Avengers #7

Overall: This issue kicks off with the Hood making his way to the spot where the Inhuman's home of Attilan used to stand. He scans the area and picks up some major energy radiating from the area and after some searching comes across the Reality Gem, which had been given to Black Bolt for safe keeping. From there we head to Iron Man and Thor, who are trying to talk sense to Wonder Man. Wonder Man is still angry that the Avengers have gotten back together and tells the heroes that re-assembling the Avengers is a horrible mistake, and will lead to countless more deaths. Thor and IM try to impress upon WM that the Avengers help more than they hurt, but WM throws the names of several dead Avengers in their faces before cutting out. Back with the Hood, he breaks into the Baxter Building using the Reality Gem and tells Reed Richards to stay asleep. From there he sneaks around until he locates the Power Gem and teleports away. Still new to the way the Infinity Gems work, Hood accidentally teleports right in front of the Red Hulk. Although this wasn't what the Hood expected, he figures this is as good a test as any for his newly acquired Infinity Gems. We head to Avengers Tower where Protector is introducing his girlfriend to his teammates before the Red Hulk goes flying through their wall, laying there in a pool of gamma irradiated blood.

Hmm, this was an interesting comic. There was some good, some bad and some ugly. Let's start with the good. I LOVED the story. The idea of a villain getting his(her)hands on the Infinity Gems, that the arrogant Illuminati decided to split among themselves, is really a great idea and should lead to some great story potential. Now the bad... Why is it the Hood is the villain who got his hands on the Infinity Gems?! Brian Bendis has done a lot of good work since Siege, but I don't want to see the Hood anymore! He reminds me of the bad old days when reading Avengers comics would make me want to tear out my eyes and start spontaneous fires. Please, give him a rest! Besides that, how the hell are the Inhumans careless enough to leave the REALITY GEM behind?!? It's one of the most powerful artifacts in the Marvel Universe and they just LEAVE it?!? As for the ugly, the dialogue during the scene where Noh-Varr introduces his girlfriend to the Avengers was at times cringe worthy. Once Wolverine said, “Oops.” my brain literally began melting... Now, taking all of those things into consideration, I have to say that the good more than outweighed the bad. This was yet another good issue of this series, and although I don't agree with the choice of villain, the story itself should be good going forward, the subplot with Wonder Man is looking interesting and for the most part I really like this band of Avengers.

Score: 8 out of 10.Um, Sarah Palin?