Avengers: The Crossing Omnibus

Avengers (1963) #390-395

by Bob Harras, Terry Kavanagh, Dan Abnett

It was a day unlike any other - but in which timeline? Neut and Skye, Cybermancer and Moonraker, Dirge and Masque, Century and the Swordsman - just a few of the players in one of the Avengers' most confounding crises: the Crossing...a confluence of treason, transformation and time travel! Warriors from the future and secrets from the past abound when Kang the Conqueror sets the Avengers and Force Works against each other in a game for a prize no one can imagine! COLLECTING: Avengers 390-395, The Crossing , Timeslide; Iron Man (1968) 319-325; Force Works 16-22; War Machine 20-25; Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Adventure, Fiction, Science Fiction, Action, Time Travel

791 pages, Hardcover

First published May 16, 2012

About the author

Robert "Bob" Harras (born January 11, 1959) is an American comics writer and editor, who was editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics from 1995 to 2000 and currently serves as editor-in-chief of DC Comics.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

The classic, and huge Bob Harras led Iron-Man / The Avengers cross over that saw the utter fall of Tony Stark and the deaths of several Marvel characters! 6 out of 12, Three Star read.

Many, myself included saw this as a failed attempted reboot of the Avengers-verse, you only have to think how little you have heard of this event to underline how underwhelming it was?
I read the comic books Avengers #391-395, Avengers: The Crossing and Avengers: Timeslide; Iron Man #319-325 & Age of Innocence: Rebirth, Force Works #16-20; and War Machine #20-23.

2012 read

[David - proud Gleeman in Branwen's adventuring party · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually spent $15 on this, and the story was so terrible, I kinda wish I spent my fifteen dollars on a dollar bill instead!

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just wasn't very good, I have to say that right up front. And it as long too, at nearly 800 pages.

So let's get into why I didn't like this one. First, the storyline had some of that retconning that I've said in previous reviews I don't like. Supposedly Kang and Mantis have been manipulating Iron Man over the years to make him "evil" and help them...well, I guess take over the world. Somewhere in this 800 page monster I lost track. They were either trying to take over the world or destroy it. Also, they tried with Hank Pym first, but he kept fighting them and just had many nervous breakdowns and also those identity crises over the years. I guess they were trying to explain why Pym seemed like such a nutcase for so long. Also, they never really said HOW they were making Tony Stark evil. Or if they did, I missed it.

Next, the art. This was literally some of the worst art I've ever seen in a published comic. Mike Deodato Jr. did the Avengers issues, and I like his art. The other issues though were beyond bad. I'm honestly still in shock over how bad. I don't think there is a single comic on the shelf today with art this bad.

Next, we end up with an insectoid Wasp and a teenage Iron Man. Not exactly great revamping there, at least in my opinion.

The villains in this series were pretty lame too. I don't remember seeing them before or since, so if I did they weren't very memorable. I don't mean Kang and Mantis of course, but the little blue man and the steroid twins and the other weirdos.

This just wasn't that good, for many reasons and I'm not sure what else to say. I did at least finish it, and honestly even though it was confusing it was still a fairly easy read. Otherwise this would have been a one star.

The mid 1990s were not a good time for comics overall, as most of the product was either pretty art with no story, or bad art with no story. As always, there were good things out there too, but it was a time when I think there was more bad than good. Comics post 2000 really did take a step up in general, and if you read this you'll know it's a good thing they did. If comics had stayed like this the industry would have been in serious danger.

So, basically, unless you are just a die hard Avengers or Iron Man fan, I'd skip this one.

[allowableman2 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was horrid. Genuinely one of the worst comics I've experienced that is comprehendible.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I think this volume is largely hated for two really bad creative makeovers: turning the Wasp into a giant bug and replacing Tony Stark with his teenage self. And I'd have to agree, both of those decisions are really, horribly, terribly dumb. Beyond that, the volume has a lot of bad art (that's humorous only because it shows the lockstep badness of art in the Image era) and shockingly bad costume design (where a few geometric squiggles on a plain body stocking were thought somehow to be cool or evocative) and too many randomly sideways pages (which are more annoying than ever in a heavy omnibus).

