F Kaare Andrews
Sadly, having followed The Avengers since the 1960s and through its 1990s fair to bad incarnations (the ridiculous way they got rid of West Coast Avcengers via very bad story-tellinbg for one) I was hoping the new (are we on volume 6543 now?) much hyped version would be a breath of fresh air.
Honestly, I had my fingers and toes crossed for this but after the messy and, I think, ridiculous Avengers Armageddon and...I was let down.
We are back on the old world-after-super heroes bandwaggon. We are back (did we ever leave?) Peter Parker panicking over aunt May's future, reference to certain Avengers' booze problems and...yeah, I got stuck with the bad cover buit as I was not going to pay 2-3 times the cover price for one of the others it's what I am stuck with and it is a problem faced by many who collect a series; buy the poor covers at a regular price or pay more for a half decent version.
In case that sounds odd to non UK readers; this is the UK and comic buyers get fleeced. What might be a good cover on an issue and at cover price in, say, the US, becomes a "rare" or "scarce" onein the UK with comic shops and (of course) Ebay scalpers trying to wring out every penny. the Captain Britain 50th comicwas advertised as scarce and rare and copies currently on slae for £25-£70 (if you are in the US imagine going into a store to buy your regularly priced monthly only to be told it will cost you $25-70).
This issue was no way different than the past few"new volumes" since the 1990s (yeah, Marvel really 😩 up when they got rid of Shooter and the morons with no ideas took over. This first issue basically follows the patern opf every previous re-start of "We have to form a team to face the threat" and as for the introduction of "Miracleman" well, might as well have been replaced with Peter Pan.
The view that "the new Avengers team will need a power house to back them up" is a joke. The past incarnations are such a mess it's hard to remember whatr was simply rebootred to be rebooted again later but was Hyperion (Marvel's own Superman) not an Avenger and was Sentinel also not a member?
Marvel continuity is a mess and the characters you cannot even be drawn into since they have changed so many times over the years that you just think "Who cares?" Aunt May died in the movies (oops -spoiler alert) and by now must be at least 165 years old but that is the "latch on" for new writers with no new ideas.
My collection starts at (thanks to thefts by people over the years) volume 1 no.11 and runs through to current and there are the Secret Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers and a few shorter series I just dropped as they were crap.
Avengers Armageddon and this new iteration are basically one big build up to an anti-climax where the once third rate character Mephisto is the "catalyst bringing the heroes together" -anyone remember the previous "catalysts" other than Loki? Go on be honest.
Issue 2 had better blow my rather smelly socks off and, NO, I will not read comics online.
.jpg)
