Cover Date: February 2022
On Sale Date: December 2021
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Aaron Kuder, Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Fonteriz, Ed McGuiness, & Javier Garron
Colorist: Alex Sinclair, David Curiel, Matt Hollingsworth, & Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Assistant Editor: Martin Biro
Associate Editor: Alanna Smith
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor in Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Cover Artist: Ed McGuiness
1,000,000 years ago, the Prehistoric Avengers are assisted by a time-traveling Ka-Zar in defeating a child version of Thanos, who is driven back into the timestream. The battle is observed by Mephisto and an alternate version of Doctor Doom, who calls himself Doom Supreme. Mephisto talks with Doom about eliminating the root cause of superhumans at the dawn of time across the multiverse, prompting Doom to go about assembling his team.
Following the events of "World War She-Hulk", a severely depleted team of Avengers meet inside Avengers Mountain. During an argument about new recruits, Robbie Reyes interrupts to ask his fellow Avengers for a favor; he's been having nightmares where he wakes up mid-transformation and he is afraid something is going to happen to him and leave his brother Gabe with no one to look after him. Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Captain America all swear to look after Gabe like he's one of their family, which causes Robbie to tear up.
Doom Supreme returns to Mephisto after gathering his team, and Mephisto tells him that the Earth of dimension 616 must be saved for last. Doom agrees and begins to systematically slaughter the prehistoric heroes of alternate earths, beginning with Earth 818, alongside his Multiversal Masters of Evil.
Later, Black Panther sits with Robbie in the Hell Charger to discuss the nightmares he's been having of other Ghost Riders being killed. Namor the Sub-Mariner arrives with a Deathlok, a cyborg from the future with a warning for the Avengers. When he gets in his presence, Deathlok registers that Robbie is an Omni-Avenger and the two teleport away. They reappear on Earth 818, which is now ruled by the Black Skull and his army of War Machines. Robbie grabs a chainsaw and transforms into the Ghost Rider to attack a group of the War Machines. Meanwhile, Doom Supreme and his Masters of Evil arrive in the present day of Earth 616, hunting for the Deathloks that have come to warn the Avengers.
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| Unintentional shout out! |
THE ROADMAP
Robbie Reyes' mission with Deathlok on Earth 818 continues in Avengers Forever (2021) # 1. This issue is Ghost Rider's last as a regular cast member in Avengers.
The Prehistoric Avengers first appeared in Marvel Legacy # 1 and have been recurring staples of Jason Aaron's Avengers series since the first issue.
Callus the Void first appeared along with the Final Host in Avengers (2018) # 1 and was defeated/killed by Robbie and the other Avengers in Avengers (2018) # 6.
CHAIN REACTION
Avengers simultaneously hits 50 issues of the current series and 750 issues of comics in total, allowing Jason Aaron to produce another monster of a comic to celebrate.
Now, a LOT happened in this issue, and I skipped a good portion of it when I was writing out the summary. Aaron took the opportunity to seed what looks to be the next 50 issues of the series, continuing subplots with the Squadron Supreme, the Red Widow, Ka-Zar, Howard Stark, and Gorilla Man while introducing several new recruits to the team. Some of those details are more interesting than others (Ka-Zar as a time-displaced Herald of Galactus gets a hard pass from me), but I'm naturally focusing on the elements surrounding the title's resident Ghost Rider, Robbie Reyes.
The early days of this series saw a lot of focus put on Robbie, but since the "Challenge of the Ghost Riders" story that ended with # 25 not much has been done with the character. He got a small spotlight during the "Starbrand Reborn" arc, but has mostly been in the background or even completely absent from the series. Obviously, Aaron has a lot of characters to juggle around, so I certainly don't expect every issue to be the Ghost Rider Showcase, but I ultimately gave up on this series due to the lack of attention gave to him. I was naturally intrigued by the idea of Avengers Forever, which seems to give some focus back on Robbie, so starting here seemed like a good idea. Ghost Rider essentially gets written out of the cast in this issue and he at least gets an appropriately cool send-off before heading out to the spin-off title. Multiversal shenanigans aren't the most obvious route to take with a character like Ghost Rider, but at least he's getting an appropriate level of attention.
Being such a massive comic, the art chores are split up seemingly under arbitrary rules. Javier Garron, who has been the regular artist for the last year or so, draws the lions share of the comic, and his work has a quirky energy to it that I appreciate. The book really comes to life under Aaron Kuder's pages introducing the Masters of Evil and Robbie's appearance on Earth 818. Kuder was amazing during his brief time on Ed Brisson's Ghost Rider series, and having him continue to work with Robbie Reyes as he transitions to Avengers Forever makes me very excited.
While I feel like Robbie's time in this series was a bit of a mixed bag I do think his presence allowed for some more interesting stories to be told with the Avengers. Let's hope that Aaron allows the character to grow now that he's being farmed out to another series.
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| Avengers Forever starts NOW! |
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