Avengers: Absolute Vision - Book Two

Avengers (1963) #242-254, Annual #13

by Roger Stern, Bob Hall (Artist), Al Milgrom (Artist)

Collects Avengers (1963) #242-254 & Avengers Annual #13.

The Vision takes command! As many of Earth's Mightiest are whisked away to fight in the Secret Wars, the newly assertive synthezoid seizes the chair. He has changes in store when the heroes return, not least his idea for a new team of Avengers on the West Coast. But there are Dire Wraiths and demons to deal with back East, not to mention an army of Hulks and Thanos' monstrous minions the Blood Brothers! Hercules and Black Knight return to the fold, while Starfox discovers an uncanny connection to the Eternals just in time to face the menace of Maelstrom. But as Vision's true plan unfolds, are even two teams of Avengers enough to handle one of their own?

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

387 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 25, 2014

About the author

Roger Stern is an American comic book author and novelist.

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars. So after finishing vol 1 and now making it through this vol 2, I get why they named these books Absolute Vision. Slowly throughout these issues you see Vision looking like he may be up to something. The other members of the Avengers start noticing something may be up too. Man, Vision really tried to pull some crazy ish after he becomes chairman of the Avengers. Once you find out what he tried to put in motion, you also see that becoming chairman was all part of the plan. While all that was building up, the Avengers adventures continue as we see them take on Arnim Zola, Maelstrom while teaming up with the Eternals, the demon hordes of Surtur and the Blood Brothers. Throughout all these Avengers books I’ve been reading covering about 130 issues or so, Wasp seems like she has a new outfit every issue 😂. Reminds me of Shadow Cat in Claremont’s early Uncanny X-men run. A solid volume from Stern.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

The culmination of Vision's story comes with well trod themes and warnings, but they're worth revisiting.

[Brian Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pace didn’t let up as the Roger Stern/Al Milgrom team drove the series toward the climax of the Vision epic. Captain America and Thor both returned in time for several Avengers to get swept off to the Secret Wars mini-series. Vision, mobile again, seized control of the team. After Secret Wars, She-Hulk had joined the Fantastic Four and, along with Thor, became a part-time member. Vision manipulated Wasp into surrendering the Chairmanship in his favor and then dispatched Hawkeye and Mockingbird to L.A. to establish the team’s West Coast branch. Vision began acting secretive and aggressive as he led the team against the alien Dire Wraiths at a Florida rocket base. In the Annual, a team faced off against Cap’s old foe Arnim Zola. Wasp and Starfox crashed a party given by the Eternal Sersi and got taken to the Eternals’ hidden city, with the rest of the team close behind. Starfox discovered a link to the Eternals as the villainous Maelstrom attacked. Hercules returned as Avengers crossed over into events in Thor’s solo book, as an unnatural winter and demon horde hit New York. The Avengers teamed up with the West Coast team to fight Maelstrom. In the aftermath, Vision contemplated seizing control of Earth’s computers, essentially taking over the world, but at the cost of his individuality. The Black Knight returned just as Vision implemented his plan. As the team, along with Wonder Man, attempted to stop him, Vision realized he couldn’t handle the power he was seizing and almost dissipated entirely, before freeing himself.

The drama never let up in Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 2. Stern did a fantastic job of pacing all the events and of depicting the Vision’s paranoia and descent into monomania. The concern of other members, especially the Scarlet Witch, provided a compelling emotional backdrop. This story set the stage for major developments with the Vision/Witch couple going forward and is a crucial part of the franchise’s history. There were some minor flaws, most glaringly a sub-plot in which Quicksilver learns that Magneto assaulted his and the Witch’s old nanny that went nowhere, but overall it’s a vital stretch. Milgrom did his usual strong, clean work, but departed after the 250th issue to launch the West Coast ongoing. Old friend Bob Hall stepped in to handle art on the final few issues of the Vision story, bringing it to a strong close. The legendary Steve Ditko (with John Byrne inking) is featured in this collection, too. Overall, Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 2 is a highly recommended read.

