The Avengers #7

The Avengers #7 (no title for the story) by Brian Michael Bendis and artist John Romita Jr.  The second arc of this series –also no title, although solicits named it “I am an Avenger!”- starts with a depowered Parker Robbins a.k.a. The Hood climbing the mountains where the Inhuman city of Attilan temporarily sat on.  His goal, to find one of the infinity gems; which he quickly and very conveniently obtains despite his claims.

While this is happening, Thor and Iron Man try to reason with fellow Avenger Wonder Man, who has insisted since the beginning of this series that the team should have never been put back together, but does not explain why; he just babbles that the team must be shut down.  Whether this thing Wonder Man has going on also applies to the other Avengers teams is not clear, but it is becoming annoying having him acting crazy and not explaining why he wants the team disbanded.

In the meantime, The Hood has used his new toy to enter the Baxter Building and steal a second infinity gem.  Next, the gems teleport Robbins to the desert where the Red Hulk (a plot running thin nowadays) just happens to be.  The Hood then attacks the Red Hulk and beats him with ease thanks to the power of the gems.

Back in Avengers Tower, Noh-Varr (Protector) is introducing the team to his girlfriend, when the Red Hulk crashes in through the window with his butt kicked.

The Red Hulk getting served by The Hood

I have really tried to give this title the benefit of the doubt only because I like the team lineup (minus Wolverine and Protector), but so far it has been a disappointment.  Regarding this issue in particular, I have problems with all the sequences.  The casualness with which Robbins acquires the gems is laughable, the Wonder Man situation has been used before and is almost a cliché, and the overexposure of the Red Hulk now bleeding into the Avengers makes me think that it is mandatory at Marvel that in order for a comic to be published, it must include an apparition by Wolverine, Red Hulk, Emma Frost, or Deadpool.

I have always found John Romita Jr’s art to be “beautiful in its ugliness”, but in this series there is almost none of the former and too much of the latter. To be fair, it could also be the inks by Janson and Palmer or the colors by White, Mounts & Beredo, but the art is just not clicking with me.  Check his work in recent issues of Spider Man, or his Eternals miniseries from a few years ago and you’ll see a difference.

After seven issues, this title does not seem to be going anywhere, and having to pay $3.99 a pop (which is not justifiable just because there are eight extra pages of “oral history” and recycled art), it seems like it’s time to let go; I will let issue #8 be the deciding factor.