Comic Browser:

#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
#21
#22
#23
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30
Selector

New Avengers #12: Review

Dec 2005
Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch

Story Name:

Ronin—Part Two

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

New Avengers #12 Review by (October 29, 2013)
MH also says SS could run the whole Yakuza, if he was willing. She proposes they 2 lead the Hand against SHIELD/Hydra. MH talks about Hydra having restored Spider-Woman's powers. SW lost the powers in Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #5, but regained them partially and intermittently during the Mattie Franklin 1999 Spider-Woman series. Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1 has already shown someone offering to fully restore her powers. This issue suggests it was Hydra. #14 will explain what really happened. But by #1 of this series she did have the powers, but by then she'd actually been replaced by Veranke the Skrull. Which MH doesn't know. SW and MH *do* have something of a grudge match. In #42-44 of the original SW series, MH as Viper tried to convince SW she was her real mother (which MH actually believed at the time).

Silver Samurai worked with Madame Hydra in her Viper identity almost since his 1st appearance, and eventually they became lovers. But he seems to have parted with her when he took over Clan Yashida. Nick Fury left SHIELD after his Secret War against Latveria. MH claims that SHIELD has gone bad since then, and that SS wasn't arrested and put in the Raft for any crimes, but kidnapped by SHIELD for their own purposes. MH also says that Hydra has splintered (but then it's been that way since Baron Strucker was 1st 'killed'). The Hydra agents with her suggest she's still running 1 of the factions. But she also claims that SHIELD and Hydra are now being controlled by someone else. I presume this is meant (later) to indicate Skrull infiltration at high levels. I have seen suggestions that the Skrulls engineered Fury's downfall in Secret War. And #41 will reveal that the SHIELD forces in the Savage Land in #5-6 were actually Skrulls. (But before that I think they will be 'revealed' to be working for Hydra, which may be the only indication that some of Hydra has been Skrulled.) However it is never suggested that Maria Hill who's in charge of SHIELD is a Skrull. Spider-Woman confuses the picture because we will discover that this version is actually a Skrull pretending to be working for the Avengers, SHIELD *and* Hydra.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

New Avengers #12 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Kenuichio Harada—the Silver Samurai, recently escaped from the Vault—has been brought to the fortress of the Yashida Clan, a powerful yakuza family in Japan; purpose: to offer him the position of leader of the gang in an attempt to unite the fractured organization. Madame Hydra arrives and reveals that Hydra and SHIELD are also falling apart and she kisses him. Harada is still confused over what they all want from him but word comes of an intruder in the compound….

Now we pick up where we left off in the last issue, as Ronin has inadvertently led the assassins of The Hand to Tony Stark’s penthouse, where the Avengers are waiting. A massive battle breaks out on the high balcony, which ends with the ninjas being recalled by their leader for initiating hostilities without orders. Ronin again apologizes for leading the killers to them…then it is noticed that Spider-Woman is missing….

Spider-Woman has flown to the Yashida Fortress to meet with Madame Hydra, who scolds her for not informing Hydra that the Avengers were in Osaka—which was part of the deal for restoring Jessica’s powers. The villainess then orders her double agent to hit her with a venom blast, since the rest of the Avengers are now in sight. Her teammates arrive just as she lets loose a blast. She quickly makes up a story of a long-standing grudge against her foe to cover her odd actions—just as the Silver Samurai appears on the scene….



David Finch
Danny Miki
Frank D'Armata
David Finch (Cover Penciler)
Danny Miki (Cover Inker)
Frank D'Armata (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
Luke Cage
Luke Cage

(Power Man)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman

(Jessica Drew)

Plus: Hand (The Hand), Ronin (Maya Lopez), Silver Samurai.

> New Avengers: Book info and issue index

Share This Page


Elektra