Avengers the Initiative

TheCorpulent1 said:
Preview of Avengers: The Initiative #28 a.k.a. PRODIGY COWBOYS THE F*** UP! :hehe:

Damn, I can't wait for this. :awesome:
Click to expand...

That is a damn good preview. Not only is Prodigy manning up, but Gage is really making Tigra into an experienced, veteran leader rather than furry cheesecake, and that's the proper approach for her.

Technically, the New Warriors did play B-Ball against the Slingers during the second CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS and Speedball tried to recruit them to the New Warriors '99, but they don't know them well.

I did like that Boomerang renamed himself "Outback" and slapped a flag on his suit to try to look "heroic". Gage has some wonderful touches when he uses some D-Listers.

Sadly, sales on this title have slipped since Slott left; August's issue sold barely over 39k and was the first to sell below the Top 50. Granted, that was also a month with four 100k-plus sellers at the top as well as the relaunch of Ultimate, so that naturally pushed it down. Still, A:TI was a book that not long ago sold 45k. I imagine the title will make it to a 35th issue but after that who knows.

Honestly, as great as Dan Slott made the book for the first 7 issues and as great as it was with Gage co-writing, this title has actually upped in quality since Gage took over solo. As a Slott fan, that's hard to admit. If this was a B+ book with Slott solo, then with Gage solo it's an A- at least.
 
Why is this all the way on the second page still? This week's issue was awesome. I loved the dialogue between Vance and Prodigy. They're like two sides of the same coin--both always wanted to be heroes but Vance succeeded while Prodigy just keeps on a-failin'. Lots of shake-ups in the New Warriors, too.

I love how, now that the book is ostensibly more devoted to a villainous version of the Initiative, we're seeing plenty of formerly ambivalent characters show that they're truly heroes after all. :up:
 
Prodigy was a real dick on Slingers but ever since he got drunk and called tony out he's been chock full of awesome. I want a slingers reunion, and bring eddie back to life damnit!
 
He's still totally a dick now, though. He's just a dick who's found himself in the underdog position. I mean, he failed at being a hero with the Slingers, to the point that Ricochet wound up as the de facto leader instead of him, but kept trying anyway, got drunk and got his ass kicked by Iron Man, sold out to the Initiative to get out of jail, sold out to Osborn to get a promotion, and only now, after they put Boomerang on his team and sicced them on one of their own, did he finally man the f*** up and do the right thing. And, of course, he gets his ass kicked for it again. He's been a great lovable loser character ever since he was humbled in Slingers. :up:
 
Yeah, but now he's my kind of dick, and that's something I want to see more off. Less telling everyone what to do more **** that I'm doing what I want. I didn't think he sold out as much as took his only opportunity to get out of a gitmo type situation and we all knew he wasn't gonna play ball for long, he hated the initiative. He's also more willing to be cool with his teammates as seen in his first initiative appearence when he lead everyone to sneak out and grab a drink. I bet if he met back up with the team he'd apologize and take them to a bar or something like I would. I'm officially a prodigy fan now.
 
It's actually "Debrii". With two i's. Don't ask me, ask Zeb Wells & Scottie Young. She showed up during their reality TV Warriors mini, much like Microbe (whose life span was practically a year, 2005-2006).

That's a solid interview with Gage. If anything could get both sides to form an alliance, it'd be Nightmare. I mean, he got Wolverine and Venom to team up back in a 90's MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS story. Technically he does have a daughter who popped up in some old Hulk comic a few years ago; I wonder if she will be mentioned at some point.

The rest looks good; if anyone can rehab Speedball, it's Gage. The book's terrific.

