Stephanie Kay
Oct 13, 2007, 11:10 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/details.php?image_id=10296" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/naill1t.jpg" align=left alt="New Avengers: The Illuminati #1" hspace="5"></a></a>Reviewer: Kevin Jones, kcjones242@yahoo.com
Earth's smartest heroes against the entire Skrull Empire. Place all bets now.
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed
Penciler: Jim Cheung
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Justin Ponsor
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Production: Kate Levin
Assistant Editors: Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com)
There are fans who will cry foul, that The New Avengers: Illuminati is nothing but a retcon by writers who want to change the entire history of the Marvel universe. But real retcons explicitly change what's been written before in favor of a new story. This book, on the other hand, enriches the stories which have already been told by adding a new point of view. The question we should really be asking is: Why hasn't anyone told stories like this before? This book is anything but a retcon, and as you read it, you realize that it's a story that needed to be told.
One odd thing about this premiere issue is that it takes place right after a storyline which was printed in the 70's (before many readers were born, no doubt.) Personally, I don't know much more about the first Kree/Skrull War than the fact that there was a Kree/Skrull War. Thankfully, this didn't impair my enjoyment of the story at all. Whatever we need to know is right there in these pages. Anyway, Reed Richards, Iron Man, Black Bolt, Dr Strange, Namor and Prof Xavier are suitably pissed about aliens treating our backyard as their battlefield. Their Authority-esque solution is appropriate, given the circumstances. You can almost hear Bendis & Reed hashing out the story, saying "Hey, why didn't any of the heroes do this back then?" Either the idea was so good that the story wrote itself, or Bendis & Reed are clever enough to make it seem that way.
It gets even better when things don't work out as planned. Without giving too much away, the Illuminati are bolder than most Marvel heroes, and we've already seen how flawed the group can be from the one-shot. So maybe taking on the entire Skrull Empire is a little much, but watching them try to pull through alive makes for a great read. It looks like the most interesting part of these stories won't be what they do right, but what they do wrong. It's nice to read a book where the heroes don't have to win in the end. There's a kind of suspense in it which is harder to give readers after the hundredth time the good guys prevail. Some of the characters are so powerful that it's hard to worry about whether or not they'll defeat the latest villain-of-the-month. On top of all that, it's really necessary for this group not to work out. After all, if it worked perfectly, most Marvel books would suddenly become irrelevant in the shadow of this Super-Supergroup.
If you have a distaste for Bendis-written talking heads books, you can still safely pick up this series. The action, at least for the first issue, tears through the pages at a breakneck pace. It's not mindless action, though, and every sequence is engaging while creating some solid interaction between team members. Parallels will surely be drawn between this series and the big-budget action movie Civil War, but both series concentrate on well-written action. When the dust settles later, we can judge how thought-provoking it was.
I'm not very familiar with Jim Cheung's work, but it's dazzling so far in this series. His compositions and figures are popping so well for me that my eye fooled me for a second that he was breaking panel borders (he wasn't.) He seems to handle the sci-fi elements extremely well, and the camera-artifact effects he uses with lighting serve to make things sparkle and shine exactly as they should. His use of those lighting effects on a particular surprise character calls to mind Alan Davis, who's a master of those effects.
There are some similarities to Steve McNiven's clean, sharp style as well. There seems to be a trend lately for popular artists to have these sensibilities, not that I'm complaining. Just like the Jim Lee trend in the 90's, there will be artists who expertly pull of the style (McNiven and Cheung), and there will be those who imitate and fall flat (check out the stiff figures in Civil War: Casualties of War this week.)
Cheung's storytelling serves the action well, although there are a couple of moments where it's easy to miss things. The transition between panels 3 and 4 on page 17 almost seems instantaneous, but reading it closely shows there must have been at least 5 minutes between panels. This might not have been Cheung's fault, though. It could just as easily have been a plot-hole that needed to be fixed, and there weren't enough panels to do it well.
I'm not exactly sure what to make of the ending. It seems to be giving a hint of how this story influences things that come later in the timeline, but I don't see how. If anyone has ideas what it means, please post them (with spoilers.)
There's no clear way to tell how much of the story is Bendis and how much is Reed, and that may be a good thing. The writing has plenty of Bendis's strengths without his eccentricities. Some of the dialogue has his rapid-fire wit, but never crosses over into self-indulgent. Whatever their working relationship, the final product makes this seem like a solid writing team. I was a little afraid this might be like the Straczynski/Avery team (which ended up feeling like watered-down Straczynski), but that's definitely not the case here.
Just out of the gate, The New Avengers: Illuminati fulfills its role without feeling like a cheap Civil War tie-in. I'm looking forward to seeing what they were up to during Infinity Gauntlet (I was actually alive when that came out). The jury is still out on whether this series will fit in the history of the Marvel Universe, but the first issue is a strong effort, and I remain optimistic.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save! ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1546&cat=NEW+AVENGERS+)
Earth's smartest heroes against the entire Skrull Empire. Place all bets now.
