Avengers: The Initiative

By Al Kratina
April 17, 2007 - 11:05

The first comic book I ever read was the Slapstick mini-series in 1992. There. I admitted it. I wasn’t weaned on Frank Miller, Alan Moore Swamp Things, or The Dark Phoenix Saga. Instead, I was initiated into sequential storytelling by a retarded clown high on Tex Avery. So, when Slapstick showed up with one line of dialogue and a two-panel appearance in Avengers: The Initiative, I was inexplicably happy.

This feeling, however, soon faded, because although there are some interesting moments in Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli’s new series, for the most part the book just seems like the start of any other teen superhero team book. In the first issue, we are introduced to several teen characters being shipped to a training camp as part of the post-Civil War plan to place teams of government-sponsored superheroes in every US state. Why these teams apparently need to be various incarnations of either Generation X or the New Mutants, considering the rich roster of unused adult heroes readily available is never really explained, though I imagine ‘marketing’ would be the easy answer. The crop of new heroes, including Cloud 9, Trauma, Komodo, Hardball, MVP, and Armory, arrive at the boot camp to begin training underneath War Machine, Justice, Yellowjacket and Gauntlet. The book sticks to Dan Slott’s breezy, lightly humorous style fairly closely, though a graphic training accident in the last few pages, and the hints of a dark mystery around the corner manage to keep things from getting too silly. Still, it’s all fairly familiar, and characters like Trauma, with his black eye-liner and fear powers, are too predictable to be of much interest to anyone but Emily the Strange. Slott does have a few moments of nice dialogue, however, which liven things up a bit.

The exaggerated, mildly manga-inspired style of artist Caselli also indicates that the book isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. Bright colors and simple lines keep things from getting too complicated, and bolster the issue’s light tone. Caselli really comes alive during the training accident and its aftermath, but before then, there’s nothing either particularly bad or particularly great about his artwork. Together with Slott, the book is fun and entertaining, but lacks a real spark of excitement or originality, something a story featuring all new characters really needs. Perhaps a few more panels with Slapstick might help.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Last Updated: January 17, 2025 - 08:20

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