The Avengers: A Roundabout Review

NOTE: I’m not dedicating myself to write about any one “Avengers” title, but different titles with Avengers in them. There are mini spoilers ahead. Be wary. 

Who would have thought that there are no less than nine Avengers titles; not including individual character titles. I'm passing on many of them, but have decided to give three of the Avenger titles a decent chance. I chose the Avengers because of Sunspot and Cannonball. I chose the New Avengers because of the Illuminati and then picked Uncanny Avengers because it would be interesting to see the two teams merge and cooperate.

Both Avengers and New Avengers I thought were anti climatic. After only three issues the initial story line had ended, and poorly. I feel like a child struggling to open a package to a chocolate bar only to bite into it and its nougat instead. Uncanny Avengers is at least better in that regard, because at the end of issue three Rick Remender tells me one of my favorite phrases... To Be Continued.

I haven't tried any of the other group titles but I gave Captain America a chance which ended after issue two, Iron Man however, I gave the first story arc too, and after a good solid five issues I decided to drop the book. This decision changed when I was at Fat Jack's Comic Crypt in center city Philadelphia. Entitled the God Killer, Greg Land's enticing artwork on issue #6 made it easier to overturn my previous inclination to stop collecting the title. Issue six was good enough to pull me in for the next two issues when this story ends. And Indestructible Hulk has me salivating over the next release.

The Marvel Universe is my favorite playground to read, but I wonder did the issue #1's bring in enough new readers without any confusion? In Captain America, Steve Rogers is in some distant dimension, in the New Avengers, he just had his mind wiped by his fellow team members, in Uncanny Avengers he is following the leadership of Alex Summers and in Avengers he's leading his biggest Avenger team yet through gigantic space opera's... So tell me how did these four issue #1's make things less confusing? I also think this is the first time Captain America is in more books that Wolverine. I for one have no idea what is first, last, or coinciding. 

I wonder where in the Mighty Marvel Bullpen there is a map on the wall where everyone is. Each Marvel now title seems to be a force into itself and shows no solidarity as a group but an individuality of characters.

/kI recently reread/read Avengers Vol. #1 issues 273-277. I recently did the same thing with the original Superior Spider-Man, but this is about the Avengers. Under Baron Zemo's leader ship, the Wrecking Crew, Goliath, Mr. Hyde, and many others take down the Avengers, brutally. Hercules was beat into a coma, the Black Knight was knocked into unconsciousness, and the bravest Avenger of them all was tortured beyond anything Jarvis has ever been through. This five issue story arc spread out through other titles as well even going back as far as Avengers #14, you know from 1965.

In the eighties when I first started to collect Marvel comics they had these great story notations. If something in the story pertained to something else an (*) would guide you somewhere, not to mention (and yet I am) a few flashback panels to bring a reader up to speed.  In the Masters of Evil five issue story line these symbols appeared eighteen Different times and some of them for different titles; one was even to tell me it was being translated from French. I was never confused and I always had a link to the history if the character or the way the story developed. It also helped comic book shops by making the collector ravish the back issue bins.

I'm not disappointed enough to stop collecting but I really wish the companies would pay attention to what worked and use that, besides if it doesn't work they can always start over...again...for the first time.

Thanks for Reading