New Avengers vol. 12: Powerloss

With the next volume currently on order from Amazon, I thought I’d dust this off and give it another read-through.  It got lost in the review shuffle after San Diego and I always meant to get around to it since I remembered liking it after going through it a few months back.  Now that I’ve read through it again, I can say that while it is one of the better volumes of the series, there are some fairly obvious plot holes that detract from the overall experience.

As the title implies, “Powerloss” is a story about superpowered individuals losing their powers.  This is due to a Tony Stark developed power drainer that is recovered by The Hood’s gang of thugs after a fight with the New Avengers.  After successfully re-engineering the tech, the gang plans to use it on their opponents and serve them up to Norman Osborne in order to get (what they think) is a better deal than what they have with The Hood himself.  Speaking of Parker Robbins, he finds himself allied with Loki since losing his powers after the events of the previous volume and on the hunt for mystic items that will allow him to be restored to his former glory.

For the majority of its length, “Powerloss” is both a fun, straightforward superhero tale and another good example of the kind of stories that could be told under the “Dark Reign” status quo.  We have our heroes fighting against their traditional villains, seemingly outclassed and outmaneuvered.  Then, when one of their own is captured, they have to make a big gamble to get him back safe and sound.  There are several effective action setpieces, such as the throwdown between the New Agengers and the Hood’s gang in the middle of Times Square, and the team’s assault on Osborne’s helicarrier.  However, the main attraction (as always) is the character interaction and dialogue that writer Brian Michael Bendis provides in his handling of the cast.  Whether it’s the Hood’s gang slowly realizing that they’ve been working for Osborne all this time, Osborne’s on-the-spot negotiation with gang leader Jonas Harrow, the New Avengers’ pre-rescue planning, or pretty much anything that comes out of Spider-Man’s mouth (seriously, just about everything he has the wall-crawler say in this series is pure comic gold — especially when he’s talking to Luke Cage) Bendis brings such real energy and wit to the exchanges that they’re always entertaining to read.  

He’s ell aided and abetted by artist Stuart Immonen (making his series debut) who continues to show that there is no superhero comic that he can’t make look awesome.  Effortlessly.  There are a lot of highlights to his work in this volume, but my favorite is the creepy image of Osborne on the last page.  I would say that I’d want a poster of it for my wall, but I doubt I’d be able to sleep at night with that mug staring out at me.

Unfortunately, while Bendis’ skill has always been in dialogue and characterization, he makes some amateur mistakes with his plotting.  They come in the form of the “plot holes” I mentioned earlier and they involve the presence and use of the aforementioned power drainer.  First of all, it falls into the hands of the Hood’s gang after the New Avengers FORGET IT at a fight.  That’s makes the team look incredibly dumb no matter how you slice it.  Fortunately, for purposes of the plot, Osborne’s crew proves equally clueless when they fail to use the drainer during the team’s attack on the helicarrier.  While so much of this volume is done very well, these errors are so obvious and elementary that you’d have thought that even if they slipped by Bendis, someone in editorial would have spotted them.  As they made it through to the final product, they turn a story that could’ve been really awesome into something that’s just pretty good.

That said, the story does build up nicely to the “Siege” crossover and I’m looking forward to the conclusion of the series (in its current incarnation) in the next volume.  Since Bendis wrote the crossover himself, I’m hoping that we’ll be seeing a fuller version of the conflict than we saw in those four issues and one that’s free of the plot holes that cropped up here.  Or we won’t.  I’ll et you know in a week or two.