Avengers 15, Avengers AI 1

Avengers 15
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and F. Martin w/ Delgado (c)

This issue of Avengers is billed as "the prelude to Infinity," referring to this summer's Infinity event that will focus itself on Hickman's two Avengers books, Avengers and New Avengers. Several issues of each will be dedicated to the event, as will a couple of books from several other series and the main series, a six issue limited series entitled "Infinity." Infinity has been promised as the way that the Marvel Universe will springboard off from Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos Rising, and Nova into the future. Also, it's a major event, with books dedicating issues to them that seem to not have a weird designation after them, as Age of Ultron tie-ins did (like Uncanny Avengers 8AU). Avengers will continue its storyline, centered on stopping the Builders from re-making Earth while New Avengers will find that team fighting an attacking Thanos. In theory, it will all be connected. That said, there's not a ton in this specific issue to go over. We pick up where last issue left off and find most of the team fighting in Perth against the communication system and Banner trying to figure out how everything is linked. They also know that something is happening in Barbuda (AIM Island) but aren't quite sure what to make of it yet. Cap and his team seemingly defeat the communication system but not before it sends its signal to the huge entity breaking out of AIM's hold as the issue goes on and sending the signal out to the Universe at large. Many ships appear on SWORD's radar all at once. SWORD is able to block off most of the ships but a Skrull ship breaks through. In other Avengers activities, Captain Universe and Manifold go to space.

There's plenty happening in this issue but it's not a ton more than what happened in last issue or what we could have expected for next issue. It does read as a sort of prelude issue, feeling a little like it's slowed down to catch readers up before the event kicks off. One of the weaknesses of this series, in my mind, has been that the cast is too large and the story too huge to really get into character deeply. I feel like only a handful of issues have really gone into characters' personalities in the first fifteen issues and I wonder if that will hold up as time goes on. Still, it remains a solid book and this event promises to be something interesting, no matter what else we might call it as it's coming out. As a rule, I tend to shy away from events that span issues of many books because I rather hate having the full universe focused on one story (despite anything I may have said about Civil War this past week) for a bit of time. I think, probably, everyone is a little wary about that because it puts an awful lot of pressure on the event to be great because if the event is boring (Fear Itself, Siege), the spin-offs are likely to drag and drag and drag and drag and oh hey, AvX What If is out this week, hm?

Avengers AI 1
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c)

Hank Pym is a new man following his destruction of Ultron and, as such, the destruction of the man he was in the Marvel Universe (as if that makes up for the fact that we all know you hit Jan once). However, the virus that he created to destroy Ultron has spread and is rapidly evolving, creating a new sort of AI that SHIELD division agent Monica Chang wants destroyed before it brings about the singularity. Chang treats Pym fairly hostilely before Captain America steps in and says that Pym is not to be accused of anything and that he's a founding Avenger and so on and so forth. Instead, he asks Pym where Vision is, speculating that they could need him for this. Pym explains that Vision has been upgrading himself out in space, as his core programming (built from Ultron) dictates that he do whatever he needs to do to ensure his survival. Pym calls him back and sends him to pick up former Runaway Victor Mancha, another son of Ultron. They join with Pym and he introduces them to their other teammate, a carefully monitored Doombot Pym has outfitted with a portable black hole in case he should turn on them. Pym sends them to a hospital that is being attacked by bots bearing his AI (connected somehow to an entity known as Dimitrios). The team works pretty well and ends up defeating the bots and finding what they were looking for; a robotically enhanced woman only able to say "Dimitrios is coming."

Skottie Young variant because they are
ALWAYS GREAT.

There are plenty of places to go with this series as the AI of the Marvel Universe has really come alive in the last couple years (pun one hundred percent intended). It's still too early to say much about this plot but it's easy enough to get into the characters here. Pym was redefined in Mark Waid's Age of Ultron 10 AI which set him up as a more creative person and a man who has broken from his rigidly scientific background to try to solve problems in any way he can/any way that interests him. Vision has improved himself to the point of being able to transform himself into nanites and also to activate an explosion, which he refers to as a supernova (and given the fact he powers himself with the sun, it is probably an accurate description on a very small scale). Victor, who has been removed from his Runaway pals for a bit now, is determined to get back into the hero game, even going so far as to constantly give himself a new hero moniker, including devil slayer and and wolf swag in this issue. There's a fun relationship between Mancha and Vision that casts them as brothers, both the rebel sons to Ultron. Doombot is, as expected, a Doombot and adds another dimension to the team (I love seeing some Doom, we'll see how it'll last over a series). There's a lot to like here but not a ton to talk about, despite the length of this post. Guess I probably just blacked out and babbled a bunch, huh? Whoops.