The latest issue of NEW AVENGERS is a perfect example of bad art ruining an otherwise fun read. Taken as a whole, this issue, while not as strong as the previous, was a rather fun 22 pages. Bendis is continuing along quite nicely with his various subplots, and his main concept of jamming a bunch of relatively random heroes together as a team is really working out quite well. Unfortunately, Finch’s art this time out really cuts the story off at the knees.

For the most part, Finch’s work on the title has been fair to excellent, but this issue, hoo boy. Halfway through the issue, there’s this double page pread that’s pretty important. Essentially it boils down to Spider-Woman hitting a button that will open a hatch and allow Lady Hydra to escape the quinjet all while struggling with her inner voices over betraying the team. Simple enough, probably would work better on one page than two, but hey - more panels should equal better exploration of SW’s mental turmoil. Instead, Finch manages to turn in 26 panels of near incomprehensible “action,” killing what is one of the major turning points in the series - Captain America discovering SW’s betrayal of the team.

Aside from that, and the fact that the deaf Echo (who inexplicably wears full warpaint under her full face mask) seems to have no trouble hearing what Iron Man’s saying to her while he’s pilting the quinjet, yet needs Captain America to repeat everything once they’ve landed and things are calm, the rest of NEW AVENGERS #13 is still decent stuff. Probably not the best jumping on point for a new reader, but it should satisfy those who’ve been around from the start of the series.

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