At any rate, awesome issue. Repost of the review, with spoilers:

Dread said:
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #28:
I actually do "Book Of The Week" style stuff at Examiner now, and this was mine. It was a tough week as quite a few books were excellent and worthy of focus, but even in a week with NOVA, GOTG, and INVINCIBLE, I think this one rocked my eyeballs the best, if only because I didn't expect it. It gets tougher every week to say it, being that I am a huge Dan Slott fan, but this book has gone from good to terrific since he's left and Gage has gotten more time to play around with it. To use a basketball analogy, Slott was the star player who excelled on a team for much of a season before being paired in plays with a newly traded player towards the end of the season. When Gage was feeding Slott assists, Slott was scoring easy baskets or even slam dunks. But now that Slott has gone, though, Gage is shooting three pointers...and landing most of them. It speaks to Slott's ability to lay in a foundation and work alongside a talent, and it speaks to Gage's talent for being able to stand tall after he gets the gig solo. This is why December's solicit of Gage writing MIGHTY AVENGERS solo that month has me elated rather than worried.

If Slott's skill was taking forgotten characters and excelling with them, than Gage has surpassed it, or at least is capable of surpassing it when he's on, as he has been on this book since about when Humberto Ramos left for Rafa Sandoval on art. Last month's issue with Johnny Guitar really impressed me, and this one impressed me even more. In fact the only negative is that without Slott, the book's sales are starting to fall out; in August it was outside of the Top 50 for the first time since launch; it usually never was outside of the Top 35. Granted, there were about five 100k sellers that month, but still. At any rate, I imagine this book will be fine sales wise until about issue #35 or #36 if things don't get stable, but to be frank, a launch that lasts 3 years is about the long side of average these days. Very few Marvel books last that long and even fewer go beyond it without a relaunch, a "break mini" or whatnot. But that's all in the future.

The now is that this is a book for the fan who loves seeing forgotten or overlooked or even mishandled characters shine, even if they only get one page or so. This issue features many characters advancing their storylines or doing something interesting or cool, from Justice to even Boomerang, but the star of the issue is easily Prodigy, who has likely gotten the most page time of his SLINGERS cohorts. Hornet was killed by Wolverine years ago off panel, Ricochet only does stuff in LONERS features, which are few and far between, and Dusk even fewer; she was a sex slave a year or so back on MS. MARVEL and that's been it. Prodigy, though, got attention by being taken down by Iron Man in FRONTLINE and has gotten modest appearances in this title since. Justice shares the issue spotlight in a way and the two are similar in some fashion; they're both jock-esque heroes with borderline generic names and costumes who keep trying to live up to the ideal of a hero. While Justice has succeeded more or less, Prodigy has often cut bad deals. He was the most loyal to Black Marvel back in SLINGERS, who had been hopelessly manipulated by Mephisto. He was the hardest to work with out of the four. He joined the Initiative to get out of prison after the Civil War incident, but despite fighting the Skrulls was treated no better than genuine ex-criminals like Sunstreak. He agreed to side with Osborn's administration more out of being opportunistic than genuine. This issue that comes to a head and he draws the line. Apparently, ex-merc/hit man Boomerang, now exploiting his heritage as the hero Outback (no word on whether he had an endorsement deal with a certain franchise steak-house), was stealing money on the sly from the casino that their Nevada team is based in, and blaming it on critical speedster Nonstop. While part of me wonders if Prodigy would have been willing to stand up to Outback without a news camera there, he still does so.

This naturally gets the "Avengers Resistance" up in gear as they seek to protect him as well as see if he could be recruited to their own little team. In the meanwhile, Justice and Ultra-Girl hash over what is left of their relationship (which I still see as a "rebound" for Vance she he only started dating her after he and Firestar broke their engagement), and there's even some reference to NOVA when the three of them all had pizza. Justice notes how most of his fellow Warriors founders are dead, retired, or AWOL and that a nation that turns against Captain America and in which Osborn can so quickly and easily amass control is, at least, hard to figure out how to be heroic for. I still say that if any fictional Earth deserved to be enslaved MATRIX style by some nefarious force, it's Marvel's Earthlings; they're even more coddling to evildoers than people in the real world are, which is saying a damn lot. But, I digress.

