Broken Frontier

As the New Avengers reel over the shocking betrayal of one of their own, the mysterious Hood makes his play to become the new kingpin of crime.

This series is going full steam ahead now that that the big reveal concerning the Skrulls came to the forefront last issue. It might have been a tad bit anti-climactic, but the story served to fuel an on-going battle with this team ever since issue one. To make matters worse outside of their constant bickering over who is or who isn’t a Skrull, a new villain is showing signs of becoming a major nemesis for the team as well.

Just what this all means is anybody’s guess, but it surely pushes the boundaries of intrigue eclipsing the team. For starters the constant bickering over mistrust of each other is evident in heroes like Luke Cage, who feels Spider Man isn’t what he appears to be. Luke’s paranoia even extends to his wife Jessica, further proving the instability of the team in a time when true heroism is ultimately needed the most. Of course when the chips are down, the time seems right for a new criminal mastermind to make a bid for total supremacy, and the Hood could be an ideal choice.

This newest subplot regarding his resurgence is a novel idea, and writer Brian Michael Bendis can always be counted upon for riveting plotlines of this magnitude. This new wrinkle makes perfect sense given the current climate in the Marvel U, and it’s nice to find a bona fide villain running rampant again. But aside from his stellar plotting, Bendis also manages to squeeze in heaping amounts of dialogue that outline the frantic state of the New Avengers, further fueling the theme of post-9/11 mistrust.

On the flipside of things, the art of Leinil Yu continues to chug along expertly on a title striving to be different. His pencils here are unique enough for my tastes and most of his pages exhibit splendid looking visuals balanced with the occasional eye popping panel for good measure. At first I wasn’t keen on his scratchy styling, but I have quickly grown accustomed to it and along with colorist Dave McCaig’s muted tones this book is fantastic.

For me though, New Avengers is proving to be the flagship title for an era of turbulent times in the Marvel U. Many of the events to befall over the course of the last three years didn’t make much sense, but now in the grand scheme of things much of the motivations behind our daunting heroes slots in well enough with the paranoia fueling the climate of the Marvel U. If you are seeking out a book to read that is pushing the boundaries then you should be picking up this title because the revolution is about to be spearheaded by this particular group of heroes.