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Avengers (1998) (New Editions) #10
Avengers: Lionheart of Avalon
It seems like a routine mission when Captain America and Earth's Mightiest Heroes head to Great Britain to deal with the Wrecking Crew's latest scheme. But when matters get out of hand, it takes the bravery of an innocent bystander using Cap's indestructible shield to save them all. These events lead to the resurrection of a forgotten Marvel hero and the introduction of a new member of the Avengers! Collects AVENGERS #77-81
120 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2004
About the author
Chuck Austen
448 books16 followersChuck Austen (born Chuck Beckum) is an American humor novelist, comic book writer and artist, TV writer and animator. In comics, he is known for his work on X-Men, War Machine, Elektra, and Action Comics, and in television, he is known for co-creating the animated TV series Tripping the Rift.
In his most recent prose novels, Chuck Austen has been going by the name Charles Austen.
In his most recent prose novels, Chuck Austen has been going by the name Charles Austen.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 15, 2015
Any writer following Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns on a title would face a daunting task. Marvel’s puzzling choice of Chuck Austen, with whom the company was unaccountably infatuated at the time, nearly brought down the franchise. The result was one of the most painful runs in Avengers history (that would mercifully last only two arcs).
The Avengers traveled to London in pursuit of the Wrecking Crew, who had a mysterious new boss. Kelsey Leigh, a single mother re-emerging into the world after surviving a violent attack, found herself in the crossfire of the battle and died protecting an incapacitated Captain America and Wasp. Kelsey’s soul wound up in some odd dimension where she met the spirits of the original Captain Britain and his wife, Meggan. Offered a choice, Kelsey wound up inadvertently becoming the new Captain Britain. She was warned that she couldn’t reveal her identity to her family or they’d die. She returned to Earth and, with the help of the Scarlet Witch, defeated the Crew’s boss, the sorceress Morgan LeFay. She rescued the original Captain Britain in the process, before agreeing to join the Avengers, who brought her “orphaned” children and mother to stay with them in New York.
Brace yourself, the number of things that went wrong in so relatively short an arc was astounding. First there was a conversation between Hawkeye and Captain America in which Hawkeye dove headlong into misogyny, insisting that Cap’s lack of love life was related to his refusal to hit female villains. Hawk and Cap then stripped off their clothes on a busy London sidewalk to change into their costumes. Wasp had gained the ability to grow to giant size, but apparently lost all her brain cells, causing massive property damage and leaving herself and Cap vulnerable to the villains. Cap, usually the smartest tactician alive, was utterly careless in battle, allowing a second stringer like Thunderball to get the drop on him. In another completely out-of-character move, he’d later blame Kelsey for getting herself killed protecting him and Wasp. Hawkeye also abandoned common sense by marching Kelsey’s children into the makeshift clinic despite knowing of her serious injuries. Hank Pym was suddenly an insensitive jerk who said that Kelsey’s kids would just “get over” her death. This was actually the start of a long stretch for Hank Pym that ignored the twenty years of character work that preceded this issue and presented him as a barely competent, violent, borderline psychotic asshole that everyone hated. We were also supposed to believe that Hank thought that their teammates were all ignorant of the infamous incident of domestic violence involving him and Wasp, years of story and both Hank and Jan talking about it openly and often to everyone notwithstanding. For some bizarre reason, disrespecting Hank was one of the few elements from this period that writer Brian Michael Bendis would keep going when he took over.
The creation of a new Captain Britain seemed unnecessary, since the original was active and a viable character. The “twist” of Kelsey being unable to reveal the truth to her family seemed gratuitous and an unearned attempt at creating “drama.” Kelsey was an interesting and actually likeable character, but her sudden evolution into herodom was clunky and unconvincing. And the deliberately obtuse “choice” presented to her was cruel and obscure for no good reason.
Action that lurched from one scene to another with little logical momentum. Horrific character work and the outright, almost gleeful, ignorance of established history. The character assassination of well-established heroes. Sickening misogyny and an approach to sexuality that treated intelligent adults like rabidly horny teenagers with no impulse control. The start to Austen’s tenure was an absolute horror show. The talented Olivier Coipel (with an assist from veteran Sean Chen) produced some positively beautiful artwork, but it was absolutely wasted on such a pointless, ugly story. A conspiracy-minded reader might wonder if Marvel deliberately had tanked the series to justify the Bendis re-launch a few months later. Whatever the reasons, this is nothing any Avengers fan need bother with.
