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Avengers A.I. (Collected Editions)
Avengers A.I., Volume 2: 12,000 A.D.
The war between organic and artificial intelligence destroys the world of tomorrow! Dimitrios, the vengeful scion of Hank Pym and Ultron, downloads death and destructi on across the planet in his quest to eradicate civilizati on. The Vision and his squad team up with the Uncanny Avengers to rescue humankind from the precipice of extinction! Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. debuts their elite Robot Hunter Squad - with an android member you'll have to see to believe! The consequences reach far, far into the future - all the way to 12,000 AD! Experience the Marvel Universe of the 130th century! Fight alongside the Avengers Empire on the edge of a black hole! Witness Dimitrios' final gambit against all of creation! Artificial intelligence never dies, it just gets smarter! Upgrade or die! Plus: an Inhumanity tie-in, guest-starring Daredevil! COLLECTING: AVENGERS A.I. 7.INH, 8-12
136 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2014
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86 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 21, 2015
3.5 stars.
I enjoyed this more than the first volume, mainly because it made perfect sense to me.
A genius idea by the bad guy, smarter than 90% of schemes usually seen in comics.
Oh and there's an Avengers Voltron robot. Mind. Blown. Holy awesome.
I take away stars for the future flash forward, because yawn. But still, there's lots of good here, and Hank Pym with Cap is nice to see. Especially when everyone else is awestruck by Cap, and Hank says "you realize I was an Avenger BEFORE him? Only 3 days...but still"
Doombot still has awesome lines, and Vision is bang on. I look forward to more from the characters, but the series is sadly done.
Even the Inhumanity tie in was decent! Daredevil and Doombot.
Only 2 volumes, 12 issues, worth your time, also check out Mike's great reviews on them.
I enjoyed this more than the first volume, mainly because it made perfect sense to me.
A genius idea by the bad guy, smarter than 90% of schemes usually seen in comics.
Oh and there's an Avengers Voltron robot. Mind. Blown. Holy awesome.
I take away stars for the future flash forward, because yawn. But still, there's lots of good here, and Hank Pym with Cap is nice to see. Especially when everyone else is awestruck by Cap, and Hank says "you realize I was an Avenger BEFORE him? Only 3 days...but still"
Doombot still has awesome lines, and Vision is bang on. I look forward to more from the characters, but the series is sadly done.
Even the Inhumanity tie in was decent! Daredevil and Doombot.
Only 2 volumes, 12 issues, worth your time, also check out Mike's great reviews on them.
August 30, 2015
The obligatory Inhumanity crossover issue was fine, inconsequential. Good corporate citizen Sam Humphries was for putting that together. Yay.
The story gets going again and is suitably original (or at least the story doesn't do anything that feels like a ripoff of other scifi stuff I've seen or read - not that I can rely on my ever-weakening memory. I'm getting so bad that the weekly recaps between TV episodes are absolutely essential to me having any clue what's going on, and if I read a comics trade for a run every six months I'm generally doomed to miss all the recent-continuity jokes and subplots. It sucks, and I wish everyone just assumed their readers/viewers were Leonard from Memento, but that's just the price I pay for so much great pop culture content to keep my lizard brain occupied).
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the scifi AI-microverse setting. Yes, that's some good shit. I like anything that makes me think, "wow, the creators must've really thought long and hard about what life would be like under the set of weirdo assumptions they've made for this universe they created."
When Vision figures out he doesn't need to obey real-world physics (OK, a little Matrix for you) that's cool...
...and when the human Avengers come through and then pull a Voltron mega-build, I just about peed myself. (which could've been super-awkward since I've been riding the bus to work lately, and I'm doing 90% of my comics reading on the bus instead of in bed where peeing myself is a completely acceptable occurrence. [Hi Sara! Wondered what that smell was, didn't you?])
It gets into the crazy hyper-accelerated AI world where beings are bloated masses, crazy spikey nutjobs and interesting silly distractions. Feels like a Gathering of the Juggalos, from what I'm told. And then things get downright experimental - rapidly-shifting points of view and timelines, existential angst for robots and AIs, and a climax and villain motivation that felt forced, almost made up. Which is weird I know, considering this is fiction, but it felt like this was pulled out of last-minute ideas rather than a poetic vision of life inside an AI. Couldn't really connect, and what with Hank repeating himself in the last panels, I thought this series fell flat in the end. Shame, for all its good ideas and intentions. Maybe the loose art didn't help me out either. Gonna have to cram my head into an MRI while-re-reading this, to find out exactly how I responded.
