[hangmanblues]

[[ SPOILER alert! ]]



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AVENGERS #6-10
By Derrick Ferguson

THE BASICS: The surviving Avengers founders (Captain America, Iron
Man, Thor, The Wasp, and The Hulk) reunite for an adventure in Asgard
involving the disappearance of Odin.

THE GOOD: Derrick’s prose style sometimes veers toward the somewhat
hyperbolic, usually omniscient voice that captions usually used in
comic books of the pre-WATCHMEN era. However, while in my last review
I criticized John’s ham-fisted insertion of continuity into his prose,
I praised Derrick’s own skill in that same department. That’s because
Derrick’s style is just plain *readable*. It’s like Derrick himself is
sitting there dictating this cool Avengers comic to you.

Derrick knows his Avengers, and despite a few places where I disagreed
with his choices (see below), I believe that he genuinely gets these
characters on an important level. He writes a true Avengers-style epic
here with plenty of cool moments: Cap throwing Bruce Banner off the
Rainbow Bridge so he’ll turn into the Hulk; Loki losing his eyes to
the Enchanters and teaming up with the Avengers; Bill Foster being
Iron Man’s secret weapon; Cap wielding Mjolnir against the Enchanters;
Hulk vs. Ulik... If there’s an era of Avengers this reminds me of,
it’s Kurt Busiek’s take on the team, and that’s not a bad thing.
AGAIN, I could really see how this story would work well as a comic.

THE LESS GOOD: I think the story-world logic behind including The Hulk
is tenuous, but after that leap of faith, things go pretty smoothly.
While Beast and Hawkeye are welcome additions, new guest and (I
assume) original character Killeroo is certainly *not* welcome by me.
Though born of a cool tossed out idea -- other scattered Inhuman
colonies besides Attilan -- the little bit of time we spend with the
guy didn’t endear him to me. Frankly, I find him corny, but his role
here is minimal.

I must admit, some of the bickering seems forced—not that the Avengers
never have in-fighting, but even in the painful aftermath of Hank
Pym’s death, some of the hissy fits seem more like an excuse for
Derrick to write entertaining repartee, which he does deliver on. And
I personally don’t disagree with a statement Tony Stark makes in #6;
Hawkeye would *never* intentionally toss his Avengers ID communicard,
as I believe that’s how much being an Avenger means to him.

OVERALL: None of my quibbles stopped me from enjoying this
lighthearted Avengers epic courtesy of DF. Good, fun, classic
meat-and-potatoes work. And believe me when I say I mean that as a
compliment. Because I love both meat and potatoes.

* * * * * * * * *

-Will

[DLFerguson]

Will,

Thanks again for another solidly written review. Rare indeed these days to see
somebody take such time and care as you obviously have to read through an entire
run of a series and provide reviews. It's appreciated, trust me. And I'm glad
you pointed out a couple of things I'd like to come clean about:

Yeah, I freely admit that the rationalization of The Hulk returning to The
Avengers was shaky even to me! But writing an Avengers story that reunited The
Founders has always been a dream of mine and I was determined to make it work no
matter what. And even though Bill Foster wasn't a Founder, I hope that he was
able through his variant of Hank Pym's Goliath costume and taking the name that
Hank's spirit was well represented.

Killeroo is a character that Tom and I wanted to put in The Avengers as far back
as when we briefly (oh, so very briefly) wrote the title for another fan fiction
site. The concept of Black Bolt setting up colonies of Inhumans in various
remote areas of the world is one that I've had for years. In fact, I have
somewhere here on my hard drive four issues of a six issue INHUMANS/KA-ZAR
mini-series I wrote years ago that I hope will see the light of day over at
Marvel Anthology. The main plot of the issue concerns Black Bolt seking
permission from Ka-Zar to establish an Inhuman colony in The Savage Land.
Hijinks and hilarity ensue.

I'm sorry you find the character of Killeroo corny but I wanted a character in
the mold of characters like The Vision, The Swordsman, Wonder Man and a few
others: characters who were created specifically to be Avengers. And what's fan
fiction for if you can't experiment a bit?

And yes, I cop: sometimes I do indulge myself with scenes and dialog that
actually don't have a damn thing to do with the story or advance the plot.
They're simply character bits or scenes that are probably more fun for me to
write than readers to read.

"Good, fun, classic meat-and-potatoes work" is the best description of what I
try to achieve with every issue of AVENGERS. Thanks, Will!