Broken Frontier

Dell’Otto's art knocks New Avengers Annual #1 out of the park, but Bendis’s story suffers from a lack of logic.

This issue opens up with five of the most beautiful, detailed, breathtaking splash pages in recent memory. Each image is dedicated to one defining moment in the history of the Avengers that the rogue Wonder Man attributes to why they must be stopped. He’s got a good point, seeing how Ultron, the Scarlet Witch, the superhero Civil War, the Hulk, and the Dark Avengers all originated with the Avengers. However, his plan lacks a clear end goal and the issue turns into an extended brawl with little real motivation for anyone involved.

Wonder Man recruits a team of mostly unheard of “heroes” and anti-heroes to join him in the fight. If you can say who D-Man, Anti-Venom, Atlas, Ethan Edwards, Goliath, Devil-Slayer, Century, and Captain Ultra are without reaching for a Marvel encyclopedia, then color me impressed. Wonder Man feels understandably upset, but none of his team speaks up about their personal reasons for taking his side. Regardless, the team shows up at Avengers Mansion to beat up the New Avengers. They do a good job of it, but what now? Wonder Man did not kill any of them, so they are just going to get up and fight another day and keep being Avengers.

The story defies logic, but makes an excuse for Dell’Otto to turn in some incredible art. The paneling cracks and shakes along with every blow of the fight, filling each page with kinetic energy. Every character looks impressively realistic with rippling muscles and detailed costumes, and special note has to be given to the cringe-worthy way Jessica Jones deals with Goliath. Dell’Otto’s work reminds me of how Alex Ross draws, but where Ross does hyper-realism, he manages to maintain that stylistic comic book feel to every image.

The real shame here is the story is as shallow as the art is stunning. Wonder Man has a good point, but his execution is all wrong. Wouldn’t a better strategy be to take all the information he has and share it with the public? That way, the entire population would lose faith in their protectors, which would be a much more catastrophic blow to the Avengers than losing a single fight. Not to mention if Wonder Man had trouble bringing down Ms. Marvel, then how is he going to deal with guys like Captain America, Iron Man, and Red Hulk? And I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell him there’s a team of Secret Avengers, too.