[hangmanblues]

I’m catching up on my Altered Visions “back issues” and thought I’d start with AVENGERS, in no small part due to Derrick’s extended run on the book. Since Derrick (technically; see below) finished a storyline that the first author--John Jones--started, I’m reviewing those first 5 issues, as Derrick’s run proper seems to start with #6. I know John Jones is no longer active here at the site, but I read ‘em, so hey...

[[SPOILER alert]]

*****

AVENGERS #1-5
#1-4 by John Jones
#5 by Derrick Ferguson

I think my biggest problem with John’s run is the style he uses, which reads more like a comic script (mostly present tense, lots of stage directions) than prose installments. Which is a shame, because there are a few cool things going on here. John’s literate, but he writes a crap-load of exposition into his narrative, much of it unnecessary info that just breaks up the flow and takes this reader out of the story.

Like I said, there *is* some cool stuff in #1-4. The first issue is interestingly enough a direct continuation of a storyline from the mainstream Marvel AVENGERS title around the time of AV’s continuity cutoff. It’s a big knock down drag out fight between Ultron and the Avengers, who suffer lasting casualties that really crystallize the seriousness of the battle: Iron Man and Black Panther are crippled, Wonder Man is de-powered, the Vision is destroyed, and Hank Pym is killed. Pretty ballsy moves, which set up a very interesting character arc for Tony Stark.

Not that all the character stuff works. I’ll never believe Wasp’s speech at Hank’s funeral—way too whiny, though it leads to a cool, sweet little scene with Thor and Storm—and Cap just comes off as an immature jerk in his attempts to maintain order. The dialogue doesn’t do anyone any favors either; all the lines are stilted, mostly interchangeable between characters, and strangely almost devoid of contractions, which only makes it that much more unrealistic. There’s also an unintentionally hilarious line from Black Panther in issue #1: “Get that metallic bastard, Avenger!” Also, Thor speaks some sort of mangled Old English where literally every other word has an added “th” on the end, making his speech patterns all the more ridiculous.

The plot itself seems a little aimless, with a bunch of unrelated villains running around making trouble. Too many characters in too small a space works badly in prose, and you can see that at work here. In fact, the character-driven stuff seems to be more important to John than the action, which is commendable even if he doesn’t pull off what he intended to.

I do like the paired down Avengers team—Cap, Iron Man, Wasp, and Thor—though again Cap’s reasoning behind keeping things that way is questionable at best. And the cliffhanger that ends #4—Odin’s ravens appearing and declaring Thor the new lord of Asgard—would’ve brought me back out of curiosity even if Derrick hadn’t taken over with the next issue.

There’s a marked increase in quality from #4 to #5. Even though the issue is marked Part 3 of John’s storyline, it’s really less a completion of that ill-defined arc than it is a transitory issue leading into Derrick’s first big story. Derrick doesn’t just wipe away what came before, as is common in team titles; he thoughtfully continues the best of John’s plot-seeds and gives us a character-driven issue that reasonably explains away Cap’s erratic behavior, among other things.

Derrick handles exposition much more deftly than John, and his vision seems much more tightly focused while still encompassing smaller subplots. I do have a couple complaints about #5: there are some run-on sentences and other grammatical and punctuation errors, and sometimes Derrick over-describes the scenery and characters. Everyone is said to be handsome, attractive, beautiful... the backdrop is perfectly scenic. It puts a more fanfic-y spin on what is otherwise professional-level writing. However, it does show that—like John—Derrick is writing with a genuine affection for the book.

So, the verdict on the first five issues of Altered Vision’s AVENGERS? Uneven. Again, #5 is an improvement, though the first #4 issues do set up some cool situations to be explored. I’m looking forward to seeing where Derrick goes with those plots—and his own—in the coming isues.

*****

-Will

[DLFerguson]

I'm glad that you started by reviewing the issues John Jones did, Will. I had
the opportunity to communicate with him briefly for a short time after I took
over the title (maybe the effects of Dr. Erdel's machine wore off and that's why
we haven't heard from him lately?) and he struck me as being a really nice guy
and as you pointed out, he did have a passion for The Avengers that I
appreciated.

When I came aboard, EiC Doug Bookey asked if I would continue the title from
where John left off as a favor to him and upon reading John's issues, I agreed.
I looked upon it as a challenge to see if I could work with John's plots and do
something with them that would preserve his original intention but still have my
own flavor and I think I've done that. The biggest hurdle was the death of Hank
Pym and the destruction of The Vision. Hank Pym has been a whipping boy for far
too long and in death I wanted to restore some of his dignity and respect and
through The Vision's rebirth I think I've done just that. And have a ball doing
so as well.

You're right about my run-on sentences. As far back as 10 years ago, Russ
Anderson was yelling at me about the run-on sentences and the first thing I do
when editing/re-writing my stories is to ruthlessly chop my sentences in half.
And it seems like no matter how much I read and re-read, grammar errors still
slip through. I'll try my best to do better, I promise. The ovedescription
comes from my pulpy roots as pulp writers tended to be generous in their
descriptions of people and places.

I actually don't have to do that much description since everybody knows these
characters and their stomping grounds and have a crystal clear idea of what they
look like. But I take so long between issues that I like to make the readers
feel they're getting a full issue and that I'm not just cranking this stuff out.
On the other hand, maybe if I didn't take so much time describing stuff, I could
turn out more issues regularly...LOL.

Thank you so much for saying such nice things about AVENGERS, Will. I just hope
that John still follows what we're doing so he can read this wonderful review.