[Read as single issues]
The Avengers are no more. After the trials of the Secret Empire and the battles of No Surrender, the team is in disarray. But now, threats from beyond the stars and the centre of the Earth are on their way, and only the Avengers can stop it! Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man are joined by Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, She-Hulk, and Robbie Reyes to battle the Final Host of the Dark Celestials, but the arrival of Loki sheds new light on the origins of the Marvel Universe that stretch back to 10,000 BC.
I like Jason Aaron. He’s written some great runs on a lot of books with a variety of different characters. But something about this book just doesn’t click properly, despite there being everything you’d need to make a classic Avengers book. You’ve got Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Thor on the team for the first time in years, a world-ending threat with Loki and the Dark Celestials, my favourite Ghost Rider in Robbie Reyes, and yet it just feels kind of…flat.
The story behind the threat is very interesting; I always like the old universe-rewriting retcons, especially ones that make perfect sense once they’re revealed, and the way that Aaron ties it all back into his Avengers of 10,000BC is well done too. And the stakes are very high in the present, with attacks coming thick and fast and the team having no choice but to reunite. But again it just feels like something’s missing. There’s no heart to it, unfortunately, which is a major component of any comic story, and I’m not sure how you’d inject it in.
The characters are paired off in different ways throughout the story until they all come together at the end which gives you some good character moments (although I’m not sure if I like the new romantic pairing that the book tries to push onto us), and the conclusion is both hilarious and epic. I feel like I’m throwing all this good praise at the book, but I can’t explain just why it doesn’t hit the right note overall. I liked the arc, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not…quite right.
On the art front, if you’re doing killer action sequences with (literally) giant battles, then Ed McGuinness is a surefire bet to draw them. Unfortunately he falls apart about halfway through the arc, and most of the heavy lifting is then handled by Paco Medina, who I find to be a more refined McGuinness, personally. McGuinness’ art is slick, whereas Medina’s feels like it has more weight behind it. They’re a good pairing, but you can definitely tell the difference between the two.
I really did like this, I swear. But it doesn’t feel Avenger-y enough. That said, I don’t think Avengers has felt like Avengers for years now – No Surrender was the closest it came in a very long time, and it’ll take a lot to recapture that magic. Aaron has all the right pieces, I think he’s just missing that special something that will really make this book sing. Just don’t ask me to tell you what that is.