My name is Parker Robbins. They call me the Hood. You know, because I have a ... hood.
This book collects New Avengers 32 to 37 and annual #2. It was written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Leinil Yu for the chapters from the ongoing comic. Bendis has written almost exclusively for Marvel and is probably best known for runs on Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-man. Leinil Yu is a Filipino artist whose work I have seen previously in Silent Dragon from Wildstorm/DC.
On returning from a mission to rescue Echo from the Hand, the New Avengers (the renegades from registration: Luke Cage, Spider-man, Wolverine, Spider-woman, Doctor Strange and Iron Fist with Echo and Clint Barton) are in subdued mood as the body of Elektra reveals that she was actually a Skrull - a race of shape shifting aliens. Suspicion is rife as no one can know who anyone else really is anymore. This is heightened after the plane crashes and Spider-woman steals the body of the dead Skrull. Meanwhile some of the second string bad guys are starting to take advantage of the disarray after the civil war and are organising under the leadership of the Hood. While investigating each other and the fate of the Skrull's body, the New Avengers unearth a plot to unleash Deathlok against the Avengers.
Set after the Civil War crossover and leading into the Secret Invasion crossover, this book suffers for being a staging post of a much larger story. As with too many of the leading books from Marvel a knowledge of the storylines from the last few years is required to get the most out of this book. The story it tells is entertaining enough without being more than just OK. The highlight of the book for me is a panel in which Luke Cage uncovers the hide out of the bad guys and confronts the Hood while backed up by the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and other heroes including, in the background, Howard the Duck!
First published on RevolutionSF on Tuesday Oct 11, 2011
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