Avengers: The Initiative #26

Christos Gage delivers what he promised online; some new 50 State Initiative teams. We get to see the most from North Caronlia's U-Foes, but we get introduced to Oregon's Force of Nature, Delaware's Women Warriors, and Maryland's new team, Psionex! I'd say Maryland came out the loser in this group, with North Carolina getting the coolest protectors. I love the high concept that the public of the Marvel U would abandon a team of Avengers and heroes this quickly to cheer for known criminals. That's ok though, because it makes for a neat concept. The Avengers: Resistance team has a neat dynamic in that they are still mostly made up of the bickering different generations of New Warriors, but Gauntlet and Tigra have clear seniority and almost serve as mentors or leaders for the team. Gage is taking Tigra down a dark path in the closing pages of the issue as she seems out for revenge one villain at a time when she attacks one of the Brothers Grimm in a hotel room (and videotapes it, just like the Hood did to her).

Camp Hammond is renamed Camp Hammer and relocated to an old Hulkbuster base in New Mexico, showing off Gage's encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel U once again. The current "class" of villains seems to be the Brothers Grimm, Razorfist, and Scorcher. Taskmaster is back to being a full-on villain. He's a neat contrast against the Constrictor, who doesn't seem to happy as he's welcomed back into the villain community with open arms. It seems Penance can't even remember his name or background at this point, so he's nothing more than a gun to point at a problem, but surely Gage is setting up Robbie Baldwin for a triumphant return as Speedball. Gage loves his Marvel history too much to keep this Penance thing going too long.

I really enjoyed the pencils from new artist Rafa Sandoval. Sandoval's faces all look similar, but that's a common problem in comics. He handles the plethora of costumes well though, and in a Where's Waldo book like this, just making dozens of heroes look good is a full time job.

Good