Friday, November 18, 2011

The Avengers #19

I'm a big sucker for these "gather the new team" stories.

And it's a long-running staple for The Avengers (although it's only been a year-and-a-half since they gathered the last team - that seems like a very short run). In fact, this is the series that started the whole idea of shuffling a super-team's lineup.

So we have Captain America tracking down heroes new to the team and some old familiar faces to round out the Avengers.

As always, writer Brian Bendis writes clever, funny dialogue and puts the characters through their paces. There are choices that are surprising, some that are logical and at least one that is long overdue.

I'm still a bit on the fence about the art by Daniel Acuna. I like his art a lot - his characters are very expressive, his layouts are strong and the splash panels are impressive. But the painted look seems to flatten out the crowd scenes. When the new team of Avengers gathers, the characters all seem to blend together.

Maybe it's just me. I'm a fan of his style, but I wonder if it might not work better on a different comic.

At any rate, it looks like the next issue brings an end to all the discussion and introspection and gets down to some serious action. That's what we call good timing.

Grade: A-

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