A version of this review originally appeared on www.thunderalleybcp.com

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid Roger Stern Avengers story from the 80's.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roger Stern's brilliant run on the title kicks into high gear with his long gestating Absolute Vision storyline. The events in the previous book (Absolute Vision Book 1) saw Starfox connecting the comatose Vision to ISAAC, the computer mind which controls his homeworld (Saturn's moon of Titan). ISAAC (Internal Synaptic Anti+/Anionic Computer) has been communicating with The Vision, opening up parts of his synthezoid mind which he had never before utilized, resulting in the chaos which slowly progresses as this year's worth of comics unfolds.

This book starts out where most of The Avengers have been whisked away to the mysterious Battleworld by The Beyonder to fight the original Secret Wars. All 12 issues of that series take place in between 242 and 243. Like every title Marvel published in 1984, the heroes return with many changes apparent. The reasons why are not revealed until the end of that mini-series, so every title had little bits and pieces revealed alongside the main series. While most of The Avengers are gone The Vision assumes role of chairman and cobbles together an ad hoc team of Avengers.

ISAAC is steering The Vision through all of this, advising him to form a second Avengers team to better respond to emergencies, meeting with the President Reagan with the intent of giving The Avengers a cabinet position, and directing him in the construction of a mysterious machine. The Vision decided that he has the knowledge to run the world better than anyone and eliminate all of the world's problems. In the process he alienates his wife, The Scarlet Witch, and almost causes nuclear war.

Backing up a bit, it is fascinating to watch The Vision become slowly unraveled under the pressures of leadership and trying to solve all of the world's problems. The Avengers have many battles while all of this is unfolding, fighting The Dire Wraiths from ROM and an adventure with The Eternals which resulted in a battle with Maelstrom.

This brings us to #249, one of two issues in this book which I bought at the time of release. It was a scorching hot August day in 1984 when my mom sent me to 7-11 to buy her a pack of cigarettes and told me I could buy myself a comic book. This was back in the days when an 11 year old kid could go to the store and say that the cigarettes were for were for your mom and they would sell them to you. Cripes. #249 was the comic that I picked because it had The Avengers and the Fantastic Four in it. Wow!

The contrast of a freak blizzard in the comics and a super hot August afternoon stuck with me through the years. I wasn't reading this title or Thor at the time, but Stern's writing was clear enough that I picked up enough to be blown away. There are a million things going on in this issue, and I read it probably a dozen times that first week. This issue continued in Thor #350, a comic which I still have never read! I know that there is no good reason. It's the Walt Simonson run, which I have read part of, but I am not interested in the inferior recoloring currently available in collected editions and will wait for the material to be properly remastered when the Marvel Masterworks line gets there. Maybe I'll just go and snag a back issue for cheap.

The other issue which I picked up off the spinner rack at 7-11 at the time of release was #252 back in November of 1984. It was one of those days where I had scraped together 60 cents and was spinning the rack around looking for something to read. The cover blurb Who is strong enough to smash Hercules? Hint: There's two of them! reeled me in. Until recently I felt that cover blurbs had lost their zing until my 11 year old son showed me a newer comic he has and read the blurb like it was the coolest thing ever. While the blurb seemed silly to me, I got it. It was important to him, just like this one was to me. There's no way that whatever comic he was referring to is anywhere near as badass as The Avengers battling the Blood Brothers though!

The book ends with the two-part Absolute Vision climax. It all works. Roger Stern strung the threads throughout a year long story without it being dull for a minute. Less capable writers have tried aping this type of thing and milking it for longer, fumbling the ball at the last minute.
The only drawback to this run is Al Milgrom's workmanlike artwork. I enjoyed his art immensely as a kid, but as an adult I have to adjust to it. He is good when paired with a heavy handed inker like Joe Sinnott, but pair him with an inferior inker and the results are pedestrian. Once you dig into the book and the spirit of the era it becomes less jarring. The Annual had an interesting art pair: Steve Ditko with inking by John Byrne. Ditko was past his prime here but was still doing decent work. Byrne added polish where necessary and infused his strengths here and there.

