I suppose maybe this isn't the right forum to ask such a question, but I do see alot of animosity towards this book eslewhere on the internet, and it honestly puzzles me. The reason it really strikes me is that many people who complain about it also complain that superhero comics are too dark and not fun enough and stuff like that. Generally, that's a complaint I agree with. And my feeling that superheroes aren't any fun anymore is a big reason why I love New Avengers: it IS fun. It's high adventure and jokes and action with a solid line-up of Marvel characters. And Ill be honest here: When the series started, I was turned off. 'Cuz almost immediately, we were dropped into this really dark prison riot thing. And, you know... Spider-Man's my favorite superhero. He's the one that got me into comics when I was a kid. He was fun and funny and I liked that. So, then we saw Spider-Man get mobbed by villains, fucked up really bad, wrist broken, mask ripped off, etc, and I thought, "aw, fuck. More dark Spider-Man." (This was, of course, around the time of "Sins Past" and not long after "Carnage" in USM and the "Peter-Turns-Into-A-Spider" arc of Spectacular. I was really oversaturated with Dark Spidey and I don't usually like Dark Spidey.) But then, it went the other way entirely. And, you know, that very serious and dark moment made perfect sense as a motivation to reform the Avengers, so even that got a pass. And since then, it's been a joy to read. It's serious without being bleak. It moves fast (faster than Bendis' detractors would give him credit for, even). It manages lots of action and some great character stuff. I just don't see why the negativity.
I can see people not liking the art. Finch is definitely of a certain mold that left a bad taste in alot of peoples' mouths in the 90s. But, personally, I think he's above most of that stuff, and Steve McNiven's arc was lovely to look at. Maybe some people complain that Bendis' stories are slow-moving. Here, there's no backing up that claim. (Well, I guess you could say that about #10 if you were just looking for something to complain about. Whole lot of talking there. If you measure good comics by the amount of fists in faces, I guess #10 sucked). The Avengers basically have two big adventures and one tiny one in their first six issues alone. By today's standards, that's lightspeed story-telling. In the past, Bendis has caught criticism for not being able to manage the cast in Ultimate X-Men (And I suppose there may have been some merit to that, but those two arcs were more like showcase issues for certain characters than team stories, and they certainly weren't the first team comics to focus on certain members for awhile.). I think he's juggling the cast of Avengers pretty well. The interplay between the members of the group is great fun, too.
I dunno. I think this book and Young Avengers are more of what superhero comics could use. The sort of fun, sweeping tales that attracted many of us to big team comics when we were kids. I just don't get the hostility. And, you know, it's no secret I didn't enjoy Disassembled and Bendis himself yelled at me for my opinion about the whole Hawkeye thing, it's not like I'm just saying this shit to kiss ass. I just don't get it...
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