So here we are. The first most highly anticipated #1 of the new year has hit shelves worldwide!
I'd have to have been a bit of a humpty numpty to not have gone and picked this issue up after all the mysterious and exciting hype surrounding the release of this issue. The biggest mystery (and further more, the tag-line) to this series was "Who is the Iron Patriot".. and I was glad that this issue straight away answered that question which was grinding away at everyone's minds! I was thinking that we wouldn't find out for at least 5 or 6 issues at least, but to my pleasure and surprise, I was glad that we found out who it was in this issue.
It was a little predictable if you've been keeping up to date with all the Avengers & Secret Invasion aftermath stories, but still was pretty cool to see on paper.
This issue was just Norman Osborn picking out his new Avengers team with most of them being characters from the old Thunderbolts (as there is now a somewhat new Thunderbolts team) just in different costumes, some of which are being worn by other characters already in the MU, like Spider-Man, Wolverine and Hawkeye.
This is a cool idea and I like it, because it will undoubtedly lead into some huge conflicts between the characters whose names have been taken by Osborn's new Avengers team.. and seen as though most of those characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine are in the New Avengers, it will mainly be conflicts between these 2 teams which will be very exciting.
This issue was written well, as is usual for Bendis, but I wasn't very excited by much in this book. It was just cool in a nice way.
The artwork was okay I suppose, not brilliant but bearable.
I'm just waiting for someone to realise that Norman Osborn has been replaced by Tommy Lee Jones. lol.