Comic Book Review: Mighty Avengers #12

Mighty Avengers continues to be a much better read than New Avengers. And that trend should continue with Mighty Avengers #12. We get treated to a Nick Fury spotlight issue with Mighty Avengers #12. We should learn what role Nick Fury is playing in the battle against the Skrulls. Let’s go ahead and hit this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev

Art Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with a flashback to when Latveria launched a counter-attack in response to the covert mission in Latveria by a Nick Fury led team that included Wolverine, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Black Widow and Luke Cage. We see an LMD of Nick Fury telling the heroes that he is done with politics. That they will never see or hear from him again. That one day they will look around and see the world like he has to and that they will know that Nick did the right thing.

We cut to one month later with Countess Valentina Allegra Defontaine meets up with Nick Fury in his foreign hideout. Nick has a shaved head as his “disguise.” (Nice little nod to the Ultimate Universe version of Fury.) Defontaine says that they have earned this right to live out their lives together happily ever after. The two proceed to kiss and have a little S-E-X.

We cut to the next day with Defontaine slipping out of bed and telling Nick that she will go get them something to eat. We see Nick slip on his cloaking watch that turns him invisible. Nick then follows Defontaine. Nick sees Defontaine meeting with a couple of men. She tells the men that she will have Nick’s confidence in a week or so. Then she will get Nick’s pass codes to his private SHIELD files and then kill him. Defontaine tells the men to tell the Queen that she is in place.

We shift to Defontaine returning back to Nick’s apartment. Nick is waiting there with his gun pointed at her. Nick asks Defontaine who she really is. Defontaine says that Nick is acting crazy. Nick then blasts a cap in Defontaine’s head. Defontaine’s corpse then morphs back to its original form: a Skrull. Nick is stunned.

We see Nick in invisible form spying on his own apartment. The men that the Defontaine Skrull met with are at the apartment gathering her body. They are talking in whatever language Skrulls speak. Skrullish?

We cut to two weeks later at the SHIELD Helicarrier. We see Mariah Hill sleeping in her quarters. Suddenly, she wakes up and is surprised to see Nick Fury sitting in her quarters. Nick tells Maria that she is not safe. Nick tells Maria to start employing the use of several LMD’s. That Maria should use them whenever she has a bad feeling in her gut.

Nick then tells Maria that he will be watching her. That if he ever gets the feeling that Maria is not what she is supposed to be then he will come for her while she is sleeping and she will never wake up. Nick then says that “they” are right in front of her. That “they” are right under her nose. Nick then makes a sudden and swift departure from the Helicarrier before the SHIELD agents to apprehend Nick.

We shift to two months later with Nick meeting with Spider-Woman. Jessica tells Nick that he set her up as a double agent reporting to both SHIELD and Hydra and then he screwed her over in his stupid secret war.

Nick tells Spider-Woman to go back to SHIELD and grovel for a reinstatement. That SHIELD will take her back. Nick says that he needs her eyes in SHIELD. Nick asks Spider-Woman if she knows what a Skrull is. Nick tells her that Skrulls have infiltrated Earth. That they might be in SHIELD. Spider-Woman agrees to spy for Nick. Nick then tells Spider-Woman that he is going to work on figuring all of this out. That Nick is going to put all the pieces together.

We cut to Nick Fury standing in front of a wall full of photographs of various superheroes. Some have red circles around their pictures, some have blue circles around their pictures and others have no circles at all. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Mighty Avengers #12 was a good read. Yes, this was a slow paced story, but that is to be expected since Bendis burned this issue to give some back-story in order to put the Secret Invasion into context with the past events on New Avengers. Bendis does a nice job giving the reader a proper scope of how long Nick has known about the Skrull invasion and what he has been doing to try and combat this Skrull invasion.

Bendis crafts some good dialogue in this issue. I was surprised, but Bendis actually writes a great Nick Fury. It was enjoyable to see that Bendis actually gave Nick his own unique voice rather than giving Nick a “Bendis voice.” You know what I’m talking about. The fact that Bendis seems to write everyone like Peter Parker with a witty voice full of zingers and one-liners. Thankfully, Bendis avoids that in this issue.

Bendis really does have a great feel for Nick Fury’s character. Bendis nails Fury’s personality perfectly. Fury has the proper no-nonsense attitude and tough guy mannerisms. Bendis writes a Fury who is supremely confident and that has an air of always being in control. Bendis makes sure that the reader fully realizes that Nick Fury is the ultimate super-spy.

It was great seeing Nick Fury in action once again. We get plenty of bad-assed and ballsy scenes like when Nick sneaks into Maria Hill’s quarters and then makes a daring escape from the helicarrier. I also dig how Nick displayed no hesitation in blowing away Defontaine when she doesn’t admit who she truly is.

I like that Bendis has positioned Nick Fury into playing a central role in the Secret Invasion. This makes perfect sense. A character like Nick Fury definitely should be the first person in the 616 universe to discover a covert attack like the Secret Invasion. And there is no better man to formulate a way to attack and defeat the Skrulls than Nick Fury.

Bendis ends New Avengers #12 with an awesome hook ending. Now, the fun begins as people try and figure out the clues that Bendis gives us with this final double page splash shot of Nick staring at all the pictures of the various super heroes in the 616 universe. Now, I would imagine that Nick is using two different colors when he circles pictures in order to denote if he has already concluded that the character is either a Skrull or not a Skrull. The ones with no circles are the characters that Nick Fury is unsure if they are a Skrull or not.

I’m going to go ahead and guess that the blue circles means that the character is not a Skrull and that the red circles mean that the character is a Skrull. My reasoning is that blue is viewed as a comforting, calming and safe color while red is a color associated with something dangerous or serves as an alert. At any rate, the characters with blue circles are Spider-Man, Daredevil, Lockjaw, Stature and Namor. The characters with red circles include Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Sentry and a character I can’t make out.

I am really hoping that the red circles mean the character is a Skrull because that would mean Wolverine is a Skrull and we could take this opportunity to clean up all the mishandling of his character over the past couple of years. Plus, that would mean Spider-Man is not a Skrull. Honestly, Peter’s character has been messed with enough recently without Marvel piling on top of it by revealing that he has also been a Skrull all this time.

The Bad: New Avengers #12 was a slow issue. There is also very little in the way of action. This might turn off some readers. Also, if you aren’t into Secret Invasion then this issue will not interest you that much.

I like Maleev and there is no doubt that he is a talented artist. I loved Maleev’s work over on Daredevil. His style was a perfect match for the offbeat and dark story that Bendis was weaving on Daredevil. However, I do not like Maleev’s art on a title like Mighty Avengers. I prefer a much more dynamic and detailed style of art for Marvel’s mainstream flagship super hero team title.

Overall: I found Mighty Avengers #12 to be an enjoyable read. I have been rather neutral on the entire Secret Invasion story. However, Bendis managed to get me more interested in Secret Invasion with this issue. Yes, this was a slow story, but I liked seeing how Bendis has been planning this Skrull invasion for quite some time. Bendis does a good job giving more back-story to the Secret Invasion and teasing the reader with hints about who may or may not be a Skrull.

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