Avengers Assemble by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Al Ewing

Avengers Assemble is the first full(ish) series I've read using my shiny new Marvel Unlimited subscription. I skipped the first eight issues because they featured only the movie Avengers, about whom I'm ambivalent, and started with Issue #9 because that's the first one written by Kelly Sue DeConnick. Most of the run is her work, although there are a few written by Al Ewing in the middle which I also read. Since this isn't a collected issue (and these comics were collected in a variety of disparate volumes) I'm going to break my review down by story arcs.

Issues #9-11 were a hilarious arc about a bet made between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. When a scientist they both know goes missing, they bet on who can rescue him first. Spider-Woman teams up with the Hulk and Thor teams up with Tony while Captains Marvel and America agree to judge. When the teams reach the Antarctic research base, it turns out things have gone worse than they expected along the lines of a bad guy trying to destroy the world. It was a pretty hilarious arc and I liked the resolution and the banter between all the characters.

Issues #12-13 are about Black Widow balancing her red ledger. When someone calls in one of her debt-chips she (and Hawkeye and Spider-Woman) go off to Omsk to see what needs to be done. Of course, it's never anything simple and a lot of reptile-things are involved.

Issues #14-15 are about Ultron (and not written by Kelly Sue DeConnick but by Al Ewing), first featuring Black Widow and then some less famous Avengers. Issue #14 was a bit depressing and was basically Black Widow surviving an Ultron attack and trying to save some other people while she was on holiday in San Francisco. Issue #15 was set in London with Captain Marvel and some obscure/old (I can only assume) superheroes trying to save as many people from Ultron as they can. There was a hilarious Doctor Who reference along with Computer Graham, who was pretty amusing as a superhero. (I assume he was more of a thing in the 80s.)

Skipped #16-19 because I already read them when I was reading Captain Marvel.

Issue #20 (written by Al Ewing) features Wasp, Scarlett Witch and Wonder Man, left on Earth while the other Avengers are fighting the Builders in space, and there is a terrigen gas incident.

Issues #21-25 are an arc set during a general world-wide terrigen emergency. Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon and not an Avenger) comes to the Avengers for help after her teacher turned into a terrigen cocoon and then was stolen. The arc has Spider-Girl being helped by a rotation of the main Avengers and they go through several phases in the find and rescue the teacher mission. Of course there is also a villain to deal with.

And the whole Avengers Assemble series ended with an awesome poem by Kelly Sue DeConnick (which completely validated my earlier "wtf is with that sink" thoughts).

I had a lot of fun reading this series and I would recommend it to fans of the characters I've mentioned above. Especially Spider-Woman, who I think appears the most.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2013-2014, Marvel
Series: Avengers Assemble, Issues #9-15, #20-25
Format read: Digital
Source: Marvel Unlimited subscription