In the wake of Civil War, the Avengers split into two groups and Brian Bendis, apparently not writing enough titles, took up authorship on both, giving us simultaneously Brian Bendis’ The New Avengers, vol. 7: The Trust and The Mighty Avengers, vol. 1: The Ultron Initiative .
I’m going to be honest with you: I read these back in March, and I don’t really remember them well right now, so I can’t comment a whole lot on the plot or specifically how they intertwined together. What I do remember is that New Avengers includes the “rebels” (Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, etc.) who have a grim, dark storyline, while Mighty Avengers includes the establishment heroes (Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, The Wasp) who have a more lighthearted caper. Both of them work well individually, and they work even better together, as a sort of light/dark contrast thing.
Really, the biggest problem with these titles right now is that Marvel isn’t publishing them synced up chronologically; one of them is ahead of the other, and it ends up feeling like you’re reading half of the story late, which is sort of odd. Might be better to stay a volume behind on the fast one, if you’re particularly interested.
Oh, and while I’m here, I might as well tack on Brian Reed’s Ms. Marvel vol. 4: Monster Smash . Every time I review a Ms. Marvel book, I say that it’s somewhere between vaguely competent and forgettable, and so it is here. This series appears to have settled into a rut of mediocrity, yet for some reason I keep reading it in the hope that the next time it’ll be better. There’s potential here, even if it is stubbornly unfulfilled time and again.
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