Broken Frontier

While rescuing Maya Lopez—formerly Ronin—from the Hand, the "new" New Avengers seek refuge in the Yashida Clan Fortress, home of Silver Samurai.

The remnants of Captain America’s Civil War resistance rushed to Japan when Matt Murdock received a puzzling letter from Maya Lopez. Since the Avengers first met her, Maya (a.k.a. Echo) had been spending her evenings cleaning up the streets of Japan as the very masculine-looking ninja, Ronin. It didn’t take long for the Hand and their new leader, Elektra, to notice Maya’s work, so they attempted to "recruit" her. Enter these Avengers, who have not only managed to seize Maya from the clutches of the Hand, but have run to the Silver Samurai for heretofore unknown reasons. Needless to say, the Samurai is not happy for the intrusion, especially when one of these trespassers is the man who recently cut off one of his hands: Wolverine.

This story is not only a continuation of last issue’s plot regarding Maya/Ronin and the Hand, but it also takes readers back a few days to show us what life has been like in the underground as a member of the resistance to the Superhuman Registration Act. This is probably the most intriguing piece of the story, as the Silver Samurai portion is mostly back and forth bickering. But at the same time, the parts set in the past carry a little less weight than they should. In short, Bendis has been playing around with the hopes of the New Avengers by having Ms. Marvel tell Spider-Woman in a recent confrontation (which can be read in Civil War: The Initiative) that Captain America is secretly still alive and in custody. Resultant of this information is a confrontation between the New Avengers and the Mighty Avengers, which may have some interesting fallout (perhaps the vigilante dressed as Ronin right now will come out of it), but at the same time has a lot of the drama sucked out of it because we know the New Avengers come out intact to fight on in Japan.

Bendis has a strong grasp on the characters and their voices, which is to be expected of him. And Yu’s artwork is strong as ever, even though his more sketchy/gritty style would probably be better suited for a book with a bit of a harder edge to it…something like Wolverine or Daredevil, for instance. Regardless of this small gripe, Yu handles action very well, and there is quite a bit of that to be seen in this issue. And, honestly, with this title having a revolving door of artists since inception, some who couldn’t keep a monthly deadline, it’s nice to have someone who can deliver the goods and deliver them on time.

Though the present-day plot lingered a bit too much for my liking, it lead to a cliffhanger that I would think promises an action-heavy New Avengers #29. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see who this new Ronin is and if he/she comes from the recent (yet upcoming!) spat with the Mighty Avengers.