Whether you liked the recent "Avengers" movie or not, there is one undeniable factoid...it made a whole lot of money. Over a billion dollars world wide. Naturally when a project like the "Avengers" film is that successful their are spin offs galore. The most obvious would be "Avengers Assemble", an on-going comic book series that debuted right before the film's release and features the same cast of characters. It's like printing money. You have a built in fan base from the movie and a pre-existing fan base from the comics and bam! Instant gold, right? Well...Your book still has to be good. I would like to say that Avengers Assemble is good, but I can't. It's not flat out bad mind you, it just isn't the Avengers book that I would choose to represent the characters to a mainstream audience. Here is a short rundown of the story thus far: A super powered secret society known as the Zodiac has attacked various government sites across the globe, these actions have brought together the group of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor,The Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye (The movie line-up). After being individually defeated by the Zodiac the assembled Avengers...assemble...again (It's the title) and give the bad guys the beat down until they run crying to their master. That master in question is
SPOILER ALERT (If you haven't seen the end credits of the Avengers movie you need to stop reading and get out more...seriously the movie is like 3 months old already!) Thanos. The purple faced big bad gives our guys the beat down and disappears with his stolen goodies, the ultra shiny, ultra destructive cosmic cube. When all seems lost and the Avengers seem like they are in over their heads they are helped out by the guardians of the galaxy, picture them as a space themed version of the Avengers with aliens and a talking, gun wielding raccoon.
Now that you are all caught up, let's talk writing. Brian Micheal Bendis is a great writer and he has done a great job on some of the best Avengers stories. His "New Avengers" run is hands down one of my favorite super hero team books. However, his style is very different here, it is as if the company gave him the directive to write down to the fans and create a loose, somewhat sloppy plot that would appeal to the masses. It is not your typical well thought out, well executed BMB storyline. Not only is the plot insultingly formulaic, it reads as if it were written by a committee of executives rather than one writer. For example, not only are the cast of characters from the movie, the main villain and supporting allies are all rumored to appear in the sequel. From his awesome appearance at the end of the first movie, it is obvious that Thanos will appear in part 2. What you may not know is that the Guardians of the Galaxy are rumored to appear as well and spin off into their own franchise. If that is truly the case then this book is just a commercial tie-in, a marketing tool to introduce newcomers to characters that they will see more of in the sequel. It's a smart business move, but not the best way to build a plot. To his credit though, Bendis still has some great character moments with his patented snappy banter.
On the artistic side of things, Mark Bagley is still one of the greatest artists Marvel comics has on tap. If you loved his fluid, detailed and fun take on Amazing Spider Man and later Ultimate Spider Man, you will love this more. It is a wide screen epic that Bagley was born to draw. If you are willing to put up with the filler of a bad plot you are in store for some eye candy.
Overall, this book does not make it clear when the story is taking place, or if it fits in the regular Marvel Universe at all. Besides the fact that each character looks more like their movie counterpart than their normal comic book look, there is no mention of what is happening with the on-going Avengers/X-men crossover. That series features everyone in the marvel universe fighting everyone else. It is a massive war that involves the destructive power of the Phoenix entity, yet we get no mention of it here, plus keep in mind that all of these Avengers should be fighting the x-men and can't possibly be in two places at once. With all of that baggage, I can only recommend this book to the casual buyer or child who just wants to read the most basic of stories accompanied with great art, because that's all you're getting here.
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