Book of the Week 5/21/08 Avengers;The Initiative #13

Written by Christos Gage
Art by Steve uy
Letters by Joe Caramagna


I had no idea what this issue was going to be about because the whole story was summed up in issue #12 and I wasn't sure where they were going to go with the characters. Lucky for us, Marvel is still taking the idea of The Initiative seriously and in this issue we're basically starting over in sorts and are introduced to a new team of cadets and new recruits for training.

At first this bothered me because I had grown attached the to previous cadets but right away I was swept up in the character conversations and interactions and I was just having a fun time reading this book. This first issue revolved around Boulder, also referred to as Butterball. A young man seeking to be a hero but while he has an incredible power, you learn that he's going to need far more than that to achieve his goal.

This issue was very light and humorous, causing me to laugh out loud more than once and that's something that I think this book needs right now. The tone of the book had become down right depressing after the K.I.A. storyline and this issue was really a breath of fresh air for this series, one that has become one of my favorite reads.

Gage was spot on with the character interactions and did a great job at hitting you with a little unexpected emotion at the end and Uy's art is very emotionally charged, allowing you to easily read the characters emotions through their facial expressions and mannerisms.

This was simply a very fun comic book. No over-arching storyline, no big events. And almost all the characters were brand new, that's something that you don't see every often.

Give it a try.