Avengers Volume 4 Review
Well this one is a bit overdue. I finished reading 90% of this book about two months ago but ended up moving and my most beautiful daughter Emma was born on July 25th, so my time for reading, and on top of that, writing a review for my readings has fallen a bit to the wayside. None the less I’m back and ready to give you my review on the fourth volume of the silver age Avengers Omnibus (assuming anybody actually reads my reviews).
This omnibus consists of Avengers 89 – 119, Daredevil 99 and Defenders 9-11 (it says 8-11 but there is like two pages from Defenders #8 so I wouldn’t count that) Things get started fast with the Avengers helping Rick Jones capture Captain Marvel. We find out that in the captain marvel series these two have been swapping places between earth and the negative zone using something called the nega-bands. Captain Marvel is aware of a device that Reed Richards uses to enter the negative zone and uses that for both of them to be on Earth together. Annihulus takes advantage of this and also breaks through to earth.
Ronan the Accuser informs the Kree Supreme Intellegince that Captain Marvel is on earth, he is also in the hospital because he is getting poisoned from all his time in the negative zone. The Kree awaken an ancient sentry on earth to find Mar Vell. The sentry kidnaps Mar Vell from the hospital and vanishes, leaving Wanda, Pietro and Vision behind. This basically kicks off the Kree Skrull war which was a great read but will be quite summarized here. If you have the chance I strongly recommend reading it yourself! Anyways, Carol Danvers shows up saying she owes a debt to Mar Vell. When the group heads back to Avengers HQ they are summoned by Goliath/Hawkeye (Clint Barton) to head to Alaska to assist Wasp and Yellowjacket. Upon arrival they find a jungle off the arctic coast where Ronin and the Kree sentry are awaiting their arrival. Using Kree technology Ronin devolves Yellowjacket into a caveman along with three island locals, and plans to do the same to all of earth sending it back to prehistoric times. The Scarlett Witch and Vision are taken hostage by Ronin while Quicksilver and Rick Jones manage to free Captain Marvel. Ronin gets distracted by a message saying the Kree are being attacked by the Skrulls. The Kree flee the scene which reverts the devolving process. Upon returning to his normal form Yellowjacket officially retires as an Avengers.
The three men who were devolved end up telling the events to a news station which triggers a government warrant issued for 153 individuals who are believed to be Skrulls impersonating humans. Captain Marvel is on the list so Carol Danvers assists him in escaping from the avengers HQ, which results in the Avengers being seen as accomplices and frowned upon by the world. Captain America, Thor and Iron Man show to announce they have decided to disband the avengers based on the recent actions of the team. We find out these were actually Skrull imposters trying to disband the Avengers and that Vision, Goliath, Wanda, and Pietro also fought the Fantastic Four but that also ends up being Skrull invaders. Captain Marvel alerts the Kree the Skrull are on earth and Carol Danvers reveals herself to be the Super Skrull.
The Skrull seek information from Captain Marvel about an omni-wave device they can use for long range communications, they use Wanda and Pietro as hostages to get the information from Captain Marvel. Mandroids are sent by the government to fight at Avengers HQ to capture any Skrull imposters, and Triton of the inhumans also shows up to ask the Avengers to help find Black Bolt. Captain America and Goliath help the inhumans while Ironman and Thor help Vision to rescue Wanda, Pietro and Captain Marvel. When Black Bolt is found he advises that Maximus made a deal with the Kree to defeat the Skrull to bring peace to Inhumans. Shield steps in and helps the Avengers get to Andromeda to resuce the twins and Cpt. Marvel. Along the way they are boarded by a Skrull ship and told by a Skrull leader that Captain Marvel has betrayed them and given them the info to build the omni-wave device he plans on using as a weapon. However it turns out he actually was using the device to create a projection of himself while helping the rest of the team. The Skrull call for plan delta which is to destroy earth, the skrull ship heads for earth and Goliath jumps aboard.
