Steve Rogers… man-slut.
I guess I haven’t been keeping up with Brubaker’s Captain America enough to know if Steve’s cheating on Sharon with an Asgardian villager. The whole thing feels like Secret Wars with the villagers and the Enchantress and the giants… only, you know, Secret Wars with just three heroes and some tie to Thor.
I guess the connection to Thor is the biggest surprise (I honestly expected the villain reveal to be the Scarlet Witch). Prime is really a Thor series in Avengers clothing.
Bendis splits the story between Steve, Thor and Tony. Steve’s romancing some chick, Thor’s actually finding out what’s going on (because it has mostly to do with him) and Tony’s the damsel in distress and comic relief.
Davis’s art could probably carry far lamer stories and Bendis is… earnest, at least. It’s all rote, by the numbers, but it’s decent Marvel superhero stuff.
As by the numbers as this series threatens to become, Bendis, while succumbing as usual to his tics, has Davis to pull this into readable territory. I liked this series the most of the new batch, actually, because of it’s basic components. Three Avengers, a straightforward quest, punctuated by Davis’ eye candy artwork. In response, I will say Steve has ben portrayed as a man whore before (Kirkman’s quick run on Cap where he spends the night with a SHIELD LMD., -ick! ), and Tony is well depicted as a foil for Steve and Thor, at least attitude wise. While not a masterpiece, Avengers Prime made it to Staff Pick here for its simplicity and execution.