The New Avengers #16

Genre action Author Brian Michael Bendis Publisher Marvel Comics External Links Official Marvel Comics Website

Steve McNiven was wasted on issue 16 of the New Avengers. He's a great artist, one who understands precision line work more than most artists in comic books today. In previous issues of New Avengers, he displayed an ability to draw every character in the Marvel universe in a way that is interesting and dramatic. He can handle action and drama equally. So why is he stuck drawing an issue of New Avengers in which the Avengers don't even show up?

It's not that Brian Bendis is a bad writer. His work on Daredevil over the past few years has been nothing short of amazing. On that book, he used decompressed storytelling to change a character at his roots over the course of four years.

Unfortunately, in this issue, he took his concept of decompressed storytelling too far. The first eight pages of this issue are splash pages, three of which are satellite-view shots of Earth in orbit, and none of which have dialogue. It's not until the sixth page that we're introduced to the new villain, a bald guy who glows orange.

Then Bendis wastes a further two pages setting up a level of animosity between the Avengers' Tony Stark and Maria Hill, the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hereafter, Bendis's dialogue-centric writing takes center stage. Certainly this issue succeeds in making this new villain seem threatening, but-and this is the reason why you shouldn't buy this issue-the Avengers aren't in this issue. Iron Man makes a cameo, but that's it. Despite what the wonderfully-rendered cover may lead you to believe, the Avengers aren't in this issue of the New Avengers.

McNiven's art is still great, but essentially nothing happens. It's possible, though unlikely, that this issue will read better in the context of a trade paperback collection, but as its own story, it's a waste of its own pages, a waste of a talented artist, and a dragging story by a writer who should know better.