Naturally, Osborn is seeking to handle the Heavy Hitters situation competently while exploiting P.R. as well. This includes throwing in at least one team assembled during Stark's administration, which includes Prodigy's fellow recruit Sunstreak. The only quibble is I honestly wonder if a time flung 1941 vigilante hero like The Challenger who used to challenge and even murder mobsters and corrupt figures would so blindly side with Osborn, but who knows; that could be addressed next issue for all we know. At any rate a monster brawl ensues, but Prodigy refuses to run when given the option, wanting to atone for siding with Osborn in the first place. This naturally means taking the mother of all beatings from the assembled forces, who merrily oblige. It was a good redemption for a character who could easily just have been a face in the crowd.

Plenty of other characters get moments. Cloud 9, who started out a cherubic novice and has become a war hardened sniper willing to kill HYDRA terrorists and Skrulls alike, shows some sign of moral backbone and "misses" a kill shot against Night-Thrasher deliberately. Unfortunately, Taskmaster doesn't, and it leads to Gage even showing he paid attention to that last NEW WARRIORS series as Donyell is offered his heart's desire by Osborn in an infirmary. Stories about Penance and Trauma start to come to a head, too. Hopefully Gage can rehab Penance/Baldwin into a less emotastic retch in time. All the while Gage continues Tigra's shift from victim to experience hardened commander, which is appropriate. Only a shame Moon Knight isn't allowed to pitch in too. They were West Coast Avengers and they sided with Mockingbird when she let Phantom Rider die for raping her. One would think Specter would be all over the Avengers Resistance. I guess it's better to just keep him a Batman cipher in his own book.

Butterball, seen on the cover, is in the issue, but only for a panel. That's hardly a problem, though. He's a pawn for the bad guys, but at least it's because he is genuinely naive and not because he is compromising. Even the idea of Boomerang trading in his outfit and codename for another one, capitalizing on the trend of flag-wearing by heroes with international identities (Captain Britain, Union Jack, Shamrock, hell, even Silver Samurai and Sunfire to a degree) is a good one. This is the poorest selling Avengers title right now, even if it's outlasted a few of them so far and remains one of the best. It's the total package.
Click to expand...
 
I have no feelings towards Nightmare(he was cool when Herc and Co fought him) but I love A:TI so I can't wait :D
 
Nightmare's cool. It's been a while since he did anything major so he's a fine bad guy for an Avengers book, especially as he's got an "in" with Trauma.

FYI, Nightmare's other canon child is a daughter named "Daydream". She popped up in a few issues of INCREDIBLE HULK around 2005 and used "Gwen" as an alias. Had bushy black hair and a tee with a smiley face on it. She could psychically enter dreams and whatnot. Technically she would at least be Trauma's step-sister, and considering Gage knew about two DAZZLER villains from over twenty years ago, he may eventually dig her up.

But, yeah, AVENGERS: TI has been good to start will, still good without Slott and these last few issues have been terrific. It's a shame it's technically the poorest selling AVENGERS title as it's rather damn good.

Gage has managed to redeem Gauntlet and write characters like Tigra, Justice, even Prodigy well.
 
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE is always good stuff, this peek is no exception. At the Big Apple Comic Con, I got issues #13, #27 and #28 signed by Gage himself. It rocked. :up:
 
Yeah, I'm kind of glad Hardball dumped her ass and turned evil. She deserves much better. :heart:
 
Hardball's a mess, to be blunt. I think Gage is handling him well, but Dan Slott mangled things a little bit going for a few more twist endings than he should have. Unless the intention was to write Hardball as a morally gray guy who, when it counts, makes the wrong decisions and then regrets it, while continuing to make them. Kind of like Cyclops in WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN.

It was a shame Reptil decided to stay in the Savage Land; I kind of thought he'd make a nice buddy for Komodo.
 
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