New Avengers Annual #2
This review written by James Hunt on Feb.04, 2008.
 |
When Marvel brought back annuals after a lengthy absence from the shelves, they promised that they would essentially function as extra-sized issues of the parent series that would make them a must-buy. In the past, annuals contained extra-sized, though largely peripheral stories, and buyers treated them like the superfluous luxuries they were. While recently not everything has lived up to Marvel’s claim that the annuals would “matter” in the larger scheme, New Avengers Annual #2 is one of the few that hasn’t forgotten the promise.
If you’ve been reading New Avengers, you’ll know that there are two major antagonists in their current lives. Firstly, there’s the looming paranoia of an apparant skrull infiltration, and much closer to home there’s the small-time crime boss The Hood, who’s been making his way to the top of the underworld using a magic cape and a pair of pistols, as he assembles what is essentially the New Masters of Evil. While the latter was defeated, part of his new regime was that no-one in his group languished in prison, and that they’d get their revenge on the Avengers. And in NAA #2, that’s what they attempt to do.
But still – a giant fight with The Hood and his goons? Isn’t that what we just read in the pages of New Avengers? Well, yeah, but this is slightly different. For a start, he’s coming to get the Avengers, not the other way around. Secondly, the fight is more of a plot driver than the gratuitous action scenes of the last arc. There are a few major developments in this issue, which I will now recount so that you realise why you need to buy it. Dr. Strange leaves the team, if not our entire dimension to recuperate after the dark energies he’s unleashed recently (ie: Zom in World War Hulk) start to get the better of him. That leaves the New Avengers homeless, though it’s not a problem since the Sanctum Sanctorum was already stormed by the Hood’s crew, leaving it an unsuitable venue anyway. Finally, Jessica Jones – removed from the battle by Spider-Man but with nowhere else to turn – goes into Stark Tower and announces her intention to register in return for sanctuary.
It’s indeed big stuff, and the next arc of New Avengers can’t help but be steered by these events, so it’s definitely a must-buy. There’s good news for those who were upset with Lenil Yu’s pencilling, though. The annual is drawn by Carlo Pagulayan, who’s being given a deservedly high-profile assignment following his work on Planet Hulk. His character designs echo Yu’s, but without the scratchier linework. It’s good to see him back and drawing such a wealth of characters after being restricted to alien landscapes and figures over in Hulk. Someone give this man a regular gig.
February 4th, 2008 on 7:10 pm
I had some big problems with this issue. It was okay, I guess, but it didn’t need to be an annual. This could have easily been a regular issue of “New Avengers.” Plus here’s another issue of Spider-Man running around maskless just weeks after all that was erased from continuity. Frustrating.
February 4th, 2008 on 7:38 pm
I wasn’t so bothered about Spider-Man since his black costume clearly places this issue in pre-Brand New Day continuity, though I do agree that the story, in attempting to make itself matter to New Avengers continuity, probably fell a little too far on the side of “regular issue” rather than “annual” and probably could have been two parts of “The Trust” had they just got rid of the botched Mighty Avengers crossover…
February 4th, 2008 on 8:12 pm
I got the impression that this story got put into an annual to let Yu take some time to recuperate- whatever you think of the man’s style, there aren’t enough artists around at the moment who can draw a book for a year without fill-ins. What interested me was the team getting pared down- does anyone know if there’s a new Strange series in the offing, or is this just to stop his mystical powers playing havok with the skrull plotline?
February 5th, 2008 on 4:59 pm
Hmm. That’s a good point about Dr. Strange and the Skrulls. I don’t believe he’s coming back for a new series after his last one was widely ignored, so that seems like as good a reason as any to get rid of him now…
February 5th, 2008 on 6:37 pm
Well, Yu is the front man on Secret Invasion, which is the reason he’s off New Avengers as of this issue. So I doubt he’s actually been getting any recuperation time since he drew #37…
The whole Strange thing was very much a “huh?” moment for me. I think largely because of the whole chronology issue – why would he leave when he knows what’s going on with the Skrulls? Illuminati #5 has already happened, I think – if not, then that issue makes less and less sense – so he knows there’s more than one on Earth.
The Marvel chronology is rather screwed up at the moment, even without the whole OMD thing – when is Messiah CompleX in all this? How long has it been since WWH, Civil War, Captain America #25? Hell, how long has it been since Secret War, since that’s apparently the key event for all this?
I just hope they’re not going to make Strange some sort of deus ex machina solution to Secret Invasion, bringing him back at a critical moment…
February 5th, 2008 on 11:20 pm
See, Marvel need to go down the DC route – do everything in yearly cycles, and at the end of each year have a cataclysmic event that rips everything up and allows you to make all sorts of random claims about changed continuity.
IT’S FUN, KIDS!