Picked up this volume a while back, it collects issues #16-24 of The New Avengers. While it's quite good, it suffers from a problem I have with some volumes like this. Every single issue is illustrated by the same artists...except one. JUST ONE. So this volume starts off with a pretty unusual art style for current Marvel stuff, kind of a fun 70's style, more cartoon-ish flare to it. And that's fine but as soon as you get used to it, the next issue has a COMPLETELY different, very realistic style with lots of hatching and very thin lines. I wouldn't have a problem with this if I were reading single issues but when something is collected into a volume like this you pretty much expect the style to stay the same throughout.
Plot Summary
In this volume, our villain is the one and only Norman Osbourne. Even though he's made comebacks an absurd amount of times for so many years it's ridiculous...he's Norman. He's a villain you can't help but enjoy. So Norman has a bunch of villainous friends on the inside and he's managed to escape from his prison. He starts building a dark army with people from A.I.M., Hydra and the Hand. Eventually things escalate to an all out brawl between The New Avengers and...The New...Dark...Avengers...yeah. Not the most original name but alright, we'll take it. All of the members of The Dark Avengers have their own agendas and you're not sure who's going to turn on who, I really enjoyed that. The final issue has some pretty fun twists as well.
The art is fantastic in this volume, Mike Deodato and Will Conrad set up their panels with great drama. Small events are in small panels and when crazy action scenes show up, they have a great use of one and two page spreads. There's a huge amount of characters packed in this volume and it's really enjoyable seeing all the dynamics between them. I really don't have much to say other than great action, great art, great characters.
The New Avengers Volume 3 - 7.6/10
