Review: Avengers Annual #1

It's breath-taking how immaculate Gab Del Otto's covers are, but his interiors are even better. It's the best drawn Avengers book since Siege by Coipel, if not...even better. Bendis also turns in a decent script with a lot of excitement, plot twists and turns and caveats here and there. Seeing Simon Williams' Revengers team, which seems a brash attempt at dismissive storytelling, irked me at first, given that the C-list characters had weak motivations and reasons for joining his roster.


Also, seeing the new Goliath and Eddie Brock as villains is two steps back to me. Why could Simon not have aligned himself with Osborn's Dark Team? The final page leaves much in doubt and more questions unanswered but that aside, seeing Thor and Iron Man hand defeat to Simon's team was pretty well done in a few effective panels and a key deus ex machina. How this philandering team defeated Grimm and co. first off, baffles me but there's redemption here...albeit too easily, as the real Avengers stand up, take names...and kick asses. Boots to Asses!

Steve Rogers seems out of his element a bit here, and it's muddled seeing as this occurs before Fear Itself #1, but overall, it's a decent issue. How often does Stark Tower or the Mansion get torn apart? I don't know but hey, at least this one-shot was pure fun. The villains don't get too loquacious and they don't acquiesce as easily as many would expect. It's kickass when Del Otto jumps on it also. (9/10)