"New Avengers: Assembled"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “New Avengers: Assembled” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            One day, Earth’s mightiest heroes had to unite to face a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were assembled, a team to combat the forces that no single hero could face alone. Over the years, the lineup and their funding changed, but their mission always remained the same.

            The Avengers faced the worst day they ever had to face. It started as a typical day at Avengers Mansion, and it turned into a catastrophe. Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Janet Van Dyne-Pym/Wasp, Kelsey Leigh/Captain Britain, and Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk were enjoying a meal when they were alerted of a security breach. They rushed outside to find Jack Hart/Jack of Hearts, an Avengers believed to be deceased, standing in their back court. Ant-Man attempted to talk to him, but Jack detonated, taking out Ant-Man in the process. Meanwhile, Tony Stark/Iron Man, United States’ Secretary of Defense, was giving a speech at the United Nations, when he inexplicably has a breakdown similar to an old pattern of his he had given up, and despite not giving into this pattern, he still exhibited its behavior. Hank Pym/Yellowjacket tried to calm him down, but his attempts failed as he threatened the delegate from Latveria. Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch attempted to comfort Tony, but the Avengers Code White alerted them to trouble at the Avengers Mansion. Steve Rogers/Captain America Sam Wilson/Falcon and a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents arrived at the Mansion just as an Avengers Quinjet came in for a crash landing on the Mansion. Android Avenger the Vision stepped out of the Quinjet and released five Ultron robots, one of the Avengers’ greatest enemies. The Avengers were able to defeat the Ultron robots, but She-Hulk went out of control and attacked the Avengers and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. Iron Man arrived and ended She-Hulk’s rampage, but Captain Britain and Wasp were critically injured, and Vision was destroyed. After a visit to the hospital, Captain America, Falcon, and Hawkeye returned to the Mansion to find every reserve member of the Avengers gathered outside, a gathering Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. did not approve of. The alien Kree armada suddenly arrived on Earth and began an attack. The Avengers battled the Kree until Hawkeye made the ultimate sacrifice to destroy the lead warship. The Kree then retreated. Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts arrived to inform the Avengers these attacks were all being caused by magic and revealed the Avengers’ true enemy. The Avengers confronted their enemy and were able to put a stop to the attacks, but the cost was great.

            The Avengers reunited at the destroyed Mansion. Tony Stark had no choice but to step down from his position as Secretary of Defense, and the United States government, who had been funding the Avengers, decided to end their association with the team. Tony decided not to rebuild Avengers Mansion, and with no funding for the team, the Avengers felt like they had no choice but to disband and all go their separate ways. As a final tribute, the former Avengers discussed their favorite stories about the history of the Avengers, often stories that each member wasn’t even an active member of the team for. Then the Avengers were over.

            Six months later, Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four asked lawyer and outed superhero Matt Murdock/Daredevil to go to the Raft, the supervillain prison, to speak to an inmate named Robert Reynolds/Senty, who had been accused of killing his wife. He came with his associate Luke Cage and law partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson and was escorted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent and superhero Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman. During this visit, supervillain Maxwell Dillon/Electro executed a prison break, shutting down the power at the Raft and releasing all the inmates from their cells. Peter Parker/Spider-Man hitched a ride on a helicopter to the Raft to investigate and was greeted by Captain America. The gathered heroes battled to contain the villains, and Iron Man arrived on the scene. Though the heroes were able to keep forty-five villains from escaping, forty-two supervillains were able to escape from the Raft. Captain America was reminded of how the original Avengers came together by pure happenstance, and took this prison break as fate, and asked Tony to reform the Avengers. Cap was able to recruit Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Spider-Woman, but Daredevil turned down his offer. The heroes met at the newly established Stark Tower and Tony offered the top three floors to the new team. S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Director Maria Hill was informed of this development, and she was not happy with the idea of a new Avengers team, but since Cap had Full Champion License with S.H.I.E.L.D., he had the authority to assemble any team he saw fit to go on any mission he saw fit. The new Avengers were able to discover it was Electro who staged the prison break and were able to track him down and apprehend him. They then learned the prisoner he had been hired to break out was Karl Lykos/Sauron. As they tried to access the S.H.I.E.L.D. files pertaining to the breakout that Jessica had access to, they learned that the S.H.I.E.L.D. outpost in the Savage Land had gone offline, and the Savage Land was the place Lykos liked to call home. Upon arriving in the Savage Land, the new Avengers encountered X-Man Logan/Wolverine, who had gone to the Savage Land to find Lykos, who had previously been an adversary of the X-Men. The heroes were attacked by a group of mutates working with Lykos and were apprehended and brought to Lykos’ castle. While they were able to escape, Lykos was able to transform into Sauron, but the heroes and the villain and mutates were suddenly attacked by Yelena Belova/Black Widow and a squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. A confrontation ensued, and by the end, the Avengers learned S.H.I.E.L.D. engaged in some questionable activities they did not approve of. Tony also decided to invite Wolverine to join the Avengers as their last missing ingredient.

            Tony met with his associates in his superhuman alliance the Illuminati to discuss the new Avengers and the Senty, while Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman and Wolverine went to Long Island to apprehend the Wrecker, an escaped villain from the Raft who had gone looking for his mystic weapon that gave him his powers. Iron Man and Captain America were able to track the Sentry to the Nevada Desert, where they brought his wife who was very much alive, and Paul Jenkins, a comic book writer who was the only person who left any records of the Sentry’s entire existence. The Sentry was paranoid of his enemy the Void, who would come because Sentry used his powers, and whom Sentry was sure had killed Sentry’s wife. Sentry escaped from Nevada and went to New York, where he was confronted by the new Avengers, the astonishing X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Inhumans. While the Void attacked, Reed Richards and Emma Frost of the X-Men tried to discover the reason no one remembered the existence of the Sentry.

