Graphic Novel Review - Avengers, Vol. 1: Avengers World

Name - Avengers, Vol. 1: Avengers World
Published by - Marvel
Writer - Jonathan Hickman
Artist - Jerome Opeña, Adam Kubert

Ah, the avengers' story start anew under the Marvel Now brand. But is the start as good as it promises to be? Or is it mediocre delivery in a over-hyped package? This graphic novel does start with a lot of promise, then suddenly it all becomes confusing as in the middle the conflict seems to end suddenly, which the readers find out later is just the writers method to slow the story down.

The story starts with Steve and Tony thinking of rebuilding the team and suddenly the readers get introduced with a trio of alien villains who at first seems to be too strong for the avengers. But later the fight with them ends all of a sudden and the readers are left confused as Hickman again picks up new plot threads and slows the speed down to build up for a much larger storyline while quite skillfully telling the stories of some of the new members of the team.

The writer does build up the new team quite skillfully based on the new threat but the story reaches its climax suddenly by the third issue as the threat is seemingly neutralized quite easily. The next three issues deal with the not-so-well-known characters of  Hyperion, Smasher and Captain Universe. While these characters are fleshed out quite nicely and their stories seem quite enjoyable yet this new direction of the plot seems disjointed compared to the story introduced in the first three issues and can be attributed to Jonathan Hickman's deliberate attempt to slow down the storyline and diverting the attention of the readers.

The character choices for the story are quite interesting and proves quite enjoyable with their interactions at times like the instances with Cannonball, Sunspot and Spider-man; or Shang-chi and Captain Universe, but once again it proves a bit forced with too many characters and the author trying to do too much with the lesser known characters without actually focusing on a few well devised ones.

Overall, the first volume of the avengers series is a mixed bag; with a beginning that promises too much but falls short on delivery and quite an interesting cast of characters who fails to develop in this short scope. But hopefully Hickman will deliver on the promises with the next issues and we will get a new avenger epic for the modern age.

Unfortunately, for now, the first volume only gets 3 out of 5 stars from me.