By 2006, the Bendis Age of Marvel Comics was well underway. The twinned events of Avengers Disassembled and House of M had overrun the entire Marvel slate, garnering branded banners (and momentary jaunts to parallel realities) for books completely unconnected to the events going on in Avengers and New Avengers, which were quickly becoming the tentpole comics of the universe.
Though not strictly a Bendis venture, the events of Civil War had likewise spun-out of the Avengers and Avengers-adjacent titles, and it, too, ran off into the rest of the Marvel line-up. The Mega Event was here, at least momentarily, and the events collected in New Avengers Modern Era Epic Collection – The Initiative set up the next big event: the Skrull paranoia jaunt, Secret Invasion.
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Bendis, along with tonally perfect artist Leinil Francis Yu, deftly bridge two distinctive vibes: desperation to that paranoia. The New Avengers, now fugitives from the oppressive Superhuman Registration Act, have gone to ground in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Cornered, hunted, and on edge, their situation makes the book tense and almost overwhelming in its brooding energy. The characters are perfectly set, then, to be the heroes to discover the first undercover Skrull, who has taken the place of Elektra (and has taken complete control of the Hand and, with it, the Japanese crime world).
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Beleaguered, disposed to believe the worst, erstwhile Avengers leader Luke Cage takes this first Skrull to mean that all the problems the heroes have faced for years – dating back to Disassembled (and, indeed, the beginning of Bendis’ run on the franchise). Have Skrulls been the driving force for their tragedies, from Wanda Maximoff to the death of Captain America?
It is a book of conspiracies: beyond the Skrull invasion, there is the matter of the Hood, who has been organizing super-criminals into a proper crime family. The New Avengers, themselves, are conspiring, attempting to bring down Tony Stark and, with him, the Superhero Initiative. The final third of this Epic Collection contains the most pertinent superhero conspiracy of all: New Avengers: Illuminati, which illustrates the shady dealings of a shadow cabinet of hero big-shots. Without the knowledge of their contemporaries, the Illuminati take on the Infinity Gauntlet, the Beyonder, and the attacks of Grant Morrison-created Marvel Boy, all major concerns. They also, of course, provide the Skrull race their motivation for invasion.
This era of New Avengers is a study in tones; Leinil Francis Yu delivers moody, shadowy renderings of what should be our brightest heroes. All the action takes place in dark rooms, on night-darkened rooftops. His scratchy, cartoonish energy blends with the narrative to make the book feel claustrophobic, paranoiac.
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Conversely, artist Jim Cheung packs Illuminati with classic, heroic, and bright depictions of its deceptive principal cast. Their questionable actions are rendered with the bright flair typical of comic heroism, and even as the second Skrull shoe drops, the devastation gleams.
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Equally gloomy, bright, tense, and airy, New Avengers Modern Era Epic Collection: The Initiative spotlights an era entrenched in conspiracy and conflict. It is an filled with action, but it is action that occurs between massive events – it feels like a quiet aside, packed with content but happening as something more menacing winds up just off stage. It isn’t peak Bendis Age, but it is foundational to that substantial run, and ever bit as exciting as the bookends in whose shadow it works.
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