The New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection, Vol. 4

The New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection

by Brian Michael Bendis, Billy Tan (Illustrations), Jim Cheung (Illustrations)

The Secret Invasion rocks the New Avengers' world! Trapped in the Savage Land, battling both friend and foe, Spider-Man turns to the one person he knows he can trust: Ka-Zar! But is it really him? Is anyone who they say they are? Discover how the Skrull infiltration ties to the team's founding, and learn who instigated it - and why! When the Invasion ends and a Dark Reign begins, who will be the new New Avengers - and will they be heroes, or outlaws?

COLLECTING: NEW AVENGERS (2004) 38-54, SECRET INVASION: DARK REIGN ONE-SHOT

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Comic Book

480 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 2009

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects the issues during Secret Invasion through the beginning of Dark Reign. I do suggest reading Secret Invasion first. I love how Bendis reveals all of these big secrets of what's been going on behind the scenes since issue 1. It's just mind blowing bomb after mind blowing bomb. In between you get these great character moments, especially between Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Alias fans should be happy. Review of individual trades included in this are below.

The New Avengers, Volume 8: Secret Invasion, Book 1
The New Avengers, Volume 9: Secret Invasion, Book 2
The New Avengers, Volume 10: Power
The New Avengers, Volume 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bendis comics may not be terribly deep but they are fun. That's fine with me as I am not expecting every comic or writer to be the next Alan Moore. Bendis' Avengers is fun. So if a comic is fun and I said it's fun why only 4 stars? Well for a "Complete Collection" it misses some key comics and the artwork. We will get to both these points.

The volume starts off strong with the Secret Invasion story arc. Both the art and the story are good. The mystery of who is a Skrull was making a good story and the upcoming battle looked to be awesome. Sadly, that must have happened elsewhere (so much for Complete collection) and viola! we are dealing with the Aftermath. Um..okay then.

Now we shift into the Dark Reign story line where Norman Osborn is in charge. This is a new team of Avengers with Clint Barton, Wolverine, and Spiderman being some of the new members. They are struggling to figure out the aftereffects of the Osborn in charge story. This part of the volume was interesting and I look forward to seeing where it is headed.

The final part of the volume revolves around The Hood and his demonic possession. Dr. Strange is no longer Sorcer Supreme and is searching for his replacement, whom you shall meet, and The Hood seeks the next supreme in order to grab a powerful magical item. The artwork for this part of the story really took a shit. It's pretty bad.

So between the Skrulls and the Osborn story, with some magical goings-on thrown in, this was an entertaining volume. It was moving along nicely till the abrupt "end" of the story of the Skrulls in some other issue/volume. Then the artwork of the final part was rather uninspiring, to say the least.

I'm certainly in for vol five of Bendis' Avengers. I'm hoping for better art and no more stories chopped off due to other issues in other comics.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first "Complete Collection" I'm reading for New Avengers since it's cheaper to buy these then buy the single hardcovers. So here we go!

A lot and a lot of secret invasion stuff. So much in fact you'll probably be completely lost without reading the SI crossover event with the rest of the marvel universe. In here we mostly get backstories of key New Avengers and how they became skrull and such. Also you have the Dark Reign storyline coming into play when Norman Osborn becomes the leader of Avengers and president. Last but not least we get a Doctor Strange storyline where he is not the Sorcerer Supreme and now he must find a new one, but not without the help of the Avengers.

Good: The best bits of this book are the small indepdent stories really. Stuff like Luke Cage and Jessica JOnes on their first "Date" and also Peter showing who he is to everyone, and even some of the skrull stuff like what happen to Spider-woman.

Bad: The skrull stuff is spread out so far, and you need to read so much inbetween, you'll probably be lost on what the fuck is happening. I read the event about two years ago and I'm still confused. I also thought the Doctor Strange stuff, despite loving the art, was okay.

This was a mix match of fun times, good times, and sometimes confusing and boring times. Overall a solid collection but nothing mindblowing. You can tell Bendis is losing steam here.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before the Invasion: Luke & Jessica (#38). Bendis has always done a great job writing Luke and Jessica, and this is another terrific one detailing their relationship after the Civil War and after the Hood's attack in The New Avengers, Volume 7: The Trust. It's a must-read for Alias fans [5/5].

