Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99
Release Date: 4th April
The Avengers: Initiative represents the third ongoing Avengers series now coming out of Marvel. Spinning out of the aftermath of Civil War it focuses on the US government’s mission to train registered super-beings, and then form them up into Avengers teams, one for each state in America. Writing duties are taken on by Dan Slott, of She-Hulk fame, while art chores are being handled by ex GI JOE artist Stefano Caselli.
The premise of the series is fairly straightforward. The US government has set up a bootcamp to train young super-beings in the responsible use of the powers, with an eye to filtering the best of them into Tony Starks 50 State Avengers Initiative. So it’s a bit like the X-mansion, but the teachers are ex-avengers instead of (e)X-men; see what I’ve done there. As I’ve so eloquently pointed out, this training young super heroes is not a new idea, in fact to the best of my knowledge New X-Men still exists so it’s not even the only existing incarnation of the idea coming out of Marvel, and as such to distinguish itself this series is going to have to be good.
This opening issue is pretty standard fair, being predominantly a gathering of the main characters and a setting of tone and scene. The familiar characters take the form of the teachers. The head honchos appear to be War Machine, who incidentally looks awesome thanks to Caselli, Hank Pym and a new, or at least unfamiliar character, The Gauntlet who looks a bit like Luke Cage with a BIG metal fist. They are under the watchful eye of ex-Avengers liason Peter Gyrich, who is looking and acting suitably suspicious and shadowy. It’s probably not these characters that will make or break the book though; rather it is the new student characters, who sadly just didn’t do it for me. A flying girl (Cloud 9), a boy who projects people’s worse fears (Trauma), a kid who throws energy balls (Hardball) and a lizard girl (Komodo) are the main features this issue. Only Cloud 9 gets enough panel time to show any personality, and while she’s interesting in an insecure teen kind of way, she’s hardly original or that engaging.
By the end of this first issue there has been a shock death, a government cover up and a pulling together of certain key characters who I assume will form the focus of at least this first arc. It’s not bad by any means, Slott keeps the pace barrelling along sensibly, the dialogue is snappy and occasionally witty, but it just didn’t grab me all that much. Caselli’s art is in contrast very grabbing, I loved his stuff on GI JOE and this is very much a translation of that soft cartoon like style to the Marvel universe, which works well for this kind of teen book. All the new characters are clearly defined and there character designs beautifully fit their personalities, albeit in a rather stereotypical way. There are even a few pleasing Avengers cameos thrown in as well, which make for a fun sort of Where’s Wally style spot the hero game. That said I know that some people are going to just hate this art, that however is there loss.
Avengers: Initiative was initially meant as a 6 issue mini-series, and I think that it would have worked perfectly in that form. It has subsequently been made an on-going, which I am a bit unconvinced of. If the intention is to rotate the focus of the book to different state teams each arc then I can see it being fabulous. If the intention is to centre an on-going around the group of characters introduced this issue; well then I’m just not sure they can carry it. They aren’t that interesting. If you are a fan of Slott or Caselli, you’ll like this. If you are just inquisitive and buy it for a look-see then you will think it’s OK. If you are a fussy reader, don’t bother. This book has the potential to be great, at the moment it’s just average.
Having recently finished a PhD in Immunology Ross is currently working for a UK biotech company. He lives in Cambridge where he reads comics, spends too much money on music and attempts to learn Portuguese. He owns at least 7 lightsabers, yet still manages to have a very attractive girlfriend who he misses very much, thus proving anything really is possible.