Wednesday, May 9, 2018

The Avengers Versus Thanos, by Jim Englehart, Jim Starlin, Mike Friedrich, Steve Gerber, Scott Edelman

Marvel, July 2013

This collects various Avengers/Thanos comics from 1963-1972, presenting the story of Thanos' quest to become a god and destroy all life in the universe, and Avengers' efforts to stop him.

It ought to be exciting, right?

I remember liking these comics as a kid. Really I do. And Marvel has given us some good movies over the last several years, using the Avengers. I was really pleased to see this available in Kindle Unlimited.

Unfortunately, it's just silly and disjointed, and the art isn't that good.

Yes, these are separate comics published over a period of about a decade, from different specific lines, focused on different main characters. But it's presented as being the story of the Avengers battling Thanos to protect the universe, as if there's a coherent story, here.

There isn't. Repeatedly we see Thanos finally and completely defeated, and then back in the next part of the sequence, present as if the previous defeat hadn't been presented as decisive. New characters appear, presented as if we should already know them.

And really, in the end, I don't care. There's backstory that I don't remember, if I ever read those particular comics, that isn't here, that would probably make it all feel a bit more coherent. In what is included here, Marvell and his alter ego, Rick Jones, are the only characters whom I was able to feel much connection to at all, and even that was tenuous.

Mostly, I just didn't care what happened to these characters.

Clearly, I'm not the intended audience here. I suspect the intended audience for this collection is the audience of readers who loved these comics when they were younger, and never stopped loving the Marvel universe.

I read this for free from Kindle Unlimited, and that's a bit of a relief.

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