Released on March 11th, 2020
Now that I'm done reviewing classing Avengers books from the past, I figured I should check out what the current Avengers is like these days. Is it similar at all? Totally different? And I know what you're thinking: wait, didn't you review #97 from 1972 yesterday? So why is #32 coming out in 2020? Well, because Marvel realized that #1 issues sell better than any other numbered issue, so they re-boot their books constantly. I guess I can't argue with sales...but what about just trying to make the best book you can? If you made a great fucking book than it would probably sell better than a random, out of nowhere, new #1, right? Who knows, because they don't do that. This new issue is actually #732. And while I always argue about keeping the same creative team on a book rarely happens, writer Jason Aaron and artist Ed McGuinness have been on this book since #1 (McGuinness has only worked on 16 of them, though, because it's bi-monthly...and one of the fill in artists was Dale Keown...where the hell has he been since Pitt?). Lucky for me, this issue has McGuinness penciling, though, as much as I love his art (it's pure superhero stuff...big as life), it doesn't look as spectacular as I remember his art being. As for the story...well, it's similar to The Avengers from the early 70's in that there are a thousand characters and various story lines going on at once. The actual, big-name Avengers are barely in it (Thor and Tony Stark are on one page). Namor is in it, as is Blade. The rest are a bunch of villains, as the story as Mephisto assembling various villainous groups to take out the Avengers. So there's Dracula and Baroness Blood in Chernobyl. There's some Russian Avengers type of group. There's the Squadron Supreme of America who are like a bad, mid-90's Liefeld team. And there's Namor who is apparently a bad guy now. The big ending has Namor calling for the Phoenix force to help him take on the Avengers. While the ending is supposed to provide awe, surprise, and coolness, I just sighed. The Phoenix force? Again? Fuck...that thing shows up too much, it's been played out. I think even Aaron used it a few years ago in Thor. Which brings me to the big question. What the hell happened to Jason Aaron? Dude used to be Marvel's best writer. There's a laundry list of great books he used to write (Punisher: Max, Ghost Rider, that Wolverine/Spider-Man book, his first arc on Thor, his Wolverine run). But he hasn't written anything remotely good in years for Marvel (Southern Bastards at Image was good...but that just stopped existing a year or two ago for unknown reasons...probably because artist Jason Latour started writing other books instead of drawing). Maybe Aaron just burned out (he is writing two issues of The Avengers every month). Or maybe he just used every good idea he had. Or maybe he just grew up and lost his youthful, energetic, wild nature. But his run on Star Wars was boring. His Conan run was dull. Last year's War of the Realms was a big mess. I used to always wonder why Marvel never put him on the main Spider-Man title because he was Marvel's best writer. Now Marvel's new, hot writer is Donny Cates. Kind of sad to see a fallen king. *1/2
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