Lets get this started, I held off on reviewing this omnibus until after I saw the new movie Avengers: Endgame. So I’ll throw in a bonus review of that at the end. I actually finished reading this book a few weeks ago and am about halfway through Spider-Man Volume 3 now, so lets jump right in.
Avengers Omnibus Volume 3 contains issues #59-88 as well as Marvel Super Heroes #17 and The Incredible Hulk #140.
The book kicks off with Yellowjacket arriving on the scene. He tells the Avengers that he killed ant-man and kidnaps the wasp. We find out later that Yellowjacket is actually Ant-man but during some experiments he inhaled some gasses which gave him some mild schizophrenia. Gotta love silver age silliness! He decides Yellowjacket is a more suitable moniker for the partner of the Wasp and decides that will be his super-hero name moving forward. The two finally get married and we have another who’s who of the marvel universe where everyone attends the weddings. Always cool to see all the Marvel characters get together.
Dr. Strange shows up at Avengers HQ asking for them to help the Black Knight, after doing so they seem abandonded so Black Panther gets a ship sent from Wakanda to retrieve them. When the crew arrives in Wakanda we find Mbaku aka the White Gorilla has taken control. Black Panther fights him and Mbaku is accidentally killed. Once the Avengers returned home from Wakanda Nick Fury asked them to go on a secret mission to save the Black Widow. They sit Hawkeye out because of his personal attachments but he ends up getting a call directly from Black Widow asking for help. He decides to take the Goliath Serum and go rescue her, however her captors Egghead, Puppet Master, and the Mad Thinker. When the two returned to Avengers HQ, Barney Barton, Hawkeyes brother is there and explains the Eggheads plans, Barney ends up sacrificing himself to save the Avengers. The Egghead hires the swordsman to go after both Goliath and Hawkeye not realizing they are now one in the same. Swordsman defeats Goliath (actually Hawkeye) and takes him to Egghead who is furious that it is not Hank Pym as Goliath. While the two villians fight Goliath/Hawkeye regains consciousness and defeats them both.
Shield gets a hold of some Adamanatium and calls on the Avengers to try and destroy, in the process Vision unaware he is still possessed by the mind of Ultron ends up stealing it and using it as the base for a new body for Ultron. Ultron defeats the Avengers and returns to the burial site of Ultron 5 where Vision awaits him. S.H.I.E.L.D shows up and intervenes knocking out Vision and assisting in Ultrons escape. The Avengers show up and find out how Vision was manipulated into working for Ultron. We also find out that Ultron has a plan to destroy all of New York but Vision is able to disarm the bomb before Ultron can flick the switch. Hank Pym poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D scientist at the UN and Ultron kidnaps him, hoping to learn how to make a new indestructible body. Hank Pym only thinks the thought ‘Thou shall not kill’ which overwhelms Ultron causing him to self destruct.
This omnibus also contains an issue called Endgame, part of a story arc that begins with the Avengers visiting a dying Tony Stark. An android suddenly teleports everyone in the room to Kangs ship in the year 4000. We find out the Grandmaster had told Kang that he had to defeat him in a game of chess, in order to become a master of life and death, enabling him to awaken the comatose love of his life Ravonna. If the Avengers refuse to help then Kang will destroy the planet. Cap, Hawkeye and Thor are set to fight against the Sinister Squadron (consisting of Hyperion, Nighthawk, Dr. Spectrum and the Whizzer). Iron Man ends up joining them later on as the 4th Avenger to make it a fair fight. As you’d expect, three of the four Avengers won their battles, the fourth being Hawkeye (still as Goliath) ends up meeting the Black Knight who tries to assist the Avengers, this breaks the Grandmasters rules so he ends the fight and decides a second phase will take place. In phase two (The issue called Endgame) Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket are sent to the 1940s to take on the Human Torch, Namor, and Captain America of that timeline.
I read this issue about a month prior to endgame the movie coming out in theaters and thought their may be similarities, aside from the aspect of time travel though there isn’t much in common between the issue and the movie of the same name.