I'll leave you with this unique...concept:
The story gets going again and is suitably original (or at least the story doesn't do anything that feels like a ripoff of other scifi stuff I've seen or read - not that I can rely on my ever-weakening memory. I'm getting so bad that the weekly recaps between TV episodes are absolutely essential to me having any clue what's going on, and if I read a comics trade for a run every six months I'm generally doomed to miss all the recent-continuity jokes and subplots. It sucks, and I wish everyone just assumed their readers/viewers were Leonard from Memento, but that's just the price I pay for so much great pop culture content to keep my lizard brain occupied).
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the scifi AI-microverse setting. Yes, that's some good shit. I like anything that makes me think, "wow, the creators must've really thought long and hard about what life would be like under the set of weirdo assumptions they've made for this universe they created."
When Vision figures out he doesn't need to obey real-world physics (OK, a little Matrix for you) that's cool...
...and when the human Avengers come through and then pull a Voltron mega-build, I just about peed myself. (which could've been super-awkward since I've been riding the bus to work lately, and I'm doing 90% of my comics reading on the bus instead of in bed where peeing myself is a completely acceptable occurrence. [Hi Sara! Wondered what that smell was, didn't you?])
It gets into the crazy hyper-accelerated AI world where beings are bloated masses, crazy spikey nutjobs and interesting silly distractions. Feels like a Gathering of the Juggalos, from what I'm told. And then things get downright experimental - rapidly-shifting points of view and timelines, existential angst for robots and AIs, and a climax and villain motivation that felt forced, almost made up. Which is weird I know, considering this is fiction, but it felt like this was pulled out of last-minute ideas rather than a poetic vision of life inside an AI. Couldn't really connect, and what with Hank repeating himself in the last panels, I thought this series fell flat in the end. Shame, for all its good ideas and intentions. Maybe the loose art didn't help me out either. Gonna have to cram my head into an MRI while-re-reading this, to find out exactly how I responded.
I'll leave you with this unique...concept:
February 8, 2015
First X-men: Legacy
Then Dark Avengers (Jeff Parker's Thunderbolts)
and Now Avengers A.I.
Recently, I have been reading a lot of trades that are the final volumes in really unique, interesting series.
Everyone is talking about DC right now, and how they are have chosen to focus "more on story instead of continuity". This has been the model for many a Marvel book, only having a single issue tie in with a major event, while spending the rest of the series telling a story with a planned beginning, Middle and End.
This trade actually did feature one of those crossover issues. In the first issue, we see the fallout from the Avengers event "Infinity", which leads to another event called "Inhumanity". In that same issue, Daredevil stops by, since Hank Pym had made an appearance in his book, written by Mark Waid. Talk about a bunch of different story beats packed into one issue, and yet Sam Humphries does an excellent job of tying this all together and actually telling a story with an emotional impact.
I will miss this series, and its conclusion does feel a bit rushed, but those are the consequences for taking a chance on an ambitious title, Doom (bot) ed into early cancellation.
Then Dark Avengers (Jeff Parker's Thunderbolts)
and Now Avengers A.I.
Recently, I have been reading a lot of trades that are the final volumes in really unique, interesting series.
Everyone is talking about DC right now, and how they are have chosen to focus "more on story instead of continuity". This has been the model for many a Marvel book, only having a single issue tie in with a major event, while spending the rest of the series telling a story with a planned beginning, Middle and End.
This trade actually did feature one of those crossover issues. In the first issue, we see the fallout from the Avengers event "Infinity", which leads to another event called "Inhumanity". In that same issue, Daredevil stops by, since Hank Pym had made an appearance in his book, written by Mark Waid. Talk about a bunch of different story beats packed into one issue, and yet Sam Humphries does an excellent job of tying this all together and actually telling a story with an emotional impact.
I will miss this series, and its conclusion does feel a bit rushed, but those are the consequences for taking a chance on an ambitious title, Doom (bot) ed into early cancellation.
August 31, 2014
Great combination of story and art (although Araujo's cute little button noses on every character were starting to get a bit much). This is one series that ended too soon (or maybe it ended right when it should have, having told the story it set out to tell?). Really enjoyed this.
August 13, 2018
Reprints Avengers A.I. #7-12 (February 2014-June 2014). Dimitrios has attacked the Earth, and as the Avengers try to deal with the artificial intelligence living within the Diamond, S.H.I. E.L.D. has recruited Monica Chang to lead a new squad intent on stopping the artificial intelligence threat. As the Avengers battle Dimitrios in the present day, Alexis is about to discover that Dimitrios has long-term plans that could come to fruition in the year 12,000 A.D.
