Avengers Finale #1

Summary

In this epilogue to the Chaos storyline (and in many ways, the Avengers series) all the surviving members of the current team, and a couple of others, meet to mourn those who have died and to disband the Avengers. As this is a final issue to an event, I will be talking about the series as a whole and there ***WILL BE SPOILERS*** - but I figure, if you’ve come this far, you will want to read this issue anyways no matter what reviewers have to say!

What I liked

Good Final Issue: Even though in hindsight (yes I didn’t write this as it came out!) we know that the Avengers come back in full force, this is a really nice way for the team to bow out. All the Avengers sit around and recount their favourite moment in Avengers history. I can see this being extra special to those who remember when these events were first published. They run through the establishment of the Avengers, finding Captain America, Wanda and The Vision getting married, beating Thanos and more. It is a really nice retrospective, with each story having a different artist showing how much these heroes have accomplished, both in the fictional world of the Marvel Universe and also in the real world too.

Quicksilver: I toyed with this in my head. Did I like his scene or didn’t I? I came to the conclusion I did. We have a brief moment where Quicksilver runs in, tries to apologise on his sister’s behalf and then breaks up and runs away. It is nice to see the bigger picture being addressed here, after all it isn’t just the team that has been affected; it’s all their relatives and loved ones too. This scene may all be a bit sudden, but I figured, so is everything else that happens in this series and furthermore it is Quicksilver!

Clarity: Whether you liked it or not, whether it makes sense in continuity or not, the explanation given for all the crazy stuff that happened does make sense. She-Hulk didn’t intentionally fly off the handle, Iron Man wasn’t drunk, The Kree (if they were real at all) weren’t in control of their actions etc. Scarlett Witch did it all because she can warp reality and had gone mad; blaming the Avengers for the loss of her children (who weren’t real anyway). At least we get an answer!

What I didn’t like

Hawkeye: This character was not given his dues! His death was so out of proportion with his popularity and importance as a character and the only recognition we get is one of the team mentioning that they miss him every now and then. He deserves a whole funeral issue to himself! So does Vision for that matter, and all the other characters they bumped off in this series.

Scarlett Witch: Okay, I warned you about spoilers... She is the villain and like most parts of this story this is really underplayed. This is more of a complaint about the previous issue, but I want to mention it in a space I can talk more freely about it. The final confrontation needed to be more meaningful, it was getting it right with the scene where Captain America sees the manifested children, but after that scene the final confrontation really boiled down to Doctor Strange zapping her, Magneto flying in, taking her and flying off again. THAT WAS IT?! I hope the next major event “House of M” goes into more detail about her inner turmoil. As it stands – they turned a long time member of The Avengers back into a villain and put her in a coma; treating it like they would Spiderman taking down Rhino.

Forced separation: In this issue, it feels like a lot of excuses were made up to make sure no team could be made with the remaining members of the Avengers. Janet and Hank are trying to get back together (Why, I still don’t really know – he’s still scum, but scum with an emotional side?) and are pursuing a fellowship at Oxford, Tony Stark hasn’t got the funds and Lionheart, (oh hey!! Lionheart was in this story, totally forgot about that!), goes off to be unmemorable somewhere else. Let’s face it, the whole Disassembled situation wasn’t as impactful as it could have been. The Avengers could still have risen from the ashes to fight again another day... so a lot of crap was made up to ensure that the Avengers would stay disassembled.

The last page: I did not understand it. So does that mean the Avengers are going to stay together? Or what? This is not really a complaint, I’m sure we will find out in due time.

Verdict

This is a tricky issue, let alone series, to categorise. If we are to judge this issue on its own merits, it does do a good job of giving the Avengers a proper send off. However, if we are to look at the bigger picture, the whole of Avengers Disassembled wasn’t very good. There was a decent story in there somewhere, but really, the way it was told was poor. Everything happened in fits and starts and the important parts of the plot were all given to us right at the end of the arc. To me, this whole story felt like the writers were trying to put all the pieces in place for a much bigger idea which is yet to come, and honestly, I hope it fairs better than this story did.

THIS ISSUE: 7/10 – A pretty good send off for The Avengers

THE WHOLE ARC: 4/10 – Bad storytelling with a few good moments