Avengers #24

“And his body, well, he has no one to blame but himself.” I love it. Norman Osborn may have souped himself up to take on the Avengers, but clearly he hasn’t read his comic book homework. Everyone knows that if someone has energy absorption powers, the key is to overload them with more powers than he can handle. Love it.

Bendis, you didn’t write my style of Avengers stories for many, many years, but you seem to be doing it now. From start to finish, the Avengers handled their own business. This conclusion had even more moments of excellent violence with the heroes fighting smart against the clever Osborn.

I loved Red Hulk’s “apology” after he belts Osborn. He better start listening to Iron Man! And how cool was it seeing all the distance powers when the Avengers were trying to keep Osborn at a distance. Quake and Storm would be a pretty lethal combination. Sure, the New Avengers did come in to really overload the big bad, but this was an Avengers operation.

My favorite moment has to be when Cap and the rest take out the corrupt SHIELD agent. Daniel Acuna may have skimped on backgrounds for most of the issue, but he really sells that moment, the disappointment and anger on the Avengers’ faces. And the total fear on Agent Washington’s. She messed up big, and it’s time to pay Captain America.

The post-scripts are decent, but I’m not sure Cap would be so resistant to bringing the Avengers around for some publicity. Fear Itself started the same way, right? And as for Madame Viper? Acuna’s art makes her cliffhanger work, with the stylized “Heil Hydra!” repeated across the page. Hammer falls, and we’re back to the excellent status quo of Madame Hydra and her flunkies as a prime threat. Nicely done.

Good