As they say: "too much is unhealthy" ... See what it looks like trying to force the stories from five different notebooks earlier in one comic book.
What are we going to face?
Avengers. Family Business is the sequel to the Magnificent Seven , the first volume of the Avengers in the Marvel Now series! 2.0. Like that part, it is the work of the American screenwriter Mark Waid (he became famous, among others, for the series about Daredevill, for which he received the Eisner Award) and the Pakistani-Austrian cartoonist Mahmud Asrar (known for his work in DC on Supergirl and numerous Marvel projects, including She -Hulk , X-Men , Avengers ).
The action takes place in New Jersey, where the Avengers currently have their new headquarters in a somewhat dingy hangar, as well as on a planet similar to Mars, which turns out to be a trap and the heroes are transported from it to a universe of antimatter called the Negative Zone. In order to get out of it, they have to face the mighty monster Annihilus.
There are two separate stories in the comic that at some point happen simultaneously. One of them is the appearance of a new mysterious heroine, Nadia claiming to be Wasp, and the other is an attempt to find Nova’s father in space, which leads to unexpected trouble.
A few words about Wasp
Nadia, the daughter of Henry Pym and his first wife Maria, was kidnapped in her childhood and raised in the Red Chamber in Moscow, where she was trained in combat and encouraged to study. She continued her father’s research and learned to break down the Pym molecule so that she can shrink like Ant-Man. She ran away from Russia and wanted to find her father, but unfortunately, when she got to his house, she found out that she was already dead. She decided to use the pieces she found there to create the Wasp outfit, and then went to the Avengers who accompanied her father in the fight as well as being his friends.
Their meeting was quite turbulent, accompanied by laser shots and explosions in the hangar, as it unfortunately coincided with some failure of the Vision synthesoid. Probably caused by the deliberate action of Kang, one of the Avengers’ enemies with the ability to manipulate time (transporting himself or others to the past and future, and to parallel realities).
We immediately have a lot of action at once, and then the plot splits into two parts called epilogues. Two completely different strands are taking place here simultaneously, which in my opinion only creates unnecessary confusion. The Wasp story could easily be finished before the second story begins, as returning to it later is an unnecessary break, in no way related to the rest of the story, which only distracts attention from the main action taking place on another planet. At one point, there is a tense fight between the Avengers and Annihilus and we suddenly move to Washington, where we have a preview of how Nadia and her stepmother – Mrs. Van Dyne – have a good time eating ice cream and shopping.
Team Avengers
Let’s also take a look at the other heroes. As you probably noticed, in the first volume, these are completely different characters than we saw in movies or old comics. The crew is more diverse in terms of race, gender and age. And in some people there have been marked changes in the character and manner of speaking.
Tony Stark became the mainstay and voice of reason. He manages the entire group, distributes tasks, calms everyone down in difficult times. For example, Jarvis, when he was furious with Nadia, when she introduced herself to them as Wasp, Vision irritated that Kang was using him as a weapon against friends, and Nova, when irritated, he wanted to fight himself because he felt guilty that Kang was using him as a weapon against friends. it was because of his search that they found themselves trapped. Tony appears to me a bit here as Papa Smurf. This is a very softened version of the original. If someone has seen him before as a rich buffoon or at least an extroverted egocentric, he will not find this image here.
Jane Foster as Thor is a tough cupcake, brave and resourceful, a bit aggressive and abusive towards Tony. The girl is not shy. He also has a sense of humor and is a great buddy on a team of almost all men. In some of her statements you can hear that she still has to prove her strength and skills to the masters. However, he is not some kind of “bumblebee”, he just does his job well.
Vision, as I mentioned before, was having serious problems due to Kang, who was somehow controlling his system and causing strange space-time phenomena around him. It makes him nervous and weakened when it comes to fighting. However, from Tony’s statements, we learn that friends are used to his coldness. This means that his sickness and mood swings were temporary, and it is still the same “cold” synthesoid as we know it.
I have the impression that Sam Wilson in the role of Captain America is somewhat overshadowed by other heroes. Just like the supporting black characters in American films, where they must appear in the cast due to equality parities. However, she is not the only minority character in the series.
Additionally, in the Avengers group we have a Pakistani girl Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel and the black Spider-Man – Miles Gonzalo Morales, who are actually still children and need parental consent and Tony’s intercession to participate in missions. Among the youth, we also have the figure of Samuel Alexander aka Nova. The kids argue with each other, Kamala even tells Miles to shut up, and sometimes calls Sam “bastard”. At the same time, Kamala can be caring towards Wasp.
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Something for everyone?
The presence of young people and showing the relationship between them is probably a tribute to the younger audience, so that they can identify with the characters more easily. I’m not entirely sure if the target was well thought out, because at the same time there are scenes in the comic that should be labeled “only for adults”. There aren’t many of them. However, I believe that, for example, cutting off a hand during a fight is not a picture for children.
The adults of the Avengers, inevitably, become the protectors of the younger part of the team. We see, for example, Captain America admonishing Nova to focus on the mission because “some Avengers have to go to school on Monday.” Which, by the way, seems like a pretty funny sentence if it rains on board a spaceship during a voyage into space. Another example of such care – we hear that Tony promised Nova to build an iPhone into his helmet. It is also casually smuggling information about the modern world – another attempt to adapt the comic to the current reality, as well as the selection of races of heroes, so that they would be as diverse as the society in the United States today.
Graphics – in the past and today …
I liked the graphic design of the comic very much. I could only fault the details, such as the fact that Iron Man’s outfit did not quite fit me, because the folds on his torso do not look like the muscles I was used to, but more like the armor of some kind of centipede (seriously, see the armor centipedes, then Iron Man’s belly). Seriously, the graphics are really cool. There are definitely many more details in modern Marvel comics, for example related to the incidence of light – the costumes are shinier than in the old 90s comics to which my eye has gotten used to.
Pros and cons
The plot of this work has some drawbacks. It is a bit clichéd. The heroes go into space, where they fight the evil boss and save the world. I am disturbed by some inaccuracies and chaos that results from running two unrelated threads simultaneously.
But I really like the layout. Also the cover art by Alex Ross is great. The members of the Avengers, while completely different from the ones we know, will surely be liked. They have expressive personalities and interesting relationships.
