Avengers #63 Review

Archive

Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Standoff Part 3
Quick Rating: I missed the first two parts, so forgive me if I gloss over certain plot points

Written by: Geoff Johns
Penciled by: Alan Davis
Inked by: Mark Farmer
Colored by: David Kemp
Lettered by: RS & Albert Deschesne
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel

Quick Synopsis: Thor and Iron Man brawl, Doctor Doom gets drunk and does the “Dance, Puppets Dance!” hand gestures, and Captain America has to find a way to stop the fighting while keeping the US Army from adding to the bloodbath…

Views from the Peanut Gallery

· The end of an era version, Take 32: Thor leaves the Avengers in a melodramatic sequence which ends with him trashing his picture of the founding Avengers. How many times have we seen a founding Avenger leave the Avenger with it being explicitly implied that he was never coming back? From Henry Pym walking off into the sunset after his nervous breakdown, Wasp quitting the hero-business to start a career as a screenwriter, Iron Man getting expelled from the Avengers after bitch-slapping Captain America during the Armor Wars, and Captain America quitting the Avengers in a huff after Black Knight and Wonder Man formed a lynch mob to kill the Supreme Intelligence, we’ve seen it before and know that it only last as long until either the character’s solo book changes direction or a new writer takes over the book and brings back the character.

· Take that Mark Millar!: Rather than portray Captain America like the one-dimensional Judge Dredd-wannabe fascist like Mark Millar does, Geoff Johns nails Captain America right on the head with the way Captain America holds back the US army from attacking Thor by the sheer force of his personality. If Millar was writing that scene, Captain America would not only disregard Thor’s request that the troops stand down but also punch out a member of the unit who would bring up the reality of sending an army of normal men out to fight Gods like Thor in combat.

· Welcome Back Al: After his all-to-brief run on the book two years ago, Alan Davis returns to do a fill-in issue while Marvel prepares for Olivier Coipel to take over the art chores fulltime with Avengers #65. Probably the best thing about this issue is seeing Alan Davis’s portrayal of Berserker Thor again given how well he did with the character during the Avengers vs. the Presence portion of the Kang Dynasty Saga.

· Good news/Bad News: The good news is that it seems that Olivier Coipel will be changing his art style away from his European/Magna art style for his current upcoming Avengers run. Bad news is that he’s now tapping Rob Liefeld’s style.