This one’s cover references Avengers #11, one we actually saw on the blog, ages ago. Speaking of this event going left, this month, New Avengers is drawn by Billy Tan! We will recall him from some truly hideous issues of Marvel Knights Spider-Man. I would say he’s improved since then, but not enough to be drawing Marvel’s current flagship title. But here he is, inking his own work and colored by Justin Ponsor. This one gets going at the moment the T. Rex split the warring heroes and Skrulls. This time, we see Spider-Man had jumped up and clung to the side of it, but was then violently thrown off into the jungle. And when he got up…
Spidey’s old pals, Ka-Zar, Shanna and Zabu, last seen, I think, in Sensational Spider-Man 15.
So, obviously, Tan is acquitting himself better here than he did on MKSM. No question. He even learned how to draw Spider-Man, which is nice, even tho he does the line down the middle of the bottom of the mask, like McFarlane and Bachalo. But, to me, this is still nowhere near ready for primetime. Which makes his upcoming long stint on this blog… not thrilling. Well, we flashback to “months ago,” when Ka-Zar and Shanna were woken in the night by the sound of guns, and found SHIELD stealing from the Savage Land’s Vibranium mound using locals as labor, as the New Avengers discovered way back in their 6th issue. When they see one of their people executed, they begin to move in. They find a SHIELD guard on the perimeter, and Shanna chops her in the throat. But then things get weird…
Bendis and his Kree/Skrull War. I mean, yes, it’s a seminal Avengers story, but the way he references it never makes sense to me. Well, Shanna in her SHIELD uniform sneaks into the dig site.
And we know the Contessa is a Skrull from the previous issue, so that’s nice. It’s cool how these pieces fit together even when it’s stories barely related to each other. Shanna just starts shooting, then running and shooting, eventually getting cornered on top of a Jeep. But then Zabu is on her would be captors, and Ka-Zar is there, and they escape in the Jeep. which they promptly wreck.
So they gathered their army, but as they were approaching the site to attack, they stumbled on the end of New Avengers #6, with the SHIELD agents trying and failing to kill the Avengers for discovering what they’re up to. But, Ka-Zar says to Spider-Man in the present, if he is who he says he is, he knows this part.
And you might think that would continue into New Avengers 42, but strangely, you’d be wrong. But they published 2 issues of Mighty Avengers this month, so those are our next stops.