James Robinson's "Earth 2" was pretty much the only redeeming quality of the "New 52!" for me for quite some time. Although Robinson was given to excessively long expository sequences and stilted dialogue, he had a great sense of both characterization and plot. Some of those aspects are present in "All-New Invaders," but, unfortunately, not enough to keep me getting this title.
This issue is a good example of the problems with this series, in part because they're not all Robinson's fault. He has to contend with major changes happening to three of his four main characters in their own titles over the last few months. Steve aged in "Captain America," Bucky took up the position of Man on the Wall after "Original Sin" and in "Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier," and the Illuminati have apparently had some sort of public reckoning in "New Avengers." The premise of this series is flexible enough to handle changes to the characters' status quo, since they're usually meeting in the space between adventures in their normal lives. But, it's too much change too quickly implemented here. You have to be following all these titles just to follow the dialogue. For example, I'm not reading "New Avengers," so I really had no idea why Namor and Steve are arguing. If you're not reading "Captain America," you probably wonder why Steve is suddenly an octogenarian.
But, Robinson's dialogue doesn't help matters. The last thing that I want to see is a weepy Namor, but his insistence that Jim is important to him because it shows him the better side of his own humanity is handled poorly. Although you certainly don't expect warmth from Namor, his delivery of this emotional epiphany is coldly formulaic, like he's reading from a script, undermining exactly the emotion that we're supposed to be feeling. Moreover, it's hard to feel the seriousness that we're supposed to feel about Jim's "madness," since we learn that he essentially just has a cold that he can easily incinerate on his own. When you add in Iron Cross awkwardly declaring her love for Namor and Radiance suddenly (and unnecessarily) arriving in time to save a plummeting Bucky, you get a remarkably clunky story that really makes you question the direction of the series.
In other words, I'm done. I was trying to stay until we saw Toro, but, even when Toro was promised, we never actually got him. I've got one more issue in my subscription, so I guess I'll re-cap it. But, after that, the Invaders will just have to invade without me.
* (one of five stars)
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