Avengers: The Initiative (Siege)
(Marvel Comics, 2010)
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This book is a tie-in with the main "Siege" title, in which several years of high-concept Marvel Comics mega-crossovers (House Of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, etc.) finally comes to a close... This volume was a surprisingly strong entry, especially since it centers on numerous B- and C- and D-list characters (and man, Marvel sure has a lot of those lately!). The man focus is on a bad-guy named the Taskmaster, who has a super-dorky skull-face costume, and the power to instantly imitate any physical feat he sees, so he is presumably as gnarly a fighter as anyone he has ever watched. Anyhoo, Taskmaster is a stupid character, but the writing in this series is often from his POV and it's a lot more interesting than you might imagine.
Also, here we get to see some of the hand-to-hand fighting in the invasion of Asgard that was conspicuously absent from the main "Siege" book. The rest of the stuff, with the good-guy side of the story, was incredibly boring and uninvolving: other than Tigra, who the heck are any of these other super-losers? Night Thrasher? Trauma? Bengal? Give me a break. This was worth reading as a tie-in to the main event, but I can't imagine many readers would want to continue with this series after this is all over. I sure don't. (Axton)