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Classic Review: Marvel Masterworks- Avengers Vol. 15

ComicBookWire

Quick Summary

Pros: Many of the stories here are exciting and interesting. Hellcat’s entrance to the Marvel Universe is interesting from a historical standpoint. The artwork looks good, especially when it comes to George Perez’s contributions.

Cons: The opening chapters are subpar. Transitions between arcs are poorly handled and damage the collection.

Overall: This collection sees the Avengers series lose a bit of steam but not enough to do any serious damage. The stories collected here are still entertaining and manage to evolve the series in ways that are interesting to see play out. The book’s problems are certainly disheartening but are nowhere near as bad as the problems seen only a few volumes ago. Readers who enjoyed the previous collection should continue reading here.

Story

Avengers Vol. 15, by Steve Englehart with Tony Isabella, isn’t quite as strong as its immediate predecessor but still contains an array of entertaining stories. The highlights here involve a battle between the Avengers and corrupted heroes from another dimension, a great message about corporate greed, and the transformation of a mundane character into a genuine superhero. These highlights are enjoyable and are great examples of what the Avengers series was capable of in this era. However, the collection is also hampered by a few lackluster opening chapters and transitions that disrupt and damage the overall narrative. Though this collection still ends up being a pleasant read, it is disappointing to see that it had the potential to be even better.

(spoilers start here)

Avengers Vol. 15 opens up by expanding the Avengers while also pitting them against a few problems. The new members of the team are a welcome addition and a few of the issues faced here are exciting, particularly Yellowjacket’s struggle. However, the villains here are all subpar and the actual narrative ends up being only moderately exciting. Overall, this portion of the book feels like a bit of a dip in quality, especially when compared to the previous volume.

Luckily, things start to pick up a bit from this point forward. The following story arc really ups the stakes by having the Avengers face off against malicious corporate overlords and corrupted superheroes from another dimension. The resulting battle is full of exciting moments from almost all of the characters and also delivers a great message about the problems surrounding corporate greed and its potential to corrupt politics. Even the interlude story, which centers around an assassin’s attempt to kill the Avengers, is great to see play out. It is made even better by the twists the story takes. In the end, the stories in this portion of the book, like the stories in the previous volume, are solid examples of the Avengers’ activities in this era.

In addition, the entire concept behind Patsy Walker’s introduction to the world of superheroes is incredibly interesting to see. This is a character who, for decades, spent her comic book career participating in normal activities and worrying about boys. Modern readers may miss out on how dramatic of a change this was (which would have made this even more interesting for readers in the 1970s) but they can still appreciate its spot in history.

The big problem with the second batch of stories is that the transitions are all pretty poor and disrupt the general narrative. The story goes from a fight against the head of an evil corporation, to a fight for freedom on another world, then back to the fight against the corporation. There is even a completely unrelated story arc in the middle of this, created due to time constrictions during the original writing process. In addition, Hawkeye’s entire time-travel arc feels out of place and, when it is brought up, the storytelling suffers. All of this makes it seem like the entire larger narrative is flying by the seat of its pants, which really damages portions of the comic.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Avengers Vol. 15 starts out with a few chapters from George Tuska that look pretty average for the series. There are moments where action-packed pages generate some great excitement and the Avengers look as good as one would hope they would look. However, there are also pages where the cross-hatching on a character’s face makes them look downright strange or where the flow of the page doesn’t work quite right. Luckily though, in the end, these positives and negative tend to balance out and produce a volume that still manages to get the job down.

Avengers Vol. 15 also sees the addition of George Perez to the Avengers series. Perez’s work on Avengers will go on to be one of the most memorable artistic contributions to the team’s history. This makes witnessing the origin of this legendary artist’s impact on the series and watching it evolve from chapter to chapter fantastic on its own. It also helps that Perez’s work simply looks great, even in these early years.

Continuity

Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 15 continues the story from Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 14 (Review).

The story here continues in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 16 (Review).

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

Previous Volume Review

All Avengers Reviews

Next Volume Review

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