Rant Reviews--New-Yet-Old Avengers, Black Panther, and Wolverine

In this late-day post, the New Avengers continue to take have a storyline both in the present and past with neither garnering that much attention, Black Panther continues to be really good, and Wolverine fights his inner-demons in a literal sense.


The New Avengers #11
Brian Michael Bendis is jumping forward and backward in time with this storyline, with Mike Deodato illustrating the present decently enough and Howard Chaykin turning in his unique and cool art style with the past scenes. The bits in the past are at least starting to get slightly interesting, but it seems to be happening at the cost of the present which is becoming dull as dirt with everyone just standing around worrying about Mockingbird and whether she'll be okay from an injury sustained fighting some ex-H.A.M.M.E.R. Agents. At least the present-tense team point out how lame it is they got completely shown-up by some no-name villain and how bad that makes them look. Still, this is just pretty boring stuff. I read in an interview with editor Tom Brevoort these two stories at some point finally come together, but right now its just kind of two random tales with neither capturing my attention much at all. At least it looks good enough.
2.5 out of 5 stars.

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #517
As may be recalled I loved issue #516 after at first losing interest in the series, and this issue keeps up the trend of great story-telling. David Liss turns in a great script with more suspense and character development as tensions between Panther and other heroes come to a head, seemingly dull characters continue to show a lot of depth, and Francesco Francavilla supplies really pretty art to go with it all. I've complained about how Luke Cage was written in this series in the past, but he is done well here, and the fighting between he and Panther is well done. I'm really enjoying this series again and look forward to where it is going next.
4 out of 5 stars.

Wolverine #8
The "Wolverine goes to hell and is then possessed by demons on earth" storyline finally comes to an end in this issue, and it does so pretty satisfactorily, with some great humor provided by the glimpses into Wolverine's psyche that Jason Aaron writes (with allusions to his past story-lines such as with the "Dr. Rot Was Here" writing referencing Aaron's Weapon X run). Daniel Acuna continues to provide art I find decent enough but not amazing, and the plotting, dialogue, and aforementioned visual-gags all work together nicely to create an enjoyable comic. This was a good way to end the arc and set up the next one and I continue to be happy that Aaron is writing the main Wolverine book.
4 out of 5 stars.