Avengers the Initiative

The blog comments also noted how it was a downer that Tigra ended up betraying Captain America considering Steve Rogers was practically the only Avenger who showed up for her graduation from the police academy.

Considering Tigra was a rookie Avenger when Yellowjacket was having his mental breakdown, had his trial and Wasp showed up with a black eye, it at least makes some sense that she still might have some bias about it. First impressions and all.

I did like how Alicia Masters was helping Doc Samson with the Skrull War therapy considering that she was replaced by Lyra for "a year" in Marvel time. At least she doesn't seem bitter after dumping her perfectly fine new boyfriend to reunite with Ben Grimm, only to be quickly forgotten after a date or two so he could propose to Random Teacher From Brooklyn. Thanks, Millar (and thanks, McDuffie, for not making a bigger deal of it for the year and change you were on the book).

Naturally the Newsarama blog offered varying ideas of how to "fix" Tigra. I did like the idea of giving her some sort of "magic resistance" considering her powers are supposed to be magical based and supposed to be from a group who wanted to combat such forces. I mean, JUSTICE LEAGUE justified Hawkgirl being on the group power-wise by amping up her "Nth Metal Mace" that was magical resistant enough to make Dr. Fate cry for mercy. :rolleyes:

Having her defeat the Hood would also work, and I would say it is POSSIBLE Bendis could consider that, since he has a thing for having woman completely humiliate and emasculate men - just look at ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN. Unfortunately, for any male character who isn't Spidey or maybe Daredevil, he rarely does that. Unless you count Dr. Doom being so distracted by sleeping with Morgan LeFey that he left his time machine working during an invasion.

Basically, though, she needs to be a CHARACTER and not simply a hot cat girl who exists for an extra bikinni heroine or some victim character. Many writers confuse "whining" for showing emotion. It's not the same. It's just whining.
 
I did like how Alicia Masters was helping Doc Samson with the Skrull War therapy considering that she was replaced by Lyra for "a year" in Marvel time. At least she doesn't seem bitter after dumping her perfectly fine new boyfriend to reunite with Ben Grimm, only to be quickly forgotten after a date or two so he could propose to Random Teacher From Brooklyn. Thanks, Millar (and thanks, McDuffie, for not making a bigger deal of it for the year and change you were on the book).

Uh...how could McDuffie make a big deal about it when his run was before Millar took over and introduced Random Teacher From Brooklyn :huh:
 
Uh...how could McDuffie make a big deal about it when his run was before Millar took over and introduced Random Teacher From Brooklyn :huh:

The ball was in McDuffie's court to include Alicia back into the cast, since she had been introduced into Thing's life again recently, so that their reunification would have been made "official" by it happening in FF. Sure, ideally, it would have been an editor's job; but we all know that Marvel editors' jobs usually are to say, "Yes, Bendis, good idea, sir." So research half the time is up to the writers. Had McDuffie included Alicia in at least a page or so, it would have been harder for Millar to simply assume Thing was single again.

It just seems to me that, yes, Millar made the situation worse, one has to give credit to McDuffie for having the book for a year or so and not bothering to extend that plotline, which is KEY to the character of Ben Grimm. Or at least should have been, as was written as being so in THE THING #1-8 and then MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #1. Ignoring stuff like that makes the shared universe thing fall on itself.
 
Yeah...just gonna have to disagree with you on that one. Just like you say McDuffie could have put some focus on that relationship, Millar could have done the same.
 
I was just spreading the blame a bit. I agree, Millar could have, and certainly made the situation worse. But, if McDuffie had done HIS homework, it would have been a little harder for Millar to ignore. Chicken/egg syndrome basically.

I mean I did kind of like McDuffie's run, and felt it was needed after CW shook things up for the Four. But that one omission was a major one, especially later.

Millar, I agree, made the situation worse with the Random Teacher. But then again, aside for picking random villains to kill heroes for alternate baloney futures, has he ever done any research or been known for it? Nope. I kind of expected better from McDuffie in that regard. Like an editor will say anything to Mark Millar other than, "Good idea, sir." ;)
 
Millar was gonna do whatever he wanted anyway, so it doesn't matter really.
 
At least Thing didn't make an angry face at the reader, finger pointing, and go, "MARRY ME OR ELSE, MEATBALL!" for a last page splash.

But, yeah, the situation with Alicia Masters sucks. Like Hornet's death, there's a story there that hasn't been told. It's a shame when a lack of editorial insight causes these problems.
 
I usually like the oddball artist..but I dislike Ramos as well. His stuff just looks distorted like everyone is in funny mirrors.

Why can't marvel find quality grinders like Mark Bagely anymore?
 
Because Mark Bagley's practically the only quality grinder left in the business. Everyone else needs fill-ins for 3 out of 12 issues per year, at least.
 
Preview of #21

Why Ramos? Why? Of all the artists at all the drawing tables in all the world... :(

Indeed. There are many far better artists than Ramos.

That said, I have seen worse from Ramos on X-MEN books a few years ago.

But, I do agree, he is ill suited for this style of book. I want to see where Gage goes with it, though. So I may have to try to endure it.
 
Yeah, he does seem to have toned it down a bit in those preview pages, at least. His faces look like faces, for one thing, and they stay the same shape for panels or sometimes even pages at a time.

If this were some other arc besides the big Clor-centric one, I'd probably skip it.
 
It may be due to the inker, or the timetable. For instance, while Chris Bachelo would sometimes make things seem muddy and muddled, he usually relied more on fundamentals when he had less lead in time and thus was stronger. I wonder if Ramos is the same way.
 
It does look better.

I prefer his Taskmaster face to many of the prior artists...
 
The UDON one from his series? I agree. It was modern and functional, but not in that overdone zipper/pouch Hitch way. Unfortunately, writers and artists have nostalgia for the original Perez design, which came out around when Deathstroke was, too. They're almost the same character, only Taskmaster hasn't become nearly as dangerous or overused as Deathstroke, who can, like, beat Superman in a fistfight or something.

But, the thing about old costumes is they almost always come back or are referenced in some way.
 
I would prefer some sort of half-way point between the classic and UDON costumes. I'm sorry but I'm just not gonna take a guy in a hockey mask seriously, badass skills or not.
 
I have a hard time taking a guy in an exaggerated skull mask that looks like it came from a cheap Halloween store seriously, myself. Maybe they should just change his face itself into a skull or something.
 
I really dug this book when it started but as it goes on I'm getting more and more bored with it. :(
 
Its Secret Invasion stuff almost made me drop it. I don't know why, but I really was not into the Skrull Kill Krew. I'm glad they're branching off into their own comic so I can just not read that and continue on with A:TI.
 

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