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New Avengers #18: Review

Nov 2016
Al Ewing, Carlo Barberi

Story Name:

And one for your dreams

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

New Avengers #18 Review by (December 10, 2016)
Carlo Barberi takes over as artist for this final issue.

Sunspot bought AIM in Avengers World #18-19, but Andrew Forson and Monica Rappaccini didn't go quietly and attacked in AvW#21.

RAID (Radically Advanced Ideas of Destruction) evolved from AID (Advanced Idea in Destruction).
AID featured in Captain America (2005) #2-3,13.
RAID took over in CA#19, then appeared in #1-2 of the 2006 Union Jack miniseries and back in CA#32,34. Followed by Av: Initiative #29 and #1-2 of the Winter Soldier series.

TIM (Total or maybe Transatlantic Idea Mechanics) only previously appeared in Mockingbird #4.

AGM (Advanced Genocide Mechanics) hail from Invincible Iron Man (2008) #1-2.

Songbird mentions that she's just helped Power Man & Iron Fist (the other ones) in their Civil War II issues #8-9.
She also uses the words "Avengers Forever" as a signoff. This is possibly an in-joke reference to the only time she was an Avenger before this series which was in an alternate future in the AvF limited series.

This is the last issue. The remains of this team will transmute into the US Avengers. Aikku Jokinen, Cannonball, Squirrel Girl, Sunspot and Toni Ho (but as Iron Patriot rather than Rescue) will carry over, to be joined by Red Hulk and Danielle Cage as Captain America 20XX from the alternate future in #5-6 of our series.

Everyone else from the splash page has said they are leaving apart from Warlock, but he was only really a guest star in the last few issues.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

New Avengers #18 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Songbird gives the eulogy at Roberto Da Costa's funeral. In attendance are many AIM guys (in white coveralls) plus Cannonball, Cypher, Magma, Mirage and Warlock of Sunspot's old New Mutants team and Squirrel Girl with Chipmunk Hunk, Koi Boi and Nancy Whitehead from the Unbeatable SG series.

Suddenly the service is interrupted by a temporal stasis field, and in walk Andrew Forson and Monica Rappaccini who were ousted from AIM leadership when Bobby took over. They want to check that Da Costa's really dead. But it occurs to them that if the coffin were specially constructed then its contents would be unaffected by the stasis field ...

... and Sunspot leaps out to surprise them.. He zaps their time device and everyone can move again. Especially Songbird who KOs Rappaccini. But also some AIM guys turn out to be double-agents and start an inter-AIM battle.

The heroes in the congregation join in, but they can't tell the AIM agents apart so they concentrate on Forson. His forcefield is proof against them all and he prepares to unleash his personal weapons when instead his fingers switch off his shield. He's under the influence of New Mutant Karma who was disguised as an AIM agent. And Squirrel Girl KOs him.

The good AIM agents have now subdued the bad ones, so Bobby checks in on the rest of the New Avengers/AIM who are taking down other AIM splinter groups.

Power Man/Victor Alvarez and Dr Positron/Max Brashear deal with RAID (in blue coveralls) at their HQ. Afterwards PM says he's quitting the team and returning to his roots protecting Spanish Harlem. He only joined to be with Ava Ayala/White Tiger. DP opts to accompany him, because they don't need him as a scientist while they've got Toni Ho. He suggests adopting the codename Iron Fist, just to piss off the other PM&IF.

The 2 ex-White Tigers Ava Ayala and Angela Del Toro use plain old martial arts to defeat TIM (in red coveralls) at their base. Now that they have lost the WT power Ava intends to quit too. (Angela was never a member.) But Ava predicts that the Tiger Spirit will eventually choose someone else to take the power.

AGM (also in red coveralls) is tackled by Toni Ho in her Rescue armour and Aikku Jokinen using the powers of the undersuit she wore while she lived inside Pod. Finnish Aikku's halting English almost ruins the moment when the pair confess their love for each other.

Hulkling and Wiccan have been sent to root Idea Advancement Mechanization out of a Manhattan apartment. They've never heard of these guys, and when they break in they find party balloons and a cake. IAM doesn't exist, and Roberto has bought the apartment for them. He'll pay to fix the door they've just smashed.

Cannonball, Songbird and Sunspot oversee AIM guys (in all 3 colours - but yellow is out) in a temporary AIM base in a SHIELD warehouse. Melissa Gold says she's leaving too, at least for now, because she wouldn't feel right working for SHIELD after her recent double-agent thing. She's going to meet her previous team (in Thunderbolts #7).

Bobby explains to Sam Guthrie about his deal with SHIELD and Army General Maverick. Avengers Idea Mechanics is no more. The merged AIM is now American Intelligence Mechanics, and they'll star in a new series US Avengers.



Carlo Barberi
Carlo Barberi
Jesus Aburtov
Julian Totino Tedesco (Cover Penciler)
Julian Totino Tedesco (Cover Inker)
Julian Totino Tedesco (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Wiccan
Wiccan

(Billy Kaplan)

Plus: Cannonball.

> New Avengers: Book info and issue index

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