Jason Aaron started his run on Avengers with a new volume in 2017 alongside Ed McGuinness. The two created a fun beginning, cranking out some high-octane adventures. His lineups have been a great mix of what is exciting in comic books and what is going on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Going into this trade paperback collection, four teams share the adventure: Aaron’s Avengers, the Pre-Historic Avengers, the Multiversal Avengers, the Council of Red, and the Multiversal Masters of Evil. Some of these concepts were built during Aaron’s run on Avengers so they will be pretty established in this final story. Still, for this review, the focus will be on the Avengers Assemble 10-part story that ends Aaron’s time as the writer of Avengers.
Marvel Comics
Inside this trade paperback collection, we have Avengers (2018) #63-66, Avengers Forever (2021) #12-15, and Avengers Assemble Alpha and Omega one-shots. This collection will give you all ten parts of the story arc in the correct reading order, which is fantastic as it could have been in series order which would have caused you to flip all around the trade. There are variant covers sprinkled in to help keep pages partnered up as the double-page spreads they were initially presented as, and at the very end, there’s a gallery that features more variant covers. Within the inside covers, you’ll have a readers’ map of Jason Aaron’s Avengers run; interesting that editorial didn’t include the Avengers Forever trade paperbacks to help enrich the Multiversal parts of this story. With a cover price of $34.99, it is a better value than buying the issues at their original price point.
An excellent creative team produced the art for this story. Overall, this is a very entertaining afternoon read that gives you a story with lots of hype and potential since it is going way outside the bounds of everyday heroics. The story will present you with two significant groups of villainy in Mephisto’s Council of Red and Doom Supreme’s Multiversal Masters of Evil. This collection of villains works very nicely as a solid threat to get Avenger Prime on high alert that needs to gather armies of heroes. This attack is what helps to call upon the art team to make these pages a spectacle with heroes and villains crashing against each other. Be ready to examine the pages, as you’ll see so much going on in the background of these battles.
Marvel Comics
The issues will motivate you to continue reading the story as it is very driving, but there will be some slow points. The Avengers Forever issues seem to want to give some character moments, which is terrific, but sadly, these are not characters we will be following much after this run, so they don’t have much for me to invest in. When Jason Aaron provides character moments from the significant players, they seem to be parts of focus that lead to why they had to be the character who could pull off the feat or win, and it is excellent to get in their head space while they make the play. It was interesting to see how the cast dwindles in the story with heroes making sacrifices or villains taken down; that does add to the stakes as it makes you feel worried that characters of interest have the potential not to make it out.
While the collection bills itself as “the biggest Avengers saga in Marvel History,” it doesn’t fit that hype as it is stuck between a crossover event and a story arc. Still, it is very entertaining and does an essential job of giving a showcase to Jason Aaron’s run. We get completion as to who the Avenger Prime is and why he guards the God Quarry. We have insights into Mephisto attacking this location, what he means to do, and why it is a massive threat. A lot of building happened in the primary and adjacent series, but luckily it isn’t necessary for the reader to pick up this trade and enjoy it. The stakes are very high with art and action that deliver, which is excellent for this epilogue. In the end, Aaron does what any writer has to do with a continuous set of characters, but before he goes, he gives them a worthwhile war that helps to present why the Avengers assemble on a day like no other.
Jason Aaron’s epilogue to his Avengers run showcases heroes from time and multiversal space that have to take on evil so vile they threaten existence. This is a great collection that will entertain you with a wild spectacle from an assemblage of artists who will have you gasping at what you see and hoping Hasbro will make toys of these wild ideas. Avengers Assemble is a fun read that will remind you why the Avengers are the primo team in the Marvel Multiverse.
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