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Avengers Spotlight #27Issue(s): Avengers Spotlight #27 Hawkeye Reserve Avengers Evan Skolnick - Assistant Editor Review/plot: ![]() "Typical" doesn't necessarily mean "good". The cheesiness is certainly accentuated by the Milgrom/Heck artwork. But here you take a guy that is on a pretty cool mission, hunting down another nominal bad guy because he's messed with a corporate boss, and you turn him into a generically motivated villain that wants to fight any "do-gooder". Hawkeye, meanwhile, is getting a vasectomy. ![]() ![]() Ok, ok, he's really getting treated for poison from being bitten by Mad Dog "a couple of weeks ago". After the procedure he's on his way up to Avengers Park to see if Cap has a lead on who was responsible for the attack on Avengers Island when Boomerang attacks. With Flamerangs. ![]() Hawkeye takes him out immediately, with the first two arrows fired. ![]() And then he immediately moves on to helping civilians caught in the fire Boomerang started. Boomerang is not seen again. The rest of the (half-)issue is really about setting the tone for the Superhero Registration Act debate. ![]() Ok, Boomerang is a guy with trick boomerangs. Not the most awesome villain ever. But he's actually been handled pretty well at times, and frankly he's a perfect villain for a guy with trick arrows. If you're going to set up a fight between them, it shouldn't be a complete joke. The second story has a number of reserve Avengers helping Stingray salvage the remains of the sunken Avengers Mansion. The group includes Black Widow, Firebird, Hellcat, and Moondragon. Stingray mentions that Cap is mad at Damage Control, i guess a reference to the events of the new Damage Control #1. ![]() While he's surveying the damage, he realizes that the "Heavy Metal" robots that were being held on the island are missing. He's then attacked. Firebird, marveling at her "newly expanded control" over her powers, responds to the signal, a little arrogantly. ![]() Se gets swatted back out of the water, and then the Awesome Android, having absorbed Stingray's powers, emerges. ![]() Black Widow calls for additional back-up, but a montage shows that most active Avengers are currently busy. ![]() But another reserve Avenger, Captain Marvel does receive the call. Monica was on a date with someone named Ben. ![]() The reserve Avengers are currently not handling the Awesome Android very well. ![]() They're just not getting it. ![]() ![]() So good thing Captain Marvel shows up with her A-type personality and quickly formulates a tactical plan. ![]() ![]() Dwayne Turner's art is still very rough, but like with this creative's team's full length story last issue i did enjoy this. It's definitely leaps and bounds above the Mackie/Milgrom first half of this issue. From what i'm seeing, it would have been really great if McDuffie was able to take over one of the main Avengers titles, or heck, turned this book into a story about a rotating team of reservists. Quality Rating: C Chronological Placement Considerations: Definitely takes place after Quasar stops helping with the salvage at the beginning of Quasar #5. Based on the montage scene, a lot of other Avengers issues are taking place concurrently with this story. See the References for more. References:
Crossover: Acts of Vengeance Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (8): show CommentsA fight betwixt Hawk-eye and Boomerang should be a blast. How did they make it so boring. Also, I consider Boomerang more of a Spidey villain than an Iron Man one. At least Spidey is the guy he hates most. Great idea by having the back up avengers team-up. But again a boring fight. Posted by: kveto | March 24, 2015 4:15 PM This issue is a perfect example of the problem with Gruenwald-DeFalco continuity- like fnord pointed out in his review of New Mutants 77-87, they refer to everything, regardless of whether or not it makes sense. Iron Man is present for the duration of Avengers West Coast 53- he can't be fighting the U-Foes and the Wrecker at the same time! Tony can't be in two places at once- he's not Wolverine. :) Posted by: Michael | March 24, 2015 9:07 PM I agree a Boomerang/Hawkeye fight has potential, but I guess in reality, while villains may have gotten an advantage over a hero they don't fight a lot, they also might get an extreme disadvantage in not knowing anything about that hero as well, so you would get some awkward mismatches--in this case, I don't think it works because it's not like Boomerang hasn't gone up against a variety of heroes with long-range powers before. Posted by: MikeCheyne | March 25, 2015 1:20 AM According to Avengers Annual 19, the fight with the Awesome Android takes place at roughly the same time as Fantastic Four 334. Posted by: Michael | March 26, 2015 11:34 PM Two things occur to me looking at this issue. 1 - Whatever faults Secret Wars had, its art was consistent. By having this be a crossover and not a series, we get a wide-range of art. But I can't help but know how good the art will be when this all wrapped up in WCA, especially with Byrne's awesome Thor, and think, wow, the art in the first half of this issue just sucks. 2 - It never occurred to me at the time, but seeing the slap to Hawkeye, I realize this is a re-tread of Legends, the big DC series in 1986 that Byrne did. (Most Marvel-only fans know Legends as the series where Byrne rather nastily mocked Jim Shooter). But the art in Legends was all Byrne, so it was a big step above this. Plus it had Darkseid. Which suddenly makes me wish for a Byrne drawn Darkseid-Thanos battle. Posted by: Erik Beck | September 16, 2015 3:24 PM Interesting the shot of the Avengers fighting U-Foes has USAgent when he is not present for that fight. Posted by: Scott | November 27, 2015 4:27 PM Comments are now closed. |
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