Avengers Assemble #6 - This comic sure tries my patience. On the one hand, you know, the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy team up to fight Thanos and the Badoon. That's cool! And there's some cool moments. But Bendis' Thanos kinda sucks. And the script sort of acts like this is the first time Thamos has had a Cosmic Cube. Add that to an iteration of the Hulk that we haven't seen in a long time and you can see why people keep asking if this is in continuity. And the fact that Bendis has just about every Marvel super-hero sitting around at home listening to the plot get explained to them is going to make fitting this somewhere specific a little tight. I'm also a little disappointed in Bagley - his Hawkeye is looking pretty awful by the end of this book, and that whole sequence with Banner in the Iron Man armor really didn't work (i also don't know what the Avengers thought they were going to gain from that ploy). So, i want to like this, but i'm having trouble.

Spider-Men #4 - Same writer (actually half my books this week are by Bendis), very different reaction from me: this was really good. I've been grousing about the lack of plot in this series, but having Peter show up at Ultimate Aunt May's house, and having him not run away but instead have a long sit down with May and Ultimate Gwen Stacy (i just like doing that) was a really nice move that played to Bendis' dialogue strengths. Great issue.

Captain America #16 - If you're going to call the bad guys Discordians, you'd think you'd play it up a lot more, having them dropping fnords and doing other random weird shit. Instead they're more like generic anarchists, which is ok but a little disappointing. This was fine, but it's one of Brubaker's weaker Cap arcs (feels like a repeat in some regards), and i'm attributing that to co-writer Bunn. Next issue's Space Station Zemo is promising, though!

New Avengers #29 - My third and final Bendis book for the week. Unlike everyone else on the internet, i like the Illuminati concept and this issue made good use of it, and also made good use of the Cap and Namor relationship to the degree that the crossover event would allow (it would have been better if they were actually allowed to work something out). I actually think the conversations in this book should have been included in the main AvX series; it would have given that book some much needed depth and explanation and character study that the series is sorely missing. It shouldn't be pushed off into a tie-in. And that's my review. I also wanted to say, and this is not the fault of Bendis or any other particular writer, that if you strung together all the World War II era Captain America and Invaders flashbacks and other stories, you probably have enough content to fill about 27 World War IIs. Constantly adding to the backstory is fine for the sliding timescale Marvel Universe but when you associate events with a fixed length real world event it starts to get a little ridiculous.

Mighty Thor #18 - So far not impressed. Fraction's dialogue is not engaging and having Thor mutter like a teenager about his father isn't a good move. This was a set-up issue, so not a lot for Alan Davis to work. Hoping this gets better or that the Gillen issues, at least, are good. I wish this wasn't a "Prologue", actually. We had the set-up for Surtur's release in Journey Into Mystery; why not get into the actual story now?