Pick of the Brown Bag
June 17, 2025
by
Ray Tate
Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag. It's been awhile so let's rehash the criteria. In this blog, I, Ray Tate, review the best and worst of comic books. This week, I look at the New Avengers.
No. Not that trio. This group.
Writer Sam Humphries combines heroes that operate in a world where Dr. Doom is master.
I haven't been following Dr. Doom's takeover of the Marvel Universe, but that's all right. Humphries makes this major continuity bomb academic.
Reduced, New Avengers is simply about dangerous superheroes trying to do good in a world dictatorship.
That dictator just happens to be Doom. As a result, we have all sorts of science fiction bad ideas.
The very thought that I would be rooting for "Bucky" would have been preposterous years ago. I never accepted that he survived Baron Zemo's flying bomb in World War II. I certainly never accepted him as Captain America's replacement. What changed? Sebastian Stan.
Really. Sebastian Stan changed the way I felt about Bucky/Winter Soldier. Seeing his slightly altered history in film. Watching his relationship with Captain America develop. Recognizing that Bucky was victimized by brainwashing. All of that and the way the comic book Bucky started to morph into his cinematic counterpart made me reassess Bucky's worth. Does he deserve to sleep with the Black Widow?
Probably not. Lucky bastard, but hey, it's her choice. Natasha always was one of the more mature characters in the Marvel Universe. Her attitude toward sex always very liberal.
Black Widow's presence on the team first attracted my attention. If only...
Excellent. She ditched the stupid symbiote suit. The only thing that made me skip all her current adventures. I mean. I own Black Widow books by writers I don't particularly like. Can still enjoy the scrumptious artwork, yeah, but symbiote suit? Hell. No. That's where I draw the line.
So, we got Black Widow on the team. Bucky, who surprisingly provides quite a bit of humor. Who else might sweeten the deal?
Damn. Laura Kinney alias Wolverine. I really hated her portrayal in the latest iteration of NYX. Sam Humphries and artists Ton Lima and Rain Beredo give back her mojo.
Black Widow, Wolverine, Bucky. Gotta say. I'm pretty sold. Humphries adds Submariner to the roster, and this is a Namor that jibes with my memories.
Exactly. Why would Namor fight Bucky? They're old war-buddies. Suffice to say. Namor's Atlantean muscle is needed for what the New Avengers face.
This is one helluva debut. Carnage, depicted on the cover, is the only thing that gives me pause. I loathe symbiotes. The fact is. The overwhelming good roster outweighs my natural animosity toward alien, parasitic leggings. Reading a story I can understand? Terrific artwork. Bonus.
