Avengers: The Initiative Featuring Reptil One Shot

Well, OK, I didn't even remember that I brought this comic book. I never know what I'm going to pull out of my comic book pile!

-We open with a dinosaur villain(yes, a dinosaur villain)named Stegron attacking various SHIELD facilities in an attempt to find something. Stegron has been using a horde of dinosaurs to attack the SHIELD bases and has left a large number of people dead in his wake.

-Val Cooper contacts Tigra and puts her in charge of a bunch of Initiative members with the orders to stop Stegron at all costs. Tigra's team consists of Prodigy, Batwing, Cloud 9, Sunstreak, Komodo and a new recruit named Reptil. Tigra doesn't want to take Reptil since he's still young, but Val pulls rank and Tigra has to begin training Reptil.

-We find out that Reptil can shift himself into various different dinosaurs and is very eager to be a super-hero. After some training Reptil manages to use his dinosaur powers to track down Stegron. Stegron manages to wipe the floor with the Initiative members before making his escape.

-Reptil is bummed that he was knocked out by Stegron and wants to quit the Initiative, but Tigra gives him a pep talk that picks up his spirits.

-Reptil manages to locate Stegron at another SHIELD facility and the Initiative attacks again. This time the Initiative manages to block Stegron's dinosaur control abilities, which removes the army of dinosaurs he was employing. The Initiative defeats Stegron, but they wind up discovering Moonboy locked up in a tube in the SHIELD facility.

-Stegron explains that he was trying to bring Moonboy back to the Savage Land in order to reunite him with Devil Dinosaur. Reptil wants to free Moonboy, but Tigra reasons that SHIELD will just recapture him again. After some thought, Tigra allows Reptil to fly off with Moonboy and she tells the SHIELD agents who arrive on the scene that Moonboy was accidentally eaten by the dinosaurs. We end this issue with Kazar arriving and taking Moonboy and Reptil back to the Savage Land with him.

This issue told a decent story, but unfortunately for me I really could care less about most of the characters. Even though I consider myself a huge old school X-Men fan I've never liked the concept of the Savage Land. I also don't like Kazar, Moonboy or Tigra, so this comic definitely won't go down as one of my all-time favorites. On the plus side I'm always pleased to see a member of the Slingers show up. Granted my favorite Slinger was Ricochet, but I did like Prodigy as well. However, Prodigy alone couldn't really salvage this comic for me and as such I'll give this issue a score of 6 1/2 out of 10. If you like seeing a horde of dinosaurs attack SHIELD agents, or Kazar walking around in a skimpy loincloth, then this is the comic for you!