New Avengers #63

Darn if Bendis doesn't write one of my favorite Spider-Man interpretations. He just gets the quippy, silliness of Spider-Man perfectly. Spidey only has a few lines in this, but they were easily my favorite parts. There's a moment when "Ronin" and Mockingbird are arguing while they jump out of the New Avengers HQ and Spidey happens to be swinging by, he takes their rebuff of his friendly greeting totally in stride. It's a great little moment that sums up Spidey perfectly. I will say that I don't care for Bendis' take on Clint Barton and Mockingbird as much, since they are two sourpusses. It seems like all they do is mope and complain, even when fighting goofballs like "Lady Octopus" this issue. Heck, the moment Mockingbird cracks a smile she gets a stone wall dropped on her! I'd be more worried if I hadn't just read the solicits for a new Hawkeye & Mockingbird ongoing series.

There is a bunch of time spent with Luke Cage and Jessica Jones too, but I didn't really get much out of it. I felt like I've seen this whole interchage three or four times at this point, with Jessica wanting Luke to be more careful and him being gung-ho to see some action. I did like how confident Cage was that things are working out though. Since Cage really is the heart of the New Avengers, now that he's perking up I bet the rest of the team will too.

I've always like Mike McKone's pencils and this is no exception. He did a nice job with the Power-family, but I thought Clint Barton looked too old. I'm also curious about Lady Octopus. Are the tentacles on her shirt supposed to look like they are... tweaking something? The interspersed shots of the main battles of Siege looked tremendous.

Good