Norman Osborn infuses himself with the powers of Super-Adaptoid to battle the Avengers.
The Good
I haven't read Avengers in a few months now, so I've been out of the loop, but you know what? This book works insanely well as a one shot, even though it's the end of a story arc. You get everything you need to know from the first page: Osborn is the bad guy, he's now super-powered, and he plans on taking down the Avengers. Even though I missed most of the arc, this reads as a really fun Silver/Bronze Age Avengers book.
Norman getting the powers of Super-Adaptoid is brilliant. It makes perfect sense. Norman wants power, so he gets the powers of every super-human he can touch. Nothing got me more pumped for the issue than seeing Osborn gain the powers of the Hulk.
Like I said, this has a great Silver/Bronze Age to it. It's an incredibly fun read that is paced insanely well. I thought the dialogue got cheesy a couple times: "Damn ninjas... I hate them like Indiana Jones hates snakes." It worked with the feel of the book though and reminded me why I am such a fan of old Avengers books in the first place.
The end of the book features a great set-up for future stories featuring one of Norman's henchmen. Although this story wraps itself up very nicely, it still sets up a future possible storyline that I could really get down with.
The Bad
I love Acuna's work, but I really don't know how I feel about his art on this book. Don't get me wrong, his art is fantastic, but I don't think it mixes well with the Avengers. This is my only complaint.
The Verdict
This was one awesome issue. I loved this story and it reminded me a lot of some of my favorite Silver Age Avengers stories. I loved that I could jump right in to this issue and completely understand what was going on. Norman Osborn getting super-powers working incredibly well, and I loved the ending of this issue and story arc. The only real problem I had was that I felt Acuna's work, while extremely awesome, wasn't a great fit for the Avengers. I highly recommend this issue though. It was tons of fun.