Guest Reviews: Avengers #2

We Were Avengers

Solicit

The Avengers “go large,” expanding their roster and their sphere of influence to a global and even interplanetary level. When Captain America puts out his call – who will answer?

Preview

Reviews

Expansion Original Review by Johnkmccubbin91 at Comic Vine

This series started off very good, with a brilliant first issue, but unfortunately this issue isn't has good as the first. Jonathan Hickman has however done a decent job of introducing his sci-fi style to this series, and I expect that this slower issue will have a purpose later in the series.

Plot

This issue sees most of the Avengers trapped on Mars at the mercy of Ex Nihilo. The issue also shows how Captain America and Iron Man discuss expanding the Avengers, and that other superheroes, and past Avengers including Hyperion, Captain Universe, Smasher, Cannonball, and others should be considered for the team in case anything happens to the bigger members.

Review

Expansion

This was a decent issue, but after what happened in the previous issue I expected more answers than showing how the Avengers were expanded. Don't get me wrong I like the idea of expanding the Avengers, but it could have been done in the first issue, although I'll talk more about that later. Hickman did however do a decent job on this issue, and although it was nowhere near as good as the previous issue I am still very interested in what's about to happen, which is a good thing. I'm still not entirely sure if Hickman's style will suit the Avengers, but I hope it does, and with him also writing New Avengers, which is out this week it will be interesting to see if they are similar, and if they'll ever interlink. I do however hope that the next issue drives the story further on, and that it doesn't continue to drag, like this issue did.

Read the rest of Johnkmccubin91's Review on Comic Vine

We're going to Mars! Original Review by Tomlikesfries at Comic Vine

The first issue of this series was fantastic. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't say the same for this second one. Most of the comic takes place in the past, as we see how Steve and Tony convinced each of the current Avengers to join the group. Of course that's a fun thing to see, and, in this case, may even give you a laugh or two, but the pacing is very slow. Nevertheless there's nice piece of dialogue throughout the issue, and certainly was fun to see loads of Marvel characters that I didn't even know that existed here.

But the pacing was not the only problem here. This issue also lacked action. As I said before, most of it is just dialogue between Cap and Iron Man, and the many new members of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Now, Hickman is a very good writer, and although this issue wasn't his best work, the following look very promising. Ex Nihilo is a great villain and a brilliant choice here. We see his origin, which can provide fun read. He sends various "pods" to Earth that contain species that will dominate the humans. We see here how strong Nihilo really is, and, alongside his sister and "father", he should prove to be one of the greatest threats the Avengers have ever faced.

Read the rest of Tomlikesfries' review on Comic Vine

What I Thought

See the Review Rating Overview page for more information on how I rate each comic.

Cover & Solicit - 4/5
Art, Colors & Inking - 3/5
Layout & Flow - 4/5
Story - 5/5
Verdict - 4.1

Like John and Tom I enjoyed the first issue of the new Avengers series. I did find this issue slightly redundant. Last issue we see the original Avengers team get taken to Mars, so this issue I expected us to meet the team and immediately get into the action. Not so. Instead we get an the origin and an explanation of Ex Nihilio and why he is cultivating our planet. Then we get a few panels of members being recruited based on certain reason. One I had an issue with was Spider-Man for two reason, the first is they said Money was the reason and well Peter now has a job with Horizon and makes plenty of money. Second is the timing as we all know from The Amazing Spider-Man #698 - Dying Wish Prelude: Day in the Life and #699 Pete's not in control, so does this take place before or after that? I would say the story still has me interested and I can't wait for the next issue and to learn more about these new characters, a lot of whom I know little about.

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John McCubbin is a blogger at http://imaginationcentre.blogspot.co.uk/. John and Tom are both comic book reviewers at Comic Vine. The use of the reviews have been authorized by the original authors.