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New Avengers #57: Review

Sep 2009
Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

New Avengers #57 Review by (February 6, 2018)
Hood's guns appeared to have magic bullets in Initiative #30 which the Marvel Chronology Project puts before this issue. But that's the kind of problem you run into trying to impose some overall order on the output of different writers.

As I mentioned in my comments on #34 Linda Carter was a star of the short Night Nurse series in 1972 (1961's Linda Carter, Student Nurse mini apparently doesn't count), and in 2004 she resurfaced in Daredevil #58 in her new role as Florence Nightingale to the super-community. She became Dr Strange's lover in his 2006 Oath mini-series.
Since #34 she was with DrS in our Annual #2. She was 1 of the people Spider-Man went to for help for dying Aunt May in Friendly Neighbourhood SM #24, and stitched up his wounds in Amazing SM Extra #3. She treated Elektra in Dark Reign: El #3-4. And she was lst seen in Marvel Divas #2-4 working with DrS on Firestar's cancer treatment.
Wikipedia and the Marvel Wiki take SM's comment here to indicate that her relationship with DrS is over.

Loki will do a lot before he returns to this series.
In Mighty Avengers #32-33 he organises a confrontation between the MAv and the Dark Av, and the MAv figure out *he* has been posing as the 'Scarlet Witch'.
Thor #603, Finale and #604-606 concludes Dr Doom's plot to learn the secret of immortality by experimenting on the Asgardians in Latveria.
Then in MAv#34 the MAv go after Loki but he calls on Thor
Then he gets involved in the Siege of Asgard event. Basically he causes it and then sits back and watches the chaos. Meanwhile in Siege: Loki he does his own thing involving Hela, Mephisto and cannibal Valkyries called the Disir. Near the end of Siege in our #64 he takes the Norn Stones power back from Hood.

Jonas Harrow will be back next issue with the power drainer but without his gang.
Most of the gang will return in #60 where Hood will take back control, but some will miss out on that:-
Blackout of the Lilin leads a group against 2 Ghost Riders in GR (2006) #33 and the GR: Heaven's on Fire mini-series. Scarecrow's in that group in GR:HOF and then appears with Hood in the Vengeance of Moon Knight short series. Meanwhile Cutthroat crops up with Daken in Dark Wolverine #78-80. All 3 plus Shockwave and Living Laser then rejoin Hood's gang when he prepares them to attack Asgard in a flashback in our #64 for Siege.
Armadillo wanders through the Amazing SM Presents: Jackpot mini and almost misses Siege. But he's among the captured gang in NAv: Finale so he must have been behind the scenes.
Others do manage to miss the whole thing. Mr Hyde is in Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield, Mentallo inhabits NAv Annual #3 and Slug is in VOMK above, and for all of them their next app is beyond Siege. Tiger Shark goes straight there to Hawkeye: Blind Spot #1. Jigsaw disappears until the Punisher: In The Blood series. Dr Demonicus won't reappear until after the universe is rebuilt after Secret Wars III.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

New Avengers #57 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Image from New Avengers #57
Last issue Jonas Harrow and Chemistro cancelled the superpowers of (most of) the New Avengers in Times Square causing them also to not feel very well. They did this as a demonstration to gain the attention of Norman Osborn. He turned up as Iron Patriot with his Dark Avengers. Harrow offered to give Osborn the power-draining technology in return for a deal with Harrow and the rest of Hood's gang that would cut out Hood. Osborn turned him down so Harrow de-powered the DAv and used his hacking skills to strip Norman of the Patriot armour. Osborn was left facing a large contingent of Hood's gang.

6 NAv are strewn around the square. Somewhat sexistly the 4 men are groggily awake but Ms. Marvel is still unconscious and Spider-Woman keeps fading in and out of awareness. Ronin, who was voted leader in #51, blames himself for leading them into this. Spider-Man just doesn't want to die in front of his arch-foe Norman Osborn. Luke Cage is still having a heart attack and wants to live to see his child grow up. Captain America (Bucky Barnes), whose cyborg arm is now giving him agony, realises (correctly) that Hood's men are probably using the power drainer that the NAv tried to use against *them* in #50, which they stupidly left (broken) on the field of battle. (And Harrow has mended and enhanced it.)

All the members of Hood's gang from last issue are still surrounding them, plus we also see Griffin, Living Laser and Shockwave. Wrecker is their spokesman and he repeats Harrow's offer - the power drainer in return for a direct deal with Osborn. And they'll throw in the NAv as a sweetener. But he warns Norman that some of the men don't trust him and would rather kill him for street cred, so he'd better agree quickly. NO demands his armour back as a pre-condition for negotiating. Dirk Garthwaite is presumably in contact with Jonas and agrees, and Harrow allows the IP armour to re-form.

