Avengers Assemble #1

Title: Avengers Assemble #1
Date: 2012
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Mark Bagley
Inker: Danny Miki
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Alex Alonso, John Denning, Lauren Sankovitch, Tom Brevoort

This is the (cute!) Newbury Comics cover variant. The team looks like pretty much the lineup from the upcoming movies (and Hawkeye spends most of his scene contemplating his own mortality! Uh, oh!). For the six or seven of you out there who haven't seen the trailer, that would be Cap, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hulk, and Hawkeye.

We open with the formation of a rather lazily designed villain team based on the signs of the zodiac. Conveniently, they are also named the Zodiac. Apparently they all have star-sign-related powers, and they are after some unknown maguffin which will give them even more powers.

Aquarius steals the thingy from the Army in a battle that Hulk gets involved in. The thingy then ends up in Latveria, where Clint and Natasha are doing some covert... um... taking out of sentries, I guess. It's never really explained what they're doing there, but they end up hijacking the truck carrying the thingy ("The Ark has been put on a truck." "WHAT truck?"). This brings in Zodiac member Taurus, and the Avengers retaliate with Iron Man and Thor. Brawl. To be continued.

The rest of the book is the same preview pages for Avengers vs. X-Men that appeared in the X-Men Vs. Avengers Program Guide.

I liked the fact that the Zodiac were depicted as inexperienced with their powers. That was fun. But the entire Zodiac concept is just such lazy writing that it raises the goofiness factor of this book to the point that it detracts from the story.

Rating: 4.5/10

The Avengers #1

Title: The Avengers
Issue: #1
Date: 2010
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inker: Klaus Janson
Colorist: Dean White
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Cover: John Romita Jr., Jason White
Editor: Lauren Sankovitch, Tom Brevoort

Sadly, not John Steed and Emma Peel. This is a 2010 reboot for Marvel's long-running superhero team comic. The roster on the cover features Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Spidey. and Wolverine. What? No Giant Girl this time around? Actually, by the time we're on page 4, you've actually got more than 25 prospective team members being recruited. But still no Giant Girl. Unless they changed her costume. There were some I didn't recognize. So it's Steve Rogers (out of costume) doing the recruiting, and they finally settle on the characters from the cover (including some other dude as Cap) plus Spider-Woman and Hawkeye. Oh, and a woman named Maria Hill, Agent of SHIELD, apparently, as team leader.

Within moments of the getting-to-know you stuff it's "Let's do the time plot again!" (feel free to sing along), as Kang shows up to warn Stark about some device he hasn't invented yet. Stark: "It's a doomsday device." Thor: "You invented a device who's purpose is doom?" Ha!

At this point it degenerates into silliness involving Ultron, the "children" of the Avengers, and some dystopian future that is supposed to be distinctive from all of the other dystopian futures that Marvel heroes have confronted over the years. Spidey manages a few more witty lines before everything fizzles out and we get to the backup feature, a reasonably interesting prose history of the (retconned) Avengers. Oh, and the lovely pinup by Arthur Adams and Laura Martin that features just about all past and present Avengers? Still no Giant Girl.

Rating: 4/10

The Avengers: Halloween Ashcan 2006

Title: The Avengers: Halloween Ashcan 2006
Date: 2006
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jeff Parker
Penciler: Manuel Garcia
Inker: Scott Koblish
Colorist: Val Staples
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Cover Art: Aaron Lopresti and Guru eFX
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Assistant Editor: Nathan Cosby

Giant Girl? Really? The rest of the team is pretty familiar: Cap, Storm, Hulk, Spidey, Iron Man, and Wolverine. This is an alternate (and all-ages friendly) origin story for Ultron, and it's played mostly for laughs. The military decides to fire the Avengers in favor of its new Ultron artificial intelligence, which turns heel within seconds of being activated. This would normally be pretty lame, but at least they have Spidey breaking the fourth wall and commenting on how Ultron has just set some kind of everything-went-wrong speed record. The silly continues from there. Banner: "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Logan: "I don't like you that much now." Ha! None of the danger ever feels all that threatening, but the jokes keep coming and the action is fast-paced, harmless fun. Not really sure what any of this had to do with Halloween, but it's a decent little freebie (26-page full-color ashcan-sized). I still have no idea who the heck Giant Girl is, but I suppose that the concept, at least, is fairly obvious.

Rating: 7/10