New Avengers: Breakout (#1-#6)

Ignore the contrived crossover that lead to this. Forget it ever happened. Erase it out of your memory. What you have left can be described in just one word. Kickass.

Breakout can be summarised as Setup leading to Fight leading to Team. A three step process to forming the new Avengers (Or should that be New Avengers? Nevermind). A team that comprises of Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, The Sentry, and Wolverine. The first two are logical, and essential choices. Cap for the leadership, and Tony for the moolah/pad. They're returning members, senior Avengers now. As for the others, as far as I know, this is their first time on the team.

I really can't wrap my head around the fact that Spider-Man is on an Avengers team. He doesn't come across as a team player, and secondly, with his day job and all the other stuff that keeps happening to him every other minute, I'm surprised he has time to even look at the other members. I have to say though, Bendis writes him well. He mouths some of the funniest lines I've read in recent times. Heck, the way he plays off the other team members is probably the only reason I'll read him in the team. He makes a great mascot. In fact, the Luke Cage - Spidey banter reminds me of the Flash-GL (Kyle) relation from Grant Morrison's JLA. Good stuff, this.

Luke Cage, I don't know much about. He has unbreakable skin, and superhuman strength. I'm not sure he's invincible. So I doubt he could actually survive a fall off the top of a skyscraper. Good thing he did, because it leads to one of my favourite moments in the book - Luke Cage in the lift. Hah, little moments like that make the book.

Spider-Woman is in the book because, well, I guess an all male team would get too boring to look at? Finch draws a hot Jessica Drew. Smokin'! As for the remaining two, The Sentry's not in here for long, and Wolverine meets the team mid-way.

So it's a very contrived team, but the story leading up to it is some seriously explosive stuff. Breakout is essentially a two-parter, six-issue long slugfest - The Ryker Island episode, and the Savage Land episode.

Electro is hired to break someone out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s maximum-security prison on Ryker Island, and he does that by overloading the prison security systems. As luck would have it, Matt "Daredevil" Murdock, Foggy Nelson, Luke Cage, and Jessica "Spider-Woman" Drew are on the island to meet The Sentry. The man who, according to Reed Richards, may be the most powerful person on Earth. Cap America flies in on a chopper, and Spider-Man hitches a ride. Whoo-hoo! And the s#@t hit the roof! Spidey gets his arm broken (which is mysteriously fixed by #4), and the heroes get their collective asses kicked. Cutting a long story short, the heroes win, but not before discovering that half the inmates have escaped. The Cap and Tony decide that fate has brought them together, and since they fought well together, they should become the New Avengers. ?? Yup, just like that, outta the blue, the team is formed again. They haven't approached The Sentry yet, and only Daredevil declines to join. Good move, Matt.

So from there, it's on to the Savage Land, because the target of the breakout was Karl Lycos, the terrible Sauron! Tremble, mortals!! Wolverine is on the island, and after his little tumble with Spider-Woman, the customary heroes-meet-then-fight-then-team-up moment of the story, they move on ahead. After they take down Sauron, they are attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. and "a" Black Widow. They discover that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been mining vibranium, illegally stockpiling weapons material.

So that's it, the team's formed, but the story's just beginning. There's still things I don't like, but I'm thinking I'm not gonna sweat the small stuff. After all, it's a great read, and it's got one helluva good artist on it, David Finch. This team may not last, but while it does, I sure as hell hope it's all as kickass as this.