[Discussed in this post: Mighty Avengers #7-11.]
This storyarc is such a let down after the last one. Venom Virus, Dr. Doom, time travel, Skrull stuff... it never really comes together. Partly, that's the fault of Mark Bagley who draws this arc. After the glory that is Frank Cho, how can the mediocrity that is Bagley compete? But, after the deadline-blowing Cho, the deadline-killing Bagley is just what you want, honestly.
The story kicks off with Spider-Woman coming to Tony with the body of the Skrull and Tony finally seeing what's going on. It's a big deal and handled well by Bendis.
The Venom Virus stuff is kind of fun and stupid, which fits this book, but we already know where it's going, so who cares? (I honestly don't remember when these issues shipped in relation to New Avengers.) Not a lot of new information is added. But, it's discovered that the Virus is a result of Dr. Doom somehow, so off the team goes to Latveria.
The stuff with Doom is only really entertaining when Doom, Stark and the Sentry get sent into the past. I really dislike how the cover to that issue wasn't done in an older style to fit the content. But, even that doesn't really do much. This arc seemed like everyone was just rushing through it with the promise of Secret Invasion at the end. Well, not Bagley so much -- he was just rushed because the book needed to catch up in time for Secret Invasion.
This arc isn't really bad, but it looks that way when compared to the first six issues of this series.
In 30 minutes, Thunderbolts: Caged Angels where I will proclaim Warren Ellis the best writer in mainstream superhero comics currently. Seriously. Even better than Morrison.
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Phoenix #5 annotations
8 hours ago