Written by Sam Humphries, Avengers A.I. Volume 2: 12,000 A.D. is a team-book that spun out of the Avengers: Age of Ultron series. Following Avengers: A.I. Volume 1: Human After All, the series features art by André Lima Araújo. Avengers A.I. #7 ties in with the Inhumanity storyline.
The Avengers began to lose me when Brian Michael Bendis took over. By the time Avengers: Age of Ultron rolled around, I had stopped even buying the “big event” series because I had no concept of what was going on, who the characters were, and why it even really mattered since Marvel constantly rewrote the story aspects they didn’t like. I got copies of Avengers A.I. and read the title…and was mildly entertained.
The series has a weird flow and never seems to completely develop. I don’t believe it was intended to be a twelve issue limited series, but it also feels like it does climax at the twelfth issue (and the Inhumanity stand-alone issue doesn’t help the storytelling though I did like a little more development of Doombot). Despite a solid conclusion, I didn’t feel do enough to make the title feel complete.
Part of the reason is the cast of characters. I always like Jocasta (who became a supporting character this volume), but the rest of the characters I don’t feel much of a connection to. The fact they are machines doesn’t necessarily hurt that idea, but it also makes them even more indestructible than most superheroes who never can seem to die. The team needs a heart, and I don’t feel it has one. If it had focused on Alexis from the start of the series into this volume, it might have worked better…but the “balanced” approach to storytelling left most of the cast half-baked in a team that doesn’t really even seem to be much of a team.
Avengers A.I. is another average title from Marvel. If I were starting out in comics, I don’t feel that the art or characters would compel me to want to buy the issue so read more. Marvel is so flooded with characters now, that it seems like they no longer cannibalize failing series for ideas or popular or important characters. With this treatment it feels like the events of Avengers A.I. have no consequences or importance…which make it hard for you to care about.
Written by Sam Humphries, Avengers A.I. Volume 2: 12,000 A.D. is a team-book that spun out of the Avengers: Age of Ultron series. Following Avengers: A.I. Volume 1: Human After All, the series features art by André Lima Araújo. Avengers A.I. #7 ties in with the Inhumanity storyline.
The Avengers began to lose me when Brian Michael Bendis took over. By the time Avengers: Age of Ultron rolled around, I had stopped even buying the “big event” series because I had no concept of what was going on, who the characters were, and why it even really mattered since Marvel constantly rewrote the story aspects they didn’t like. I got copies of Avengers A.I. and read the title…and was mildly entertained.
The series has a weird flow and never seems to completely develop. I don’t believe it was intended to be a twelve issue limited series, but it also feels like it does climax at the twelfth issue (and the Inhumanity stand-alone issue doesn’t help the storytelling though I did like a little more development of Doombot). Despite a solid conclusion, I didn’t feel do enough to make the title feel complete.
Part of the reason is the cast of characters. I always like Jocasta (who became a supporting character this volume), but the rest of the characters I don’t feel much of a connection to. The fact they are machines doesn’t necessarily hurt that idea, but it also makes them even more indestructible than most superheroes who never can seem to die. The team needs a heart, and I don’t feel it has one. If it had focused on Alexis from the start of the series into this volume, it might have worked better…but the “balanced” approach to storytelling left most of the cast half-baked in a team that doesn’t really even seem to be much of a team.
Avengers A.I. is another average title from Marvel. If I were starting out in comics, I don’t feel that the art or characters would compel me to want to buy the issue so read more. Marvel is so flooded with characters now, that it seems like they no longer cannibalize failing series for ideas or popular or important characters. With this treatment it feels like the events of Avengers A.I. have no consequences or importance…which make it hard for you to care about.
August 6, 2019
The series had potential, but it ended up being disappointing.
We open this volume with what I assume is an editorially mandated Inhumanity crossover, guest starring Daredevil. Daredevil's super-hearing is used twice in the story, and yet the freshly-hatched inhuman sneaks up on him. What?
Then we get back to the actual story. In the first volume, I liked the debate over A.I. personhood. A number of artificial intelligences have been a part of the Avengers or other superhero teams. I would love to see this concept explored more. What I did not like in the first volume was the Diamond, the virtual world of the A.I.s. A 100% A.I. driven world would not need visual reference, A.I.s would not need bodies and streets. They wouldn't create the Sprawl, the Matrix or the Oasis. That's all for human reference.