There is no reason to not own this material, folks. Stern is on the Mount Rushmore of great Avengers writers, alongside Roy Thomas, Kurt Busiek, and Steve Englehart.

[Cody Wilson]

Roger Stern’s run on Avengers starts to hit its stride in this collection. In part, this reflects the fact that Marvel’s whole line was firing on all cylinders at the close of the Bronze Age. Given their interconnectivity, most Marvel titles are elevated when the flagship books are consistently high-quality and operating with a cohesive, big-picture vision. In these issues, Stern and artist Al Milgrom tie into the line-wide Secret Wars crossover with the Vision assuming leadership in the absence of several core Avengers. This shift also sparks the formation of the West Coast Avengers, establishing a lasting tradition of B-teams operating alongside the primary roster. (While the California-based team appear extensively in these pages, this collection leaves out the excellent miniseries in which the team truly comes together.) This volume also includes a fun tie-in to the Surtur Saga happening around this time in Walt Simonson’s Thor and a twisty, exciting plotline that ties into the Wraith War in ROM Spaceknight.

While the series benefits from crossovers with the wider Marvel universe, Stern deserves full credit for his more-than-capable scripting. He has a knack for writing team books, giving each team member sufficient page space whether in fight scenes or dramatic beats (such as Monica Rambeau’s decision to reveal her secret identity to her parents or Janet Van Dyne’s vacation in the Caribbean). Team books are a balancing act as writers must constantly juggle various subplots and maintain an interesting group dynamic even beyond check-ins with individual team members. In modern comics, this sort of title is a lost art, but Stern makes it look easy.

Despite my praise, this collection is far from perfect. Starfox continues to plague the book as perhaps my least favorite member of any Avengers roster. The team spends far more time fighting the villain Maelstrom than they should. Stern’s exposition is sometimes a bit much. But most of my qualms with this title come down to Milgrom’s art. His draftsmanship is uninspiring, and his awkward layouts are no saving grace. He can pull off a straightforward action sequence but that’s about it. Joe Sinnott’s thick inks sometimes elevate Milgrom’s breakdowns and other times look rushed. After inking top-tier talents like Jack Kirby and John Buscema, Sinnott gives the impression of being less invested when working over Milgrom. A short ten-page sequence inked by Akin and Garvey offers a glimpse of a different, superior finishing approach to Milgrom’s work, with the inkers investing significant effort in refining his anatomy and rendering. That said, their contribution is brief and likely unsustainable for a monthly book, especially when such detailed finishes might be better applied to a penciller who arguably warrants them more.

Fortunately, Milgrom doesn’t pencil the two major highlights in this volume. The long-simmering Absolute Vision storyline comes to a climax in this volume as Bob Hall assumes penciling duties and immediately elevates the series. Hall’s sense of anatomy and page composition are heads and shoulders above Milgrom’s. To bring about world peace, the Vision attempts to take over of the world’s computers, and Hall brings an innovative, stylistic flair to the character’s journey through circuit boards and computer machinery that I doubt Milgrom could have pulled off. A visual highlight of this collection is the Vision’s conflict with digitized villain Quasimodo. This story is appropriately climactic, Roger Stern’s first “big swing” on the book. The writer tackles ideas around authoritarianism in superhero comics upon which later series like Squadron Supreme (also drawn by Hall) and Watchmen would build.

The other highlight in this volume is Avengers Annual #13, which is a strong contender for my favorite ever single issue of Avengers. Nothing especially momentous happens, as the plot largely follows the team fighting a bunch of Hulk clones and goofy Nazi scientist Arnim Zola. But the magic is in this story’s execution. Legendary artist Steve Ditko pencils the project, and while his later Marvel is often less inspired than his art in the 60s, he brings his A-game to this story. The inks by artist John Byrne certainly help, as Byrne is undoubtedly a Ditko fan and adeptly draws out the kooky charm in Ditko’s work while shoring up some of his weaknesses (such as in depicting women). Every page is beautiful to behold with two generations of artist works in perfect sync. Add in a characteristically clever script by Stern, and the whole story is a wild romp.

