Comic Book Review: Avengers Season One written by Peter David, art by Various
The Avengers exist because of Loki, the Norse god of trickery and sometimes evil. He had hoped to maneuver his brother Thor, god of thunder, into fighting the Hulk, the one man-monster perhaps capable of matching the Odinson’s strength. When Rick Jones (the Hulk’s human sidekick at the time) attempted to contact the Fantastic Four for help, Loki diverted the signal, but this caused it to be picked up by Tony Stark, the armored Iron Man, Hank Pym, the size-changing Ant-Man, and Janet van Dyne, the winsome Wasp. They made common cause with the Hulk and Thor against Loki, and joined forces as the Avengers!
Though now teammates, the Avengers were not yet friends, and their fractious personalities did not mesh well at first. When the shape-shifting Space Phantom easily turned the rest against the Hulk, that easily angered fellow left the team. In their search for Ol’ Jade-Jaws, the Avengers stumbled on the defrosting body of Captain America, super-soldier of World War Two. He quickly joined the team (in large part because he had nowhere else to go) and the Avengers began to function as a team.
This story takes place shortly after that, but with a modernized setting for 2013. Loki has been exiled to the Isle of Silence, where he’s reduced to talking to himself or a troll servant. But although he cannot leave, Loki can still observe and communicate with the outside world. He comes up with a plan to destroy the accursed Avengers and erase his mistaken gift of a force for good.
Hank and Jan are off on a cruise, so when the call comes in to go to Nevada and recapture the Hulk, only Iron Man, Thor and Captain America are available. Tony Stark doesn’t really buy Thor’s story of being a god from Norse mythology, Thor is reminded of what a huge coincidence it was that Captain America just so happened to be where the Avengers could find him, and Cap is discouraged by modern America’s divisiveness and seeming amnesia about the past.
When they get to Nevada, the trio splits up to search, and each has an experience that confirms their worst suspicions about each other. At their reunion, the three are at each other’s throats, and it actually takes the rampaging Hulk’s needling and an overarching crisis to undo Loki’s meddling. Things are back to stable…for now.
Always nice to see some early Marvel villains in more or less their own context, like the Stone Men from Saturn! And Loki apparently has been watching carefully as he knows things about the baddies that won’t be revealed to our heroes for a while.
It’s mentioned that Thor is developing a sense of humor. General “Thunderbolt” Ross he describes as reminding him of All-Father Odin. “…in some ways. None of them good.”
The art is okay and there are some impressive fights.
This volume also contains the first chapter of “Avengers Assemble” which features the Avengers live-action movie cast, but more in the comics universe setting. This allows cameos by heroes that still haven’t been introduced in the MCU, like Red Hulk. The main action is the introduction of a new villain team, the Zodiac (but acting as though this is the first collection of baddies using the name.)
Overall, this is a decent Avengers adventure for fans of the featured characters.
