{"id":5561,"date":"2010-09-30T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2010-09-30T06:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=5561"},"modified":"2010-10-03T11:32:39","modified_gmt":"2010-10-03T11:32:39","slug":"new-avengers-the-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2010\/09\/30\/new-avengers-the-reunion\/","title":{"rendered":"New Avengers: The Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Jim McCann<\/strong>, D<\/strong>avid L\u00c3\u00b3pez<\/strong> & Alvaro L\u00c3\u00b3pez<\/strong> (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-3855-6<\/p>\n

The Marvel publishing event Secret Invasion<\/strong> revoked a number of hasty decisions made by writers and editors in the day-to-day, hand-to-mouth hurly-burly of periodical publication, among them a couple of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153deaths\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. The Skrulls, shape-shifting aliens, had been infiltrating all corners of the Marvel Universe for years, even abducting and replacing certain heroes. Thus when Bobbi Morse-Barton, Mockingbird, ex-super-spy, West Coast Avenger and wife of Hawkeye was killed, it wasn’t her\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Freed and returned to Earth Mockingbird is having trouble readjusting. The world is a far darker place, and terrorists have overtaken super-villains as the greatest threat, Hawkeye is now the enigmatic warrior Ronin – and wants to pick up where they left off. When Bobbi \u00e2\u20ac\u0153died\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the couple were going through a divorce, but he has since convinced himself that that was the Skrull impostor playing mind-games\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This is a rare thing for a Marvel graphic novel; a love story\/Romcom with genuine sentiment and quite a few laughs riding shotgun on the traditional moody adventure the company generally specialises in. Collecting pertinent portions of Dark Reign: New Nation<\/strong> and the miniseries New Avengers: The Reunion<\/strong> #1-4, the saga opens with ‘Supicion’<\/em> as Clint Barton violently forces himself back into Mockingbird’s life and realises that his one-and-only is still carrying a secret trauma from her time as a Skrull prisoner. She wants nothing to do with him and has her own cure for what’s ailing her\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

‘The Lady Vanishes’<\/em> finds the persistent Ace Archer making a pest of himself until she lets him join her new endeavour. Not prepared to rejoin the Avengers Mockingbird has returned to her old profession and working with a group of other returned Skrull captives has created her own spy network. The World has gone to hell in a hand-basket and if the superheroes can’t fix it her World Counterterrorism Agency will – by whatever means necessary.<\/p>\n

Against her better judgement Bobbi allows her once-hubby to come along on a mission and ‘Double Indemnity’<\/em> finds them matching wits with the terrifying Monica Rappaccini, new leader of evil think-tank Advanced Idea Mechanics and the world’s most ruthlessly ambitious poisons specialist\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

How the odd couple reconnect, save the world and come to terms with the horrors Bobbi experienced on Skrullworld makes for a rollicking, complications-free action-romp that is bright, breezy and just the tonic for romantic fans of modern lovers.<\/p>\n

Saving civilisation, punching each other out and gradually redefining the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153True Love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d this snappy little package is everything Mr. & Mrs. Smith<\/strong> should have been and writer Jim McCann and artists David L\u00c3\u00b3pez<\/strong> <\/strong>& <\/strong>Alvaro L\u00c3\u00b3pez<\/strong> have my fervent support for a sequel any time they’re in the mood\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n