Before the Invasion: Echo (#39). It's also great to see more about who Echo is and what's going on with her. It doesn't have the depth of the Luke and Jessica story, but it's still a strong read, highlighting someone without a comic of her own [5/5].

Secret Invasion (#40-47). Bendis took a great tack with his Secret Invasion/Avengers crossovers. He mostly used them to tell backstories of the invasion and to reveal secrets. A few times he took the more standard methodology of just expanding upon current events (mainly the endless fight in the Savage Land). As a whole, these stories are strong. We get secrets of the Skrull (#40, 42, 44), that aformentioned Savage Land fight with some backstory of its own (#41, 43), a detour into House of M (#45), a look at the how the Hood reacts to all of this (#46), and a bookend story for Jessica and Luke (#47). Some of the stories are quite strong. But are they actually good Avengers stories, and do they actually read well without Secret Invasion? I think the answer is probably "no" for both those questions [4/5].

Secret Invasion: Dark Reign. This is only an Avengers comic in that it's by Bendis & Maleev and it details the creation of the anti-Illuminati Cabal. The creation of the Cabal was one of the best things in the great Dark Reign storyline. There's a bit of boringness in this issue when Osbourne gobsplains his plans to everyone, but otherwise it's a strong comic [4+/5].

Power (#48-50). This Secret Invasion followup is a hodge-podge, but in the best possible way, because it naturally follows many of the threads from the crossover. What happened to the Jones-Cage baby? How do people react to the return of the real Spider-Woman? And most importantly, how do the Avengers react when new top-cop Stormin' Norman puts a bunch of psychopaths in their costumes? The result is a strong set of intertwining character-based stories [5/5].

Search for the Sorcerer Supreme (#51-54). Dr. Strange having lost his title and looking for the next Sorcerer Supreme? Kinda cool as it allows a magic mystery tour of Marvel's mystics. However, Brother Voodoo is such a culturally clichéd character that his choice is a little awkward; it's no surprise that his subsequent series (Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural) and his reign as "Doctor Voodoo" were both so short-lived. A final beat-down with the devil empowering the Hood? Kinda cool too, though Strange learning that he's Dormammu gets almost no attention, and then the story is undercut by Robbins immediately being powered up again. The Hood would end up pretty overused by the end of Bendis' Marvel run, in Defenders, Vol. 2: Kingpins of New York, also featuring Robbins, and this may well be the turning point. Overall, it's really the small elements that make this story, such as Peter Parker and Jessica Jones' discovery that they know each other (and Luke's reaction!). [4-/5].

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This title continues to entertain in spite of having to straddle so many “Events”.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back to what made this series great.

After the boring and meandering vol. 3 it’s nice to see Bendis get his Avengers back on track and begin to make all those divergent storylines make sense.

I almost gave this collection 5 stars but the huge chunk of missing material around the “Secret Invasion” storyline makes for a confusing jump mid way through.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm glad I read the main Secret Invasion book and other books that were around that, like Rise of the Skrulls, before I read this. That helped me feel that this book tied up some of the loose ends from that. Obviously there's some plot that will continue, but I liked that there was follow-up for Luke and Jessica and Danielle, particularly, since that was a *major* loose end from the central Secret Invasion book.

Then there comes follow-up from Dr. Strange using dark powers to defend his house and fellow New Avengers when they're attacked. He's no longer the Sorcerer Supreme, and is searching for the new one. He finds the second magic-user on his list in New Jersey, and it's Billy Kaplan, Wiccan. This must be set after the first Young Avengers run and Civil War, but before the Children's Crusade and before Billy finds out that he's to become the Demiurge.

Dr. Strange can sense that Wiccan has a lot of potential, and also realizes that Billy has much to learn, and still could use more training in sorcery. Billy is adorable here, with an innocent charm in his interactions with Dr. Strange. Dr. Strange tells Billy to run when the Hood, possessed by a major demon, finds Strange. Billy shows bravery above and beyond his age, but still doesn't particularly seem ready to be the Sorcerer Supreme yet.

After some regrouping, the New Avengers tell Dr. Strange that they'll help him on his quest. Dr. Strange says first to Billy and then later to the New Avengers that he really hopes it isn't Dr. Doom, and all heartily agree with that. However, the Eye of Agamotto or Dr. Strange's feeling about who to look at next is taking them to New Orleans and not Latveria, so that's relatively good.