That combined with Wanda being in danger sends vision into a ballistic rage where he nearly kills the pilot of the ship. Rick Jones is captured by and taken to Kree space. While in Kree prison Rick is transported to the negative zone where he finds Annihulus waiting for him. He is able to fend off Annihulus by shooting a beam of energy using his mind. He is transported back to the Supreme Intelligence who tells him the Kree have reached their potential but the human mind has so much untapped potential. Ronin and an army enter the cell to kill Rick and destroy the supreme intelligence, however Rick is able to summon heroes from his mind. Eventually he passes out and Captain Marvel merges with him to save his life. The Supreme intelligence sends the Avengers back home where they begin to seek out their missing friend Clint Barton (Hawkeye/Goliath). Ares one of Thors villians happens to be on earth and playing a song that is entrancing men to want war. Thor and the Vision are unaffected and able to defeat the flute playing minions. Hawkeye returns and as Hercules with him. We learn Hawkeye ran out of Pym serum to turn into Goliath so he handcrafted a bow and arrow while on the Skrull ship causing it to crash land in Yugoslovia. There he joined a circus which Hercules was also a part of however he lost his memories. Hercules is kidnapped by Bia and Kratos and taken back to Olympus however with Wanda getting injured in the battle Vision refuses to help save Hercules.
In the 100th issue all Avengers past and present are summoned to Black Knights castle to aid in saving Hercules. The Black Knights sword had materialized on Olympus where Ares had found it and turned all the Gods into lifeless crystals and banished Hercules to earth. The two splits into two, one on earth to defend Ares men from causing more war and one on Olympus to try free the gods. Naturally the avengers win, everybody returns home and all is well. 101 was a bit out there as the Watcher intervened with a human, advising him to kill 5 innocent people who would birth children that were the cause of a nuclear war in the future. He is granted cosmic abilities and sets out to do the deed which gets the attention of the Avengers. They weaken him enough for the Watcher to remove him from the planet which was his plan all along.
Vision gets an anonymous letter which ends up being from the Grim Reaper, he offers him a chance to become human and to restore him to the the body of Wonder-Man. Vision declines and then Sentinels invade and Capture Wanda. While the Avengers are coming up with a plan to rescue her, Pietro is too angry and takes off on his own, he goes after the son of the man who invented the sentinels in the first place, Larry Trask. The rest of the Avengers are informed by Shield there is a beam pointing to the Sun causing solar flares and potentially causing the sun to explode, Pietro gets the same warning from Trask finding out he is a mutant with the ability to see into the future. The Sentinels are planning to use the Scarlet Witch to launch a strong enough solar flare into the sun that will sterilize humans of any mutant abilities. While the Avengers are fighting the Sentinels Vision is able to free Wanda and Trask triggers a mutant detection device. The leader Sentinel known as “Number 2” is revealed to be a mutant which causes the other sentinels to destroy him and the deactivate, one falling over and killing Trask in the process. The Avengers leave not knowing Quicksilver was also there and trapped under a fallen sentinel.
Wanda is devastated over her missing brother and refuses to leave her room. The Avengers are summoned to Chile where three scientists have gone missing and Black Panther rejoins the team. The find a tunnel into the Savage land and remnants of a Village Magneto once formed here. A female mutant is able to sing and entrance the Avengers aside from Vision who is unaffected. Back at HQ Vision realizes he is just an android and does not continue to search for Pietro with the rest of the Avengers.
Captain America returns to Avengers mansion to find Vision alone brooding over the fact he is not human. Rick Jones also shows up and clashes the nega-bands he has from Captain Marvel together which causes Captain America to start having flashbacks of him and Rick finding a hidden Hydra base which he decides to go look for once again. The rest of the Avengers also stumble across this hydra base while looking for Pietro, and one at a time seem to be attacking one another.
The Space Phantom from Avengers #2 has returned and is able to assume the role of anybody while that person gets transported into limbo, he ends up capturing Wanda, Hawkeye, Black Panther and Iron Man. When Cap finds the secret lair we learn the Space Phantom had body swapped him hence why he couldn’t remember, but they have baited cap here to ultimately use his body to transfer Vision into. Vision is baited into accepting however we find out later Cap actually told Vision to accept as part of the plan. The two come together and free the other Avengers, Wanda escapes and collects Rick Jones from the mansion, when Rick arrives the space phantom attempts to body swap him however Captain Marvel shows up, Rick goes to the negative zone, and the Space Phantom ends up in limbo. Wanda is still upset over the fact Pietro is missing and Vision swears to help her find him.
Hawkeye is upset over not being able to find love and ends up being recruiting to go out west to California with a man named Champion. Champion offers him one million dollars to teach him to fire a bow like Hawkeye, which he accepts. It ends up being a ploy to destroy the San Andreas fault and due to Hawkeyes goodbye letter being signed Hawkeye instead of Clint, Wanda knew he had not written it. After the Avengers save the day Hawkeye decides he no longer wants to be an Avengers.
