Avengers: X-Sanction

Another limited series that leads up to the Avengers vs. X-Men event.  I have loved Jeph Loeb's work in the past.  His Marvel & DC collaborations with Tim Sale are amazing.  Batman: Hush is a fabulous look at the Batman character over the years illustrated by Jim Lee.  Usually when Jeph Loeb's name is attached to a project it is supposed to be amazing both in art & story.  However I found this story to be lacking in both story & art.  The story revolves around that idea that Cable needs to take out the Avengers because of some unexplained event that involved his adopted daughter Hope.  I feel that there was almost no lead up to this story There could have been one or two more issues in this series to build up the threat of the Avengers to the X-Men.  The story moves at breakneck speed as Cable only has a limited amount of time.  It seems this is a story simply to put Nathan Summers back on the playing field but it doesn't explain how he survived the X-Men: Second Coming event.  The story takes place over the course of one night it starts & ends way to quickly.  The art also seems title off for this series I like Ed McGuinness's work on his previous collaboration on the Superman / Batman for DC. but some of the paneling choices seem off & don't work for the characters.  However it is nice to see a story that reminds readers why Cable is such a bad-ass but this story has almost no substance does not seem to lend much credence to the upcoming event.

Avengers: The Children's Crusade

Allan Heinberg has come back to the characters that he helped create.  The Young Avengers first series came up 2005 as a group of kids who came together to replace the Avengers in the wake of Avengers Disassembled.  Avengers: The Children's Crusade follows up several events penned by Avengers architect Brian Michael Bendis.  It connects Avengers Disassembled, House of M & Secret War; this book acts as the bookend to all of those events tying up some loose ends.  The story hinges on the belief that Wiccan & Speed are the Scarlet Witch's long lost children, they set off on a journey to find Wanda who has been missing since House of M.  During Bendis's run on the Avengers books she sort of appears when Hawkeye is trying to find her but we find out that encounter was really with a doombot. It turns out that Wanda fled to Latveria & was given sanctuary by Doctor Doom.  The Scarlet Witch has amnesia & doesn't remember what she did.  Once she gets her memories back she wishes to make amends for her crimes.  The Avengers & the X-Men are looking for her.  The only people who are protecting her are the Young Avengers.  Iron Lad returns for the first time since the original Young Avengers run.  Iron Lad is the child who turns into Kang the Conquer.  Several things happen throughout this book with the help of time travel the Young Avengers return to Avengers Mansion shortly before Jack of Hearts this in turn leads to the saving of Scott Lang from the ensuing explosion.  Wanda was able to give Rictor back his mutant powers but then she was caught between the growing tensions of the Avengers & the X-Men.  Wanda escapes back to Doctor Doom in hopes to get the Lifeforce energy back at its peak potential.  Doctor Doom double crosses everybody do to a botched attempt from Patriot.  Doctor Doom becomes omnipotent with a power that is similar to that of the Phoenix Force & thin Infinity Stones.  He can remake the world in his image foreshadowing the Secret Wars event of 2015.  In the end Doom's thirst for power is his undoing but during the final battle between Doctor Doom & the combined heroes of the Avengers, X-Men & Young Avengers Cassie Lang is killed by Doom.  After the battle due to an argument between Young Avengers & Iron Lad the 2nd Vision is killed by Iron Lad.  This is the event that leads Iron Lad to becoming Kang the Conquer.  The Young Avengers have decided to disband because of this Patriot decided to quit which lead to others leaving as well not only does this bring back the Scarlet Witch & Ant-Man but it closes the door on the Young Avengers for now written by their creator.  Spider-Island is mentioned at the end of this book before Wiccan & Hulkling are asked to come to the Avengers Mansion in which the Young Avengers are honored as full fledged Avengers.