            Okay, so now that we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to my own personal opinions about this book. Let me say, I’m a huge fan of the works of Brian Michael Bendis, and in this book, I feel like he did a fantastic job. Ending the Avengers the way he did was so tragic. Ending several key members of so iconic a team and having them completely disband was a very bold move, then putting together a new team with heroes who have never truly been team players was a stroke of genius, then adding a character who already has an affiliation with another team was just excellent, and I thought Bendis pulled this all off exceptionally. Coming up with a reason for heroes to work together is always important, and I thought forming a team after a prison break like this was just brilliant. I enjoyed the concept of the Sentry being an established superhero that no one could remember, I thought that was totally inspired. I’ve always been a fan of Spider-Man ever since I was a little boy, so seeing him on an Avengers team back in 2004 when this series first came out was such a thrill for me. And I liked Wolverine being on a team of heroes other than one affiliated with the X-Men or other mutants, it was a welcome change. I enjoyed the humorous moments that were cleverly interspersed throughout this book, they were greatly appreciated. Spider-Man is known for being a wise-mouth, and Bendis did an excellent job writing him. The artwork, however, did not consistently appeal to me. Avengers Finale and New Avengers #7-10 didn’t quite please my eyes. Steve McNiven is an artist I really am not a fan of, I’m sorry to say, so seeing some of his work featured in this book was a bit of a turn off for me. It didn’t totally ruin the book for me, but I had a tough time enjoying the four issues he illustrated. Otherwise, I really can’t find much to complain about in this book.

            Next, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know I’ve said this about five dozen times by now, but I know that there are still people who have never read one of my reviews before and may not understand what I mean by it, so I have to explain what I mean again, as much of a pain as it is for me to do. So, accessibility means just how easy it is to pick up and read and completely understand this book, particularly if you have no knowledge about Marvel or the Avengers. I’d say accessibility is a little low on this book. The first story, “Chaos” features some relatively unknown or underrated and underused characters, particularly Captain Britain, who is so obscure that I wasn’t even aware of her existence before reading this book. There’s a lot of history involved in this book as well. Also, Luke Cage and Spider-Woman are more obscure characters. And a lot of the villains featured in the Raft scene were lesser-known characters. Yes, this is listed as Vol. 1 and it is an origin story, but there’s so much backstory that may confuse readers who know nothing about Marvel Comics. I honestly can’t tell you what kind of knowledge would be minimally required to understand this book because I’ve been reading Marvel Comics for twenty-four years and know all these characters, but I don’t feel like this is a book for a person who has never read anything Marvel or seen any Marvel films or television shows. If you’re looking to start reading Avengers comics, this may seem like a perfect jump on point, and I would agree except for the fact that this book includes the ending of the original Avengers series, and I feel like that detracts from the accessibility, but hey, that’s just my opinion. All that said, this book also features New Avengers: Most Wanted Files, which is a dossier issue which gives profiles of the villains, so that does help clarify some of the history of the villains, so it’s not completely inaccessible with the obscure characters.

            Speaking of my opinion, I’ve been going on for a while now, and you’re probably getting bored of my driveling on, so let’s get to the point of why we’re here: my numeric score. So, let’s just get right to it then. I score on a very basic scale. I score between one and ten. One means this is a flaming pile of garbage. Ten means this is a mountain of gold. Now, you can probably guess the score of this book is going to be relatively good, considering all the praise I gave two paragraphs ago, and you would be completely right. However, this is a GRAPHIC novel, and I have to include both story and art when I distribute my numeric score in these reviews. So, while yes, I did love the story, there were some art issues that I just can’t look past. All that said, however, I’m still able to give this book a great score. And that great score is going to be… an eight! I loved this book so much, but the artwork forces me to detract some points, and the book wasn’t perfect enough to earn a nine, as much as I wish it were. But still, eight is a really good score.

            Next up, I’m going to tell you if I give this book my personal recommendation, and regardless, to whom I would recommend this book to. First off, it’s pretty obvious that I give this book my personal recommendation, but I must actually state it, or else it’s not official, so yes, indeed I recommend this book personally. As for to whom do I recommend this book to, if you’re an Avengers comics fan and have never read this book, I’m telling you, you need to read this book, it is essential. If you’re a fan of the Avengers from any other form of Marvel media and are looking to get into comics, I would recommend this book with a slight warning that you might not know every character in this book, but I still think you would enjoy it. If you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book but don’t know anything about Marvel comics, I can’t quite recommend this, but I’m not going to tell you not to read it because I thought it was a really good book and don’t want to ruin some potential enjoyment time. Plus, the dossier issue is really informative and highly enjoyable, and I think it clarifies the history, so I can’t tell you not to read that.

            Okay, I think we’ve gotten to that point where I’ve said all that needs to be said about this book at this point, so I’m just going to start wrapping things up right now. First off, if you’re still here and reading at this point, thank you, you are THE BEST! I totally enjoy doing these reviews and will keep on doing these. I’ve literally written about five dozen reviews at this point, and there’s no end in sight. I have another review that should be coming up within the next four weeks, so keep an eye out for it. I’ve also written short stories, free verse poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. I’ve written some pieces called B’ings which are a total waste of time but are actually pretty funny if you want to check those out. I’ve written a review for the prose novel “New Avengers: Breakout” a long time ago with actually was an adaptation of one storyline contained in this book if you want to check that out for comparisons. Well, I’ll leave you to be doing whatever else you’d rather be doing with your life now, all I have left to say now is Tim Cubbin… out!