The Avengers have gone through many lineup changes and have had dozens of different comic series. This was the beginning of the Geoff Johns run. Since he did such a great job with Green Lantern, this meant great things for Avengers right? Well, I can safely say that it’s one of the better Avenger comics that I’ve read although it does start to lose some steam in the middle.

I’d say that the book is basically divided into three parts. The first chunk of the book deals with the In Betweener. He’s been separated into two while Yellow Jacket and Wasp have been taken to another dimension by a powerful villain with a key. Let’s just say that Yellow Jacket never stood a chance. The Avengers are pretty bewildered in the real world as they can’t keep up with all of the disturbances. They’re going to have to go to the other dimension and stop Scorpio!

The In Betweener doesn’t make things easy for the heroes since he doesn’t want to become one being again. The Avengers are powerful, but most of their heavy hitters aren’t around and things look dire. The In Betweener is actually stronger than I would have guessed, but the Avengers get one last chance as Thor appears to take him on. There are also alien creatures that make for good cannon fodder against the heroes.

This arc had a lot of action and it was a nice way to start the trade paperback. Iron Man even helped to make sure that the economy was doing all right. There’s some tension between the Jack of All Hearts and Scott Lang, which continues through the book. It was a decent subplot, but I can’t say that I like either character very much.

There is a miniseries about the Vision, which is the only part of the book that I didn’t really enjoy. Why’d they have to make his origin so complex? There is a villain in the story, but the whole thing is slowed down by all of the dialogue. Not to mention that the Vision isn’t a very compelling character to read about. He’s become a better character in recent years, but not in those days. The miniseries really felt like filler and while it wasn’t awful, it was a step down.

Things get exciting again for the final arc. Thor is now King of Asgard and he makes for a good ruler. On Earth, some of his worshipers are destroyed and Thor decides to avenge them. Balder and friends are hesitant at first, but later on they start to goad Thor into fighting. It was a pretty big personality shift, but I was glad that they were eager to fight. The only complication is that while Thor is protecting his friends…he’s defeating the villains! Obviously the government won’t stand for that and they tell Iron Man that he must stop Thor…or they’ll do it by force!

Even Iron Man knows that you don’t want to get the government mad. (Dr Doom’s threats didn’t help matters either) Iron Man goes to confront Thor and I was definitely not rooting for him. Villains getting diplomatic immunity eh? I never really bought that! Heroes are above such things, but I’ll go more into that later. Iron Man uses the Destroyer armor to challenge Thor and Captain America shows up as well.

It’s safe to say that Thor was definitely going to defeat them in the end, but they did give him a decent fight. The Avengers definitely did not seem very heroic this time and it was a somber way to end the comic. Black Panther’s also not really high on Stark’s buddy list at the moment. The Jack of Hearts is about ready to blow up and Scott Lang is more miserable than ever. Can the Avengers survive this!? At least there’s a nice cliffhanger for the next volume right?

Back to the villain’s immunity thing, should it matter? Let’s get into the situation a little deeper, Thor stepped in because a corrupt government was murdering the citizens for the thrills. They were essentially enslaving them and acting like Nazi’s. The governments can’t stop them because it’s happening in another country and they don’t want to start a war. That’s fine, since the government never gets anything done in the comics, but the Heroes shouldn’t stand for that. Superman ended World War II once because he felt like it. The Avengers should have come in and stopped these guys years ago. At least Thor did something about it, but the Avengers were quick to turn against him. I don’t really think the Avengers should defend these guys.

Sure, the villains shouldn’t be murdered, but they should be taken to prison. They can’t just leave things at the status quo, what about human rights? Dr Doom mentions that he may have stepped in, but then the Avengers should just go up against him as well. Sometimes (A lot of the time in the modern comics…) the Avengers seem to believe that obeying the government laws is more important than being a hero. Being a Hero means making the tough choices, which sometimes means going against the government. So, this comic had a mixed up moral in my opinion, but the actual fight was still epic. This was one of the few times where Iron Man and Thor had a serious fight and I’d say that it’s their best match. It’s not incredible lopsided and the art makes everything feel even cooler.

This is definitely a comic that I recommend. The art is excellent and this was definitely during the prime of the Marvel Universe. (In art at least) The villains are pretty tough and the book was a page turner. The dialogue was also strong and never bored me. (Aside from the Vision series) Once again, Aside from the Vision mini series, there wasn’t really anything wrong with this collection. All Avenger fans should check this out and people who love epic battle scenes. It’s a complete comic and a way to get into the Marvel Universe.

Overall 8/10