Anyways, Vision ends up defeating the 1940’s Marvel Heroes by making himself ghost like and flies through them therefore demobilizing them. The Grandmaster decides the Avengers only won one fair fight so he offers Kang the power of life or death, but not both. Kang chooses death to the Avengers however, the Black Knight who was only trying to help is unaffected by the choice and defeats Kang. The Grandmaster is impressed and returns The Avengers and the Black Knight home where they officially invite him to be an Avenger. In another arc, Rick Jones show up to an Avenger meeting and S.H.I.E.L.D calls informing them Nick Fury is dead and other members of S.H.I.E.L.D have been captured by Scorpio the leader of the Zodiac. We find Rick Jones actually showed up to this meeting for the same reason, he was at Fury’s house and encountered Scorpio, he then body swaps or something like that with Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel finds a list of names. I feel like that part of the story probably continues is the Captain Marvel comics cause it didn’t seem to lead to much here. Scorpio appears on the Avengers video communicator thing and causes an explosion knocking everybody out. When the Avengers wake they find themselves hostages of the Zodiac. Yellowjacket and Wasp are able to use their telekenetic connection with the ants to disable a switch and set the Avengers free, Scorpio then reveals himself to be Nick Fury in disguise as the real scorpio was his brother so he faked his own death and infiltrated the Zodiac. Aries ends up finding and using the Zodiac Key to hold off the Avengers allowing the Zodiac to escape.
Their is a hand full of issues which deal with racism towards black people and a popular singer going on a talk-show voicing her opinions becomes a target of the group called ‘Sons of the Serpent’. They attack her one night and Black Panther defends her, knocking out the attackers and stealing one of their uniforms to infiltrate their headquarters. He ends up getting caught and while in their custody they frame the Black Panther as being a terrorist around the city. The Avengers fight but cannot capture the fake Black Panther and while back at HQ see on the news the sons of the serpent claim to have captured and plan to reveal the identity of the Black Panther. The Avengers invade the news station, saving the Panther and revealing the leaders of the sons of the serpent to actually be the men on the talk-show and running the news. They were trying to inspire racism to stir up violence in the city so they could gain some control.
We finally get the return of the twins, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Well Quicksilver shows up first asking the Avengers to help him. While the two were off trying to restore their powers a man named Arkon appears and takes Wanda to be his wife, additionally he kidnaps two earth physicists to build an atomic bomb which will blow up the earth creating enough light to light the sky in Arkons world. The Avengers decide to help Quicksilver and go to Arkons planet, defeating his army and also solving the light problem with Thor and Iron-Mans help. The hopping between dimensions between our own and Arkon’s also helps restore Wandas power back to their previous state.
Later, Tony Stark (who still hasn’t been revealed as Iron Man) tells the Avengers he is in debt and they need to start paying rent, resulting in them working some odd jobs in quite a forgettable issue. Mbaku comes to America and kidnaps the same popular singer from earlier trying to bait out Black Panther, he does so succesfully and captures Black Panther revealing a bunch of the villians have banded together to form the Lethal Legion.
The Avengers call on the big guns (Thor & Iron Man) for this one. Vision disguises himself as a human and goes to the School where Black Panther has begun teaching the black youth, letting them know he won’t be in that day. The Avengers ultimately all lose their battles and get captured aside from Vision who disguises himself as Power-Man and showed the Grim Reaper that Vision was made using Wonder-Mans memories, who happened to be the Grim Reapers brother. In his anger he free’s the Avengers which leads to the Avengers defeating the lethal legion. Vision begins having a humanity complex and decides to quit the Avengers.
While out on his own he see’s someone called the Red Wolf attack an innocent man, Vision intervenes and decides to take him to Avengers HQ. This leads into the origin story of the Red Wolf and how an aboriginal man rose to the occasion to fight off white businessmen that came to take over the land. We find out that Cornelius Van Lunt, a business man who keeps popping up is currently trying to take over the Red Wolf and his peoples land. The Avengers were in the process of preparing to go take on the zodiac and Red Wolf’s story inspires some of them to help him instead, resulting in two teams splitting up on two missions. Vision, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye (who is still Goliath) and the Red Wolf go after Van Lunt, while Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Quicksilver go after the Zodiac. Black Panther decides he wants to go back to teaching. While the first team is flying a quinjet to the Red Wolf’s land they are shot down by a rocket fired by Van Lunt. Vision and Wanda get captured while Hawkeye and Red Wolf round up natives to invade the property Van Lunt is staying at. However Van Lunt convinces the Vision to protect him in order to save Wanda. This is the first time we see any sort of affection from Vision as well as his feelings for Wanda. Vision holds off the invaders until Wanda regains her strength and defeats Van Lunts men herself.
