Anyway, this 4th hardcover collects New Avengers #32-37, Annual #2 and the entire Illuminati #1-5 miniseries. The NA issues and the Annual is actually one arc by itself which ties in to the happenings in "Mighty Avengers" but adds so much more characterisation and details to the story that leads into the mega-crossover, "Secret Invasion". The story is basically the aftermath of the NA's discovery that a Skrull was masquerading as Elektra and leading the Hand for some time. Trust between the team quickly fall apart as no one can really be sure who is a Skrull and who isn't. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the Civil War, Iron Man's Avengers are hunting the fugitive NA who are unregistered. While heroes are fighting heroes in an ongoing misguided war, the underworld gets a new leader/kingpin in Parker Robbins (The Hood).
Overall, there's so much going on all the time but Bendis doesn't discount the characterisation and his trademark snappy dialogue just to advance the story. The whole thing reads as a story by a man who loves these characters. Of course, I'm not sure if Bendis loves Tigra though - I mean, Tigra goes through some pretty bad treatment in this book. As a kid who grew up with the West Coast Avengers, the scenes showing The Hood and Jigsaw bashing up Tigra was very painful to read.
Finally, the real highlight of this book is Leinil Francis Yu. His artwork lifts the book from a very good comic into an actual comic masterpiece. I've always loved the man's artwork - all the way back from his "Wolverine" days to "Superman: Birthright" and "New Avengers/Secret Invasion". I'm really looking forward to his pairing with Mark Millar on the upcoming "Superior". Yu brings a frenetic insanity and roughness to the story that fits in very well with the story Bendis wants to tell.
The only downside to this hardcover is probably the Illuminati miniseries that I really didn't enjoy that much. Not that it was a bad comic (Bendis plots and Brian Reed scripts/co-plots). It just doesn't pack the punch that I was looking for and that's funny because the mini is rooted in some of my favourite past Marvel storylines such as the Kree-Skrull War, Secret Wars and the Infinity Gauntlet.
All in all, this hardcover makes me want to read and collect the entire "Secret Invasion" crossover (that I haven't read yet). I'm waiting for the SI hardcover scheduled to arrive end of August 2010.
