I read the first issue and liked it well enough, although I think the idea is a little hokey. The artwork is nice, so I can stand to give it a couple more tries and see if it picks up.

I've been wondering about Captain America myself in the last couple of years. He's always been around, but Marvel really does seem to be pushing him more and more these days. It seems like they're trying once and for all to make him into such a personally powerful figure that everyone else in the Marvel Universe would naturally defer to his leadership and innate goodness, kind of like a cross between the Batman and Superman effects over at DC.

They've probably done market research that indicates he sells well with the super-patriotic crowd, but still holds some allure for the love-the-country-hate-the-administration crowd.

Being a long-time fan of the original Avengers... in many of their incarnations, I can't say I'm all that enthusiastic about these New Avengers. For me, the Avengers were most interesting when they featured some of the lesser known characters who weren't getting exposure elsewhere in the Marvel Universe. Now that Marvel has hit it big with their movies, they obviously want the Avengers to be a big seller that features their top characters... Wolverine, Spider-man, Captain America, etc.

I like Bendis as a writer. His ALIAS is probably the best comic written in recent years, but I just don't think he's right for Avengers. If it weren't for the fact that Jessica Drew as Spider-Woman is one of the new Avengers, I certainly wouldn't have stuck around even as long as I have. As it is, I will just wait and see.

And unlike Sparky, I'm not impressed by Finch's art. All the faces look exactly the same, one of my little pet peeves.

Give me Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye any day... or better yet, give me Mantis, Moondragon, and Firebird and I'd be a super happy camper!

Granted the original Avengers hasn't been great for a while either.

Michael

Duh. I just realized that I responded by talking about the YOUNG Avengers instead of the NEW Avengers. Brain fart -- I apologize.

I still stand by what I said about Cap, though.

So far, I like New Avengers a lot, although that opinion only really kicked in with the third issue. I was a little disappointed that Bendis didn't win me over until that point. I agree, Michael, he doesn't really have a handle on all these characters. In particular, he never ever seems to have a feel for Captain America in any of the titles he drops him into. Even in Alias, where he seemed to find the most perfect ways to fill out every character he wrote, Cap was just sort of a cipher.