Review: Avengers Vol. 2- The Last White Event
Quick Summary
Pros: There are plenty of thrilling and entertaining moments throughout the collection. A lot of potential is introduced throughout this volume, building excitement for the series as a whole.
Cons: Some moments here are not that great and distract from better portions of the story.
Overall: This is a book with thrills, intrigue, and even a few laughs. All of this creates a very entertaining volume that follows the Avengers on a wonderfully diverse range of missions. The collection also excels in building intrigue for the future, as tantalizing new concepts are introduced throughout. A few flaws prevent it from being as good as it could be but it still preforms well. Readers who enjoyed the previous volume should absolutely read this one.
Story
While Avengers Vol. 2: The Last White Event, by Jonathan Hickman, is not quite the explosive volume that its predecessor was, it is still an awesome story and an entertaining book overall. It details a number of events that are designed to setup the future of the Avengers series, introducing new characters and new threats that are sure to play a large role in upcoming volumes. These events end up being as entertaining as they are informative, as each one is filled with great levels of excitement or humor. However, there are portions here that are not quite as entertaining and end up hampering the storytelling. Luckily, these negatives are typically small and do not prevent this from being a good volume. Overall, this is a solid collection that works well on its own and works even better as part of the introduction to the rest of this series.
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The beginning of The Last White Event details the actual White Event itself. This involves a college student, Kevin Connor, receiving a nearly unlimited supply of power and accidentally killing thousands of people in the process. These actions lead to a battle between this student and the Avengers, which is pretty exciting from start to finish. The Avengers battle with Kevin is full of energy and high-stakes action, making it fun to watch.
However, Kevin’s battle with the Avengers also relies heavily upon misunderstandings and happenstance to even begin. The Avenger’s immediate jump to hostility also seems uncharacteristic of them, especially coming from Captain America. For me, this made it harder to fully enjoy the battle, as I was constantly preoccupied with the setting upon which the battle began.
The next two stories have different members of the Avengers take on other threats that are popping up around the globe. The first is a thrilling trip into a hostile world and the second is a fun adventure in a hotel run by supervillains. Both stories are entertaining in their own way and are sure to interest anyone who has been enjoying this series thus far. There are brief moments here that are not as great, like Captain Marvel’s game of poker, but these are easily covered by other moments, like when A.I.M. agents turn on their organization after partying with the Avengers. The end result is a conclusion that is fun to read.
All of these stories also do a fantastic job in building up concepts that can be drawn upon in the future. Hickman is clearly moving a lot of pieces into position for something bigger and witnessing that is an exciting affair. I left this book ready for more from the Avengers series and am truly looking forward to reading the next volume.
(spoilers end here)
Art
The artwork in The Last White Event ends up a lot like the story, mostly good with a few small flaws. The volume opens with a few great chapters from Dustin Weaver. These chapters look solid and have an energy level that suits the story well. The second half of the book features a more realistic visual approach from Mike Deodato. These approaches also works well in complimenting the story, as these chapters are more series and less energetic than the previous chapters. The only problem comes from the fact that both artists occasionally stumble when depicting emotional expressions from characters, which look strange in more than a few places. Overall though, this is a nice looking book that will satisfy most readers.
Continuity
Avengers Vol. 2: The Last White Event continues the story from Avengers Vol. 1: Avengers World (Review).
The story here continues in Avengers Volume 3: Prelude to Infinity (Review).
This volume also makes a reference to other comic books, detailed below:
- The prison shown in “Star Bound” was first introduced in issue #4 of New Avengers. This issue is collected in New Avengers Vol. 1: Everything Dies (Review).