Avengers Vol. 3

Fear Itself is over & the Avengers have been plunged into a time of Shattered Heroes.  Steve Rogers has once again dawned the Red, White & Blue; & picked up the Shield.  Bucky Barnes died during the Fear Itself event along with Thor.  In the wake of this tragedy Captain America & Iron Man decide to hold a press conference to announce new members joining the Avengers.  Rogers approaches Black Panther who refuses to accept but offers up an alternative in his wife.  For Storm this is the first time she has joined the Avengers which for her character I think is a great achievement. but she seems to be completely underutilized in this story-arc.  The next character to join is one of the oldest members of the team, Vision has returned.  Vision has not been seen since his death in Avengers Disassembled.  The scenes with Vision are truly amazing his confrontation with She-Hulk where she apologizes for killing him are touching & heartfelt.  In comparison his appearance in Utopia sort of helps raise the tensions for the up coming Avengers vs. X-Men event.  But his threats & accusations against Magneto are simply awesome & speaks to the incredible amount of history that these characters have.  Most of this story is tense until you get to the finally.  The Avengers are taken down in one quick coordinated strike from Osborn & what remains of H.A.M.M.E.R.  Osborn again alters his physiology to battle the Avengers it will be interesting to see how permanent this change is.  The conclusion to this story doesn't make sense unless you read New Avengers Vol. 3 as well.  Many of the complaints I have with this collection I have stated in that article.  This is the story-arc that precedes the Avengers vs. X-Men event.  However there are two Avengers mini-series that take place in-between this story & the forth coming one.  The first is Avengers: The Children's Crusade which coincides with the events going under the Shattered Heroes banner.  Next up is Avengers: X-Sanction which takes place after Osborn's attempted coup d'etat.

New Avengers Vol. 3

This volume follows Fear Itself.  The issues in this story coincide with the issues in Avengers as well in fact this story would probably be better read in periodical form.  This book sees the escape of Norman Osborn under the watchful eye of Luke Cage's Avengers in the opening scenes of this story it doesn't really discuss the backstory of the Goblin gang that started being foreshadowed in earlier issues.  Osborn begins to form a plan to reform the Dark Avengers & supplant the current Avengers teams with his own.  Osborn in a genius & it shows in just how well he turns the tide against the Avengers.  Osborn forms a united team by gathering The Hand, A.I.M. & Hydra under the banner of what remains of H.A.M.M.E,R.  The one thing this mini event does is show how  disjointed the Avengers team are after Fear Itself.  The issues in this story are under the banner Shattered Heroes which is the appropriate title.  This story shows just how much Bendis loves to write Norman Osborn he has elevated this villain from the Spider-Man rogues gallery to the global stage as an Avengers level threat.  The Avengers rally once they find out how Osborn has manipulated them & show up to take down H.A.M.M.E.R.  For everything that was done right in this story there was a mistake for how well put together Osborn's plan was the Avengers plan seems confusing & chaotic.  I wish Bendis had put more time into building up this story because the execution & editing seemed rushed.  Luke Cage misses out on the final showdown because he is concerned about his family.  As H.A.M.M.E.R. falls all of Osborn's associates bail on him knowing that Osborn is his own worst enemy & that he usually brings about his own downfall.  Since these are the issues leading up to Avengers vs. X-Men I am surprised there is really no lead up to that event in these issues but it is a deserving follow-up to Fear Itself.

Avengers: Fear Itself

This is essentially the third volume of both Avengers & New Avengers as this picks up after the events of the second volumes.  I have not read the Fear Itself event I do know the general story & that it is very Thor centric event.  One of the spoilers from that event is that Avengers Tower is taken down by one of the invading forces.  The significance of that I am sure might have been lost on some readers but here's the cultural parallel this event came out in 2011.  That is the ten year anniversary of the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11.  Marvel took the anniversary & built it into an event; the tone they set with this collection echoes the feelings that arise when we look back on 9/11.  Captain America also plays a big part in this event as both the first Thor & Captain America movies came out this year as well.  If this book had another title it would be What Does it Take to Be an Avenger.  Someone is interviewing the Avengers for a book they are righting on the history of the Avengers there is some very candid dialog about each of the members & flashback stories to this event in particular.  Everybody has little moments to shine in this book particularly Squirrel Girl, Daredevil, Red Hulk & Mockingbird.  This was a great reflective volume before kicking back into new story-arcs for both books.

