Avengers #13...

I've read a lot of boring comics lately. And some good ones. And one superb one.

That was Avengers #13, by Brian Michael Bendis and Chris Bachalo. One of the best writers and one of the best artists in comics today. There's been some comics lately where I thought Bendis was sleepwalking through his own story, and Bachalo has done some downright bad art along with some amazing work. And this is some of their best. I've talked before about how I love the nine-panel spread; Bachalo gives us the 12-panel spread on several pages, and makes them both funny and moving by turns.

It's a character piece, folks. And boy, does it do character. The Avengers - mostly singly, sometimes together - are being interviewed. Differnt times, different places. Giving, or sometimes not giving, their own history, and perspective on events we have seen in the comics - from the Kree-Skrull to the fall of Asgard. We see both the public face, and the private.

There's Iron Man, alternately making out with different women when he isn't making heroic, inspirational statements. There's Spider-Man, slurping his drink, brave, funny, human. Spider-Woman, brooding. Jessica, tending her baby and observing. Luke Cage, calling it as he sees it, on the rebuilding of Asgard:

Jessica: Frankly, I don't get it either. But hey, Tony Stark's a damn rich dude... and a smark dude.
Luke Cage: If a smart rich guy has an idea, you listen.
Jessica: Exactly.

There's Wolverine, who doesn't play for the camera - drinking, sleeping, walking out - laughing at Spider-Man, and then utterly grim.

( Page one sets it all up. )

Is that Noh-Varr in the bottom left corner?

Jarvis, bless him, gets ( a whole page )

Noh-Varr introduces Carol Danvers to his girlfriend Annie. Carol, it seems, is unhappy with her single dateless condition:

Carol: ...Reminding me that the alien kid has a girlfriend and I, being mostly human, haven't dated anyone in forever.
Captain America: Aaawww...
Carol: Don't sass me, circus boy.

And when she complains to Spider-Woman that Volstagg was hitting on her at an Asgardian party:



While Luke Cage plans ( a career change. )

There's more to it than this: it has charm, it's artistic, it's intriguing, and it has more suspense than most of the other comics out today. For the first time, I felt a twinge of foreboding for the "Fear Itself" storyline it's setting up.



Imaginative, original, evocative, with enough content that I reread it to reconsider the nuances - this is so much what I want comics to be, and so much what most comics aren't.

Bendis and Bachalo. I want these guys to collaborte more.