The Avengers Volume Whatever It Is These Days -#1-3 A Quick Critique

 MacKay writer and C. F. Vile bring us the latest reboot of The Avengers, what used to be, alongside the Fantastic Four, Marvels flagship titles.

I have been far from impressed with Fantastic Four as the current writer appears to have no real feel for the characters or their past. A pity Marvel does not concentrate on getting good writers rather than seeing how many variant covers they can give a title.

Sadly, The Avengers, a title I have followed since the 1960s, is not what it used to be. The characters are...not well characterised and I gave up on the Panther when he started becoming a mass murderer but, you know, he's on the team to help Captain Marvel stay on course as new team leader.

Nice covers but I am sorry to say that the stories have no real substance. In fact, you can read issues 1-3 in 10 minutes if you look at the art a lot. The first three issues could have been compacted into the first issue because then City Slayers would make a good ending to issue 1 and the new team.

The Stuart Immonen cover to issue 3 is possibly the best out of the three covers and is very atmospheric and makes you think "Oh, I want to read this!" The whole concept is not new when it comes to the story but I can see what MacKay is trying to do the City Slayers and what they are doing is really the type of thing you might see from  some of the more quirky old British weekly comics or from British writers such as Alan Moore or Grant Morrison and it at least piqued my interest but something was missing.  

What was missing was some structure to the story. So far MacKay has done what the Justice League of America writers used to do in the 1960s. Split up the team so that individuals have to go off and face their chosen foe. Yes, this was done in Avengers King Size Special  #1 (1967) and the team have split up since but the stories were solid. Stan Lee and Roy Thomas knew how to tell a story and pace them. In this case, as already noted, it feels like one issue spread over three.

The Panther's ego ("I am not afraid to die but I am afraid of losing") just makes me cringe and why the hell is he wearing a hipsters large neck scarf ?? Captain America (Sam Wilson) and the other Avengers are just blanks to fill in panels. The art is okay but it is not even a distraction from the story. I am wondering how many issues they can spread the City Slayers over?

All in all some nice covers and some nice art but MacKay is going to have to pull some pretty major surprises or storylines to even come close to the old writers like Lee and Thomas. Since the 1990s the Avengers have been lacklustre, slightly interesting and downright uninteresting. It is a big surprise that the best Avengers series in the last -I'll be generous and say- last 20 years was the Paul Levitz (writer) and Alan Davis (artist) Avengers: War Across Time mini series.  

Really, one day I am just going to have to walk away from both The Avengers and Fantastic Four.