3 out of 5

Yeah, I’m bias.  But I wouldn’t even be reading this if not for Steve, so give it a rest.

(Note to self – see how many reviews start with some variation of admitting your bias)

(Note to self – self-referential self notes don’t excuse laziness for coming up with smoother introductions)

(Note to self – …Do you… Do you want to… Start the review?)

I’m as picky as any other comic fan when it comes to how my super heroes are written.  As I re-read the stuff I own, I find I shed a lot of the tights books.  They seem original or fun at the time, but fall apart upon rereads or with a bit more scope.  Still, there are some writers who worked/have worked through several decades – Gerry Conway, Steve Gerber – and though they for sure their more modern work can be called out as not being written by 20somethings, their written words have a wonderful, timeless feeling to them.  Conway was great at writing the majors and doing fan service plus adding elements that felt oddly mature…  Steve worked on some big books but stuck more to the fringes, fantasy and supernatural stuff, but had that same skill of comic-y and something more.  This little one-off for the Avengers is a capture of the kind of stuff he brought to The Defenders, fully embracing the characters and their baggage but trying to bring some thought into the affair.

This issue is a simple little story, playing off of Beast’s need to fit in with the world (nothing new, for sure), but mixing in some of Steve’s psychology musings.  It’s totally a get-in get-out issue, and avoids the larger Avengers world, but it’s a fun story that, for me, hits just the right pitch of camp I like in my hero books.