But, it's got a fair amount going for it as well.

The core plot of Kang wanting to conquer the past by subverting the Avengers was great, as was the idea that Tony had been manipulated at some point; when you add in a time-created ringer in Force Works, things became even more interesting. The writers also weren't afraid to offer some developments that had repercussions, including the deaths of several minor characters. With strong writing underlining this "notorious" storyline, there's really quite a lot to like, and most it is very readable. I also quite enjoyed seeing the end of two *very* '90s comics, Force Works and War Machine.

Looking back from the future, knowing that the stupidest results of the crossover were reversed, my only real complaint about this storyline is that too many things didn't make sense in the end. I didn't entirely understand what Kang's plan was, nor why it might have been bad to oppose it, nor how he'd manipulated Stark, nor how much control Stark was under. If those were better tied together (and maybe they were in the scant time the Marvel Universe had before Heroes Reborn), I'd find this a pretty decent storyline.

[Manuel Chavarria · Rating 1 out of 5]

"My 1-1/2-star rating is like a cold shower, designed to take my mind away from giving it four stars."

Roger Ebert wrote that about Basic Instinct 2, and it is in the same spirit that I give Avengers: The Crossing 1 star, so that I don't give it 5. Make no mistake -- The Crossing is one of the most hideously awful comic book tales every written, but it is so wrong-headed, and so brazen in its disregard for the characters and their history, that it takes on a sort of majesty. That it got the deluxe, hardcover treatment at all is a shock, as I'd've expected Marvel to bury it in an underground vault where it can't hurt unsuspecting children, but with the Avengers raking in money left and right at the box office, I suppose the temptation to release anything with the Avengers logo on it was too great.

If you're looking for the absolute nadir of '90s comics' focus on the X-Treme in both writing and art, you'll find it here. If nothing else, the packaging itself is handsomely mounted; in a blog review a few years back I described this Omnibus edition as "a beautiful, bejeweled box, but then you open it up and it's filled with cockroaches," and I stand by that assessment.

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having recently read the Avengers Gatherers omnibus, I thought I would give this one a try and reread it, to see if it would maybe have improved in the years since I first read it. Time has not been kind to this storyline; it is just as bad, if not worse, than when I first read it. The character development sucks, the story sucks, the art . . . no word adequately describes how horrible most of the artwork in this compilation is (even Deodato's work, which I generally have always enjoyed, was hit-and-miss). There were some "gems" in terms of the art, but they were few and far in between (and tended to have been done by Deodato). I suppose it was an attempt to "raise the bar" for the Avengers (which is odd, because most of the "books" involved are from the Iron Man/Force Works side of the aisle; the crossover books do not include any issues of Thor or Captain America) and change things up a bit, but it failed the most spectacularly miserable way possible (and not only that, but then Heroes Reborn followed by Heroes Return pretty much nullified any impact this storyline would have had, followed by the complete retconning of events in Avengers Forever).

I hated that they chose to make Tony Stark some kind of traitor; not only that, but a traitor from the very inception of the Avengers. I hated that there was some "bigger bad guy" out there that Kang was trying to defeat but that "dangling plotline" was never answered (as far as I know; I quit reading comics for a few years after this point). I think it would have been better if they had chosen a different character on the Avengers team to have been "the mystery villain" instead of Tony Stark 'cuz it just wasn't believable in the least bit that Tony was the villain, a murderer, and a traitor. I also hated the "dangling plot line" of the twins, Tobias and Malachi (I have since found out that apparently they were supposed to be the "missing twins" of Wanda and Vision. It really makes one wonder if the writers knew their books were going to be canceled because of some of the plot lines that were introduced (such as Rhodey losing his War Machine armor and yet getting a newer, "high tech space alien armor" to replace what he lost; he did not have that "new armor" for very long before his series was canceled).

