I generally don't like coming down on comics creators unless it's a particularly egregious case, but these Avengers comics are so far below the bar that Stern and Buscema set that it's hard to get through them. While I'll admit to being somewhat curious as to what's going on with the Fixer, the level of dialogue really sometimes reads like it was written by a small child. I read something recently (it might have been one of the "Mark's Remarks" in the back of a previous issue) noting that if you were to read aloud the dialogue of a superhero comic, it would sound ridiculous, because nobody speaks that way. While this may be generally true of the genre, I think Mr. Stern's dialogue approached a fairly realistic tenor, demonstrating for us the way in which a person might actually react in the fantastic situations the Avengers find themselves in. Mr. Macchio's dialogue is, to put it bluntly, erring on the side of the ridiculous.
Now, I have to admit, I don't know the circumstances of his having taken over the book - this issue is still ostensibly plotted by Stern, so it may have been a very sudden departure, and these issues may have been somewhat rushed. But in a lot of ways it seems like the new scripter never even read any of Stern's work, and makes no attempt to continue the aesthetic, character-wise, that makes the Stern run so very good.
I guess we'll see over the next few issues, as it solely becomes Macchio's story, whether things improve. But I can certainly see why my 14-year old self might have stopped reading Avengers at this point. It's a bit of a let down.
To be continued.
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