Now remote Harrow can communicate with Osborn directly (which is presumably why he agreed to the armour). Norman asks Jonas why he should trust him. Harrow effectively says it's *they* who will be trusting Osborn. They currently have him and the DAv at their mercy and haven't harmed them. They will be giving him their weapon. And Jonas will show Norman how to prevent his armour being hacked again. And lots of other stuff about the Stark armour (it's an old Iron Man suit) he doesn't know. After also establishing his right to slap down any gang member who annoys him, Osborn agrees.

Harrow gives him back control of the armour, and turns off the power drainer. The DAv start to recover as Iron Patriot confirms that the deal is on. The gang's 1st job is to watch while the DAv Spider-Man (Mac Gargan - Venom) eats the NAv version.

But before that can happen Ares alerts IP to an incoming quinjet. Osborn calls for Sentry to meet it, but he's told Sentry is still down (and probably still reverted to Bob Reynolds which is what the power drainer did to him last issue). So Patriot decides to tackle it himself, but bounces off the plane (or maybe a force field, but it had a metallic 'tang' sound-effect). Weapons-fire scatters the DAv and other villains, the quinjet lands and Mockingbird emerges to tell her teammates to get in. (Not having superpowers (but what about Ronin?) she was the only 1 unaffected last issue. Wrecker hit her out of the Square but now she's back to save the day.)

Cap helps Cage to the plane while Ronin crawls there. Spider-Man picks up unconscious Ms Marvel while now-fully-conscious Spider-Woman holds off baddies with her venom blasts. The quinjet takes off and Iron Patriot gives chase, but Spidey drops out of the plane to confront his nemesis in midair. He sends Osborn crashing into a building and then web-spins back to the jet. Hawkeye (Bullseye) gives chase on his flying platform but Cap's shield knocks him off. The plane vanishes and the DAv Ms Marvel (Moonstone) figures they have a cloaking device. But Daken (son of Wolverine) says he can track them by scent.

Meanwhile in Cuba last issue female Loki led Hood and Madame Masque to the Asgardian Norn Stones. In #54 she promised to give him something to replace the demonic power he lost then. Now we hear again the explanation that the Stones will give him whatever power he desires. Whitney Frost doesn't trust her, but Parker Robbins has needs and accepts. His power manifests as he fires 1 of his guns, and the bullet blows up a wall.

The New Avengers are now all fully recovered except Luke Cage who is still suffering from a heart attack. They take him to the Night Nurse (Linda Carter) who specialises in patching up superheroes. She tells them all (except for some reason Ms Marvel) to leave her to deal with the problem. In the waiting room Mockingbird has never heard of Night Nurse (well she was a prisoner of the Skrulls for a long time until Secret Invasion) which gives the others the chance to tell her (and us) about her. Spidey adds that she dated Dr Strange (see #34).

Carter tells Carol Danvers Luke needs a heart specialist. But they will also need to find a way through his unbreakable skin (his superpowers have come back). They need Harrow's power drainer to turn Cage's powers back off.

At this point Iron Patriot arrives outside with the DAv and lots of H.A.M.M.E.R. forces to arrest the NAv. Carol tells the others the problem, and Spider-Man says they have to surrender for Luke's sake to get Osborn to save Cage with the power drainer. Cap and MsM each volunteer to surrender on their own while everyone else escapes. But Luke has woken up and staggers out himself, with his drip-feed. And collapses at Iron Patriot's feet.


Preview Pages
Click sample interior pages to enlarge them:




Stuart Immonen
Wade Von Grawbadger
Dave McCaig
Stuart Immonen (Cover Penciler)
Wade Von Grawbadger (Cover Inker)
Dave McCaig (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Richard Starkings.
Editor: Tom Brevoort.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(James "Bucky" Barnes)
Iron Patriot
Iron Patriot

(Norman Osborn)
Loki
Loki

(Loki Laufeyson)
Luke Cage
Luke Cage

(Power Man)
Moonstone
Moonstone

(Karla Sofen)
Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel

(Carol Danvers)
Night Nurse
Night Nurse

(Linda Carter)
Ronin
Ronin

(Clint Barton)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman

(Jessica Drew)
Venom
Venom

(Mac Gargan)

Plus: Chemistro (Calvin Carr), H.A.M.M.E.R..

> New Avengers: Book info and issue index

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