I hated the artwork in most of the issues. I mean, some of it was hilariously bad (like showing Quicksilver as an bulgingly overly-muscled character when he had never once appeared to be that stocky or muscular, ever, and which also made zero sense in terms of his being a "speedster" with all of that muscle mass and weight. The art in the War Machine issues was horrible. Rhodey's head in his "new War Machine" armor looked like a mushroom or something. I could barely recognize some of the characters at times in Force Works. The art in Iron Man was not much better, which was pretty disappointing. The men tended to look like they had overdosed on steroids with out-of-proportion muscular bodies. The women were not much better; they tended to be bizarrely drawn as if they were nothing more than legs and a set of breasts; one picture had Scarlet Witch's legs being nearly twice as long as her upper body. It was so bizarre!

I know during this time the Avengers were pretty much below Spider-Man and the X-Men titles; I don't remember how they stood in relation to the Fantastic Four. It seemed like most of the creative work was being pushed into the X-Universe (as it were) or Spider-Man, but maybe if they had done a better job with of matching decent artists with decent storytellers, the Avengers' titles and the "Force Works" titles would have done better. I think I would agree with Mark Gruenwald; he said one of the worst things he ever did was have Tony Stark join the West Coast Avengers because of how it broke up what he saw as the "core triumvirate" of the Avengers: Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man. Once Iron Man moved to the West Coast, it ruined this triumvirate and 'damaged" the Avengers (nearly beyond repair). I think I would agree with that. By the time West Coast Avengers was canceled, it was not like the events that happened in one team impacted the other team. Granted, I think if they had had good stories and good artists lined up for Force Works that series could have gone on without Tony Stark/ Iron Man continuing to be so heavily involved.

I hated that Rita Demara was killed. I hated that the adult Luna was killed (even if she was retconned later into being a Space Phantom). I hate that Marilla was killed (she had grown on me after her initial introduction). It was crazy how there were characters introduced, including villains, who turned out to be pretty insignificant despite it being implied they were crazy powerful beings.

I did not believe that Tony Stark's closest friends would immediately turn on him like they did. I did not find it credible that James Rhodes would "automatically" come to the conclusion that Tony Stark was not credible as a witness or that he was "the only one" who could alter a digital image to make it look like somebody else was guilty for the murders he committed. I just did not believe any of the reactions of the heroes were the least bit credible, sadly. It was a huge disappointment.

It was crazy that they gave Kang this power to rewrite history to the extent that an entire nation disappeared not only from the collective consciousness of an entire planet but from the history books as well. That is some pretty serious power. It makes one wonder why he does not just go back in time to "rewrite" enough elements of history to ensure the Avengers, his most hated foes, are never born or the team never formed? He keeps bragging about how he knows the future and cannot be defeated before being defeated yet again (never mind the subsequent retcon in Avengers Forever). It's kinda hilarious how this "master of time" is worried about having years cut off of his empire, or that he is constantly defeated when he should know what actions he can take to avoid his being defeated. Perhaps there is some kind of temporal disjoint or something that occurs that allow events he is unfamiliar with to take place that allows him to be defeated because they are "different temporal nodes" of some kind of something that allow changes to the history he "knows" from taking place?

It could have been interesting if they had given Mantis and Stark some kind of "history" that tied back to Vietnam (as she was trained by the Priests of Pama who lived in Vietnam and it was in Vietnam that Stark's heart was badly injured in an explosion). They momentarily implied the two had some kind of intimate relationship that Kang may or may not have known about; it was pretty out-of-the-blue, though, and was a bit of a surprise.

It is funny to me that after reading The Gatherers omnibus that this one was so bad. It has been a while since I have read the intervening issues between #375 and #390, so I cannot comment on what happened in between these two storylines. In any case, Harras had said how important character development was to him when it comes to telling a story, that he would rather focus on the characters than the action. I find myself wishing he had enforced this ideal upon The Crossing storyline. I just find myself wondering "what happened?" because of how good a storyline The Gatherers was versus this convoluted mess that tries to rewrite (at the time) 30+ years of history and continuity. This Crossover storyline was just a huge, convoluted mess, to say the least.

