Avengers Academy #37
Summary: The Academy students manage to stalemate Jeremy Briggs on the rooftop of his building, but that's fine by Briggs, since he only needs to delay the students long enough for his Clean Slate missiles to get into the Earth's atmosphere and take away all superhuman powers. Lightspeed heads up to intercept the missiles, and is assisted by Veil, who is in Briggs's control center. The students manage to chase Briggs's assistant, the Enchantress, away, but Briggs himself is still too formidable a foe for them to take down. Meanwhile, Veil manages to get Jocasta released from the prison Briggs put her in, and Jocasta ends up taking control of the missiles at which time she sends them to Lightspeed, who can then easily deactivate them. As for Briggs, he manages to down the students, except for Finesse, who uses the unconscious X-23's claws to stab Briggs in the arm and leg. Finesse tells Briggs she'd tie off the wounds before he bled out... Provided he surrendered. Briggs readily agrees to surrender, since he knows that he wouldn't serve any real prison time, since he had the solution to superhuman battles plaguing the planet and would be willing to trade it to the government for his freedom. Upon hearing that, Finesse decides not to tie off Briggs's wounds, and he bleeds to death. When the rest of her teammates come to, she simply tells them there was nothing that could have been done to save Briggs. With that, the authorities clear the students of any wrongdoing in Briggs's death, and this one comes to a close.
Thoughts: I hate to say it, but this was a pretty underwhelming comic... I mean I had been enjoying this storyline up to this issue, but for whatever reason this issue just didn't do it for me. The final battle never really felt in doubt, and the ending wrapped up too neatly for my tastes. Plus I didn't like Briggs dying... He seemed to be a character who could have become something... On top of that, who dies in a comic book by slowly bleeding to death?! I did like the fact that Finesse let Briggs die, simply because it was in character for her. I can't help but wonder if Christos Gage had to rush things along here due to the impending end of this series, because this storyline easily could have used another two issues. Eh, they can't all be gold, I guess.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
All that was missing was a "chico!"
Briggs dying was awesome because he needed to, and Finesse allowing him to, like you said, was completely in her character. But like you said, who dies from bleeding out in comics?! Hell, Babs was shot in the spine and her dad was kidnapped and somehow the cops got there in time to keep her alive! And I know the femoral artery bleeds out pretty quickly but damn. Also, why did X-23 seem surprised she killed someone?! That's like Captain America being shocked that his shield hit someone.
ReplyDeleteEh, I still think the Briggs character had more legs to it... I don't think he HAD to die here, although once he started gloating, how could Finesse NOT kill him? Yeah, the bleeding out thing seemed strange for a comic... I can't think of a time a character deliberately killed another character by letting them bleed out... As for X-23, I guess because she didn't remember doing it? Other than that, idk...
ReplyDeleteAh... right. Didn't Finesse use her claws to stab him or something? I barley remember that part since I was so surprised they decided to kill Briggs off.
ReplyDeleteGood Riddance...I didn't really like Briggs.
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