(Not Quite) The End of Two Avengers Series

The next age of “Avengers” starts in a couple months with Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness’ new series.  In the meantime, the “No Surrender” weekly event is winding down and we’ve got the trade collections for the last couple of “Avengers” titles that I still read.  Those would be vanilla “Avengers” and “U.S.Avengers,” written by Mark Waid and Al Ewing, respectively. Both creators are currently working on “No Surrender” along with “Uncanny Avengers” writer Jim Zub, so it’s reasonable to expect that we’ll see some plot threads from these series carried over into that event.  Yet for all intents and purposes the “Avengers & Champions” crossover and the second volume of “U.S.Avengers” represent the writers’ final solo works on these titles. The good news is that they at least manage to go out on some high notes.

Now, in the case of Avengers & Champions:  Worlds Collide that’s more of a relative statement regarding the quality of Waid’s “Avengers.”  It’s been fine, but nowhere near the creator’s best work — content to follow superhero convention rather than gleefully subvert it.  What “Worlds Collide” has going for it compared to his other “Avengers” stories (and his work on “Champions” for that matter) is a greater sense of urgency that propels the fate-of-two-worlds plot.  As members of both teams gear up for a satellite to prove the existence of Counter-Earth to the world at large, they’re pressed into action when a giant rock materializes in space on a collision course to Earth.  While they’re able to defuse that threat with some skillful teamwork, it’s only the first battle in a conflict that pits the teams against the High Evolutionary as he looks to practice his craft on a cosmic scale now.

What follows is are a series of action-packed battles around the world as the Avengers and Champions have to defuse vibrations that threaten to topple the world’s largest buildings, fight the High Evolutionary’s fanatical ani-men, and then take the fight to the man himself.  The high-energy art from Humberto Ramos on the “Champions” issues works very well for all this, and the combined efforts from Jesus Saiz and Javier Pina on the “Avengers” issues is very nice to look at even if it doesn’t bring quite the same level of excitement. There’s also a satisfying emotional through-line for this crossover in the strained father/daughter relationship between the Vision and Viv.  Even if the threat presented by the High Evolutionary isn’t all that original, he does provide this crossover’s most unexpected moments by provoking some surprising changes in Viv. It’s enough to make me want to pick up the next volume of “Champions” to see where Waid is going with these new developments.

One of the things I’ve liked most about Ewing’s “New Avengers/U.S.Avengers” runs is how he’s turned Roberto “Sunspot” DaCosta into the savvy science-corporate head of A.I.M. who’s capable of outsmarting the bad guys at every turn.  At least, that was the case until “Secret Invasion” hit and the first two-thirds of U.S.Avengers vol. 2:  Cannonball Run show us what happens when DaCosta taken off the board and the rest of the team he’s brought together has to fend for itself.  The result: The kind of quality superhero action you’ve come to expect. Toni “Iron Patriot” Ho is thrown into prison with an addled Sunspot and has to MacGyver her way out of Hydra’s clutches.  Meanwhile Squirrel Girl and Enigma are flung halfway across the Earth to fight Hydra in Paris and team up with Euroforce to do it. It’s exciting stuff with lots of clever twists, fun dialogue, and great art from Pacos Medina and Diaz.  The end also set up what could’ve been an interesting new status quo for the series, so we’ll see what if any of it survives into “No Surrender.”

The final two issues are an interesting capstone to Ewing’s run as there’s just the tiniest hint of bitterness about them.  They involve the fate of Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie who found himself left for dead near Saturn, rescued, and sold into slavery to be the new out-of-town geography teacher in the All-American town of Glenbrook, home to Richie Redwood and his friends.  While Roberto, Sam’s wife and Imperial Guardsman Izzy, and friends are on their way to save him — after a run-in with some spacefaring gangsters who take all their dress cues from 1930’s Chicago — the first half of the story gets some good mileage out of its “What the hell is going on?” setup.

Things are quickly revealed in the second half and there’s a lot of fun to be had as everyone fights back against Richie Redwood, who is more tyrannical fanboy purist overlord than America’s Best-Loved Teen.  The reason I say there’s the hint of bitterness about this story is because it’s another one of those comic stories which laments the fact that people just aren’t responding to new stuff these days. You know, the kind of stuff that Ewing has been trying and doing really well in his “Avengers” titles.  I’m not surprised he wanted to do a story like this because if I had spent the last few years working on really good superhero titles that the market just didn’t give a crap about I’d be bitter too. At least we got five good volumes of “New Avengers/U.S.Avengers” from him which, if nothing else, show that he should be given a shot at the A-team once Aaron is done with his run.