Avengers Assemble #14.AU (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

"Avengers Assemble" is sort of Marvel's "Batman Incorporated," a series that seemed to exist outside continuity but suddenly exploded into it in a big way.  Not only did a previous arc apparently re-incorporate Thanos back into the Marvel Universe, but this issue shows us how everything went bad for Natasha in San Francisco.

To be the honest, the issue started off rough for me and never really recovered.  I'm not sure if it's Ewing or Guice's fault, but the two pages of dialogue between George, Natasha, and Richard was extraordinarily difficult to follow.  I never read the "Champions," so I had no idea who they were, making it hard to know who was saying what.  In fact, at first, I couldn't even tell whether George or Richard had been Stuntmaster.  (George seemed the more obvious candidate, but Richard's name is on the business card with the words "Original Stuntmaster" on it.)  I eventually sorted out everything after re-reading these two pages a few times, but, by then, I was already more annoyed than I was intrigued with where Ewing was going.

Moving past that introductory sequence, the rest of the issue still didn't click for me.  We're supposed to feel the building terror as we watch Ultron's invasion happen from the perspective of Natasha and the people at the restaurant with her.  But, despite this sequence being the only one so far in this event to show us the actual invasion, I never really felt the building hysteria that this sequence was supposed to convey.  By the time the Ultrons appear, I was mostly ready for it to end.  Ewing does manage to get in some emotion, such as Natasha describing that she was lying to the crowd when she told them that they were "saving" the wounded by running from the Ultrons in the opposite direction.  But, I felt like this issue was too rushed to do what it could've done.  It's a shame, too, because it could've really been a great story.