Not so good is that the Hood has gotten there first, and attacks Daimon Hellstrom. Hawkeye and Mockingbird knew him from their West Coast Avengers days, when he cast the ghost of the Phantom Rider out of a possessed man. Luke Cage knew him, too. Daimon Hellstrom can hold his own against demons, though. And then another player comes in, Brother Voodoo, with the really pretty reasonable question, "What da [heck] is wrong wit' you people?" This magic user has shown up in the pages of the New Avengers before, and has a history before that that's not really one involving cultural sensitivity. But he works with Dr. Strange and Daimon Hellstrom to exorcise the big demon.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collects New Avengers (2004) issues #38-54 and Secret Invasion: Dark Reign

ISSUES #38-42: The first two issues in this collection continue the set up for "Secret Invasion," while the rest of the book happens during "Secret Invasion."

Even though (in publishing chronology) most of the issues in this collection came out simultaneously as the "Secret Invasion" event issue, I would recommend reading this collection after reading the event collection. The issues in this collection are a mixture of flashbacks (explaining the origins and strategies of the Secret Invasion) and present-day, mini tie-in stories.

ISSUES #43-47: Even though (in publishing chronology) the issues in this collection came out simultaneously as the "Secret Invasion" event issue, I would recommend reading this collection after reading the event collection. The issues in this collection are a mixture of flashbacks (explaining the origins and strategies of the Secret Invasion) and present-day, mini tie-in stories.

This collection had a particularly interesting flashback involving "House of M."

ISSUES #48-50 and Secret Invasion: Dark Reign: When "Secret Invasion" ended, we saw that Norman Osborn had brought together a group of gray-to-evil characters, forming a new Cabal. This volume starts by telling the story of that conversation by devoting a whole issue to what happened in that meeting. From there, we are in the Dark Reign era of Avengers, in which Osborn leads a new version of the Avengers, and the heroes are fugitives. This volume also includes a resolution to the kidnapped baby Cage story that was also from the end of "Secret Invasion."

The characters that make up this version of the New Avengers are:

-Captain America (Bucky Barnes)
-Wolverine
-Spider-Man
-Ronin (Clint Barton)
-Mockingbird
-Spider-Woman
-Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers)
-Luke Cage
-Jessica Jones
-Iron Fist

ISSUES #51-54: In this volume Doctor Strange is on the hunt for the new Sorcerer Supreme and...

SPOILERS:

...it ends up being Brother Voodoo.

Also, the New Avengers assist Strange in his quest while they also have to face off against the Hood.

[Joey Amorim · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book that’s entirely made up of event tie-ins, whether it be “Secret Invasion” or “Dark Reign”, everything in this volume is really solid. I didn’t love the beginning of the fugitive Avengers era from the last collection, but once Bendis was actually able to settle in a status quo for more than like 5 issues, it really picked up again. Gotta keep on chugging along, it feels like I’ve been reading this run for ages, and yet I’m barely halfway through!

[Rickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always wondered what happened to The Hood. Great wrap-up to a fun new villain. I wish he would've stayed around but, at this point in Marvel, everything was building to multiple events that all lead to the cataclysm that is Secret Wars so they had to defeat some of the big bads while the bigger bads were running things. Dark Reign was fun but I'm glad it didn't overstay it's welcome.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that largely follows villains around as they plan in the shadows. Even though it's not as Juicy as one might hope (secret villain gossip pls!), it still manages to be a great read somehow.

[Kamil Zawiślak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, all of those Secret Invasion tie-ins just do it for me. It shows great patience that Bendis had, when he had to hold-off this event. And here he explaines it beautifully. I love peeking into his imagination. Great!

[poier · Rating 4 out of 5]

more running in parallel to events rather than standing on its own, but Bendis has a wide view of the plots and how things fit together. the House of M issue strained credulity, no matter how good i found it.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Secret Invasion with the New Avengers, the beginnings of the aftermath and Initiative, the new Sorcerer Supreme. What's not to love?

[Graham Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read in 2014, review from 2023)

The New Avengers series by Brian Michael Bendis ebbed and flowed throughout the run but it was overall a fantastic take on the Avengers. I actually most of this volume back when it was just single issues and it was my introduction to this Bendis team and many of these characters. I particularly liked how it showed this team, once the premiere team of the Marvel universe acting like a rebel group, basically felt like Star Wars mixed with the X-Men.