The second team, which consisted of Cap, Iron Man, Thor and Quicksilver, got captured by the Zodiac and end up being rescued by the Black Panther and Daredevil, unfortunately the issue of Daredevil which precedes this was not included in this omnibus.
We get an issue featuring the all woman team of the Liberators, Wasp is in town and drops in at Avengers HQ to find Medusa, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow and the Valkyrie have taken over. The Avengers are attending a halloween party when they are attacked by the masters of evil, however the women show up and save the day, before turning on the Avengers. Once the women appear to have won the Valkyrie reveals herself to actually be the enchantress, Wanda reflects her magic attack severely wounding the enchantress. We find out in the next issue the Enchantress is still alive but in Arkon’s dimension and she sets up a trap where so the Black Knight gets transported there as well. Scarlet Witch see’s everything in a dream. When she wakes Avengers HQ and all the Avengers in it are also transported to Arkon’s world. Thor and Black Panther were the only two absent and return just in time to see the mansion disappear. They travel to Arkon’s world setting free the rest of the Avengers and use Mjolnir to travel back home. However only Thor and Black Panther arrive on earth to find Spider-Man and Captain America handing out toys to underprivileged youth.
Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Vision and Hawkeye (still Goliath by the way) find themselves in a post apocalyptic future. Scarlet Witch uses her abilities to send them back in time only to find they are in an alternate dimension where the Avengers never existed and their evil counter-part the Squadron Supreme does. They are able to convince Nighthawk of the apocalyptic future they saw and he agrees to help them prevent it. We learn of a character called the Brain-Child, a child born from parents who had been affected with abilities, it sounds like this could be the son of Sue and Reed Richards in this alternate dimension. Anyways, due to feeling like an outsider he decides he is going to destroy all life on earth, himself included, which results in the future the Avengers first arrived in. Hawkeye (still Goliath) uses one of the fallen Squadron members as an arrow and fires him at the Brain Child, knocking him loose and to the ground where Dr. Spectrum turned him back into a baby.
The omnibus’ last few issues start with an origin story for Black Panther which served as heavy inspiration for the movie. T’Challa is sent to study the world after the death of his father at the hands of Ulysses Klaw. A friend accompanies him and when he finally returns to Wakanda to become the Black Panther he finds his friend is a traitor and Vibranium has been harvested from Wakanda, his friend returns to the good side but dies in the process, helping save Wakanda.
We also get one final crossover where the smartest minds including Reed Richards and Professor X help to capture the Hulk. A villain called the Psyklop captures the already captured Hulk and uses a shrink ray on him sending Hulk down into a micro world. The people of the microworld grant Hulk the ability to use the brain of Bruce Banner while maintaining his Hulk form. Upset that he has lost the Hulk, Psyklop defends himself from the Avengers and send them back to New York having wiped their minds of the recent events. The people of the microworld are also green and have similarties with the Hulk, Hulk is set to marry their princess however Psyklop finds him and returns him to normal size, also returning the Hulk to his raging self he defeats Psyklop.
There is one final issue which sheds light on the origin story of the Black Knight and how his Ebony Blade could only be weilded bya decendant of the blood line, typical knights story stuff. Nothing to special.
All in all it was a very fun read, I’m looking forward to seeing Hawkeye return to his old self though, its also quite apparant in this book that the main Avengers team rarely consists of Thor and Iron Man at this time, they are more or less the big guns that get called in when the team needs additional help. I may have mentioned something about throwing in an Avengers: Endgame movie review here but honestly its better if you just go see it. In fact, watch all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, they are really well done!
Thanks for reading =)