Jason Aaron has been writing the main Avengers title for longer than I care to look up, but it has not been very highly regarded for some time. So, it was time for it to spin off into Avengers Forever, which seems to be Aaron’s attempt at a definitive statement on the best superhero team. It is…less than that. But also, do I really care?
Marvel Comics
Avengers Forever is yet another multiversal jaunt, this time following Robbie Reyes — after some Avengers nonsense, I’m assuming — as he…beats up evil guys? He’s certainly doing something. This adventure has him dropped into a universe where The Avengers never formed in *sigh* 1 million BCE, and thus evil took hold. When Robbie appears, it spurs this Earth’s Avengers to overthrow the Venomized Red Skull, and leads to the formation of a team. There’s also a Doom issue, and some reveals.
Like all comics focused on AUs, there’s some fun stuff, but it never really goes beyond that. Maybe the best example of this is Tony Stark Ant-Man. It hits all the notes of a classic Tony story; he’s an alcoholic, he’s an atheist, he’s a problem solver, he’s leading the Avengers, it’s all there. Unfortunately, it all ends up feeling like a series of references to other stories rather than anything definitive or meaningful. “Remember ‘Demon in a Bottle?” the comic shouts, “Remember his competitive streak with Pym in the MCU?” it key-jingles.
This version of Tony is enjoyable! I like hope-damned Stark, the archeologist-atheist-Ant-Man, but there’s almost a degree of parody to him, especially given Aaron’s inability to express anything other than atheism in his stories. This Tony feels fine-tuned to everything Aaron wants to write, but I’m not sure it’s tuned to what Aaron is really good at writing. The little guy is fun, he’s got a cool costume, and I guess I’d like to see more of him? At the same time, I’m thinking about thanking God that Aaron hasn’t written an Iron Man series.
Marvel Comics
Most of the series feels the same way, with the characters all just sort of feeling like fun silly ideas with little substance beneath. Infinity Gem Grimm is cool, it’s fun, but it’s also just kinda there. I’m personally pretty fond of Red Skull having Venom, and I think Schmidt was a great choice to be the villain of the universe where “hope is a four letter word,” so I guess genuine praise goes there?
I’ll also mention the presence of the Thor’s granddaughters — who Aaron co-created with Esad Ribic in their very very good Thor run — but mostly, they just serve to remind me that I could be reading better comics, and that Aaron could write better comics, once upon a time.
Now, even while the above is true, I still enjoyed my time with the series, but that’s largely to do with Aaron Kuder’s art, which is incredible across the first three issues. His designs for all of the different heroes are great, but he’s also just generally one of my favorite artists working today. His style is round and bouncy, but isn’t cartoony in a minimalist sense, every panel is packed with details. That detail makes it easy to live in the story, but more than that, it’s just fun to look at his art. Kuder was kind of the selling point of the series for me, and he didn’t disappoint at all.
I may be disappointed with the story I’m general, but this book was still worth reading to me, and I’ll continue reading it for the Kuder art (I’m especially excited for the Steve Rogers issue coming up!). Here’s to hoping it gets better than that!
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