Avengers Academy #37

Second X-review of the week is the fantasic Avengers Academy.  More than anything else, THIS is the series I'm gonna miss the most as Marvel Now! draws ever closer...  Oh well, let's enjoy what we can while it's still here.

Avengers Academy #37

Summary: The Academy students manage to stalemate Jeremy Briggs on the rooftop of his building, but that's fine by Briggs, since he only needs to delay the students long enough for his Clean Slate missiles to get into the Earth's atmosphere and take away all superhuman powers.  Lightspeed heads up to intercept the missiles, and is assisted by Veil, who is in Briggs's control center.  The students manage to chase Briggs's assistant, the Enchantress, away, but Briggs himself is still too formidable a foe for them to take down.  Meanwhile, Veil manages to get Jocasta released from the prison Briggs put her in, and Jocasta ends up taking control of the missiles at which time she sends them to Lightspeed, who can then easily deactivate them.  As for Briggs, he manages to down the students, except for Finesse, who uses the unconscious X-23's claws to stab Briggs in the arm and leg.  Finesse tells Briggs she'd tie off the wounds before he bled out...  Provided he surrendered.  Briggs readily agrees to surrender, since he knows that he wouldn't serve any real prison time, since he had the solution to superhuman battles plaguing the planet and would be willing to trade it to the government for his freedom.  Upon hearing that, Finesse decides not to tie off Briggs's wounds, and he bleeds to death.  When the rest of her teammates come to, she simply tells them there was nothing that could have been done to save Briggs.  With that, the authorities clear the students of any wrongdoing in Briggs's death, and this one comes to a close.

Thoughts: I hate to say it, but this was a pretty underwhelming comic...  I mean I had been enjoying this storyline up to this issue, but for whatever reason this issue just didn't do it for me.  The final battle never really felt in doubt, and the ending wrapped up too neatly for my tastes.  Plus I didn't like Briggs dying...  He seemed to be a character who could have become something...  On top of that, who dies in a comic book by slowly bleeding to death?!  I did like the fact that Finesse let Briggs die, simply because it was in character for her.  I can't help but wonder if Christos Gage had to rush things along here due to the impending end of this series, because this storyline easily could have used another two issues.  Eh, they can't all be gold, I guess.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

All that was missing was a "chico!"