A version of this review originally appeared on www.thunderalleybcp.com
The Avengers traveled to London in pursuit of the Wrecking Crew, who had a mysterious new boss. Kelsey Leigh, a single mother re-emerging into the world after surviving a violent attack, found herself in the crossfire of the battle and died protecting an incapacitated Captain America and Wasp. Kelsey’s soul wound up in some odd dimension where she met the spirits of the original Captain Britain and his wife, Meggan. Offered a choice, Kelsey wound up inadvertently becoming the new Captain Britain. She was warned that she couldn’t reveal her identity to her family or they’d die. She returned to Earth and, with the help of the Scarlet Witch, defeated the Crew’s boss, the sorceress Morgan LeFay. She rescued the original Captain Britain in the process, before agreeing to join the Avengers, who brought her “orphaned” children and mother to stay with them in New York.
Brace yourself, the number of things that went wrong in so relatively short an arc was astounding. First there was a conversation between Hawkeye and Captain America in which Hawkeye dove headlong into misogyny, insisting that Cap’s lack of love life was related to his refusal to hit female villains. Hawk and Cap then stripped off their clothes on a busy London sidewalk to change into their costumes. Wasp had gained the ability to grow to giant size, but apparently lost all her brain cells, causing massive property damage and leaving herself and Cap vulnerable to the villains. Cap, usually the smartest tactician alive, was utterly careless in battle, allowing a second stringer like Thunderball to get the drop on him. In another completely out-of-character move, he’d later blame Kelsey for getting herself killed protecting him and Wasp. Hawkeye also abandoned common sense by marching Kelsey’s children into the makeshift clinic despite knowing of her serious injuries. Hank Pym was suddenly an insensitive jerk who said that Kelsey’s kids would just “get over” her death. This was actually the start of a long stretch for Hank Pym that ignored the twenty years of character work that preceded this issue and presented him as a barely competent, violent, borderline psychotic asshole that everyone hated. We were also supposed to believe that Hank thought that their teammates were all ignorant of the infamous incident of domestic violence involving him and Wasp, years of story and both Hank and Jan talking about it openly and often to everyone notwithstanding. For some bizarre reason, disrespecting Hank was one of the few elements from this period that writer Brian Michael Bendis would keep going when he took over.
The creation of a new Captain Britain seemed unnecessary, since the original was active and a viable character. The “twist” of Kelsey being unable to reveal the truth to her family seemed gratuitous and an unearned attempt at creating “drama.” Kelsey was an interesting and actually likeable character, but her sudden evolution into herodom was clunky and unconvincing. And the deliberately obtuse “choice” presented to her was cruel and obscure for no good reason.
Action that lurched from one scene to another with little logical momentum. Horrific character work and the outright, almost gleeful, ignorance of established history. The character assassination of well-established heroes. Sickening misogyny and an approach to sexuality that treated intelligent adults like rabidly horny teenagers with no impulse control. The start to Austen’s tenure was an absolute horror show. The talented Olivier Coipel (with an assist from veteran Sean Chen) produced some positively beautiful artwork, but it was absolutely wasted on such a pointless, ugly story. A conspiracy-minded reader might wonder if Marvel deliberately had tanked the series to justify the Bendis re-launch a few months later. Whatever the reasons, this is nothing any Avengers fan need bother with.
A version of this review originally appeared on www.thunderalleybcp.com
December 28, 2024
Read something else.
March 13, 2016
The Avengers head to England and battle the Wrecking Crew. A very emotional story with a lot of good character moments -- Steve and Clint, especially, and some time for Jan to shine. The ending is a total downer, though, and I could maybe have used a storyline that was a little bit less about punching women.
November 8, 2018
There's so much Chuck Austen hate on the Internet that I assumed this would be the worst comic I ever read. And I have to say it's not that bad.
It wasn't especially interesting and did not seem to push the title in a particularly interesting direction. But it was a coherent story that had some momentum.
It wasn't especially interesting and did not seem to push the title in a particularly interesting direction. But it was a coherent story that had some momentum.
