Review: Avengers: The Initiative #1

NOTE TO SELF: If/when you review Avengers: The Initiative #1, remember that you always tend to judge anything that touches on the military through the dual filters of a) being what most would call politically liberal, and b) having actually served in the military, both active duty and National Guard. You’re biased, not so much to the left or right, but against hamfisted stereotypes and cliches in general, which way too many ill-informed writers with a political agenda allow to get in the way of the nuances and many shades of grey reality offers…

“Reality” shouldn’t necessarily come into play when dealing with the spandex set, but Marvel has gone to great lengths to give their universe a more realistic undertone via Civil War, and the many potential problems that might come from that decision are no more apparent than in the cringe-worthy opening scene of Avengers: The Initiative #1 that offers Hydra as an Iraqi insurgent force and a superhuman taking them down. I never understood DC’s silly tweaking of names (ie: Qurac) before, but I kind of get it now. Not only was I mildly offended by the ridiculous oversimplification of the war in Iraq, the scene managed to wrench me right out of the story, too, as, by its own logic — referring to M-Day, Secretary Gyrich notes: “Without doing a thing, we won the super-powers race. We have an army of super heroes.” — the war should have been over before it started.

By setting that opening scene in Baghdad, Iraq, and explicitly making The Initiative the US military’s alternative solution to putting more boots on the ground, I began judging it by a completely different standard, picking apart the New York City potholes in the story’s underlying logic, unable to simply enjoy it on its own merits. And that’s a shame, to be honest, because there’s elements of an entertaining story here and I do want to like it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Stefano Caselli’s excellent artwork. I’ve been a fan of his since his run on G.I. Joe: America’s Elite, and as disappointed as I was to see him move on, I was hoping he’d end up on a Marvel project that I’d have some interest in.

Unfortunately, Avengers: The Initiative has two significant weak points: 1) its direct connection to the illogical, poorly executed Civil War, and 2) Dan Slott’s cliched dialogue. The first weakness, sort of like your family, is inescapable. It is what it is, and a good writer will make the best of the hand they’ve been dealt, a la Ed Brubaker on Captain America.

Moments like this, presumably, can’t be solely blamed on Slott (sorry, my scanner’s not working):

“On base, you will not reveal your name. Off base, you will not exhibit any powers without wearing a mask. Got that? There’re only three guys who need to know your secret identity… and that’s you, Tony Stark and God!

I don’t care who you really are! So don’t @#%*ing tell me! ‘Cause the last thing Uncle Sam needs… is to waste valuable tax dollars protecting your dumbass family from the Masters of Evil! Now suit up!”

Does this mean somebody realized Spider-Man’s well-publicized unmasking was a bad idea; and if so, whom? Tony Stark or Joe Quesada?

That much discussed Civil War plot point aside, though, the other, and bigger, problem can be blamed solely on Slott, who offers up the requisite boot camp stereotypes and adds nothing to them: the gruff, foul-mouthed drill sergeant; the all-American recruit; the naive country bumpkin; the moody kid, etc. And, of course, there’s the mandatory government conspiracy that contradicts Quesada’s supposed desire to “get back more to its superhero roots and get away from all the government intrigue and the weird government institutions and get back to the capes and tights.” (Actually, the entire premise of the post-Civil War MU suggests he made a complete 180 on that one.) Further, Slott’s dialogue is very hit-and-miss, and when it misses, it misses by a mile, like his dream writing gig would be a TV series starring David Caruso, David Hasselfhoff and David Spade.

Nevertheless, as I said previously, there are a couple of things to like as Slott introduces several new (to me, at least) characters with interesting powers and ends the issue on a pretty intriguing note that gives the tired government conspiracy angle some emotional weight. Avengers: The Initiative has the potential to be a compelling read, especially if he focuses more on individual characters, switching POVs every couple of issues to keep things fresh and offer different perspectives on the new Marvel Universe. If, however, he chooses (or is mandated) to continually draw attention to the underlying plot hammer that led to its existence, and attempts to inject an undercurrent of reality throughout, he’s in serious trouble of having the dubious distinction of being branded as the hard luck guy whose books don’t sell well, even when given a high-profile assignment like this.

I’ll be back for the next issue — for Caselli’s art, at the least — but it will be a cautious and somewhat skeptical return, looking for one good reason to stick with it as opposed to finding one more reason not to bother.