Avengers has had a pretty good TV history through the years. Assemble may not have been a big hit, but EMH and United They Stand were pretty good. This comic collection deals with things that happened in Avengers EMH. Interestingly enough, it is exactly how things happened in the show, so you may only want to get this one if you haven’t seen the episodes yet.

The first comic deals with Dr Doom as he attacks Avengers mansion! He also attacks the Fantastic Four and manages to kidnap Invisible Woman and Wasp. Reed Richards doesn’t approve of this and he gathers the Avengers and the Fantastic Four for their ultimate assault on Doom’s castle. Win or lose, Dr Doom will know that he’s been in a fight! There is a twist at the end and things definitely get interesting!

The next comic involves the Technovore and he attacks Tony Stark. He wants to devour the Reactor that he has near his heart, but the Avengers + War Machine are here to help. The only problem is that Aim is also around and they don’t plan on losing to the heroes. Maria Hill is also here to remind Iron Man that he should have the Avengers join SHIELD. Tony doesn’t think that this is a good idea and declines as he prepares to fight!

The third comic dealt with the Enchantress as she decided to get revenge on the Masters of Evil. Her magical abilities are very formidable and she makes short work of the first few members. Baron Zemo quickly realizes that the Avengers are his only hope and he tries to make a deal with them. They agree to help him defeat the Enchantress and also to let him go. Not a bad trade, but can they really defeat this sorceress!?

Ronan The Accuser has come to judge Earth in the following comic and his power level is pretty high. He manages to give the Avengers a pretty good fight and tells the Earth to surrender. The Avengers take the decision out of America’s hands and tell him that they do not. An epic battle begins and the humans may be more doomed than they think!

The final comic has Hank Pym as the main character and he has hired the Heroes for Hire to help him find out who stole his tech. The perpetrator is powerful and he actually manages to subdue Luke Cage and Iron Fist. It looks like Hank Pym may have to don the old suit and show the world what it means to be a true Avenger! Meanwhile, some villains like Piranha Jones may be ready to cut lose and take the heroes down!

I do have to wonder a little too the point of these comics. Since they are really just screen caps of the show, why buy them? I guess it’s good for people who refuse to watch the animated adaptions of the comics or just prefer to have it in comic format, but that’s a pretty limited audience. It also feels a little on the lazy side. Imagine if the Yugioh GX manga had just been copy and pasted images into the volumes. It just doesn’t feel right. This won’t affect the overall score, but it just doesn’t feel like they’re really being creative with this method of making the comics.

Well, the art is really good since it’s the show and everything flows together. The dialogue can feel very broken and unnatural at times, but that isn’t a huge negative. Still, it’s hard to imagine Captain America calling Black Panther…Black Panther in a normal conversation. Usually, he just says Panther or T’Challa. Of course…Captain America may not be as he seems!

Let’s just say that the stakes are high in these comics and you’re thrown right into the middle of it. The first comic should let you know that something is wrong with the Earth since the Skrulls seem to have invaded. All that I will say is that not everyone can be trusted. If you caught the earlier comics of the show, then you will know the twist. I don’t want to spoil it just in case, but it shouldn’t be a spoiler because I will assume that you didn’t skip the first three volumes to check out this one.

The characters all look pretty good in this collection. Nobody seems to be out of character, although Reed Richards should look a little more impressive. Shouldn’t he suspect the truth about the plot twist in the first issue? He should have been the first to realize this soooo…hmm. I hope that they aren’t starting to give him less respect like with what they did to Spiderman in the modern comics. That definitely wouldn’t be right!

Unfortunately, Thor has to miss out on all of the comics because he’s busy in Asgard. That’s too bad since he’s one of the main Avengers and it would have been fun to see him here. On another note, someone should realize that Cap is acting a little off. He doesn’t recognize the Thing when they meet and asks about who he is. He does the same for the villains that attack and it just makes you wonder. The Avengers must not be as quick as I thought!

Overall, this is a decent batch of comics, but I don’t see why you’d choose to read it instead of the TV show. That being said, if you didn’t know that there was a TV show and just happened to pick it up; it makes for a fun read. There are a lot of plot lines that are left open for future comics (Although it was cancelled after one more issue soo…they’ll never resolve them) and we get a pretty big cast. This is the last of the trade paperbacks for the series so I can’t say that it has much of an ending. I guess that it just feels like you’re reading a broken comic. Parts feel disjointed and I’m pretty sure that there is a major typo in the collection, but I forgot which comic has it. I recommend it to Marvel fans who haven’t seen the show, but I’d much sooner recommend that you check out the show. It’s best seen in that format and it will make a lot more sense.

Overall 7/10