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed
Penciler: Jim Cheung
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Justin Ponsor
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Production: Kate Levin
Assistant Editors: Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com)
There are fans who will cry foul, that The New Avengers: Illuminati is nothing but a retcon by writers who want to change the entire history of the Marvel universe. But real retcons explicitly change what's been written before in favor of a new story. This book, on the other hand, enriches the stories which have already been told by adding a new point of view. The question we should really be asking is: Why hasn't anyone told stories like this before? This book is anything but a retcon, and as you read it, you realize that it's a story that needed to be told.
One odd thing about this premiere issue is that it takes place right after a storyline which was printed in the 70's (before many readers were born, no doubt.) Personally, I don't know much more about the first Kree/Skrull War than the fact that there was a Kree/Skrull War. Thankfully, this didn't impair my enjoyment of the story at all. Whatever we need to know is right there in these pages. Anyway, Reed Richards, Iron Man, Black Bolt, Dr Strange, Namor and Prof Xavier are suitably pissed about aliens treating our backyard as their battlefield. Their Authority-esque solution is appropriate, given the circumstances. You can almost hear Bendis & Reed hashing out the story, saying "Hey, why didn't any of the heroes do this back then?" Either the idea was so good that the story wrote itself, or Bendis & Reed are clever enough to make it seem that way.
It gets even better when things don't work out as planned. Without giving too much away, the Illuminati are bolder than most Marvel heroes, and we've already seen how flawed the group can be from the one-shot. So maybe taking on the entire Skrull Empire is a little much, but watching them try to pull through alive makes for a great read. It looks like the most interesting part of these stories won't be what they do right, but what they do wrong. It's nice to read a book where the heroes don't have to win in the end. There's a kind of suspense in it which is harder to give readers after the hundredth time the good guys prevail. Some of the characters are so powerful that it's hard to worry about whether or not they'll defeat the latest villain-of-the-month. On top of all that, it's really necessary for this group not to work out. After all, if it worked perfectly, most Marvel books would suddenly become irrelevant in the shadow of this Super-Supergroup.
If you have a distaste for Bendis-written talking heads books, you can still safely pick up this series. The action, at least for the first issue, tears through the pages at a breakneck pace. It's not mindless action, though, and every sequence is engaging while creating some solid interaction between team members. Parallels will surely be drawn between this series and the big-budget action movie Civil War, but both series concentrate on well-written action. When the dust settles later, we can judge how thought-provoking it was.
I'm not very familiar with Jim Cheung's work, but it's dazzling so far in this series. His compositions and figures are popping so well for me that my eye fooled me for a second that he was breaking panel borders (he wasn't.) He seems to handle the sci-fi elements extremely well, and the camera-artifact effects he uses with lighting serve to make things sparkle and shine exactly as they should. His use of those lighting effects on a particular surprise character calls to mind Alan Davis, who's a master of those effects.
There are some similarities to Steve McNiven's clean, sharp style as well. There seems to be a trend lately for popular artists to have these sensibilities, not that I'm complaining. Just like the Jim Lee trend in the 90's, there will be artists who expertly pull of the style (McNiven and Cheung), and there will be those who imitate and fall flat (check out the stiff figures in Civil War: Casualties of War this week.)
Cheung's storytelling serves the action well, although there are a couple of moments where it's easy to miss things. The transition between panels 3 and 4 on page 17 almost seems instantaneous, but reading it closely shows there must have been at least 5 minutes between panels. This might not have been Cheung's fault, though. It could just as easily have been a plot-hole that needed to be fixed, and there weren't enough panels to do it well.
I'm not exactly sure what to make of the ending. It seems to be giving a hint of how this story influences things that come later in the timeline, but I don't see how. If anyone has ideas what it means, please post them (with spoilers.)
There's no clear way to tell how much of the story is Bendis and how much is Reed, and that may be a good thing. The writing has plenty of Bendis's strengths without his eccentricities. Some of the dialogue has his rapid-fire wit, but never crosses over into self-indulgent. Whatever their working relationship, the final product makes this seem like a solid writing team. I was a little afraid this might be like the Straczynski/Avery team (which ended up feeling like watered-down Straczynski), but that's definitely not the case here.
Just out of the gate, The New Avengers: Illuminati fulfills its role without feeling like a cheap Civil War tie-in. I'm looking forward to seeing what they were up to during Infinity Gauntlet (I was actually alive when that came out). The jury is still out on whether this series will fit in the history of the Marvel Universe, but the first issue is a strong effort, and I remain optimistic.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/avnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save! ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1546&cat=NEW+AVENGERS+)