I think my biggest question about this story is why it is that Machine Man is hanging out with the Adaptoid (and not the Fixer, apparently). Though Kirby's mechanical creation has always had a contentious relationship with humanity, he's always been relatively benign, so allying himself with a group of very destructive and villainous machines seems a bit off-brand. Hopefully he's playing it cool until he figures out what the Adaptoid's up to.
Once again, there are some very bizarre narrative and dialogic choices made in this comic. The editorial text box at the end of the issue gives us what I can only assume is a sanitized run-down of Stern's departure from the title, ostensibly due to his being unable to cleave to editorial decisions without doing some injustice to the characters in his care. And, honestly, I think I'm beginning to see that. The treatment of Captain Marvel in particular is pretty awful. By the end of Stern's run, she's an obvious choice for leader of the Avengers. She's intelligent, committed, extremely powerful, and maintains a humility that some of the members (Namor, I'm looking at you) could learn from. But from the get-go of Macchio's run, she's been painted as somehow inept, her every decision questioned by Doctor Druid who, even with Namor and Hercules having been recent team members, gets my vote as most obnoxious member of the team in recent memory.
I was talking with one of my classes recently about the way that characters pass from hand to hand in superhero comics. It's inevitable, given the longevity of characters and teams. When handled well, the transition can either be smooth or catastrophic. In this, I mean that there's the chance that the new creative team will so smoothly continue the title that you hardly notice the change, or they will completely shift paradigms and establish a new status quo. This one does both, and it doesn't work out. The Buscema/Palmer/Scheele art team continues to turn out lovely pages. The sense of motion in each panel is really quite spectacular, and is very much in keeping with the previous run. But Macchio's handling of the personalities of the team is totally different from Sterns, making it seem as if the characters have all undergone radical personality shifts between issues 285 and 286. It's just too jarring and, as Stern suggests, is doing grave injustice to a few of these characters. She-Hulk's only role seems to be to drool over Namor and punch things, completely forgetting that she's an intelligent woman with a law degree, and a former member of the most scientific of teams, the Fantastic Four.
Walt Simonson takes over writing in three issues. I think in my head canon I'm going to consider this as a story that takes place on an alternate Earth where the personalities of the Avengers are very, very different. I mean, this is comics - that kind of thing happens all the time!
To be continued.
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