Avengers World #12

Background

As one of three concurrent missions from S.H.I.E.L.D., Nightmask, Starbrand, Spider-Woman and Hawkeye were exploring the abandoned town in Italy when they got transported to a city of the dead. Once there, they met up with Euroforce and faced Morgan le Fay's army of the dead.

Story 'Euroforce vs Army of the Dead'

Paris, Berlin, Rome, London; all these places are being attacked by Morgan le Fey's armies of the dead. London has fallen.

The majority of this then comic flits between Euroforce fighting the armies (with minor participation from the Avengers team) and flashbacks to how the European team came to be. Black Knight was recruited at the pub by Tiger. Swordswoman wanted to follow in her father's footsteps (former Avenger Swordsman), whilst Tumult got her outfit anonymously in the mail (!). The Baby Killer is a clone of General Zamorska and Sliver was a former footballer (soccer star) who spent his fortune imbuing himself with a previously undiscovered alien substance(!).

Finally, Sebastian Druid turns up with a method to defeat Morgan. However, a giant le Fay kills him before he can reveal this secret.

General Comments

I didn't like this issue. At all.

If you've read some of my other reviews, you may know that the things I look for most is that the title's characters are treated “fairly” (for want of a better phrase). I don't like it when the main characters are pretty much absent from their own comic (see the majority of New Avengers (Vol. 4) especially during the AvX event). Frankly, this comic should have been called Euroforce #1 (featuring the Avengers).

Let's recap Avengers World so far: the first issue set up 3 concurrent missions, these were then told individually up until issue 10 which tied them back together again. From then on though they got divided up again, which takes us up to the current issue. During these missions, other Avenger-like teams from around the world got introduced and worked with the Avengers to solve the problems. I liked this, I thought it was realistic and in keeping with the world bit of Avengers World. What I don't like is the Avengers being guests in their own comics. You want to introduce new characters, fine, don't do it at the expense of the stars. Or if you must introduce a different team that is linked to the Avengers, at least make it a point one issue (although Marvel seem to be doing away with these of late and just straight out reboot comics to #1 when they need to!).

As this comic is an introduction story (even though it's the 12th issue of massive arc starting at #1), there is little progression of the ongoing plot – there's just no room! The only advancement is that Sebastian Druid turns up suddenly (I thought he'd been forgotten about to be honest) with a solution to the Morgan le Fey problem only for her (somehow now in a giant form) to kill him before he can share the details of his plan. Will Druid stay dead? Probably not as those skilled in the mystic arts tend to revive relatively quickly.

I feel I should pick out some positives as some things did amuse me in the issue. Dane Whitman trying to be British, by using the same cuss words we Brits do, and Hawkeye totally calling him out on this. I also thought the way Sliver got his powers was uniquely funny. He didn't want to give his wealth to any of his children so spent it all on becoming super-powered! Ludicrously funny but wonderfully novel, and much better then being sent a suit in the mail! The art is also lovely.

To conclude and the sad thing is, I am starting to lose interest in this title. It's just so drawn out with little to no reward with each issue. This arc has been going on for a year in real time now and so its timeline doesn't really match up with other comics featuring the same characters on the shelf at the moment. It's a shame as I really liked the concept for the comic when it began.

Overall Rating

No significant story progress + no significant involvement of the Avengers = no chance it's getting a decent score! The few positives save it from getting the lowest mark possible. Would I have score this higher if it was called Euroforce #1? Yeah probably, but then it wouldn't be a year into an arc with not much progress and I would expect an introductory tale to be told featuring the main characters.