Man, New Avengers. It’s been forever. This one’s a one-off, and as you can see, another Bendis & Maleev joint. Also, it doesn’t have Spider-Man in it, so I’m lumping the post in with #27. Despite it being, as I recall, a good issue, and also another welcome slice of excellent Maleev art, it’s not even tangentially Spider-Man related. Alex handles all art chores on this one. It opens with Hawkeye appearing on the grounds of Avengers Mansion several months ago, after Wanda brought him back. He trips the alarm like at the end of House of M 8, goes inside, finds the news clipping of his death, pins it to the wall, just as it was found, and leaves.
The practical realities of having to do 22 pages a month means coloring your own art is pretty rare, but this stuff sure makes you wish Alex was able to do it more often. Clint laments that he’s now been killed twice, and wants to know where Wanda is. Strange doesn’t know, can’t sense her using magic. He surmises she either stopped practicing magic or killed herself. Clint says he doesn’t think she did that. He tells Strange he’s not ready to face the Avengers yet. That something profound has happened to him, and he has to figure it out. He decides he has to go find Wanda. Strange thinks it’s a bad idea, but he’s made his mind up. He wants closure. He says he’ll try Genosha, and if she’s not there, Wundagore Mountain, where she grew up. And that’s where we find him. He stops a purse snatcher walking down the street.
We will recall Wanda killed Agatha Harkness in Disassembled, but she killed Hawkeye, too. This is, of course, her, and she’s made it so she doesn’t remember anything. She thinks she’s lived her whole life here. Doesn’t know anything about mutants, has heard of the Avengers, but that’s it. Clint is having trouble with this. He said he was here looking for a friend, and Wanda wants to help, but now he says she’s not here.
Alex really enjoys putting classic art references in his work sometimes. It’s fun. The next day, Clint wakes up next to a sleeping Wanda, tries the door, has a weird, intentionally vague experience that may be magic, and leaves. The end. Honestly, this was a nice one coming after Civil War. Surprising, soft, intriguing. But the business of superheroing never ends, so we move on to #27:
Those pesky Hand ninjas. Look, it’s Ronin! This issue marks the beginning of Leinil Francis Yu’s substantial (As I recall) run on this book. After a bunch of false starts, New Avengers finally has a regular artist. Only took 28 issues. He’s colored by Dave McCaig.
Heck of an entrance for Yu & McCaig! Echo goes on to say she created false identity as an airhead party girl who hangs out with Yakuzas at clubs, getting all the intel she needs without even trying, and then creating the Ronin identity to use it against them. Which seems… not quite to jibe with how she was introduced as Ronin, but ok. She goes on to say the Civil War has left her stranded here, gathering intel to send to no one in particular.
It’s lucky for Echo that Matt has recently gotten out of jail, or this email would not be helping! Echo, it must be said, was kind of lame on creation, I thought. She was Typhoid Mary all over again, an enforcer for Kingpin who unwittingly dated Matt Murdock by day and fought Daredevil by night. He’s blind, she’s deaf. The whole thing felt kind of undercooked. Then she found out Kingpin was actually the bad guy in that deal and betrayed him. Anyway, I say all that because now she’s fighting Elektra, the original female Kingpin assassin. Over panels of them brawling, her email says she hopes it wasn’t Elektra who took her down.
This is exactly how Elektra originally died, stabbed in the gut with her own sai by Bullseye. But, this is the Hand, they don’t just kill people, they bring them back as puppets, and so they do, rezzing Maya and setting her up to be one of their own.
Meet your new New Avengers. Some new faces, some old faces. You may have noticed Ronin is on this team. Coming to rescue Maya. Who is Ronin. And also Spider-Man, who has somehow found time to travel to Japan during his bloody mission of vengeance while his Aunt hangs by a thread, wonder what headspace he’s in.
You know, the usual! Not too upset, it seems!
Infamous, hilarious panel. Spidey springs Echo, telling her what she needs is “a Chik-fil-A Nugget combo meal.” Bendis, you see, was obsessed with Chik-fil-A nuggets. He eventually stopped patronizing them over their horrible bigoted beliefs, and good for him, but not before at one point having a literal trashbag full of them that either someone brought him or he brought home himself, not living near a Chik-fil-A at the time. It was a strange thing, his obsession. He has since become a very health conscious person and probably wouldn’t eat them even if they weren’t cooked with bigotry. Anyway, the team huddles around Strange, Maya asks Ronin if he’s Daredevil and he says no…
We are right back into the avenging. The fact that these guys are all unregistered will matter, but not in Japan.