Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Avengers Academy #35

I really hope Marvel finds a place for Christos Gage in Marvel NOW. His mastery of old continuity and new stories is unparalleled. This issue features the current White Tiger lamenting advice from the original, X-23 recalling her time as a guided assassin, and characters from Young Avengers Dark Reign. Nobody else keeps up with all this stuff as well as Gage does.

Last time, the students split as half of them decided to side with the Alchemist, who wants to take the powers away from most of the Earth’s heroes. I was suspicious then, and it seems I was justified. Mettle, Hazmat, and even Striker can’t turn on their friends, and half the issue shows off these three making the tough choice to do the right thing. (Heck, it seems Striker was planning it all along. He just wanted his powers back. I do like him using his “acting” powers to get the new Enchantress to help out.)

The other group of students shows off some ingenuity and teamwork, with Julie Power taking on the leader role while Reptil struggles with the loss of his powers. I also dig seeing how the Clean Slate drug takes away powers. Finesse, for example, can’t add new abilities to her fighting arsenal, but any abilities she already had, she retains. Clean Slate’s targeted power removal would make for a pretty neat What If? story if Marvel was still doing them!

I’m thrilled to see Andrea DeVito back on art. He’s been a favorite of mine for years, and he and Gage always work well together. That closing panel with the return of Hazmat is fantastic. I also love his take on the trashy Big Zero.

Surely there’s a place for these characters (or at least this creative team) in Marvel NOW?

Good

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