Don’t You Forget About Me: New Avengers #16 Review

EDITOR’S NOTE: This review contains spoilers. How many spoilers? Well, I’m going to include a scan of 9/10th of the last page of the fucking story. The only way to more effectively ruin a climax involves a Donkey Punch. You are warned.

I would like to start by saying, clearly and unambiguously, that I liked New Avengers #16. The story is excellent, the art is spectacular, and the action is almost unrelenting. This is a good comic book. Are we clear?

Good.

Because now I am going to rank it out for a little while.

Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of New Avengers, was born in 1967. This means that he was an impressionable teenager in 1985. Before I read New Avengers #16, I knew this because of Wikipedia. AFTER reading it, I know it because of THIS:

Really, Bendis? You might skate the reference past the bubblegummers torrenting scans so they can talk enough comics with the geek girls in drama club to turn those backrubs into frontrubs, but you think you can get a Breakfast Club riff past ME!?

Yes, this poster exists on our wall RIGHT NOW.

All I can picture is Spider-Man writing that page alone in the Avengers Mansion cafeteria while Ms. Marvel coughs up a diamond earring and Wolverine pumps his fist, What do you have lined up for issue 17, Bendis? Shang-Chi kicks the front door open and sceeches, “No more yanky my wanky! The Master of Kung Fu needs FOOD!”?

*ROB TAKES DEEP BREATH* Okay.

It might sound like I’m upset about the close of this book, but that’s really not true. Yeah, it’s kinda laughable if you look at it in the right way, but at least it gave me something to make a little fun of. Because again: this is a very, VERY good comic book.

The plot is tight, and structured such that, even though this is a crossover to Marvel’s Fear Itself event, you don’t really need to know what’s happening in the main event because this book is primarily told from the point of view of Daredevil, a character uninvolved in Fear Itself and who therefore ALSO has no idea of what’s going on. It’s a clever storytelling device that allows the book to tie into Fear Itself, but doesn’t keep any regular readers of the title who haven’t been following the event hammer and tong from becoming immersed.

And there is plenty to be immersed in here, because Bendis gives us long stretches of pure action – Daredevil fighting dozens of giant Nazi mechs. And the phrase “Daredevil fighting Nazi mechs” alone should spell “sold” to anyone with the inclination to wander into a comic store, but those scenes are drawn by Mike Deodato and JESUS. CHRIST.

I always said that if I had all the money, one of the things I would buy would be David Mazzucchelli’s splash page from Daredevil: Born Again where he’s facing down Nuke for the first time. There are no fewer than four panels in this issue that I think I would rather have hanging on my wall. I mean FUCK, LOOK at this:

THAT’S impressive art. A guy who draws Daredevil like that can draw ANYTHING. Like, say… a brain. Or a jock. Or a princess. Or a basket case. Or a criminal.

Best book in a while. Check it out.