They had already canceled the West Coast Avengers title, so I do not see them as realizing the canceling of Force Works was around the corner because of the way some of the stories and plotlines develop throughout this compilation (and what I remember from beforehand, as well). It seemed like they were going to springboard into something fresh and new, and that the "new teams" would have been integral to what was coming. And then, BOOM!!!, things changed and they had to go with a different tack and finish things up as best as possible.

It was weird to read the latter issues as the storyline wove to a close. Cap and Thor show up a couple of times, out of the blue, and really seem to serve no purpose. Especially Thor. Cap at least saves some people from being wounded or killed by spray weapons fire. Thor seems to who up long enough to blow some people to safety and then he disappears. He may have shown up at the very end, but if you blinked you would have missed it. You'd think you'd want at least Thor if not Cap as well to face whoever it would be you are facing. I never understood why Thor showed up like he did for a panel or two and then disappeared. It seemed pretty sloppy to me.

Surprisingly enough, I did enjoy the last Force Works story. A "two-issue arc," it was probably one of the best stories from this storyline, and it was also the last two issues for their book. A Simon Williams, Ultron, and Suzi Endo from another timeline show up in "our" time. They wish to remain alive, and Wanda actually offers to help save them if Force Works can, despite their attacking the team like they did. Force Works is not able to save any of them, and the three characters end up dissolving "back" into an abyss of eternal nothingness. it was a bit of a sad ending, as I had forgotten how it ended and was hoping at least that series could have ended on a higher note than it did. The artwork in these two issues was actually pretty good, too, even in light of how bad the art was in the majority of the issues in this omnibus. I guess they wanted to finish strong on their last story, their last two issues.

I really do not know what else to say. At least they answered the mystery about that door that appeared in the mansion with which that the dying Watcher replaced Avengers HQ. So I guess this storyline was in the works for a bit and the issues in between were building up to this wannabe event. Fortunately, I only paid maybe $15 for this omnibus, so I feel like I did not waste too much money. It was just as bad, if not worse, than I remembered it being. It does have some interesting plotlines and ideas that were never truly, fully explored, which is a bit of a shame as it could have made for some possibly (more) interesting stories. I was disappointed with this compilation; the storyline might not be as bad as issues #196-200 or thereabouts, or even the Heroes Reborn series that followed after the events in Onslaught, but I would say it is still one of the worst storylines (I forget; it is not nearly as bad as #'s 352-354 or the origin of the Bloodwraith, but it is still pretty low on the totem pole). In the end, I am . . . not sure if I am glad I finished this omnibus or not, but a least I have a better idea of how bad it is to discourage myself from reading it again any time in the near future.

[Devero · Rating 2 out of 5]

L'idea alla base della saga era eccellente: la realizzazione molto meno.
Alla Mansion, recentemente ricostruita da un Osservatore morente, appare una manufatto enigmatico, che pare essere un portale dimensionale o spazio-temporale. Iniziano ad accadere alcune cose decisamente "weird", alcuni personaggi non capiscono se stanno vivendo quegli eventi o se è un sogno.
E poi ci sono le morti, anomale, a volte gratuite, e tutto và a farsi benedire perché la storia prende una piega caotica come se la sceneggiatura fosse stata rimaneggiata più volte in corso d'opera. Al di là di alcune caratterizzazioni non proprio azzeccate (Occhio di Falco? Capitan America? Tony Stark?) e di alcuni personaggi lasciati inutilmente sullo sfondo (Vedova Nera? Ercole? Deathcry?) ci sono alcuni spunti interessanti ma nulla più. Ad un certo tratto uno non sa cosa aspettarsi, ma non per la trama, ma proprio perché persino gli autori sono caduti in tremenda confusione e si autocontraddicono spesso.
La parte grafica è molto, troppo altalenante. Essendo poi afflitta da quello stile ipertrofico della prima metà degli anni '90, si salva ben poco. Da qui le due stelle.
Poco importa se poi, con la stupenda "Avengers Forever" Kurt Busiek ha cercato di mettere una pezza ai danni dei suoi colleghi, rendendo il tutto più sensato e digeribile. In sè, questa saga, è venuta decisamente male.

