Mighty Avengers #4

Mighty Avengers #4
That was pretty GOOD. Unfortunately, with World War Hulk happening right now and this book no longer managing to come out on a monthly schedule, the entire point of this story does seem rather moot. Obviously, Ultron didn't manage to destroy the world. Obviously, Tony Stark is still alive. The only item of consequence in this book would be the death of Lindy Reynolds, the Sentry's wife, and even that occurs off-panel. It will, if it's real, obviously have a tremendous impact on Robert's already tenuous grip on his sanity. However, we were never really made to care for her at all, so her death feels relatively empty.
I prefer to see Ares using guns as opposed to a sword. He is, after all, the god of war, and should thus be capable of utilizing all modern arms. A battle axe really just doesn't cut it anymore.

The thought balloons are often annoying in this issue. Originally, they were used to great effect, and sometimes still are. But for the most part, they just get in the way and force the reader to retract from the dialogue as it attempts to carry the narrative. Many of these asides could easily be spoken aloud in conversation. In fact, sometimes they even echo what the characters speak! It's a cute idea, but it needs to be reserved for when it can be used to the greatest effect. Like when network television shows contain the "S" word, it's sooooo rare that it actually lends tremendous weight to its utterance. But if the word were to be bandied about without reservation, it would lose all of its emotional value. That's the problem with these thought balloons. They can be overused so much that their inclusion ceases to mean anything. Therefore, a note to Brian Michael Bendis: please, restrain yourself.
Otherwise, this was a GOOD issue.