Avengers #80

I keep hearing bad things about Mr. Austen's writing ability, but what I see in The Avengers is fun, verve and women whose power equals if not betters their male teammates. That's exactly what I'm looking for in a comic book. Read Full Review

Overall, the credibility of this story-arc continues to be questionable because of Austens lack of attention to detail and lack of logical narrative progression. Readers reach intriguing plot points, but the experience is too jarring, too contrived. Fortunately, the art partially compensates and there are a few promising developments for the upcoming story-arc finale. Read Full Review

Which looks like whats happening at the end of the book, as the mysterious foe manipulating the Wrecking Crew (Morgana?) whisks away friend and foe alike for a presumed mystical conflict in the final issue. Unlike his shoddy work on the X-men, which has veered from the histrionic to the improbable, seldom settling on anything resembling the characters weve long known, Austen proves adept here at dealing with the big guns of Marvel in a bombastic, dramatic way. Read Full Review

Its not all bad though. The new Captain Britain has potential (although she is a woman, and so her destiny under Austen is likely to be ignominious), and the return to the original costume turns out better than might be expected. Furthermore, most of the issue is taken up with action scenes, which Coipel likes to illustrate with big space-wasting panels. As such, theres a lot less room for Austen to be Austen, and thats a very good thing indeed. Read Full Review