It’s “Infinity” tie-in time for “Avengers Assemble” as Al Ewing spins a yarn of most of the “Uncanny Avengers” team. Wow, that’s a lot of quotation marks. With Pepe Larraz in tow, this should make for a fun little one-off adventure, right? Right?
Written by Al Ewing
Illustrated by Pepe Larraz
INFINITY TIE-IN… FEATURING THE UNCANNY AVENGERS!
• A giant naked man punches a Quinjet!
• An eight-year-old girl fights a centaur at the heart of an atom!
• Wonder Man’s quest for peace!
• AND THAT’S JUST THE STUFF WE CAN TELL YOU ABOUT!
The tricky thing about tie-ins to an event is the balance of feeling relevant to the event while telling a story that can stand alone. Here, though, we see a tie-in that leans far too much to the latter in “Avengers Assemble” #20. Though, it says “Infinity” on the cover, the book feels almost like a premature tie-in to “Inhumanity” as it primarily deals with (spoiler alert) the worldwide release of the Terrigen Mists. That’s only part of why this tie-in feels mostly inconsequential to the events of “Infinity” as we see that it’s largely a reactive story with no real ties to those events. Which is a shame because this issue works on its own, but mostly fails as a tie-in.
While Rick Remender takes the “Uncanny Avengers” team on their own journey in their own book, it’s Al Ewing who operates as the writer here. Ewing has proved in the past with issues of “Avengers Assemble” and his own “Mighty Avengers” series that he can write team interactions well, which is why it’s so surprising when it falls flat here. Maybe it’s a problem with the team itself or possibly even with me, but the team spending most of the issue bickering over Wonder Man’s pacifism stance was grating, to say the least. Even though Ewing makes it all tie together in the end, for the most part it felt like pointless and mean-spirited arguing which detracted any enjoyment from seeing the team interact. The only time the issue really starts to pick up is when it focuses solely on The Wasp. This is partly because it means you don’t have to sit through the team’s petty arguing and partly because it feels like Ewing really wanted to write The Wasp and was saddled with the other two. This in itself leads to another problem of this issue in that even though only three of the Uncanny Avengers are present, only The Wasp feels really necessary here.
However, while the team feels mostly superfluous, it’s the story of the people they’re trying to help that stops this issue from falling flat. Ewing tells the story of a broken family affected by the Terrigen mists and allows them to grow as people over the course of the issue. It’s a very human story and while it somewhat gets overshadowed by the arguing of the Avengers and The Wasp’s revenge side-story, it’s actually what makes the issue worth reading. Ewing handles human stories very well and if only some of the filler of this issue had been cut or expanded into another issue, it could have been given room to become even better. As it stands, it’s something of a gem sandwiched between lesser parts of a whole.
Ewing’s writing may have some ups and downs here, but Pepe Larraz is consistently solid as an artist. As mentioned, the story of the family affected by the mists is the strongest part here and Larraz elevates it even more. From the very first page, he shows them through a literal rose tint to show how close they were before it all fell apart. It brings even more of an emotional connection to the characters as you see how much they changed over the years and how the mists bring them together. While Larraz’s art elevates the side-story, it’s his art that elevates the Avengers to merely palatable. Larraz brings a lot of vibrancy and style to the action which thankfully outweighs how stale the inter-character bickering becomes over time. It’s another reason that makes the fact that only The Wasp gets the spotlight as Larraz beautifully renders Scarlet Witch’s powers all two times she gets to use them. It makes me wish the whole team had more to do than serve as support to one character.
Overall, this is a very strange issue. It’s a tie-in to “Infinity”, but the events seem to be more linked to the upcoming idea of “Inhumanity”. It focuses on the “Uncanny Avengers” team, but even though only three of the team features here, the issue still only cares about The Wasp. Yet for all of that, there is still one gem that shines through. It may not be important in the long run, but one well-written human story is enough to elevate this issue despite all it’s problems. If only the issue constructed around it was as good as that story.
Final Verdict: 5.5 – Browse. It may be worth it for “Uncanny Avengers” fans, but not much else here to write home about.
