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Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: John Romita Jr.
Cover: John Romita Jr.

**Minor Spoilers**

“Next Avengers pt 2”: One more member joins the ranks of the Avengers, and that is former Marvel Boy, Noh-Varr of the Kree. He is the individual that has the ability to build the machine that the team needs to attempt to fix the time stream. And after confirming that Noh-Varr is actually dedicated to helping the people of Earth (he’s had issues in the past), Tony and the Avengers head off to get the machine built, and upon completion are shown their various incarnations in the different time streams. They also get to witness their children executing Immortus from Avengers #1, and then things get weird and the field collapses. Then to complicate things a bit more, a furious Wonder Man literally explodes into the building and ends up fighting his friends, until Noh-Varr blasts him out of the building. Their reprieve is short, because at this point Apocalypse shows up with his Four Horsemen: Wolverine, Red Hulk (?), Spider-Man, and Scarlet Witch, and he’s as confused as the rest of them.

A bit of an improvement from last issue, this one was a bit more enjoyable, and what I assumed was a “red herring” with Noh-Varr being on the cover of the variant Avengers #1 actually turned out to the new member of the team. Bendis provides a better balance of expo and action here, along with some pretty funny dialog between Spidey and Hawkeye. Though it would be nice if Spidey did more than just be the smart ass of the group. Bendis also clearly displays the arrogance of Tony, which isn’t too hard, but when he has Noh-Varr basically put him in his place when he told him that he can’t have the technology he hasn’t worked for, it was great and may even set up some tension later on down the line. We all know that Tony doesn’t take “no” for an answer, so I’m sure he’ll push the issue with Noh-Varr sometime in the future. We also have the mystery of  “Why is Wonder Man so mad”? He did warn Steve Rogers last issue about putting the Avengers back together, but the ferocity of this attack was actually unexpected, and it really led to more questions.

First I want to thank JRjr for giving Wonder Man a long overdue hair cut, because his last look just made me take him less seriously than I already do. The rest of the book is what we’ve come to expect from JRjr, though I will say that at some points I felt that it wasn’t up to some of his better work that he’s put out.  The fight between Noh-Varr and Titanium Man, along with the Wonder Man skirmish, were the better parts in terms of the artwork. Other parts just didn’t pack quite a punch, though I was wondering why Wolverine was “playing” in Spider-Woman’s hair while they ate pizza, weird. The two-page spread at the end was an unexpected and great surprise, but it didn’t leap off the page like something like that should have.

Bendis has assembled an interesting group, and though the chemistry isn’t quite there yet, it is early in the series. How they come together and mesh as a team is still to be determined, but Bendis should make it an interesting series of events. There is still a question as to why Wolverine and Spidey are on two Avengers teams, but I guess that’s the nature of the beast these days; though it would be nice if their roles were trimmed down a bit. Next issue, I’m looking forward to a shift of focus on the villains, and hopefully Bendis will give us a bit more info on what’s going on.

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