Fans of Bronze Age Marvel will likely find a lot to enjoy in this second volume of Absolute Vision. Frankly, I recommend fans skip the first volume and start reading Stern’s Avengers run here.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of little plot threads from this book as well as its predecessor, Absolute Vision: Book 1, all come to a head here in such a fulfilling way. I just love how Roger Stern writes these characters.

Sadly, She-Hulk leaves to join the Fantastic Four, but perhaps the Black Knight is back for a while? Hercules also returns and thankfully he's a lot more chill than he used to be. He's less of the grating blowhard he was back in the earlier issues.

Like the first book, the villains here aren't exactly the most exciting. There's a crossover with a ROM event, but ROM himself doesn't show up (thank god, otherwise Marvel wouldn't have been able to reprint the issues!) as well as an enjoyable single-issue Thor crossover involving the Casket of Ancient Winters. The Eternals also show up, bringing the villain Maelstrom in tow. Maelstrom isn't too interesting by himself, but his sidekick Deathurge is weirdly fascinating. Starfox gets more story here too, which is nice, as he's descended from Eternals himself. Lastly, Hawkeye is sent to form a Los Angeles-based branch of the Avengers (more Avengers for us!) and ends up recruiting his wife Mockingbird and Tony Stark-replacement James Rhodes to the team as well as bringing underrated heroes Tigra and Wonder Man back to the fold. Good times all around.

As usual, it's not the main villains of the stories that make this book great. It's the subplots and small interactions between team members that make these stories shine.

[Tony Romine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly filler comics that have little moments that eventually add to the penultimate 2 issue story arc. For real fun they include an issue that starts a story arc that continues in Thor's comic series, but don't include those concluding issues. There's some nonsense involving the aliens from that terrible ROM series. Oh yeah and Secret Wars happens like 2 issues into this, so there's even more confusion if you don't read them. Also boring, convoluted Eternals nonsense that are a slog to get through. Vision creates the West Coast Avengers, but once again whatever happens in those comics you won't find out here, you'll just randomly see them pop up to help out the East Coast Avengers (what... that's where they are! It's totally not a dumb idea to name your team after what region you're located in!).


Lots of random early 80s Marvel heroes and villains that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but just don't hold up all these years later. I kind of like Starfox, but I mean he's on the top tier superhero team in the world and let's just say I don't understand why they'd throw Hawkeye into the Avengers b-team, but let Starfox hang with Captain America. Overall though, it's not awful or anything, but it's not essential reading.

[Rexhurne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vision has the exact same idea here as Ultron had in the Age of Ultron MCU movie. Peace in our time and infiltrate/take over all computers on earth. It's actually more interesting here than when Ultron did it. Instead of destroying the world to get the so desired peace, Vision wants to play god and shepherd over humanity. In doing so he is sacrificing his marriage to Scarlet Witch and his human body and existence. They don't 'defeat' him in the old fashioned way, instead they try to convince Vision that he doesn't have to do this and why playing god is wrong. Philosophical themes in an action comic like the Avengers are rare, so even if it's a bit shallow, i take it! It's a better plot than the Ultron movie, even though it's only two issues. The other issues have nothing to do with this twoparter at all, they are mostly single issue villain of the week business as usual stuff. So making a collection of this (two books no less) feels weird to me.

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visione termina il lungo processo di autoriparazione e prende il controllo dei Vendicatori. Tra la fondazione degli West Coast Avengers e la lotta contro minacce quali i Dire Whraits, l'incontro con gli Eterni, la lotta contro Surtur e i suoi demoni di fiamma al fianco di Thor e Beta Ray Bill si arriva allo scontro con Maelstolm nel numero anniversario 250, a cui segue la vera presa di potere di Visione, deciso a migliorare il mondo. I Vendicatori lo fermeranno come si ferma un amico sulla via sbagliata, parlandoci assieme, ragionando con lui e portandolo alla comprensione che ciò che sta facendo non è la cosa migliore ne per lui ne per gli altri.
Storie molto gradevoli, non sempre ben disegnate, ma nel complesso mature e che, specie le ultime quattro, hanno retto ottimamente lo scorrere dei decenni.
Veramente bravo Roger Stern.