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dear God, this was horrible stuff. An incomprehensible story with some bottom of the barrel artwork (most scarring of which are the repeated panels from WAR MACHINE that depict Rhodes as a screaming penis) and a truly stupid outcome — Tony Stark turns into a raving serial killer, Teen Tony Stark is abducted from the past to replace him, Mantis is now a murderous lunatic because Vision didn’t decide to partner with her, Kang has a plan but doesn’t seem to know what is, and alternate timelines something something gazpacho.

The 90s. They have a lot to answer for.

[Franco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pubblicato in Italia dalla Marvel Italia, in 5 albi brossurati di "Iron Man & i Vendicatori", è stato uno dei massimi esempi di ironia paradossale e involontaria di questa casa editrice dalle pubblicazioni gestite convulsamente. Per mesi, la redazione della Marvel Italia ha sfornato testate in maniera bulimica, ma tagliando spietatamente tutto ciò che l'esperto di mercato di turno reputava "pesante da leggere" o "mal disegnato", poco importava che fosse firmato da autori storici, perchè l'importante era raggiungere la contemporaneità con gli USA. Il problema era che le storie "vecchie" non piacevano: e quindi, niente "Fantastic Four Unlimited" di Roy Thomas e Herb Trimpe (orrore), niente "The Mighty Thor" di Roy Thomas e MC Wyman, e niente miniserie, e niente Annual che rallentavano la serie regolare.
Bisognava correre, correre, correre.
L'assunto era che con la contemporaneita, ci sarebbero state solo storie "belle" e "pubblicabili".
E così, ci si è ritrovati con un Max Brighel che presentava entusiasticamente "La Traversata", cioè un'accozzaglia di storie mal combinate, spesso mal disegnate e in gran parte pessimamente scritte, che, come l'orrenda "Sangue e Tuoni", rispondevano esattamente ai requisiti di "taglio senza pietà" che la Marvel Italia aveva applicato a tutto il resto. Eppure la Marvel Italia le pubblicò entrambe, e pubblicizzandole trionfalmente.
Bob Harras, soggettista della saga, era bravo a scrivere drammi e tragedie ed era un maestro di prosa, ma era debole sulla logica narrativa interna; Terry Kavanagh, co-sceneggiatore, se la cavava come sceneggiatore completo, ma chiaramente non aveva il tempo di seguire due serie; Ben Raab, chiamato a scrivere i soli dialoghi, cercava di farsi notare con tocchi personali, ma con gli anni ha dimostrato di essere un disastro nel gestire la logica narrativa basilare.
E questi tre erano gli scrittori bravi, perchè poi c'erano Dan Abnett e Andy Lanning a pasticciare "Force Works" e "War Machine", due serie sceneggiate con una pesante prosopopea, trombona e propagandistica, fatta di didascalie che esaltavano cose del tutto assenti nell'effettiva storia (quante volte avevano bisogno di dirci che USAgent è un macho virile soldato perfetto fantastico, esattamente, per convincerci?), declinata in una prosa ampollosa e verbosa, a mo' di patetica e fallimentare imitazione di Chris Claremont (quante volte bisognava dirci che le sonde di War Machine "danzano"?).
Errori agghiaccianti a parte (i gemelli Tobias e Malachi sono palesemente figli di Scarlet e Visione, tanto che Visione nota la Gemma Solare e Luna II li chiama cugini; ma a un certo punto salta fuori dal nulla Mantis, che dichiara di esserne la madre; ma Mantis è quella del presente, o viene dal futuro? I gemelli sono già adulti, e lei ha ancora il figurino di quando era Madonna Celestiale? Quand'è che ha deciso di concepire con Kang e ha speso tutta la vita con lui? E quand'è che Kang ha convertito Stark al male, negli anni? E come ha fatto, esattamente?), la narrazione di questa saga è frenetica e sgangherata, con i personaggi che si dimenticano di reagire logicamente agli eventi, la Vedova Nera che è contemporaneamente su entrambe le cose degli USA, USAgent e Occhio Di Falco che di colpo sono incredibili amiconi legati da profonda fiducia, la "nuova" Scarlet che riesce solo a essere isterica perchè deve essere lei il capo, Cap e Thor che rientrano in scena per puro caso, Deathcry che non serve a niente come sempre, Luna II e Tuc che non si capisce da dove sbuchino (ma quindi Kang e soci vengono dal futuro! E perchè parlano come se Mantis fosse quella del presente?), Wasp che fortunatamente e ridicolmente si rigenera come mostruoso insettoide giusto in tempo per ammazzare Neut e poi basta, Tony Stark che è stato genio del male tutta la vita ma non si sa bene come, i Vendicatori che creano allegramente una divergenza temporale portando il giovane Tony nel presente e se ne fregano delle conseguenze, tutti quanti che gestiscono la presenza della "porta temporale" in cantina nel modo più cretino, e lo stesso scopo della porta che resta eternamente incomprensibile.
E si potrebbe andare avanti, ma si deve invece tristemente passare al reparto artistico, con l'ipertrofia di Mike Deodato (e vabbe', era la moda), MC Wyman (che però su Thor di Thomas non andava bene), il bravo Cheung e una serie di obbrobri inguardabili negli inutili capitoli di "War Machine", dove Jim Rhodes indossa una nuova, "fichissima" armatura tecnorganica (altra geniale idea di Abnett) che è trionfalmente illustrata come un pene che urla.
A completare tutto, nell'edizione italiana, le note redazionali di Max Brighel che fornivano nei riassunti informazioni che nel fumetto non comparivano, e che sorvolavano allegramente sulle clamorose incongruenze, cercando di convincerci che tutto stava insieme, mentre "per chiarezza" riassumevano le storie di Annual e miniserie mai pubblicati per i famosi criteri di cui sopra, lasciandoci basiti perchè detti criteri di impresentabilità descrivevano proprio "La Traversata".
E poi ci si chiede perchè Kurt Busiek nel capolavoro "Avengers Forever" abbia fatto i salti mortali per rettificare l'intera saga come uno scherzone di Immortus. Peccato che Busiek non possa rettificare anche la politica editoriale della Marvel Italia.

