Anyway, this was all around pretty good development of ongoing plot for those who have been reading. But if you haven't been reading Avengers: The Initiative, I'd still say this series is definitely worth looking into, but due to the large amount of story being juggled around, this probably is not a good starting point. Read Full Review

Avengers: The Initiative # 17 is dense with plot and character development. But the thrilling ride may be made melancholic. Considering the emphasis on Crusaders personal journey in every issue, something heartbreaking is sure to occur. Yet, you cant help but want to see this disaster waiting to happen. Read Full Review

This was actually a veryeventful issue, with a lot of plot and a lot of character moments for the regulars, but it suffers a bit from having sooo many different angles to cover. The Shadow Initiative. Ant-Man. 3-D Man. The greater war. The Skrulls final weapon. There's a ton of stuff going on here, and not enough space devoted to most of it. Dan Slott and Christos Gage really know how to put a tale together, but it's a case of a little bit too much going on, jumping back and forth in space and time. The art (by Harvey Tolibao, though I'm not sure if it's a fill-in or a new assignment for him) is fair enough, with Mutant Zero's dressing sequence being the best rendered bit, but there's an element of grotesquerie to his art, with bulbous noses, huge sunken eyes, and (in the case of Queen Skrull Spider-Woman) a chest that looks like she's been shot square in the back with a pair of cruise missiles. His faces have the strange scratchy lines that I associate with Leinil Read Full Review

The Initiative had the chance to stand as one of the better Secret Invasion tie-ins. Instead, a glaring lack of focus and an unfortunate rotating casts of artists have bumped it to the other side of the spectrum. There's still room for a bit of redemption, but I'm not holding out hope this series will ever again be as entertaining as it was in its first year. Read Full Review