of the argument. I love this site because it gives us comic fans an opportuntity to have intellectual conversations about the medium we’ve loved since childhood. We aren’t always happy with it..but we can always vote with our dollars. I’ve dropped books, picked up books, and returned to books I’ve dropped-because of sites like these. I salute Brothers Schleicher and Peterson for love and soul they put into this.

So I echo their sentiment: let’s make it about the books. If we want personal political attacks I can just turn on CNN and Fox News:) At the end of the day,we’re just comic fans who love these talking pictures and we’re all prone to getting a bit too passionate…

“Marvel is being ruined” is an opinion. Calling someone incompetent is an attack.

Off Topic? New Avengers is a symptom of a much larger problem that Marvel Comics has. And is a perfect example of Brian Bendis hackery.

Once again, your opinion. I didn’t think this issue acheived what the artists behind it intended, either, but I’m not psychic, and neither are you. We have no idea what they intended. You don’t like it. That’s fine. Stop attacking the creators, using words like “retard,” “hack,” and the like.

And if you don’t like my comments, then why don’t you just ban me? We all know how much you like diversity of opinion.

I think Stephen handled this comment elegantly enough, but I do want to take a moment to put something before you, sir.

I am not nearly as circumspect or as diplomatic as Steve is, so let me put this bug in your ear… Being the loudest voice in the room doesn’t mean that you’re right. It’s a mistake I’ve made many times over the years, and an an admonition that I hope you take to heart. You’re perfectly within your rights to compain about New Avengers, Marvel Comics, the state of Spider-Man, and whatever else strikes your fancy.

But you insist that this is all a personal vendetta by current management to destroy the things you love in the name of cash, and you festoon your posts with personal attacks, cheap shots, and the underlying notion that only *YOU*, Fox Mulder, the lone voice in the wilderness, really knows what’s going on.

You. Do. Not. Know. Any. More. Than. Anyone. Else.

You’re ranting. Loudly. Embarassingly. Annoyingly. And quite frankly, you used to bring something interesting to the discussion, and you haven’t been lately. I like hearing dissenting views, or else I wouldn’t stick my words in front of people to be contradicted. But you’re not espousing a viewpoint anymore, Cory… You’re repeating personal dogma as if it were fact.

I apologize for not wanting to read that.

to which I reply: If that were the case cory, you would have been banned long ago. In the two plus years Major Spoilers has been around, I’ve only had to delete three comments, all of which were personal attacks on others and brought nothing to the conversation on hand. we do like a diversity of opinion at Major Spoilers, and do appreciate your point of view, however, your loud rants have become more of a “Oh here comes that crazy guy again,” when they could be, “Oh what insight does cory have to share today?”

That being said, I’m sure eventually their will be a Superman story that gets me to start following the title again, until then I’ve really been enjoying other things such as Joss Whedon’s Buffy & Angel & Serenity. (now I know you have gripes with Joss over Astonishing X-Men, but while i didn’t follow his x-men run I really enjoy his other series). The Boys has been a wonderful guilty pleasure as well.

I guess all I’m saying is comics go in a cycle, and unless you work for marvel then I doubt your complaints will be addressed. So either you can remain angry at the direction or take this time to vote your dissatisfaction with you wallet and find other series that you enjoy and support them.

Either way I’m sure eventually there will be titles produced by Marvel that you enjoy, but comics are supposed to be enjoyable, don’t let your enjoyment of comics get soured just because you don’t like what one company is doing.