Review: Avengers Vol. 1- Avengers World
Quick Summary
Pros: The characters and plot are both incredibly interesting and bring a lot of potential to the series. Emotion enhances the characters even further. Humor and action ensure that the book is entertaining. The artwork looks good and is structured very well.
Cons: Nothing significant.
Overall: This is a tremendously optimistic beginning to a series that is sure to be one to remembers. Within this one volume, readers are introduced, or reintroduced, to a wonderful cast of characters, each bringing in a number of positives to the story. Meanwhile, a clever and imaginative story is being developed at the same time, giving more reason to return as the series progresses. Plus, the volume still keeps things fun though organic character interactions and cool fight sequences. This is a book for anyone interested in seeing the Avengers begin a trial of cosmic proportions.
Story
Avengers Vol. 1: Avengers World, by Johnathan Hickman, is a thrilling comic and an incredibly promising start to a new era in Avengers history. It immediately introduces a cast of characters and a number of concepts that are interesting and exciting. These play out well within this volume and also help develop an even larger storyline to play out in the future. In addition, the volume is filled with small moments of humor, emotion, and action that keep things engaging, despite the copious amounts of introduction. All in all, this volume reads well on its own while simultaneously giving the series an awesome beginning.
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One of the main achievements in Avengers World is the effective use of introductions, with about half of these introductions focusing on characters. Multiple heroes are introduced or reintroduced through this volume, with each one receiving an entertaining backstory to go along with their appearance. This allows readers to discover a new galactic warrior, an interesting pastiche of Superman, and the physical embodiment of the universe itself. The villains are equally interesting and avoid falling into a place where their characters seem boring or generic. All of this is great to see unfold here and opens up a lot of promise for the future.
These characters also do a wonderful job in filling the book with emotion. I picked up this book with little to no knowledge about Hyperion, Smasher, or Captain Universe, yet left it thoroughly invested in their characters. Most of this is because their personal struggles are inspiring and touching in a way that makes them more relatable. The characters here are not just devices with which the plot is advanced, they are interesting features all on their own.
The portions of the book not focused on characters place the focus on the creation of various story plotlines. Avengers World adds a rich history to the beginning of the universe, places powerful beings on Mars, leaves A.I.M. with dangerous materials, and teases a future event that seems very exciting. These concepts are all highly imaginative and make this book feel incredibly unique. They also constantly give the reader the impression that something bigger is on the horizon and that the series has only scraped the surface of what is going to happen to the Avengers.
However, this volume isn’t all heavy emotions and dramatic setup, it is also just downright fun. The dialogue between characters is snappy, humorous, and consistently well written. Meanwhile, the battles and fight sequences give the book plenty of tense and action-packed moments. All in all, the book’s ability to let humor and excitement to flow makes this a very enjoyable read.
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Art
The art in Avengers World looks great and does a terrific job from start to finish. Pencils from Jerome Opeña and Adam Kubert imbue the collection with realistic details and a solid structure. These artistic attributes go well with the book’s colors, which work in establishing the serious and high-stakes tone that the story relies upon. In addition, the newly introduced characters look wonderful and make their backstories even more fun to discover. There are a few brief moments where facial expressions appear contorted but these are rare and do not affect things much. Overall, this is a good-looking book that succeeds in telling its incredible story.
Continuity
Avengers Vol. 1: Avengers World starts a new Avengers series. Though it is technically a successor to the previous series, which ended in Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection Vol. 3, the two series have very little to do with each other.
The story here continues in Avengers Vol. 2: The Last White Event (Review).
This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:
- Captain America’s dream shows an event from New Avengers #3, which is collected in New Avengers Vol. 1: Everything Dies (Review).
- The “go bigger” line comes from the end of the previous Avengers series, now collected in Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection Vol. 3.
- Manifold says that he tried being a hero before, this happened at the beginning of Secret Warriors: The Complete Collection Volume 1. He also says things went bad when he tried to be a hero, this is likely a reference to the end of Secret Warriors: The Complete Collection Volume 2.
- The origin behind the Smasher who crash-landed on Earth is told in New X-Men #122, which is collected in the New X-Men Omnibus or New X-Men Vol. 1.
- Smasher’s grandfather is Dan Kane, formerly known as Captain Terror. His first comic appearance is in U.S.A. Comics #2, which is collected in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age USA Comics – Volume 1.
- Spider-Man unusually abrasive personality can be explained by the beginning of the Superior Spider-Man series, collected in Superior Spider-Man: The Complete Collection Vol. 1.