New Avengers is Brian Michael Bendis’ flagship book. Siege is his big linewide event for the year. As such, these issues don’t add a whole heckuvalot if you’ve already read Siege. Most of these issues focus on the fights against Hood’s gang, while also moving through the big Siege events all the way to the fall of Asgard.
Along the way, there’s more time to have Steve and Bucky—the two Caps—team up. That’s nice. The scenes where Rogers’ old teammates learn that he’s alive are all good, too.
There’s also a less “event-compressed” exposition building up to the battle between Norman Osborn and his lifelong enemy Spider-Man. He also has some time with Jessica Drew.
Bendis was a master of dialogue at this point in his career, and these issues have a lot of “talking about the Event” that’s going on. I’m not complaining. It’s fun stuff. I know people like to crap on Bendis now, but back in 2010 he could always be counted on to write comics that were fun to read.
The series ends with a “Finale” one-shot wrap up. The New Avengers are all pardoned and are heroes again. The Hood’s gang break up and are mostly arrested. Etc. Like I said, nothing unpredictable or important.
Here’s the final panel:
Without a doubt, New Avengers was one of the most important, game-changing books of its time.
It re-established the team as Marvel’s main title and promoted previously lesser characters like Jessica Drew and Luke Cage into major roles that continue to this day.