So, naturally, most of this book took place in the Diamond. Some other Avengers join Pym and his A.I. team. And they treat the Diamond like a souped-up Matrix, where what they can do is limited only by their imagination! No, you jackasses, in this world you would be limited by what you can code.
Then we get the climax, which is annoyingly similar to Thor: The Last Days of Midgard, which was published the same year. In the far future, humanity as we know it is gone, but the A.I.s are still fighting to stop Demetrios. We bounce between the future and the present where the Avengers are fighting to keep that future from happening. And, just like in Thor, there's Galactus in the far future.
I guess the question is, did the writer get you emotionally invested in the new characters of Monica Chang and Alexis? If you like them, you may care about the ending. Me, I was not grabbed. I don't dislike them, but I don't really care.
We open this volume with what I assume is an editorially mandated Inhumanity crossover, guest starring Daredevil. Daredevil's super-hearing is used twice in the story, and yet the freshly-hatched inhuman sneaks up on him. What?
Then we get back to the actual story. In the first volume, I liked the debate over A.I. personhood. A number of artificial intelligences have been a part of the Avengers or other superhero teams. I would love to see this concept explored more. What I did not like in the first volume was the Diamond, the virtual world of the A.I.s. A 100% A.I. driven world would not need visual reference, A.I.s would not need bodies and streets. They wouldn't create the Sprawl, the Matrix or the Oasis. That's all for human reference.
So, naturally, most of this book took place in the Diamond. Some other Avengers join Pym and his A.I. team. And they treat the Diamond like a souped-up Matrix, where what they can do is limited only by their imagination! No, you jackasses, in this world you would be limited by what you can code.
Then we get the climax, which is annoyingly similar to Thor: The Last Days of Midgard, which was published the same year. In the far future, humanity as we know it is gone, but the A.I.s are still fighting to stop Demetrios. We bounce between the future and the present where the Avengers are fighting to keep that future from happening. And, just like in Thor, there's Galactus in the far future.
I guess the question is, did the writer get you emotionally invested in the new characters of Monica Chang and Alexis? If you like them, you may care about the ending. Me, I was not grabbed. I don't dislike them, but I don't really care.
April 11, 2022
Primarily, I got this series and read it to find out what happened to Victor La Mancha before Runaways, Vol. 1: Find Your Way Home. It was a decently fun story. Unfortunately none of the characters particularly endeared themselves to me.
January 23, 2019
Wow! This book was intensely bad. I can't imagine how this was made. The new characters created here are not interesting or likable in any way. The villain, who essentially is there for the entire run, is a boring, techno babble filled cliche. The well established characters don't act like themselves. It was atrocious. The art was decent at best but just a terrible plot. Not sad this book ended here.
September 29, 2019
My only real gripe with the second half of Avengers AI is how rushed the resolution feels. The entire denouement is only a couple pages. But on the whole it continues the first book's wild inventiveness in visuals and set pieces, and unique take on the AI/human relationship. It's a fun ride and a nice (relatively) self-contained story.
February 24, 2019
This one is better than the first but still whole paragraphs of wordy dialogue that I ended up skipping over. There are some things to like about the book and it was faster paced than the first book, but it's still not great.
November 19, 2020
What a rushed and boring ending. This series is at its best when it's being silly and fun, but even with time travel elements and giant mech fights it never really embraces that. It's fine, it's pretty inoffensive, but outside of the Doombot/Victor friendship there's not much else worth mentioning.
September 26, 2025
This story didn't really sit well with me. It felt like the B-team even with Captain America. The danger of AI could be a real thing but we have yet to figure that. It's good to think about it though.
November 17, 2018
This volume is even more unfocused than the first. There's just so much potential here and I wish it was being realized.
December 9, 2018
These comic was totally original.
June 10, 2021
And then it got silly. Ok, to be fair, comics, and also it's not like it wasn't silly to begin with. Also, it's not like I was disappointed by any of it.
September 18, 2016
Revised review: Added to All Time Favorite Shelf - A brilliant work of genius that needs to find its audience. If the first volume left you baffled, the second volume will gobsmack you. Yes, you need to read this.
Gonzo, audacious brilliance! The smartest, cleverest, funniest, wholly original, hard SF Avengers title in years and years. Big love for this little masterpiece of super-herodom. Accessible. You don't need to be an Avengers fanatic to enjoy this book. Bright, bold and colorful and full of hope, friendship and adventure.
Lovely, very lovely, quirky artwork. Something like the genius artwork of the late Seth (Green Lantern: Willworld) Fisher.
