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captwinghead's review
2.0
I don't even know what to say about this one.
I thought it couldn't get worse than boring but somehow, this proved me wrong.
This starts with the Red Zone story arc which is fantastic! The plot is A+, the characters' talents are used wisely and there's some much needed development between Tony and T'Challa. Also, it's one of the stories I point to when explaining why Steve and Tony's relationship is so important to Marvel canon. That story gets 4 stars. I took off a star because it still has some of the same problems the last volume did where 90% of the dialogue is exposition/characters explaining the their bios.
Then we get 2 stories in which all the problems I have with the writing get worse + sexism + juxtaposition of Hank and Jan on a date and a man abusing a prostitute + a terrible ending.
Where to begin?
*mentions of abuse*
"Whirlwinds" follows the Red Zone arc and it's Hank and Jan going on a date in Vegas. I've heard many different opinions on their relationship but suffice to say, regardless of whether you think Hank slapping Jan was an artist incorrectly interpreting the script or not, it's uncomfortable to have their scenes inter-spliced with a Whirlwind making a prostitute dress up as Wasp and hitting her. Jan and Hank get involved and Whirlwind licks Jan's face. What the fuck? She kicks his ass but still, why was that necessary? It was gross.
The next story is "The Search for She-Hulk". A lot of dialogue in these books are characters explaining their own backstory but this one decided to have She-hulk tell Banner's story. Okay, to be fair, it was about her too, kind of. Anyway, Jack of Hearts accidentally took away her abilities so she's searching for Banner. As a premise, this is okay. The Avengers come looking for her and she gets scared, Hulks out. Now this town is in danger and they're trying to figure out how to help her.
Hawkeye returns. I love Clint but he's kind of a dick here. It's worth mentioning that She-Hulk ends up fighting in her underwear for some reason. Okay. Anyway, Bruce shows up, Clint decides the situation isn't quite as fucked up as he'd like it to be and shoots Banner. Thanks.
Now 2 Hulks are fighting, everyone's in even more danger and the dialogue is cave man speak. I lost interest in this by issue 2 of it but Wanda was pretty badass.
The last story is "Full House" in which Cap decides Jack of Hearts and Jen can't be on a team together. Jack's a dick but I actually get sorry for him because he didn't mean to hurt Jen. The team argues for a bit, Tony and T'Challa wanna get Jack help, Scott doesn't like Jack at all and Jen feels bad for him. This story is moderately interesting and then it goes from 30 to 100 when Scott's daughter is randomly kidnapped. Scott rushes off to save her, Jack follows and what ensues is incredibly ridiculous.
The ending (I won't spoil it) was meant to turn the relationship between Jack and Scott from an antagonistic one into one of mutual respect. Rather than put the work in, like they did with T'Challa and Tony who were having trust issues, they pushed it too fast and created a ridiculous scenario to force it.
There's development of some relationships in this book. Not a ton of character development but when Johns decides to focus on one character, like Sam in the beginning of this book or some of Jen's stuff, there are hints of it. Still, not enough to sell me on his run of Avengers.
Red Zone is a fantastic story and you can buy that as a trade by itself. I recommend that arc but the rest of this can be ignored entirely. I wish I could unread it.
Red Zone - 5 stars
The rest - .5 stars
I thought it couldn't get worse than boring but somehow, this proved me wrong.
This starts with the Red Zone story arc which is fantastic! The plot is A+, the characters' talents are used wisely and there's some much needed development between Tony and T'Challa. Also, it's one of the stories I point to when explaining why Steve and Tony's relationship is so important to Marvel canon. That story gets 4 stars. I took off a star because it still has some of the same problems the last volume did where 90% of the dialogue is exposition/characters explaining the their bios.
Then we get 2 stories in which all the problems I have with the writing get worse + sexism + juxtaposition of Hank and Jan on a date and a man abusing a prostitute + a terrible ending.
Where to begin?
*mentions of abuse*
"Whirlwinds" follows the Red Zone arc and it's Hank and Jan going on a date in Vegas. I've heard many different opinions on their relationship but suffice to say, regardless of whether you think Hank slapping Jan was an artist incorrectly interpreting the script or not, it's uncomfortable to have their scenes inter-spliced with a Whirlwind making a prostitute dress up as Wasp and hitting her. Jan and Hank get involved and Whirlwind licks Jan's face. What the fuck? She kicks his ass but still, why was that necessary? It was gross.
The next story is "The Search for She-Hulk". A lot of dialogue in these books are characters explaining their own backstory but this one decided to have She-hulk tell Banner's story. Okay, to be fair, it was about her too, kind of. Anyway, Jack of Hearts accidentally took away her abilities so she's searching for Banner. As a premise, this is okay. The Avengers come looking for her and she gets scared, Hulks out. Now this town is in danger and they're trying to figure out how to help her.
Hawkeye returns. I love Clint but he's kind of a dick here. It's worth mentioning that She-Hulk ends up fighting in her underwear for some reason. Okay. Anyway, Bruce shows up, Clint decides the situation isn't quite as fucked up as he'd like it to be and shoots Banner. Thanks.
Now 2 Hulks are fighting, everyone's in even more danger and the dialogue is cave man speak. I lost interest in this by issue 2 of it but Wanda was pretty badass.
The last story is "Full House" in which Cap decides Jack of Hearts and Jen can't be on a team together. Jack's a dick but I actually get sorry for him because he didn't mean to hurt Jen. The team argues for a bit, Tony and T'Challa wanna get Jack help, Scott doesn't like Jack at all and Jen feels bad for him. This story is moderately interesting and then it goes from 30 to 100 when Scott's daughter is randomly kidnapped. Scott rushes off to save her, Jack follows and what ensues is incredibly ridiculous.
The ending (I won't spoil it) was meant to turn the relationship between Jack and Scott from an antagonistic one into one of mutual respect. Rather than put the work in, like they did with T'Challa and Tony who were having trust issues, they pushed it too fast and created a ridiculous scenario to force it.
There's development of some relationships in this book. Not a ton of character development but when Johns decides to focus on one character, like Sam in the beginning of this book or some of Jen's stuff, there are hints of it. Still, not enough to sell me on his run of Avengers.
Red Zone is a fantastic story and you can buy that as a trade by itself. I recommend that arc but the rest of this can be ignored entirely. I wish I could unread it.
Red Zone - 5 stars
The rest - .5 stars
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