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New Avengers #48: Review

Dec 2008
Brian Michael Bendis, Billy Tan

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

New Avengers #48 Review by (December 19, 2016)
Recent issues have been chronicling secrets of the Invasion alongside Mighty Avengers. Their covers are all Skrullised versions of issues from the original Avengers series and other places. I already mentioned #40-41 in #41.
#42 is from Av#221 with a membership drive, and follows Queen Veranke from replacing Spider-Woman via the formation of New Avengers to House of M.
#43 homages Av Annual #2 where the Avengers fought an alternate timeline version of themselves. It continued the Spidey/Ka-Zar/Shanna story from #41 and revealed the origin of the Skrull imposters in the Savage Land and why they believed they were the real human heroes.
#44 copies NAv: Illuminati v2 #1 where the Illuminati invaded the Skrull homeworld and were briefly captured and studied. This issue shows how the Skrulls used this data to develop their undetectable Super-Skrulls.
#45's cover is based on HoM #1 and tells of Veranke (and Criti Noll/Henry Pym) in Scarlet Witch's alternate reality.
#46 actually takes inspiration from the Bring On The Bad Guys book of villain origin reprints. It shows how Hood and his gang learn about the Invasion.
#47 does West Coast Av v1 #1 which covered the team's formation. Inside it tells how Luke Cage fell in love with Jessica Jones, and ends with them now realising Skrull-Jarvis has kidnapped their daughter, leading directly to this issue.

Our cover isn't a copy of anything. This is chronologically the 1st comic to sport the Dark Reign banner because it starts within Secret Invasion #8. But the bulk of it is placed after the end of SI#8, and indeed after the SI: Dark Reign 1-shot, and so is firmly in DR.

Iron Man and Thor aren't friends now. In Thor #3 he was angry about Civil War, especially the creation of the Thor clone Ragnarok. And the Asgardians were certainly not going to Register their superpowers. Thor kept out of World War Hulk, and he'll stay mostly aloof from Dark Reign until Siege. But the Skrulls dragged him into opposing their Invasion by attacking Asgard in the SI: Thor mini-series.

Mockingbird supposedly died in Av West Coast #100. NAv: Reunion #2 will indicate that she was replaced by a Skrull between #90 and #91, and it was this Skrull that died. This makes Bobbi Morse the earliest of the abducted heroes. Strangely the replacement didn't revert to Skrull form on death, and was even seen in the afterlife as Morse. Maybe this was an extreme version of conditioning that was seen as blasphemous, and so it was toned down for later imposters.

This issue is divided into 3 sections:-
p1-2 is the conversation at the end of the battle for Manhattan in SI#8.
p3-20 is the search for Jarvis & Danielle which probably covers several days. The Marvel Chronology Project has it for Ronin before Wasp's funeral in Mighty Av #20. It can't start as soon after p1-2 as it seems because the MCP gives Wolverine several adventures beforehand. In particular W has Uncanny X-Men #506 which follows #505 where Emma Frost joins Norman Osborn's Cabal in the SI:DR 1-shot. So this section takes place between those 2 events.
p21-22 has Luke going to Osborn for help. The MCP has this immediately before #49, which is connected to the unveiling of the Dark Avengers in their #1.

In the gap between p2 and p3 Wolverine was busy in the Manifest Destiny story-arc that was running in the X-titles from before and within SI (specifically X-Force #7-11, XM: Worlds Apart #4, XM: Manifest Destiny #3/3 and UXM#506), followed by a couple of his own 1-shots W: Chop Shop and W: Switchback.

Spider-Man just met up with Jackpot at the end of her mini-series SI: Amazing SM #3 and returned to his life as Peter Parker, where he attended Doris Urich's funeral in SI: Front Line #5.

Meanwhile Norman Osborn was put in charge of everything in SI#8, and formed the Cabal in the SI:DR 1-shot.

Only Luke Cage crosses the gap between p20 and p21 but we can tell what others were doing in that period.

It was Spidey's turn to be busy. Mainly in his Annual where Jackpot died and in ASM#584-588 - the Character Assassination arc where we discovered that Menace is Lily Hollister and the Spider-Tracer Killer is a conspiracy by police to frame SM for unsolved murders.

Ronin (with Mockingbird) attended Wasp's funeral in the 2nd half of MAv#20.

NO dabbled in various things including DR: Fantastic Four while assembling his Dark Avengers.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

New Avengers #48 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Image from New Avengers #48
In the aftermath of the Central Park battle against the Skrulls Iron Man tries to get Thor to talk to him. It's after the reunion with the heroes who were kidnapped and replaced by the Skrulls. Captain America (Bucky), Ronin, Mockingbird (a returnee), Spider-Man, Iron Fist and Wolverine agree to meet for a drink. Logan asks Spider-Woman who is being shunned by others for what Queen Veranke did while disguised as her.

Next day Spidey follows Logan who's bringing the beers. He sees him walk through a holographic wall and follows. Inside is Captain America's house currently occupied, along with the costume, by Bucky Barnes. Ronin and Mockingbird are already there, and say that Bucky will join them soon.

Clint Barton introduces MB as his wife Bobbi. SM remembers teaming up with her a couple of times. He also remembers that she supposedly died. But all she can say is that the Skrulls captured her years ago.

Wolverine asks if they've seen the news, but the others have been too busy  catching up on sleep or something. Before he can elaborate Danny Rand arrives wondering what happened to Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Ms Marvel after they rushed off.

Spider-Woman arrives too because SHIELD has collapsed (which Wolvie was trying to tell them) and she's got nowhere else. There's animosity towards her especially from Clint. But Logan points out that Jessica Drew was a victim of the Skrulls just like Clint's wife Bobbi. And Mockingbird says Jessica was on the Skrull ship with her.

Cap/Bucky joins them and says they can treat this place as a team base, and as a home if they want. Iron Fist chooses this moment to resign for personal/business reasons, but he offers to be on call when needed.

Then distraught Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Ms Marvel turn up to say that Skrull-Jarvis has stolen baby Danielle. Everyone agrees to help find her. (Then we get a full-page shot entitled Avengers which includes everyone (including Jessica Jones) except Iron Fist (even though he's still here and takes part in the search).

They go to the Fantastic Four's makeshift accommodations atop the Baxter Building. Reed Richards says Manhattan is still closed by the army so Jarvis can't have gotten off the island. But his Skrull detector can't find him as long as he retains his Jarvis form. (I thought it could expose imposters as Skrulls.) But the FF join the hunt.

They all try interrogating groups like Hydra, AIM and Moloids, and villains such as Electro and a Blood Brother (the other Brother was killed by Drax the Destroyer in his mini-series). But there's no luck until they hit a bar full of ex-SHIELD Agents listening to the news that Norman Osborn might take over, and generally threatening to quit if that happens.

Logan, Cage and Jessica Jones find 1 Agent who is a Skrull, whose desire is to remain on Earth and live as a human - preferably a SHIELD Agent. But her friends turn on her. She reverts to Skrull and tries to escape. The NAv 3 capture her for interrogation. She's about to spill the beans when a SHIELD guy kills her.

The issue ends with desperate Luke Cage going to Osborn for help. (Norman has Bullseye and Venom of his Thunderbolts as bodyguards just in case.) Osborn agrees to look for the kid.


Preview Pages
Click sample interior pages to enlarge them:




Billy Tan
Matt Banning
Albert Deschesne
Billy Tan (Cover Penciler)
Matt Banning (Cover Inker)
Jason Keith (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Mr. Fantastic
Mr. Fantastic

(Reed Richards)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
Wolverine
Wolverine

(James Howlett)



> New Avengers: Book info and issue index

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