COMICS!

Saturday was such a lovely day for travelling into London to buy comics. So nice that I decided to sit in Hyde park and read some of the comics I picked up from Forbidden Planet. I didn't purchase as many comics as I thought I would but I did get a few things that I was quite looking forward to reading. Avengers #1, Secret Avengers #1 and Avengers Prime #1 - the beginning of Marvels' Heroic Age. I'm not a "traditional" Avengers fan, I only started reading the book when Brian Bendis took it over and swiftly Disassembled it. I was all about the X-Men as a kid and the Avengers always seemed old fashioned in comparison. Bendis and Finch really gave the book a shot in the arm and in doing so, made the Marvel Universe such an exciting place to hang out. I think before this I was only reading Bendis and Maleevs' Daredevil, Morrison and Quitely's X-Men and Millar and Hitch's Ultimates. I just didn't care at all about what was happening in the larger Marvel U.

Anyway, Avengers #1. With the exception of the usual Bendis funny and that hammer blow ("that would be what it's like to be on the Avengers with Thor") this book seemed to have a lot of that old fashionedness of the pre-Bendis era. I mean, Kang? Another dystopian Marvel future? The Avengers' children? Who cares? Of course, the gorgeous Romita artwork will keep me around for a couple more issues but I suspect that New Avengers (once it's relaunched) will remain "my" Avengers title.

Secret Avengers #1 was a better read, for me. Interesting cast of characters, good interaction and a really intriguing last page (what does that mean?).

I picked up Avengers Prime mainly for the Alan Davis artwork and the great man did not disappoint. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the colour work on this book. I do not know of another artist that has been so ill served by various colourists as Alan. Take a look at his miniseries, Fantastic Four: The End. That's how you colour an Alan Davis book (gawd bless yer, John Kalisz). Strangely, this feels like the most un-Bendis like Bendis book I've ever read. I'm still going to pick up the rest of it, though( it's Alan Davis for goodness sake!).

Right, That'll do for now.

Take care.