Avengers Academy #21:
Summary: With the Avengers Academy expanding to include other students(both part and full-time) and the Academy relocating to the former headquarters of the West Coast Avengers, Avengers Luke Cage, Captain America and Hawkeye head out west to talk to Hank Pym about the recent events happening with the Academy cadets. Understandably, the five remaining Academy originals are somewhat worried that the arrival of the Avengers bigwigs(and Luke Cage...) coupled with the new students meant that they were getting the old heave-ho. Jocasta, who overheard the murmuring of the Academy originals, tries to tell them that there was nothing to fear, but the kids are still a bit on edge, at which time they're summoned to see the Avengers leadership. Things fall apart rapidly, and before you know it, punches are thrown and the fight is on. Ultimately Jocasta ends the battle and explains to the Avengers that the kids thought they were getting tossed out of the Academy, thus explaining their actions. The Academy kids separate from the Avengers, at which time Jocasta scolds them for not realizing how much the kids had been through what with the whole Fear Itself mess and losing one of their own. The Avengers discuss that amongst themselves, while Hawkeye stands in the background uncharacteristically quiet... Cap asks for Hawkeye's thoughts on the matter and Hawkeye is reminded of his early Avengers days which had him constantly at odds with his teammates and leaders. Liking the spunk he saw in the kids, Hawkeye offers himself to Pym as a full-time member of the Academy staff, thus raising the awesomeness quotient of this series by a whopping 1,000%! While everybody is pondering their situations, Jocasta heads to the Academy's control room since she had figured out the perfect way to fix the fractured environment at the Academy... A little later, the Academy originals again meet the Avengers and there are apologies all around as both sides admit that they hadn't made the best decisions earlier. With that, the Avengers staff introduce the two new full-time students(Lightspeed and White Tiger), and all seems well... At least until the Avengers realize that Jocasta hadn't shown up for the meeting. Quicksilver heads off to find her and rushes back, telling the Avengers to get to the control room asap. Upon arrival, the Avengers find Jocasta's body destroyed, and a quick security check tells them that security systems were shut down from the inside, meaning whoever destroyed Jocasta was on the Academy grounds when it happened. This issue ends with us finding out the the older, evil version of Reptil from the future had managed to gain control of Reptil's body in the present and was in communication with the evil Academy originals from the future(!).
Thoughts: Whew, that was A LOT to take in! Let's see, for starters, this series is awesome. The addition of Hawkeye and the new students? If there was a word past awesome, that would be what this series is now. Seriously, there is no flaw in this series... The characterizations are perfect, the art is great, the writing is topnotch, this has to be the most complete series I read. So going forward we have the “murder” investigation surrounding Jocasta, the real Reptil being trapped in the future while his evil future self tries to take advantage of the confusion surrounding Jocasta's “death”, new students AND Hawkeye!!! In other words, the future looks GREAT. This is a fantastic jumping on point for any comic fans who haven't yet given this series a chance... It's only $2.99 and it's worth every single penny.
Score: 10 out of 10. Wow, two consecutive perfect scores! Here's hoping the perfection continues tomorrow night!
Every piece of dialogue here was GREAT!!!
with the comics I m reading now, Is difficult to chose just one book as the best of all...
ReplyDeleteBut this book share the number one site whit Animal Man and Swamp Thing.
Is there any arc about evil future avenger academy?
cuz I feel a little lost with that.
And who is that guy that recruited Veil?
As we get closer to the end of the year I'm trying to think of which book I'm going to name my Favorite Comic Book of the Year, and I seriously think THIS series may just win that award from me... I love it that much.
ReplyDeleteLet's see... The kid who recruited Veil showed up in Avengers Academy #14.1. As for the adult versions of the kids, they kind of popped up in issues #11-12. The kids wound up taking possession of their older selves bodies to battle a super-villain, but I don't think the older versions actually did anything. I'm sure I have reviews for all of 'em up if you want to check 'em out. I mean it's been a while since I read them, so I don't remember it perfectly... I'd prob have to check out the reviews myself! :D
They can't exactly be the same versions because I thought adult Striker died (although I think each adult was from a different timeline, these just might be the ones from Reptil's timeline since he tried to keep his adult body). Too much speculating... that just means I am excited to read the next issue.
ReplyDeleteAnd man, do the Avengers suck at dealing with teenagers. Hawkeye seemed to be the only one able to handle a volatile situation, and that is because he didn't say anything.
ReplyDeleteAh, too many comments. It looks like Magneto is in the next issue. That ought to be interesting.
ReplyDeleteComment away, Jermox! With this being one of my favorite books I'm happy to read those comments!
ReplyDeleteI think you are completely, 100% correct there. Striker DID get killed by Korvac, I remember that because he was kind of a basket case for a few issues afterwards. So it couldn't be the Academy kids from his timeline. I'd speculate that you're right about Reptil too. The fact that he held on to his older body for so long give credence to your theory that the evil Academy originals were from his timeline. You'd think they'd be kind of annoyed that their Reptil was walking around as a teenager for a few days/weeks, and would have ways to trace it back to the source. Good catch there.
"And man, do the Avengers suck at dealing with teenagers." Don't they though?! They were the same way with the Young Avengers in the beginning too. I liked the thing with Hawkeye because he could obviously see so much of himself in those kids that he knew what not to do. They were obviously pissed, why argue/reprimand them since that would only make matters worse? That just goes to show how much Hawkeye has grown over the years. With the Academy being located on the West Coast now, I'm pretty happy to see somebody from Utopia show up since that does make some sense. You'd think the ultra-paranoid X-Men living on Utopia would be curious to see what the Avengers were doing so near to them... Plus you know, whenever Mags and Quicksilver get together it's awesome! :D Needless to say, the next issue can't come out soon enough for me!
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35275
ReplyDeleteAs always, Movieartman, much obliged for the link. That was a great read and has me even more psyched to read Winter Soldier #1(if that's even possible!)
ReplyDeleteJocasta didn't really die. As there is one of her bodies that is unaccounted for, the one that is with Ultron.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great point. Honestly, for a character like Jocasta, it's almost impossible for her to die anyway, since she can jump bodies. Even if they say all of her bodies were accounted for, you know there's some special unaccounted body laying around out there somewhere.
ReplyDelete