Note to Bendis: not only have I read enough crimelord-asserts-himself-by-killing-other-crimelord scenes to last a lifetime, but you wrote half of them.
But hold on, I thought. Maybe Bendis has something original planned here. Well... nope. Here's another scene you've read a hundred times: Crime lord/evil masterminds gathers a bunch of gangsters/villains, tells them "This is how it's gonna be from now on." Usually includes one example of power. Well Bendis devotes this entire issue to this. It's excruciating.
Now, that was part of the territory on a book like Daredevil - but these are the Avengers! Okay, so they're really more like the Secret Defenders, but still. I don't need to see them fight gangsters or 2-bit gangster-esque supervillains, okay?
Worst of all is his "reintroduction" of Brian K. Vaughn's The Hood. Big problem: This Parker Robbins bears absolutely no resemblance to Vaughn's character, other than maybe his possession of a hood. For those of you who haven't read it, The Hood was an awesome and fun mini-series about an idiot criminal who happened upon some magic shit - a hooded cloak that turned him invisible, some shoes that let him levitate - and proceeded to bungle around as a super criminal. He was a dufus - the concept was basically, what would happen if a common thug actually got super powers. His adventures were hijinx filled and awesome.
This Parker Robbins is nothing like that guy. The Hood I knew was not a mastermind. So his involvement makes me crazier and crazier with each passing panel.
Bottom Line: This is a total mess of a book. The Hood doesn't belong in this story, this story doesn't belong in Avengers, and oh yeah, the cover promised me symbiote Wolverine! Junk