[Tom Malinowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tad more than 20 years ago and 29 issues. Gosh I forgot a lot and no wonder. But at the time how was the writing? It was fine. Was I kept on the edge of my seat? Maybe a tad.

The Avengers Mansion has been rebuilt, but there's a mysterious door in the basement that cannot be breached. And when the door opens....yikes! Then a few murders happen at the mansion and puts everyone in disarray. When the traitor is revealed to be one of their own yikes! And an Avenger is transformed permanently. (Nope, because Heroes Reborn actually erased that transformation and one other). And years later Busiek would retcon almost the entire Crossing incident.

Weird times that's for sure, oh the 90s!

[Alex Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly entertaining collection, although it falls short on the depths of the characters... there is some attempt to dive into an alternate version of Tony Stark but we don't really see the psychological issues here, only the fall out. Like most run of the mill comics this focuses mainly on action, instead of going deeper. But all in all it's not a terrible story arc.

[Relstuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

The good news is that you acquire this one pretty inexpensivly. It looks good on your shelf. And it's about one of the best super-hero teams in comics.

The bad news is that it even though it says Avengers on the side if you check what issues are captured it's a lot of Force Works, Iron Man, War Machine etc and my favorite Avenger (Cap) is barely in it. Worst of all, I clearly remember reading an Avenger lead in story with an amped up Red Skull appearing and nothing in that story is dealt with here.

The art is very 90s. Some examples contain some pretty eggagerated physiques and some murky coloring.

I'm really happy to see an Avengers omnibus. The X-men are way ahead in omnibus editions and the Avengers need to add some options with some longer runs from the 80s or 90s IMHO.