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Classic Review: Marvel Masterworks- Avengers Vol. 12

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Quick Summary

Pros: The opening chapters have standard levels of action and excitement. The Avengers/Defenders story arc is genuinely exciting near its conclusion. The artwork is positive and helps make up for some of the story’s flaws.

Cons: The opening chapters have some strange pacing to them and provide unsatisfying and rapid conclusions to storylines that have been in motion for a while. The Avengers/Defenders story arc feels generic and uninteresting at points.

Overall: This volume makes a few mistakes that cause it to fare a little worse than its predecessors. The first half is plagued with poor pacing and the second half features a generic conflict between heroes. There are moments when both storylines start to redeem themselves but the negatives here are never fully made up for. Fans of comics where heroes fight heroes will find plenty of enjoyment in this book, those not entertained by this idea will find much less.

Story

Avengers Vol. 12, by Steve Englehart, has a few high points but is generally a bit of a disappointment. The book starts out with a few decent chapters that, unfortunately, feel a bit rushed at points. These chapters provide rapid closure to plotlines that seemed to be set up for much more grandiose executions. Then, the volume goes on to detail a conflict between the Avengers and the Defenders that feels very contrived and generic. The conflict gets a bit better by the conclusion but still feels rather lackluster overall. In the end, isn’t necessarily a bad book; it simply doesn’t hold up nearly as well as many of its predecessors.

(spoilers start here)

Avengers Vol. 12 opens up with a few mostly independent stories that have the Avengers participating in their traditionally heroic roles. They fight a climactic battle against the Lion God, they thwart assassination attempts against Vision, and they even add two new members to the team. Each of these issues has some mild positives and a general feeling of action that the Avengers series has been known for. I particularly enjoyed the parallels between Wanda and Vision’s situation and the situation of any couple who simply want to be in love, which I thought was the highlight of the collection.

However, each of these stories is damaged by the rapid way in which they tie-up storylines concerning the greater Avengers narrative. The first issue has Black Widow quit the team almost immediately after joining it, the second one seemingly wraps up an incredibly complex resentment that has been building against Scarlett Witch and Vision’s romance, and the third has the Avengers add the Swordsman to the team with shockingly little resistance. The sudden way in which each of these problems is addressed makes them feel less important and robs them of some of their impact. This will be especially troubling for readers who have been following this series for a while and were looking forward to seeing these developments produce more significant conclusions.

From there, Avengers Vol. 12 shifts over to detailing the first confrontation between the Avengers and the Defenders, an event that takes up the entire second half of the book. The confrontation is a by the numbers approach to superhero team-ups that is about as generic as they come. It has the Avengers attack the Defenders based on misinformation and misunderstandings, leading to faceoffs among specific characters.

It doesn’t help that the entire situation feels incredibly forced and contrived. This is particularly annoying since there are a number of places where the members of these two teams almost reveal their true intentions to one another yet stop for no reason. An example of this occurs when Hawkeye almost explains the situation to Iron Man but ends up thinking the last portion of his sentence instead of verbalizing it. In general, the entire situation feels forced in a way that isn’t always enjoyable to see.

Luckily, there are a few positives to this encounter. Hulk’s fight against Thor is actually surprisingly entertaining and serves as a satisfying sequel to one of their earlier encounters. In addition, once the groups clear up the miscommunication, their resulting team-up and rally against Dormammu is genuinely exciting. Unfortunately, these positives come in a bit too late and don’t completely make up for the mistakes in the arc’s first half.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Avengers Vol. 12 is pretty positive all around and ends up being one of the better aspects of the collection. Both Bob Brown and Sal Buscema do a great job in depicting the characters and locations seen throughout this book. However, they do an even better job in making sure the book’s action feels intense, which is crucial for an Avengers comic. The battles taking place here look great and have a solid sense of progression to them. In fact, there are pages near the conclusion of the Avenger/Defenders conflict where the artwork picks up the storytelling’s slack, which is specifically true in a few awesome pages featuring Hulk and Thor. All in all, this is a good looking book where the visuals help the story.

Continuity

Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 12 continues the story from Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 11 (Review).

The main story here continues in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 13 (Review). Black Widow’s story continues in Daredevil #101, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Vol. 10. The Defenders’ story continues in Defenders #12, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Defenders Vol. 2.

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

Previous Volume Review

All Avengers Reviews

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