Marvel Action: Avengers, Vol. 4: The Living Nightmare

Marvel Action: Avengers #4

by Matthew K. Manning, Marcio Fiorito (Illustrations)

A new era of all-out Avengers action continues in these middle-grade-friendly graphic novels!

The first year of Marvel Action: Avengers comes to a thrilling conclusion! The Avengers begin their final attack against AIM and the mastermind behind their woes reveals themselves.

These graphic novels are the perfect starting point for new fans looking for more stories of the adventures of Black Panther, Captain America, Thor, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Black Widow! Collects issues #10-12 of the Marvel Action: Avengers series.

Genres: Comics

80 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2020

About the author

Matthew K. Manning is the author of over eighty books and dozens of comic books. He has written books for Scholastic, Disney Press, Abrams, Amazon, Capstone, DK Publishing, Insight Editions, Andrews/McMeel, and Running Press, dividing his time between writing original chapter book series and coffee table books. His chapter books include the six-book series Xander and the Rainbow-Barfing Unicorns (Capstone), the four-book Drone Academy series (Capstone), Backstories: Batman and Backstories: Batgirl (Scholastic), and Artemis Fowl: How to be a LEPrecon (Disney Press), released in both paperback and on Audible. Many of his books have reached best-seller status on Amazon, including DC Comics: Anatomy of a Metahuman, DC Comics Encyclopedia, and Batman: A Visual History. In addition, Manning specializes in comic books, writing for the titles Beware the Batman, Teen Titans Go!, The Batman Strikes!, Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century, Justice League Adventures, Scooby-Doo, and Looney Tunes for DC Comics, Marvel Action: Avengers for IDW/Marvel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Amazing Adventures and TMNT: New Animated Adventures for IDW, and the top-selling Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures for DC/IDW, nominated by the Diamond Gem Awards for comic of the year. Manning’s work has received acclaim in Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Publisher’s Weekly, and The Washington Times. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife Dorothy and his daughters Lillian and Gwendolyn.

Buy his books and support independent booksellers on Bookshop at https://bookshop.org/shop/matthewkman...

Reviews

[Sarah Ryder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I surprisingly liked this more then I thought I would! As a newbie to Marvel comics as a whole I’ve been starting to pick up random ones that sound interesting to me (and just hope they’re in some kind of sensible order, lol) and this Marvel Action: Avengers series for middle grade readers sounded cool—the catch is my library only had this one, book 4 in a series, so I kind of went in blind to the whole overarching plot line that led to Cap being trapped in a nightmare world. Though I can say confidently that you can read this one without having read the previous three and get the hang of what’s going on aside from a few references to what happened in the previous volumes (is that what they’re called in comics, like manga? 🤷🏼‍♀️).

The story itself is primarily in Captain America’s POV and as a Cap fan I was thrilled and the story did his character (and all the others!) justice, and when I started reading I was just as confused as Steve in wondering what was real and what wasn’t, so major prompts to the author for pulling that off in such a stunning way. And aside from Steve being the main focus and character, I also loved how the Avengers are shown to be a tight knit family who will do anything for each other to the point of even helping Steve get “out” even though this is all in his head and they aren’t “real” in a sense. And just because I love their friendship from the MCU so much, seeing Natasha hug Steve after they got him away from AIM was everything. 🥰

The graphics for the most part are really good and bright though a few times in the “real world” parts I didn’t like how the characters were drawn and it looked off from the rest—don’t know if that was intentional to show the difference between Steve’s nightmare and reality or not, but if it was, good job; if it wasn’t, what the heck happened? 😂

A good entry into Marvel comics (for me at least!) that I super enjoyed and now I’m eager to track down and read the others in this particular series. ☺️


‼️Content‼️

Violence: fighting with weapons, superpowers, and hand to hand (PG)

Other: superheroes, supervillains, and superpowers; magic; a character is trapped in a nightmare; a character has the power to create and trap people in their worst nightmares; people are brainwashed; a dragon/snake like creature; a guy is encased in ice; a character is a magician/sorcerer

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Com aquela desculpa "comprei para o meu afilhado, mas vou dar uma olhadinha para ver o que ele poderia achar", li mais essa edição dos quadrinhos da Marvel Action, que são produzidos pela IDW e voltados a um público bem mais jovem do que as publicações normais da Casa das Ideias. Neste encadernado "versão brasileira Herbert Richards" que reúne dois dos encadernados originais de Marvel Action: Avengers (respectivamente os de número 3 e 4) a luta dos Vingadores contra a I.M.A. continua. A primeira parte, os Vingadores lutam contra os Devoradores de Medo, seres alienígenas que se apossam do corpo dos heróis mais poderosos da Terra revelando seus piores medos. Na segunda parte, o Capitão América é assolado por pesadelos em que os Vingadores se aliaram à I.M.A.. Vale dizer que o primeiro encadernado vem com os competentes desenhos do brasileiro Marcio Fiorito, mas o roteiro, por sua vez, não empolga um leitor "tradicional", mas é possível que empolgue uma criança que acompanha somente seus heróis no Universo do cinema. Essa é a minha esperança, já que o Arthur adora o Pantera Negra e ele está na capa do quadrinho.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Avengers beat MODOK but the battle left its mark. Captain America is stuck in a nightmare in which he's an agent for A.I.M.. Can the others get him to wake up and free him from whatever is keeping him stuck in this dream?

A quick little adventure for Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange (and to a lesser extent Thor, Hulk, and Spider-Man). This is more a battle of the mind than a battle battle. I like how the heroes work together to help Cap in this one.

Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content. There are dream battles, but no one is seriously hurt. Some readers may be seriously weirded out by a character that can trap others in nightmares.

[KM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice plot, nice art and idea of nightmare world :)

[Michał Brzeziński · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Ayami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kapitan Ameryka to standardowa ikona, człowiek bez mocy, jednak z silnym duchem. Ciekawa koncepcja na baaardzo żółtą fabułę xd