Pietro comes on the monitor to advise the Avengers he is ok and teamed up with Crystal of the inhumans and they are in love. Wanda is overjoyed and also informs Pietro of her love with Vision however Pietro does not approve and ends the transmission, shortly after another transmission comes in showing the X-Mansion in disarray and requesting help from the Avengers, when they arrive they find unconscious X-Men and move their bodies outside, they are attacked by prehistoric dinosaurs from the savage land and then Magneto himself who was wearing Angels costume and tricked them. He pins Black Panther, Thor and Vision in a pile of rubble and is able to control the rest of the Avengers and X-Men using the iron in their blood stream.
Hawkeye goes back out west to search for Black Widow who has been a partner to Daredevil recently. There is a showdown between Daredevil and Hawkeye however they decide its best to let Natasha choose her own mate rather than duke it out for the right to be her man. Thor, Vision and Black Panther show up to ask for assistance to rescue the other Avengers and X-Men. While fighting Magneto Vision goes missing and Magneto appears to win. Magnetos loyal servant ends up knocking him out and was actually the Vision in hiding. Black Widow decides to rejoin the Avengers and no longer be with Daredevil.
There is some silly issues where a lion god statue is resurrected in Wakanda and comes for the Black Panther, Thor is able to defeat it and Black Widow decides to leave the Avengers for Daredevil (come on woman, make up your mind!)
The Avengers take it upon themselves to rebuild the statue of liberty after some events of another marvel comic. While doing so Vision and Wanda kiss and humans become scared of Androids taking over. There is suicide bombers and relentless attackers at Avengers HQ which turns Wanda into hating humanity. Thor and Ironman also learn of each others secret identities while holding off the attacks. Wanda ends up being harrassed one day out on a walk and is aided by a female called Mantis who is partnered with the Swordsman, the two hope to rejoin the ranks of the avengers. Captain America is reluctant but the rest of the group is willing to give them a chance.
The omnibus finishes off with an event known as Avengers vs Defenders. The Defenders is a ragtag group of heroes consisting of Hulk, Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, Namor, Valkyrie, and Hawkeye. The Avengers go to England in search of their old member the Black Knight. They are told by SHIELD they are not welcome because of Mantis and the swordsman being on board, however manage to persuade SHIELD to let them through. We find out Doctor Strange has places a spell on the castle the Black Knight calls home. We then learn that Dr. Strange had communed with the Black Knight and when the Black Knight returned his message it was intercepted by Loki and Dormammu. Dormammu has stripped Loki of his vision forcing him to work with him. Loki changes the return message to Dr. Strange to suggest the Defenders need to locate something called the Evil Eye. This will actually help Dormammu take over Earth. Dr Strange is able to track the location of fragments and the Defenders split up to collect the Evil Eye. Loki, afraid that Dormammu won’t stop with earth, appears to the Avengers and asks for their aid to stop the Defenders.
With both teams splitting up to find the fragments of the missing eye we get some pretty awesome fights. Iron man vs Hawkeye kick things off. Hawkeye is able to come out on top and get away with the first fragment. Secondly we get Dr. Strange vs Black Panther and Mantis, they end up on private property and the owner shooting at them which enables Dr. Strange to escape with the second fragment. Valkyrie is able to defeat the Swordsman for the third fragment giving the defenders three pieces before the Avengers even got one. When Captain America and Namor fight, they realize there is something fishy going on and the two leave as allies. The final fight takes place between Hulk and Thor, lots of that issue looks to have been used as inspiration for the showdown between the two in Thor: Ragnarok. Ultimately the fight is ended by the rest of both teams showing up to explain their conclusion after comparing notes of the situation. While this is happening one of Dormammu’s minions snatches the fragments and begins to open a rift between dimensions. Dormammu betrays Loki and imprisons him and the Watcher shows up, assuring Dormammu that he will not interfere and he is just here to observe. Dromammu easily holds the Avengers at bay, but when Loki starts to fight as well he is distracted and Wanda is able to hit him with her hex power which ends up trapping him inside the evil eye. The beam also restores Loki’s vision but causes him to go insane. The Defenders appear to disband and the Avengers have one more issue where they attend a Halloween party which ends up being hosted by the collector, he intends to ‘collect’ the avengers as belongings but they are saved by the Mantis and the Swordsman, after the party Thor decides this is a good place to leave the now crazed Loki.
My apologies if this review is a bit long, scatter brained and not that great! I read a lot of these stories 2 months ago and just had summarized notes to reflect on. I can’t recommend enough if you’re into the Avengers to check out this omnibus for yourself.
Thanks a lot for reading and we’ll see you again soon 🙂
