Avengers the Initiative #32 - Marvel

We get a little bit of a history lesson on Taskmaster this issue. The main point being that he's the type of person that has always played it safe. He's always let the other people do the dirty work, while he reaped the rewards. Flying under the radar, if you will. But now that HAMMER, and thereby the Initiative, is getting ready to invade Asgard . . he's either going to have to step up . . or step aside. There's not a whole lot of middle-ground here. And once the battle begins . . his first thoughts are, 'Mother of God! This is crazy. They ain't human. I don't belong here. This is how those poor saps I sent to the Negative Zone musta' felt.' And as he watches another member of the Initiative get taken out . . rather violently . . he thinks, 'And that's enough of that. Those losers died in the Negative Zone 'cause they're losers. I ain't about to go out like that. I'm the Taskmaster. And it's time to take some folks to school.' Which he does, but . . it's really his involvement with Iron Patriot, and some other of the 'heavy-hitters', in taking down Thor that's going to make his rep. It's interesting that as this is happening Diamondback decides that she's going to try to help Thor. 'If there's a chance of stopping this, we'll need Thor. Our side . . the real Avengers . . we need someone to make sure they don't . . oh my god! They're killing him.' I really don't think that happened. But . . they do give him a pretty sound trouncing. And with Diamondback watching what's going on . . she's afraid to make a move against these guys. However, with her arriving at the exact moment she did . . she's bound to be remembered as one of the ones that helped to take down Thor. Even though she wasn't really involved . . she was there. I wonder how this will affect her double-agent status? Anyways, the New Warriors decide that they're going to turn in all the information that they've found on the U-Foes . . and their mysterious deposits, over to every media outlet they can find. And Justice decides that with Norman and the rest of the Initiative busy with the Siege on Asgard . . he wants to go to Camp HAMMER and get all the dirt he can on Norman and his operations. I like this book. I always have. It's an Avengers book, but . . it's not. You know what I mean? And I think that's a good thing. It doesn't fit into the cookie-cutter mold. It's different and original. And I think Christos Gage is doing a fantastic job with these stories. Mahmud Askar steps in on the pencils this issue. I have to say . . they looked pretty damn good. As long as they keep putting this book out, I'll keep buying it.