On Sale Date: August 2018
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Paco Medina & Ed McGuiness
Inker: Mark Morales & Juan Vlasco
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Colorist: David Curiel
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Associate Editor: Alanna Smith
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Cover Artist: Ed McGuiness
In Russia the Avengers are making their final stand against the Final Host, the Horde, and Loki. While the "giant sized" Avengers find themselves outmatched by the Final Host, Doctor Strange battles Loki, and Captain America joins Black Panther and Captain Marvel to fight back against the Horde. The heroes are eventually overwhelmed, with Ghost Rider piloting the fallen Celestial and succumbing to an overload of information. Iron Man attempts to fly the Final Host to space and then blow up his giant armor, but is stopped by the First Celestial Host, who have been reanimated as "zombies". The Avengers listen to Ghost Rider's rants about "god's vomit" and make the leap that they were left by the First Host as the living virus vaccine against the Horde. Using the knowledge planted in his mind by the Eternals, Iron Man instructs the Avengers to combine their power as the Uni-Mind inside the Ghost Rider Celestial, who burns out the Horde infection of the planet. Realizing that the Final Host are still a threat, the Avengers team up with the First Celestial Host to defeat the Final Host while the captive Loki watches and laughs, welcoming back the Avengers.
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| Mighty Morphin' Ghost Riders! |
THE ROADMAP
Iron Man received the knowledge of the Uni-Mind from the Eternals in Avengers (2018) # 4.
CHAIN REACTION
The first arc of Avengers comes to a rushed, near-incomprehensible conclusion that still features some pretty great artwork.
This has been one incredibly frustrating story to read on an issue-by-issue basis, and going back to review it as part of the trade collection only made its flaws stand out even more. Jason Aaron managed to pack in some great epic moments in this issue, such as the giant-sized Avengers and the Ghost Rider Celestial, but this comic zooms by at a pace that's completely at odds with the issues that came before it. So much time was wasted in the earlier chapters with Loki drip-feeding information in walls of expository dialogue that all of the pertinent information had to be crammed together here with some staggering intuitive leaps by the characters. The idea of humanity being a pathogen to the Horde is shot out by the characters in such a way that it almost blows right by the reader as an afterthought, as if it was this obvious conclusion that was easy to ascertain. That's not the case at all, though, and it comes across as a morass of exposition that the characters haven't really earned.
Despite how cool some of the fight sequences are the pacing of the book falls into a chaotic mess by the mid-point of the issue. The "Captain Planet" resolution to the Horde, with all of the Avengers combining their power into Ghost Rider, had only the tiniest bit of foreshadowing with the Uni-Mind stuff earlier in the arc, but if you don't know what the Uni-Mind of the Eternals actually is the resolution comes seemingly out of left field. It's nice, of course, to see Ghost Rider be the key factor in resolving the conflict, giving his presence in the story a weight that had previously been there only as coincidence or happenstance. None of it, though, is enough to justify the last few pages of the issue, where the Final Host is defeated in a narrative-boxed montage that is about as unsatisfying an ending as I could imagine. So much time was spent building this up, all the way through the last issue's cliffhanger ending with the giant Avengers, and none of it really went anywhere. The giant Avengers were cool, sure, but they didn't matter at all to the final battle outside of Ghost Rider's Celestial form.
The artwork, at least, continues to shine with the McGuiness/Medina collaboration. McGuiness is back on the lion's share of the issue this time, with Medina only contributing about eight pages, but their work flows together so seamlessly that it still looks like a cohesive product. The duo shines with the action scenes, though there's so much going on in the panels that when Medina gets creative with the layouts things got a little unclear as to what was actually happening. Still, there's some great character work in the action, and Ghost Rider's Celestial form is rad as hell.
For as much hype and excitement I personally felt for this series going in, I can't say that the first arc was anything but a disappointment. While it's nice to see Robbie getting the spotlight I can only hope that Aaron narrows his focus and cleans up his pacing problems going forward.
This has been one incredibly frustrating story to read on an issue-by-issue basis, and going back to review it as part of the trade collection only made its flaws stand out even more. Jason Aaron managed to pack in some great epic moments in this issue, such as the giant-sized Avengers and the Ghost Rider Celestial, but this comic zooms by at a pace that's completely at odds with the issues that came before it. So much time was wasted in the earlier chapters with Loki drip-feeding information in walls of expository dialogue that all of the pertinent information had to be crammed together here with some staggering intuitive leaps by the characters. The idea of humanity being a pathogen to the Horde is shot out by the characters in such a way that it almost blows right by the reader as an afterthought, as if it was this obvious conclusion that was easy to ascertain. That's not the case at all, though, and it comes across as a morass of exposition that the characters haven't really earned.
Despite how cool some of the fight sequences are the pacing of the book falls into a chaotic mess by the mid-point of the issue. The "Captain Planet" resolution to the Horde, with all of the Avengers combining their power into Ghost Rider, had only the tiniest bit of foreshadowing with the Uni-Mind stuff earlier in the arc, but if you don't know what the Uni-Mind of the Eternals actually is the resolution comes seemingly out of left field. It's nice, of course, to see Ghost Rider be the key factor in resolving the conflict, giving his presence in the story a weight that had previously been there only as coincidence or happenstance. None of it, though, is enough to justify the last few pages of the issue, where the Final Host is defeated in a narrative-boxed montage that is about as unsatisfying an ending as I could imagine. So much time was spent building this up, all the way through the last issue's cliffhanger ending with the giant Avengers, and none of it really went anywhere. The giant Avengers were cool, sure, but they didn't matter at all to the final battle outside of Ghost Rider's Celestial form.
The artwork, at least, continues to shine with the McGuiness/Medina collaboration. McGuiness is back on the lion's share of the issue this time, with Medina only contributing about eight pages, but their work flows together so seamlessly that it still looks like a cohesive product. The duo shines with the action scenes, though there's so much going on in the panels that when Medina gets creative with the layouts things got a little unclear as to what was actually happening. Still, there's some great character work in the action, and Ghost Rider's Celestial form is rad as hell.
For as much hype and excitement I personally felt for this series going in, I can't say that the first arc was anything but a disappointment. While it's nice to see Robbie getting the spotlight I can only hope that Aaron narrows his focus and cleans up his pacing problems going forward.
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| Break time! |
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