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Classic Review: Avengers- Absolute Vision Book 1

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Quick Summary

Pros: Most of the stories are exciting. The character-driven drama and interactions are great. The volume concludes with an intriguing change to the status quo. Most of the artwork is positive.

Cons: Some chapters aren’t as exciting as others and take the spotlight away from the Avengers.

Overall: This is another positive entry and positive development in the Avengers comic series. This volume combines fun characters, exciting action, and interesting premises to create a book that is entertaining to read. There are a few places where the story stumbles but none are significant enough to distract from the volume’s overall appeal. Readers who enjoy seeing the Avengers interact as real people will find a lot of enjoyment through this volume.

Story

In our review of the previous volume, we talked about a change taking place in the Avengers series. This team of heroes used to mostly function as coworkers and acquaintances, distancing their personal lives from their heroic adventures. However, more recently, personal drama has become more of a focus and the relationships on the team have become more important than ever.

Avengers: Absolute Vision Book One, by Roger Stern, continues that satisfying trend. It tells stories that have heroes laughing and growing together. However, it still finds time to detail several heroic exploits. Then, the entire volume closes with a premise that sets up some interesting developments for the future. There are some adventures that are less exciting or that shift the focus in odd ways but, as a whole, the collection has a lot of appeal.

(spoilers start here)

As mentioned above, the main positive in Absolute Vision Book One is the characters. There are some wonderful moments here that show these characters have interesting stories to tell all on their own. She-Hulk’s struggle to find her place in the world, Spider-Man’s attempt to join the team, and multiple Avengers’ concern with Tony Stark’s present situation make them all seem like real people with real problems. These developments and interactions are fascinating to watch and only appear to be getting better as time goes on.

Fun moments between characters aren’t all Absolute Vision Book One has to offer. The volume also details a number of exciting adventures that pit the team against deadly villains. The Avenger’s fight against the Wizard, their battle against the Lava Men, and their humorous experience on David Letterman all make for compelling reads.

Absolute Vision Book One also closes with an interesting change to the status quo. In this book, Vision’s mind essentially evolves and becomes one with the Avenger’s computer system. This puts him in an odd position of power, one that has clearly become more and more unstable as the narrative progresses. It will be interesting to read how this situation develops in the future, especially since the next volume’s title seems to indicate that this will have a large role in the story.

The only downside to this shift is that it, occasionally, leaves the heroic stories feeling a bit lacking. The crossover with the Fantastic Four helps start plotlines with Vision but doesn’t feature many great scenes from the Avengers. In a similar way, Jessica Drew’s rebirth is great for her character and the characters around her but isn’t that exciting of a story. A similar pattern can also be observed, to a lesser extent, in stories about the new Captain Marvel and the Inhumans. Even readers mostly interested in this volume for its character-driven stories may be frustrated by the fact that many of these character-driven stories do not revolve around members of the Avengers.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Absolute Vision Book One is mostly positive. The bulk of the artwork comes from Al Milgrom, who’s work looks better than ever. His depictions of the events taking place are consistently charged with energy and his creativity is more pronounced than before. This is noticeable right from the volume’s beginning, which has some awesome space creatures, and right to the volume’s end, which handles magic well. Other positive chapters come from artists like John Byrne, who’s work on the characters makes the individual heroes look excellent. The only downside, in this collection, is that there are some places where the inks do not complement the pencils and lead to pages that look heavier than they should. Overall though, the artwork here looks good and leads to an enjoyable reading experience.

Continuity

Avengers: Absolute Vision Book One continues the story from Avengers: The Trial of Yellowjacket (Review).

The story here continues in Avengers: Absolute Vision Book Two (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

Previous Volume Review

All Avengers Reviews

Next Volume Review

One thought on “Classic Review: Avengers- Absolute Vision Book 1”

  • David Keith
    October 6, 2019 at 3:46 am
    Permalink

    I read Roger Stern’s Avengers run for the first time a few years ago and I was surprised how good it was. I’d love to see Stern’s whole run get the Omnibus treatment.

    Reply

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