Avengers #301

[iamrman]

Plot: Mark Gruenwald

Script: Ralph Macchio

Breakdowns: Bob Hall

Finishes: Don Heck

---

Walter Simonson barely had time to establish his new Avengers team, so of course Macchio and Gruenwald have to come in and undo everything.

---

The Avengers intercept Super-Nova's ship and find it crawling with pests.

Gilgamesh is going to rip and tear until it’s done!

What Gruenwald and Macchio are trying to drill home is that this group of Avengers aren’t gelling as a team. Thor is rash, Gilgamesh isn’t a team player, and Mr. Fantastic doesn’t follow orders. Also, Sue is there.

Comments

[thanekos]

Steve being above the roster's fractiousness makes it very clear whose ongoing Mark Gruenwald is writing.

[bravest_spinja]

Check out those Charlie's Angels waves on Gilgamesh.

[beyondthefringe]

Maybe half the Fantastic Four wasn’t still wearing their FF uniforms… you’d think Reed could at least edit the 4 into an A…

[scorntx]

Rash and impulsive behaviour from the guy who thinks he's smarter'n everyone when he's got a long list of screw-ups to his name? Naaaah.
(Or is it just that Reed's taking the opportunity free of Johnny and Ben to be the impulsive one and is going too far with it?
... nope, nope, sorry. Issue says he's too used to being in charge.)

Super-Nova.
Because it turns out giving massive amounts of power to the lone survivor of an entire organisation is not always the best idea.
Good going Worldmind and / or Adora.
(Still, he's not wearing a cape or calling himself 'Dark Nova'. Small mercies.)

... did Hall just give those flying brains spinal cords just so Gil could swing one around by it?

[jkcarrier]

I didn't know that Don Heck had worked on Avengers this late in the game. He was never my favorite artist, but seeing his work here gives me a pleasant jolt of nostalgia. Some of those panels look like his pencils as well as inks; I suppose Hall's breakdowns might've been rougher in some spots than others, leaving more for Heck to fill in.

Boy, they are being pretty heavy-handed with the "this team is doomed to fail" foreshadowing, aren't they? But I appreciate that they at least tried to lay some groundwork for it. A lot of times in these "The Old Order Changeth" stories, members just randomly decide to leave for no apparent reason (The classic example being Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp all simultaneously fucking off, leaving Cap to put together his "Kooky Quartet").