The New Avengers #12

This issue of The New Avengers continues the odd mix of Deodato-drawn present-day adventures and Chaykin-drawn 1950s pre-Avenger battles that include the Red Skull and a different Captain America.

The bulk of the action is set in 1959, as Nick Fury invades a castle loaded with everyone’s favorite villains - the Nazis. He also encounters Cap, but can it really be the hero who was revived from suspended animation much later? (Depending on whether you figure it by real time - the ‘60s - or by Marvel time, which would put it permanently about seven years from the present. Oh, and Fury shouldn't be wearing an eyepatch yet, either - he didn't get one until after his meeting with the Fantastic Four in an early issue of that title.)

Fury has assembled a ragtag group that includes Kraven the Hunter, the mutant Sabretooth, Namora, Dum Dum Dugan, Ulysses Bloodstone, Dominic Fortune and the original Silver Sable. They’re a bloodthirsty bunch.

In the present, Mockingbird clings to life after being shot in a recent battle with agents of H.A.M.M.E.R. (And we still don’t know what that stands for. My guess: Haters All Make Mistakes Eventually. Really!)

I still have no idea how writer Brian Bendis plans to knit these stories together. The whole issue is an odd mix of art styles that don’t work together (although I like them both individually) and stories that seem to have nothing in common.

Good twist on that last page, though.

Grade: B+

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