"Avengers: Under Siege" by Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, Danny Fingeroth, Steve Englehart, Jim Shooter and Mark Bright

            The following is a review of the Marvel Epic Collection “Avengers: Under Siege” graphic novel by Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, Danny Fingeroth, Steve Englehart, Jim Shooter and Mark Bright.

            Hey, guys, you’ve now entered From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I am Tim Cubbin, and I hope you will stay and enjoy the next few minutes with me. Well, for you, it’s a few minutes; for me, I’ll probably be writing for the next hour.

            Anyway, my previous readers know I read something and I just have to review it, and if you are a previous reader you obviously like me because you’re reading another post of mine. If you’re new, I hope you come back again.

            So I just finished reading “Avengers: Under Siege” last night, and was unable to review it because I just got too tired to type this up, so I’m doing it today.

            Now, I try to use a relatively standard review format which, if you’ve read two or more of my reviews before, you know basically how I work. For those of you who are new, I write an elaborate introduction, as I have just done. The first thing I’m covering are the primary characters because some of you have no idea who the Avengers are, and most of these characters are obscure, so even if you’re a devoted Marvel Cinematic Universe watcher, you may not know some of these characters, so establishing the characters is especially essential. For those of you who have read some of my Marvel Epic Collection reviews before, or have even read some yourself, you’re aware that they are massive books with tons of issues in them and cover several storylines, so I’ll break down each story for you. Then I’ll share some of my personal thoughts about what I read avoiding spoilers as much as possible. Then I’ll give each of the storylines a numeric score individually before giving a complete score of the book as a whole. After that, I’ll tell you if I recommend this book and to whom I think should consider reading this book. Then I’ll wrap it up, give my boring spiel, tell you what else you can expect to find on my blog, then you are free to go back to browsing the internet. So, I know, I’ve bored some of you so much you’ve stopped reading this already and if you have, you aren’t reading this, but I totally left that up to you, I can’t force you to stay for an entire review, but if you have stayed, you are THE BEST and if you read this entire review, I will be saying that again, so I hope you read those words again. Well, I’ve said all I needed to establish this piece, so let’s get to something actually interesting and I apologize for the past five paragraphs.

            First off, let’s talk about exactly who the Avengers are. I’m actually going to use a quote from the comics as I think it explains this perfectly. “And there came a day unlike any other when Earth’s mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born, to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand.” Well, something like that, it wasn’t actually used in this book, but I’ve read hundreds of Avengers comics and they often start with that quote or something similar to that. The Avengers roster is constantly changing, gaining new team members, members quitting the team, members dying or coming back from the dead, even splitting up into multiple teams. There are six primary members to the Avengers in this book, so I’m just going to tell you their real names, their code names, and their powers so that this doesn’t take you too long to read or me to type.

            Janet Van Dyne/Wasp: Avengers chairperson, can shrink and grow, gains wings when shrinking, and fires “Wasp Stings.”

            Steve Rogers/Captain America: Super soldier of World War II, found frozen in ice and revived. Super strength, speed, and armed with an almost unbreakable shield.

            Monica Rambeau/Captain Marvel: Can transform into any form of energy and light, able to fly.

            Heracles/Hercules: Greek God, “Prince of Power.”

            Dane Whitman/Black Knight: Wielder of the Ebony Blade.

            Namor/Sub-Mariner: Prince of Atlantis, enhanced strength, can fly due to wings on his feet.

            This book also features:

            Thor Odinson/Thor: Norse God of Thunder.

            Scott Lang/Ant-Man: Can shrink and grow and can communicate with ants and other insects.

            Anthony Druid/Doctor Druid: Mystic Doctor.

            Edwin Jarvis: The Avengers’ butler.

            The West Coast Avengers: One of the other Avengers teams.

            Freedom Force: The former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now on conditional pardons to work for the United States Government.

            The Beyonder: Basically a cosmic God.

            Nathaniel Richards/Kang the Conqueror: Time traveler who wants to conquer all of the timestream.

            Alpha Flight: Canada’s premier super hero team.

            The Masters of Evil: Twelve super villains led by Baron Helmut Zemo.

            Okay, that’s a lot to take in, so now let’s talk stories:

            “Stings & Sorrows:” As romance buds between Wasp and Black Knight, the costume Hank Pym/Yellowjacket (Wasp’s ex-husband) used to wear and its size changing formula is stolen.

            “Secret Wars II:” The Beyonder decides he wants to experience being a human while still retaining powers, and tons of bad things happen due to it. (This is actually part of a crossover event, this graphic novel only contains two tie-in issues of the story).

            “The Once and Future Kang:” Kang the Conqueror decides that he wants to be the only Kang in the multiverse and the timestream and goes on a quest to eliminate all the other Kangs.

            “Wild in the Streets:” The news of the Sub-Mariner’s induction into the Avengers is broken and not received well by the general public.

            “Breakaway:” Wasp and Black Knight team up with Paladin to battle Grey Gargoyle, Yellowjacket and Screaming Mimi.

            “Assault on Atlantis:” The Avengers and Alpha Flight unite with Namor to battle the Atlantean warlord Attuma.

            “Betrayal:” The Avengers, both East Coast and West Coast are betrayed by one of their former members and arrested by Freedom Force and try to clear their names.

            “Under Siege:” Baron Zemo leads a new, larger group of the Masters of Evil in an invasion on Avengers Mansion, the headquarters of the Avengers.