August 6, 2019
Not a bad book, but the story is choppy. The saving grace is that this is Brian Braddock’s first appearance since taking the Otherworld throne at the end of Vol 2 Excalibur. However, based on his history, his actions don’t seem to follow continuity very well. He tells Kelsey part of the sword and amulet story, but leaves out the significance of the objects. Kelsey chooses the sword and can no longer interact with her kids (which is not really explained). The sword turns into a staff apparently. Roma is nowhere to be found. Brian always hated the game-mindset of Merlyn and Roma, then when given the opportunity, makes the game even worse. This doesn’t seem to follow history. I have always been more of an X- series fan than an Avengers fan, and this book reinforces my preference. But, I have to follow Brian.
October 9, 2023
The Avengers have faced the likes of Mogan le Fay a number of times over the years, but such encounters vary in quality. They don't always feel like solid Avengers stories, but they are certainly stories.
This book has the Avengers in London and facing the likes of Wreckers for some reason, but of course, things are not as they seem. This isn't necessarily as simple as the Avengers facing an elaborate plot by some creature of Otherworld. If anything, it does feel like it's not quite an Avengers story and more a vehicle for another story to be told with the Avengers just guest-starring for the moment. It's a decent story but it's nothing amazing nor is it one that really makes the most of the Avengers as characters.
This book has the Avengers in London and facing the likes of Wreckers for some reason, but of course, things are not as they seem. This isn't necessarily as simple as the Avengers facing an elaborate plot by some creature of Otherworld. If anything, it does feel like it's not quite an Avengers story and more a vehicle for another story to be told with the Avengers just guest-starring for the moment. It's a decent story but it's nothing amazing nor is it one that really makes the most of the Avengers as characters.
July 18, 2020
Oh this is just so bad it is hard to actually describe hoe bad it is.
You have to assume that Austen was assigned as the writer before he had the chance to read any of Johns work beforehand as it destroys so much of what he set up, or rather just ignores it.
You have to assume that Austen was assigned as the writer before he had the chance to read any of Johns work beforehand as it destroys so much of what he set up, or rather just ignores it.
May 16, 2022
La storia, le tavole e i colori sono molto belli; abbiamo una parte nuova e una parte molto vecchia.
Mi è piaciuto così tanto che, l'aver scoperto una cosa mi ha fatto pensare "COSA?!! MA COME È POSSIBILE!!?"
Senon lo avete letto consiglio la lettura.
Mi è piaciuto così tanto che, l'aver scoperto una cosa mi ha fatto pensare "COSA?!! MA COME È POSSIBILE!!?"
Senon lo avete letto consiglio la lettura.
September 14, 2018
Ugh, such crap. Austen's dialogue is horrible, the action scenes sometimes make no sense, and the entire storyline exists just to shoehorn a new superhero into the group.
March 17, 2021
Segunda parte para el evento: Avengers Disassembled.
February 6, 2024
2.5/5.0
March 19, 2025
"Avengers: Lionheart of Avalon" es un cómic que logra con éxito su propósito de introducir a una nueva heroína en los Vengadores: la Capitana Britania. Aunque la historia no es muy compleja, destaca por algunos momentos emotivos y sorprendentes. En particular, se lucen las escenas posteriores a la batalla entre el Capitán América y Bola de Trueno, así como el breve enfrentamiento entre Avispa y Yellowjacket. El resto de la trama es sencilla, con pocos altibajos, aunque la "batalla final" resulta algo anticlimática.
En cuanto al dibujo, me ha gustado bastante. Tiene ese estilo moderno de los 2000 que tanto aprecio, y el trabajo de Olivier Coipel es especialmente destacable.
La Calificación para Avengers: Lionheart of Avalon
Historia/Argumento: 3,5
Personajes: 3,5
Arte/Dibujo: 4
Impacto/Originalidad: 3,2
Calificación final: 3,6 ⭐
En cuanto al dibujo, me ha gustado bastante. Tiene ese estilo moderno de los 2000 que tanto aprecio, y el trabajo de Olivier Coipel es especialmente destacable.
La Calificación para Avengers: Lionheart of Avalon
Historia/Argumento: 3,5
Personajes: 3,5
Arte/Dibujo: 4
Impacto/Originalidad: 3,2
Calificación final: 3,6 ⭐
June 29, 2012
Avengers in Britain after the wrecking crew. This is a very emotional storyline, bring your hankies. This is also a good character orientated one, rather than action. A decent read.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews