Avengers: Galactic Storm, Vol. 2

Avengers (1963) #347

by Bob Harras, Len Kaminski, Mark Gruenwald

One galaxy's heroes are another's villains, and two galaxies' worth of them are in head-on collision - with the Avengers in the middle of a war whose repercussions will haunt them for years! The events that split and shook the Earth's Mightiest Heroes to their foundations end here, and intergalactic boundaries aren't the only lines being drawn! Plus: The tri-galaxy war devastates the Earth far more literally when we see "What If the Avengers Lost Operation: Galactic Storm?"! Collects Iron Man #279, Thor #446, Captain America #400-401, Avengers West Coast #82, Quasar #34-35, Wonder Man #9, Avengers #347, What If? #55-56.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Fiction, Comic Book

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 13, 2006

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

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

All'epoca questo cross-over fu criticato da parte di chi aveva fette di salame spesse due dita sugli occhi. Certo il titolo richiama la cronaca dell'epoca, ma la storia fa altro. La storia, che parte dalla vecchia idea di una guerra interstellare, affronta diversi argomenti sempre di attualità, si pone domande e non da risposte nette.
Perché intervenire in faccende altrui? Qual è il comportamento etico da seguire in casi borderline come quello della guerra? Specie quando sembra che non ci riguardi? E quando scopriamo che ci riguarda? Fino a che punto e con quali mezzi è lecito intervenire?
Al di là delle scazzottate e degli scontri, quando scopri che le cose non sono così semplici come sembrano, come fai cambiare idea a chi oramai si odia solamente? Quanto è moralmente ambiguo accettare un genocidio pur di porre fine alla guerra, e perché?

Le riflessioni che gli autori hanno proposto tra le righe vanno ben oltre l'intervento americano contro Saddam Hussein e la sua invasione del Kuwait del 1990; esse sono rivolte anche alla seconda guerra mondiale e alla sua conclusione, nonché a diversi conflitti sempre attuali, come quello Israelo-Palestinese, o se vogliamo, anche al revanscismo russo di Putin. Non era solo un fumetto, ma un racconto ben scritto e per tutto sommato anche ben disegnato nonostante a troppe mani e per questo amncante di una omogeneicità di tratto che non avrebbe guastato.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about the "Galactic Storm" crossover across all the Avengers series in the early 90s. It was great to read a galaxy-spanning adventure with lots of interesting fights, character interactions, and alien encounters -- very much in the Avengers tradition, and a storyline that set the tone for many space adventures yet to come. But this is one of those seminal storylines of the 90s when heroes stopped acting so much like heroes. The Avengers have been manipulated into being pawns of a cosmic plot, and have to make difficult choices.... but they're impulsive, easily angered, terrible at diplomacy, and ultimately torn apart by how they react to a cosmic atrocity. A "What If?" two-parter at the end tries to validate their choices, but takes things a bit far. The best part of re-reading this storyline was that it reminded me how much I liked character Quasar at this point in comic history: a hero who tried to mediate conflicts, talk things through, consult with others and do research before making sweeping choices... a shame he wasn't more of a leader in this storyline. Things might have turned out much differently for the Avengers and for comics.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume continues and concludes the crossover event. This volume doesn’t hold together quite as well as the first volume, but it still has surprisingly powerful chapters.

Iron Man #279 - The core of this chapter is Iron Man vs Ronan the Accuser, Goliath also frees the Avengers from Kree prison, but the core is Iron Man’s struggle which almost leads to his activating his armor’s self-destruct mechanism. Things are not looking good.

Thor #446 - The Kree Starforce vs the Shi’ar Imperial Guard vs the Avengers, and inexperienced Thor is making everything worse.

Captain America #400 - An anniversary issue in the midst of this huge crossover event? Yikes! Actually it’s pretty good with Captain America questioning himself and his standards.

Avengers West Coast #82 - This one doesn’t work at on its own, as it either tying up story lines, starting new ones, or just getting various characters from point J to point L via point K in this massively complicated crossover. There’s a lot of pieces and a lot of elements that need to get moved along to keep things moving smoothly.

Quasar #34 - Another chapter that all about keeping the pieces moving in the right direction, but it also brings Binary (Ms. Marvel 1, Captain Marvel 4) back to earth and sets things up for Quasar’s Operation Galactic Storm Aftermath arc.

Wonder Man #9 - More of Wonder Man and Vision dealing with a lot of unresolved issues while they try to defuse the Nega Bomb.

Avengers #347 - The big, bag climax and it is actually pretty dark. Excellent stuff.

Captain America #401 - More dark themes are examined. A wonderful, and rather depressing narrative, but ultimately cathartic.

Quasar #35-36 - Operation Galactic Storm Aftermath as Quasar heads to the devastated Kree Empire to see if there’s anything the Protector of the Universe can to help the few survivors. Makkari of the Eternals and Her go along for the ride.

Also included in this volume as a kind of bonus epilogue is: What If …? #55-56 - These issues take a different view of what happened in the last couple issues of the crossover event and play them out from those changes. (Unfortunately, my copy of this book has several pages of #55 printed out of order and #56 has 8 pages completely duplicated, I think both issues have all the story pages, but it’s laughably frustrating to read). Definitely a step down and not anywhere as good as the actual story. This is what often happens with What If …? stories.

[Christopher Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with volume 1, I read the individual issues (not including the What If? issues). The end of Operation: Galactic Storm is even more impressive as its beginning, which is saying an awful lot, even though we saw it coming from the first panel of part 1. Throughout the series, we have been told (in Romeo and Juliet-like fashion) the Kree galaxy was going to die - when it finally comes, we are not prepared for it. The tensions among all the Avengers teams only increase as the series progresses: Thor becomes increasingly impulsive, Iron Man becomes increasingly isolationist (even to the point of suicidal once), Cap becomes increasingly despondent. While the "good guys" tear themselves apart, the "bad guys" of the Kree come together, primarily in the Starforce, which has its inevitable conflict with the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. Lilandra goes through many difficult decisions, sometimes in favor of vengeance, sometimes in favor of mercy. The impetus for the Avengers joining the conflict is resolved in an unexpected but thoroughly satisfying way. The resolution after the explosion of the Nega-Bomb is a powerfully cathartic issue, the likes of which are rarely seen in comics (or anything else being made today). The Quasar issues aftermath are nice to see, but somewhat disappointing in their construction. The Captain America epilogue, though, is thoroughly impressive and enjoyable. The entire crossover is a tremendous read from beginning to end and should not be missed.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second of two volumes collecting the 19 parts crossover series from the early 90s. This second volume collects the remaining seven chapters from Iron Man # 279, Thor # 446, Captain America # 400, Avengers West Coast # 82, Quasar # 34, Wonder Man # 9, and Avengers # 347, as well as three aftermath issues from Captain America # 401 and Quasar # 35-36. Also included is the two part "What If the Avengers Lost Operation Galactic Storm?" from What If # 55-56.

The action picks up just where it left off in volume one as the war between the Kree and Shi'ar empires escalate with the Avengers in the middle of the fray. There are a lot of things happening and the conclusion is dramatic to say the least. A worthy Avengers epic that does hold up to this day. The aftermath issues were also an enjoyable read, while the What If... story felt ok-ish. The art just was not as good as throughout the rest of the volume and the story, while interesting, felt below par, especially compared to what had gone before. A slight misplacement of pages in this story (pages 259 and 275 should swap places, as should pages 265 and 279) did not really help my appreciation of the story either, I guess.

But on the whole, the two volumes are well worth a read for anyone interested in an epic space Avengers saga.

[Gary Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 198