            Those are all the stories in this book. I hate to say it, but I was highly underwhelmed. Especially since the back cover says this is “one of the greatest comic-book epics of all time.” “Stings & Sorrows” was a fill-in connection piece while Marvel got the Avengers set for “Secret Wars II,” and let’s face it: fill-ins are often weak efforts for comic books. As far as “Secret Wars II,” I have NEVER actually read it, so I honestly got nothing out of it. Yes, the editors left a previously page, but it was nowhere NEAR adequate enough for me to even begin to comprehend the event. “The Once and Future Kang” was mildly entertaining for me, but it gets extremely complicated when the same character appears with themselves from alternate realities and points in the timestream at the same time, especially when fighting for dominance is involved. It reeked of narcissism and self-loathing, and I just got so confused reading the story. “Wild in the Streets” was a one part fill-in. Seeing how Namor has been considered both as hero and as villain, the debate on whether he should or shouldn’t be allowed on the Avengers was hypocrisy on both sides. Yes he spent time with Magneto, but he fought with Captain America during World War II. And the Avengers line-up was for Wasp to decide, and the team has previously included Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye, all of whom were villains before they joined the Avengers and have gone on to have distinguished careers on the team. Why couldn’t Namor be accepted in the same way? “Breakaway” was yet another one part fill-in and to me the villains were hard to take as serious threats. I mean, come on, “Screaming Mimi?” “Assault on Atlantis” was an Alpha Flight/Avengers crossover, and as I am not well informed on Alpha Flight in 1986, this was confusing for me, and I felt that this was an attempt to gain new Alpha Flight readers by crossing the two series into one story, and I found it a subpar attempt at that. But “Betrayal?” Now THAT was a story I enjoyed! This two-part story was a crossover, of an Avengers Annual and a West Coast Avengers Annual, and I felt it was done right. Both teams having been Avengers wasn’t a stretch to actually work well together. That’s not to say perfectly incompatible team-up don’t work. I mean, Captain America has teamed up with the Punisher and still made a great team, but a whole Avengers reunion totally satisfied me. Look at how many X-Men teams there have been and the situations calling for reunions and crossovers made sense and in some cases were absolutely imperative. And in a situation where the Avengers were under arrest? I felt the start with an East Coast/West Coast Avengers baseball game was perfect. And by page six with the former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants showed up working for the United States government, I was hooked for the rest of the two annuals. That said, the betrayer didn’t come to me as a big surprise since they were practically shown on the cover, but their resentment to their own comrades was something that I had never even thought of before. Now we go on to “Under Siege.” I was so disappointed. In this story, the Avengers failed to beat the Masters of Evil at the beginning, then regrouped and reformed to take the fight back to them. But I think that the villains should be stronger than the heroes, as it makes the victories that much more substantial. If a villain were too easy to beat, buying that comic book would just not be worth the price. But to me, the story progression dragged on a bit. BUT! It’s a comic book. A comic book should have a good story, but that’s not the only reason it’s a comic book. It has to have good art. Some of my previous readers know how I feel about that, and that it can COMPLETELY impact my score. Longtime comic book readers know the importance of artwork. Now, the comics featured in this book were originally released between the years of 1986-1987. 1980s artwork had a specific standard. Generation Z would probably not appreciate the style. 1980s comic books were hand-drawn, not digitally like comics and cartoons today, and had a very unique style. I’m a millennial myself, and my favorite comic art style is from the 1990s due to the hand-drawn penciling and digital colors. Still, 1980s artwork had a technique all its own, and I felt that this graphic novel had the quintessential art style of the period. In some storylines, I enjoyed the art more than the script.

            Now, let’s get down to business. I’ve been at this awhile and have been assaulting your eyes for a few minutes now, so let’s just do the scores. I feel I’ve said all I need to say, so I’ll just tell you the title of the stories and my scores, then I’ll give the score of the book as a whole and say a few extra words on it, then tell you if I recommend this book and who would be the perfect audience. I score on a scale of one to ten, one being garbage, ten being every page should be framed and on my wall. ”Stings & Sorrows:” six. “Secret Wars II:” four. “The Once and Future Kang:” seven. “Wild in the Streets:” six. “Breakaway:” five. “Assault on Atlantis:” six. “Betrayal:” eight. “Under Siege:” six. Now, previous readers will know I am VERY hard to please, so my scores don’t represent other peoples’ points of view and are, in fact, my opinions only and I cannot possibly force you to agree with me, I leave that up to you. This is my blog, after all, I’m just telling you how I feel, not how you should feel. Now, the book as a whole; this is not actually the average based on my individual scores combined then divided, this is based on how I feel the stories in the book gelled together. So, I give it a six. Was I disappointed by some of the stories? Yes. But I wasn’t disappointed by the book as a whole, if that’s understandable? I purchased this book and I don’t regret doing so, and in all likelihood I’ll read it again, and maybe I might even feel differently about it afterwards, I don’t know. This is, at this exact moment, how I feel.

            Okay, as far as recommendation goes, I do recommend it. But this Avengers team is relatively obscure, and if you only know Marvel by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I don’t recommend this book to you. In this book, the team was established in prior stories and there are no backstories on any of the characters’ origins as solo heroes or as a team. So if you’ve never picked up a Marvel comic book before, I can’t, in good faith, tell you to start here. This book is NOT self-contained, and seeing as I knew nothing about “Secret Wars II,” which was a crossover event, the two tie-in issues would be lost to you. But if you are a long term Avengers fan but have yet to read this book, I think you should sneak a peek.

            Okay, I’m almost done now, so if you’re still reading this, you are THE BEST! This blog is mostly made up of book reviews, but I do short stories (both fiction and nonfiction), poetry, essays and editorials, so if you liked what you read, feel free to browse my works. I would love it if you would comment, share, like, retweet; whatever you want to say, I want to hear. I’ll say goodbye for now, but I hope you’ll come back soon, I have so much more planned, so keep popping in from time-to-time, and leave you with three more words: Tim Cubbin… out!