[ISMOTU · Rating 3 out of 5]

The payoff of the Absolute Vision storyline still takes a while as Roger Stern weaves this subplot into the forefront. Vision's scheme unfolded slowly over many months in and around other goings on with the Avengers like "Secret Wars" and a major storyline in "The Mighty Thor." We see the Eternals and the roster gets shaken up all ably illustrated mainly by Al Milgrom with stints by Bob Hall, Steve Ditko, and Carmine Infantino.

[Jdetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

More solid work from Roger Stern on the title, although his best issues are yet to come.

[Elliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fitting conclusion to a fairly interesting Vision storyline.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the weird structure of this book, the Absolute Vision is just a subplot carried through until the final two issues, I found it really enjoyable. Yeah the idea of collecting this storyline into a book, over two trades no less, does seem like a money grab on Marvel's part, but it didn't really matter. It's well worth reading.
The basic plot is that the Vision has been without a body for reason covered in Book 1. He gets his body back and takes over leader position of the Avengers from the Wasp. Everyone is happy to have him back, but it seems like Vision has something shady up his sleeve. We know this because just like the Simpsons explained a person with shifty eyes is clearly evil, a person in a comic who hugs someone and smiles behind there back is evil. Because, comics.
The team line-up changes through out the book, but I was glad to see some of my favorites, like Captain America and She-Hulk, and some new faces like Starfox and the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel. I don't think I've ever read a story with these two in it, but I really enjoyed them. It was cool to see the team roster change as the situation demanded it. The Avengers have a set limit of only six members, but they keep certain characters in reserve, like Thor or She-Hulk. I think this actually improved some of the stories since the Avengers can't just beat up everyone in every story, like Thor would, but when they really need the muscle they can call in a guy like Hercules.
This book certainly takes place in a very different Marvel universe then the one we have now. And what I mean by that is that the story telling is very different. In an annual contained in this book, Arim Zola creates an army of mindless Hulks for the Avengers to take on. If this book had come out today that would be a three month cross over event with it's own mini-series, and several tie-in's with other series. Here it's just the annual though. Later on the book actually explains why the Avengers have to take on a problem alone, because the other super teams aren't around. See they were actually busy in there own book, so for the sake of continuity, they couldn't help out. It was a real change from the Marvel Now Avengers books I've been reading.
The art in this book is pretty good. Most of it is done by Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott. The result is a nice thick black line. I really like Joe Sinnott's inking style. It was helpful that Joe spent so much time inking Jack Kirby's work because the Eternals show up and Joe helps to give them a nice Kirby feel, without trying to flat out rip Kirby off. There's also a issue drawn by Ditko and inked by John Byrne. Did someone just say, "Hell yeah!"?
The book also contains some really nice extra features. One of the most helpful is insert's of what was going on in other books at the time. This help to explain some of the story you don't get here, since it took place out of the Avengers regular title. There's also some pages from the official Marvel Handbook and I was really glad there was since I had no idea what Captain Marvel and Starfox's powers were. There's even some fun diagram stuff where you can nerd out and see exactly how Hawkeye's quiver works!
I would say that the biggest down fall of the book is that is just doesn't seem to deliver on the idea of the book. I don't want to spoil it for you, but the idea of the "Absolute Vision" is built up over the whole book, but done away with really quickly. There's also a part where "Absolute Vision" has to fight against one of the lamest villains ever, Quasimodo, because a hero has to punch someone, and it's pretty disappointing. It almost seems like it was thrown in as padding. And, as I said before, this does not seem like a storyline that needed two whole books to collect. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading this a lot, but I think if it had been given a different name, and not played up the whole Vision thing in the promotion of the book, it would have been a much stronger book. Or, at least a book that didn't have to deal with my nerd nit picking.
Overall, a really good and fun read. It's got great storylines, great characters, great art, and some cool bonus features. A few minor problems, but not enough to discount the book. I would definitely recommend this.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Avengers perfection. Can't believe I've waited this long to read Stern's Avengers. Classic material. Joe Sinnott's inking is bliss on paper. Loved reading this book.