New Avengers Vol. 2

Again Brian Michael Bendis has established to very completely different Avengers books; New Avengers is definitely the more interesting read of the two.  This story sees Luke Cage & company settling into being Avengers while living in Avengers Mansion.  Luke Cage & Jessica Jones hire a nanny for their baby & after interviewing several potential candidates settle on Squirrel Girl who apparently has some type of backstory with Logan that is both interesting & creepy.  Finally the New Avengers set out on their first mission seeking out the remaining members of H.A.M.M.E.R. before they can set up shop again.  The resulting chaos leads to the mortal wounding of Mockingbird & the double agent reveal of Victoria Hand.  The main villain in this is a D-List character named Superia that is so obscure that Ms. Marvel even states that she has never heard of her.  There is another story that weaves in an out of this one that shows the first team of Avengers a secret team before the classic Iron Man, Thor & Captain America pairing to stop Loki.  This team was put in motion during the late 1950's & consist of Silver Sable, Ulysses Bloodstone, Sabretooth, Kraven the Hunter, Namora, Dominic Fortune, Dum Dum Dugan, & Nick Fury.  Its a cross between the Howling Commandos & the Avengers they are teaming up to take one someone claiming to be the Red Skull who has set up shop in Sweden.  This team of Avengers storms the castle to take down the Nazis who are calling themselves the Fourth Reich.  They come across an abomination that these Nazis have created their own Captain America in mixing the Super Soldier Serum with the Infinity Formula.  Sabretooth beheads the Red Skull at the end of the the mission so it is pretty evident that this was not the real Red Skull.  Nick Fury shows up in the present once the Avengers take down Superia to retrieve this formula.  Fury reveals that the Infinity Formula is what has been keeping him alive all of these years.  It turns out that the only way to save Mockingbird is to inject her with this hybrid formula that the Nazi Captain America was created with.  The big reveal at the end is that as soon as Superia is put in jail a card is slipped under her door a stylized goblin head, leaving the question who is Victoria Hand really working for?  Next up for the Avengers & the Marvel Universe as a whole is the Fear Itself event.  During that event many of the Marvel heroes go through their own mini-events Spider-Man will have to deal with Spider-Island.  While the X-Men will have to deal with Schism all in all changes are coming to the Marvel Universe.

Avengers Vol. 2

The second volume of Avengers sees a new member join the team in the Red Hulk.  The major event of this book is the fact that the Illuminati that was formed long ago & has played a hand in several events most famously the Planet Hulk story line.  This story starts off that a mysterious person has found out about the Infinity Gems by accident he really found out about an object of immense power.  This mysterious individual turns out to be The Hood aka Parker Robbins.  Parker Robbins has in a short amount of time become a major thorn in the Avengers sides throughout Bendis's run on the Avengers titles.  Robbins is able to get his hands on three of the gems before the story's conclusion & by the end he is back where he started in prison.  But a human gaining control of the Infinity Gems is not the only ramification to come out of this story.  The Avengers learn of Black Bolts death from Medusa in this book & the Avengers lead by Steve Rogers come to learn of the existence of the Illuminati & the hiding of the Infinity Gems.  By the end of this book the Illuminati still exist but now Steve Rogers is a part of it.  This book also lays more of the foundation for the Age of Ultron event.

Avengers: The Heroic Age

This collection is a great jumping on point for people who want to read about the Avengers on the dawn of the first Avengers movie.  This is also the second half of Brian Michael Bendis's run on the Avengers titles.  Bendis's run collects the 2 main titles Avengers & New Avengers there are 2 other titles that fill out the Avengers books Secret Avengers & Avengers Academy.  All of the events in this book take place after the events of Siege.  This book includes Avengers: Prime it also has the first 6 issues of both Avengers & New Avengers.  Avengers: Prime is a great story that shows the bonds of friendship that the trinity of the Avengers share even with all of the trouble they have gone through during most of Bendis's run.  The first story-arc of Avengers is a time traveling tale that includes Kang & sets some of the ground work for Age of Ultron.  Finally the third story-arc is in New Avengers with Luke Cage getting the keys to Avengers Mansion & setting up a second team of Avengers in New York City.  This is a magical tale involving the Eye of Agammotto, this was a lot of fun to read mostly because it delves into a side of the Marvel Universe that doesn't get a lot of attention.