Monday, April 3, 2017

Avengers 5.1 Review - Marvel Monday


Death Be Proud

Written by : Mark Waid
Art by: Barry Kitson with Mark Bagley, Sean Izaakse and Ron Stein
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 29, 2017
Review by: Aaron Anderson


Well, we have reached the end of the rich vein of continuity that Mark Waid has been mining. In this yesteryear story happening between the lines in an epic. Told now but took place many years ago in the then...ahh hell where is Kang to explain this to me again? Oh! He is in the next issue cool.  Waid's conclusion to his story that takes place in between issues 16 and 17 of The Avengers volume 1 is here!!

Avenger X (no you have never heard of her and you never will again) is the antagonist in this carefully crafted collaboration has sucked the life force out of the team of Avengers. Which consists of Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Hawkeye.
After Iron Man, Giant Man, Wasp, and Thor took a leave of absence after a fight with the Masters of Evil in issue 16 of Avengers vol 1.

It sounds really confusing I know, but it was really well laid out over the previous four issues. And this story was suppose to be taking place in a comic that is being written in 1965 so bare with me.  
The art is a glossy mix of old and new with the costumes of old, but with the clean lines, attention to detail, and the beautiful coloring of today.



You open to the title page and see Avenger X standing triumphantly above the drained bodies of The Original New Avengers. She had tricked the team previously that she is good and here to help blah blah secretly EVIL with benefits. Her powers amplifies those people who she wants to amplify. While at the same time sucking the life force out of people, till death, to do so. Everybody she wants has super-duper abilities by her killing a lot of people mass murder steroids if you will. She is like Parasite in the DC universe but cute and can transfer power after consumption.

After a rematch fight with the Original Frightful Four: Wizard, Trapster, Medusa, and Sandman in which the Avengers easily won. Avenger X's evil plans are discovered and she makes her move leaving The Avengers withered old husks at her feet.
The Calvary arrives just in time in the form of Wasp, Giant Man, Iron Man, and Thor to avenge and save their teammates, and eventually lay a convoluted trap that I loved in its nostalgia laced, off the wall action packed, fun filled spirit in which it was written.



This Avengers run is taking some chances in some interesting and likable ways. In the decimal place issues like this one, the creators are doing throwback stories with clean gorgeously detailed art.  
In the no decimal issues the art is more watercolor and off the wall and imaginative with a Kang the Conquer story going on, which I'm enjoying also.

Bits and Pieces:

These Waid stories have definitely made my Marvel app work over time. It was some work going back and reading every issue in this new volume of avengers, but I'm really glad I did. I will be happy to keep up to date on the Avengers. Though I hope Waid doesn't end everyone of these back stories in such a cheesecake way that would get old fast.

7.8/10

1 comment:

  1. I've been digging this series so far. I'll definitely need to go grab this issue and not fall far behind.

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