Hank's return as Giant-Man was awesome.
It was quite awesome. But so is AVENGERS ACADEMY in general.
I do think there was some issue with lining up the artist. Tom Raney was credited on the cover, but not the recap page. Apparently McKone finished the art for issue six perhaps JUST BARELY and didn't have the time to begin on issue seven, so Raney had to handle it as quickly as possible. Considering that, the fact that the issue only shipped a fortnight behind original schedule and still made December is fine.
My review is in the B/T thread as well as in my review article via the sig. It was my Examiner Book Of The Week (TM).
In good news, as the prior interview states; AVENGERS ACADEMY will see at least a 12th issue. I'd grown concerned about that after seeing November's sales charts, which saw AA slip to about 26k; which is lower than the worst selling issue of AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE managed just before SIEGE (which was 28k). AVENGERS ACADEMY is in many ways a relaunch of that mixed in with a third of the cast from Dan Slott's MIGHTY AVENGERS (of which Gage did help write briefly).
Given that Hank Pym has changed his mantle many times, and the fact that he JUST SO HAPPENS to be Giant-Man in "AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES", a cartoon that likely is viewed by more people than all the people who read the Top 25 comics COMBINED (if not the Top 50-100), it could have seemed to be a generic exercise. Instead Gage actually did very well with explaining why it was an organic character development moment. Of course, if memory serves, part of why Pym was originally inspired to become Giant-Man was because he felt outclassed by Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk in terms of weight class - it just wasn't done quite to the extreme that the Ultimate version would. Still, as Pym summarized, it wasn't the same as his prior identities. Ant-Man is limited, but all of his other identities come with prior baggage. Goliath actually wasn't mentioned as an identity; perhaps because Pym merrily passed it along to Clint Barton and then Bill Foster? At any rate, perhaps naming yourself after a villain of the Old Testament is perhaps not the best way to inspire confidence. At any rate, I am perfectly fine with Giant-Man. I always liked the outfit, aside for the eyebrow antennae. They've always been creepy.
I also liked how Absorbing Man was trucked out as the villain du jour, which is hardly an unlikely role for him, but he was utilized in a way in which he wasn't simply a thug. I also like how the cadets are not as automatically perfect as a lot of young heroes. I mean, the Runaways had barely survived their own parents and they were owning the entire Wrecking Crew, for heaven's sakes. Gravity defeated Rhino in what was probably his first battle against a villain with super-powers. So while the cadets are at the level where they're fighting villains, they aren't doing it without mentors and some threats, like Creel, are above their experience class.