This ones up there with the best super-hero comics of the last few years, Morrison and Quietly's ALL STAR SUPERMAN, Darwyn Cooke's THE NEW FRONTIER or Heinberg and Cheung's YOUNG AVENGERS & CHILDREN'S CRUSADE.
This 12-issue series should appeal to almost anyone interested in graphic novels.
Gonzo, audacious brilliance! The smartest, cleverest, funniest, wholly original, hard SF Avengers title in years and years. Big love for this little masterpiece of super-herodom. Accessible. You don't need to be an Avengers fanatic to enjoy this book. Bright, bold and colorful and full of hope, friendship and adventure.
Lovely, very lovely, quirky artwork. Something like the genius artwork of the late Seth (Green Lantern: Willworld) Fisher.
This ones up there with the best super-hero comics of the last few years, Morrison and Quietly's ALL STAR SUPERMAN, Darwyn Cooke's THE NEW FRONTIER or Heinberg and Cheung's YOUNG AVENGERS & CHILDREN'S CRUSADE.
This 12-issue series should appeal to almost anyone interested in graphic novels.
May 28, 2015
As with the rest of Avengers A.I. this volume was a lot of fun. It's relatively separate from the rest of the Marvel universe (though this volume does cross over with Daredevil, the Inhumans, and the Uncanny Avengers), and there is some fun humor in the relationships between characters. As a fan of the Runaways, it is nice to see Victor in action, and the weird relationship he has with Doombot is amusing, as well. This does go into an odd alternate future, though it really doesn't end up happening, so I guess that's just sort of filler. Still, there was a lot to ponder here, and this volume lived up to the first one. It's a shame this didn't carry on from here, since it was an interesting and thought-provoking series.
August 14, 2014
When there are X amount of Avengers books on the stands, it's vitally important that each of them justifies their own existence and stands on its own. Avengers AI is a wonderful book that looks at some interesting questions of what it is to be alive, as well as the idea of religion and what life truly is, whilst telling an epic (if truncated due to the series' cancellation) story that is well worth reading. It is an infectious series that can't help but make you smile, and the artwork by André Araujo is expressive and beautiful - I expect to see him on another ongoing series very soon.
September 30, 2014
Sam Humphries - writer
Andre Lima Araujo - illustrator
"Let any who survive to hear this message know -- The Avengers never backed down. For ten thousand years we held Dmitrios and the Machine Imperium at bay. Human, Machine, Mutant. God, Kree, Inhuman, Skrull. None faltered. We stood united in the face of unimaginable horrors. We remained brave and resilient, until the end of space and time. The Avengers never back down --"
Great, great stuff. Highly recommended.
5/5
Andre Lima Araujo - illustrator
"Let any who survive to hear this message know -- The Avengers never backed down. For ten thousand years we held Dmitrios and the Machine Imperium at bay. Human, Machine, Mutant. God, Kree, Inhuman, Skrull. None faltered. We stood united in the face of unimaginable horrors. We remained brave and resilient, until the end of space and time. The Avengers never back down --"
Great, great stuff. Highly recommended.
5/5
June 26, 2017
Not bad, but not enjoyable. Kind of a Matrix clone in a number of ways. But the story of the Bald Parrot was a nice surprise. Really the writing was pretty good and the art. It just didn't seem to have any heart. There were no characters that we were learning more about. No history to uncover. With success it would all just go away. Okay ideas though.
October 11, 2021
Trochę gorsza historia niż w poprzednim tomie (może dlatego, że mniej jest Doombota), ale finalnie efekt i tak niezły, biorąc pod uwagę, że nie często trafiają się podobne tematy, czyli walka z cyfrowym zagrożeniem poprzez przechodzenie do tego świata i kopanie zero-jedynkowych tyłków w cyberprzestrzeni. Tylko szkoda, że to wszystko nie wygląda ładniej...
December 21, 2015
My review of this book can be summed up in one word, "Meh". The story is just kind of boring frankly. The art is average at best. I read this and said to myself, "This is why I only really get excited about comics when I'm reading an Image book." (Words I never thought I'd say.)
January 31, 2015
Individual issues on marvel unlimited
November 27, 2014
Clever. Funny. Good looking. Doombot. The God Damn Doombot is greatest. 6/5
July 25, 2015
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
July 19, 2017
A rare instance of me liking the second part of a 2-part series more than the first. The issue guest-starring Daredevil stood out for me as the best of a strong bunch.
November 25, 2017
The team faces Dimitrios both in the present, future and in the Diamond.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews