Avengers #674 review: Underwhelming aftermath of Higher Evolutionary
By Alex Widen
Will one of the heroes make the ultimate sacrifice against Higher Evolutionary? And will anyone care in Avengers #674?
Avengers #674
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist & Colorist: Jesus Saiz
Cover Artist: Alex Ross
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Mark Waid, longtime writer and former editor-in-chief of BOOM! Studios, has been on a tear. Fresh off an Eisner winning run on Daredevil, most of his projects since have been either top sellers or critical darlings. They include lauded runs on Champions and Archie, as well as a timely return to Captain America. Even his run on Black Widow, while brief, was memorable. Yet attaining such heights during his run on various Avengers titles over the last 2-3 years has eluded him.
Image by Marvel Comics
In theory this crossover between both of Waid’s Avengers and Champions team books should have been epic. Or, at the very least, it should have provided some fodder for character interaction. Instead, it has done neither. It’s felt like a three chapter story stretched to twice its length for the sake of novelty (and cash). Despite some lovely artwork and some brief moments of excellence, it feels very much like a story running in place. This penultimate chapter doesn’t buck that trend any.
Image by Marvel Comics
A Crisis Shouldn’t Feel This Dull!
After spending two issues dealing with a comet and shaking buildings, both teams went to Counter-Earth. There, they found out the threat imperiling both worlds was the High Evolutionary. Yet he was stomped flat with ease in about two pages. Instead the crisis is on shutting off his doomsday plot to crash both planets against each other. In order words, a “stop the bomb” plot with more technobabble about vibrations and more superhero trappings. It is a very old hat.
Image by Marvel Comics
The heroes blast their way to the center of Counter-Earth. Hercules helps open a big door, which is most of his entire contribution to the adventure. Most of what passes for characterization is the drama between Vision and his daughter, Viv. She’s been transformed into a human by High Evolutionary, yet that isn’t their main crisis. Instead, it’s been Vision acting cold, aloof, and even controlling towards Viv for quite some time. Yet a plunge into the depths provokes some soul searching.
Image by Marvel Comics
It all ties back into a previous arc involving Kang (who Waid’s made the focus of a third of his Avengers issues). Vision saw a future version of himself, yet none of his daughter. It confirmed the fact that he designed his daughter to age at a relatively normal human rate. Therefore, while Vision himself is roughly immortal, his daughter isn’t, and he’ll have to bury her sooner than he’d like. Therefore, all of his domineering has been out of an effort to protect her and bury his own emotions.
Image by Marvel Comics
This Story Needed Better Ideas!
While this isn’t an altogether unreasonable subplot, it’s also a subplot readers have seen a billion times. How many times has the “dad acts gruff because he really cares deep down” angle been done? Perhaps the angle of them being androids makes it ironic, if androids in superhero comics were still rare. Rather than confront the Vision about his poor method of expressing his emotions and doubts — which are more about his own pain that Viv’s — the moment is played straight.
Image by Marvel Comics
Why not have Viv, or Miles, or Kamala, mention the utter broken logic of it? If Vision is mourning the idea of possibly outliving his daughter, why is he treating her poorly? How will making Viv resent him make it any better? Why not confide his feelings to her sooner, especially since they’re literally the only family each other has? After all, Ms. Marvel has made such bonding exercises among her teammates essential Champions training. But, that sort of imagination is saved for Archie.
Image by Marvel Comics
Things get more awkward, and predictable, once some threats arrive. Both teams find more New-Men, only this time some are very large. Vision tells Viv to stay behind, so of course she doesn’t. She ultimately winds up finding the source of the crisis, the Higher Evolutionary. The genetically created son of High Evolutionary, his sense of pity and empathy for the New-Men led him to rebel. Yet the very device that he protects has been used to imperil both his world and the Earth!
Image by Marvel Comics
Even the Death Scene Is Routine!
While the Avengers and Champions have a beautifully drawn but otherwise pointless fight, Viv talks the Higher Evolutionary into allowing them to disengage his machine. Unfortunately, the teams’ miscommunication expands beyond family relations. Despite communicators being a staple of superhero teams since before the average TV was in color, none of them keep in touch. As a result, Vision and the Avengers provoke another pointless fight when they smash inside!
Image by Marvel Comics
Unfortunately, the doomsday clock continues to tick, and its time for someone to make the ultimate sacrifice. That someone is Viv, because this story’s sense of foreshadowing is as blunt as Thor’s hammer. Despite vibrations which have been capable of teleporting people and objects across planets and dimensions being a critical plot point, both the Avengers and Champions presume Viv is lost. Spoilers — she isn’t. She’s merely somewhere else. So, what was the point!?
Image by Marvel Comics
The dilemma here isn’t that Mark Waid turned in what has become an overlong and underwhelming script. He has decades of experience, and no writer’s work is always equal in quality. The dilemma isn’t that he failed in trying to tell an ambitious story. Rather, it is that Waid has failed to execute a routine team-up between superhero teams capably. From start to finish, it feels like he is hitting checklists on a story outline without capturing much heart, soul, or imagination.
Image by Marvel Comics
This Needed Less Predictability and More Heart!
Since both Miles Morales and Peter Parker go by “Spider-Man,” I wondered how exactly the teams signify which one is which in battle. It is the sort of thing which could become confusing without some sort of nickname or friendly banter. A gag revolving around this could have been amusing. Instead, I was thinking of it merely to try to pry some more depth from an otherwise mundane issue. Viv’s speech with Higher Evolutionary is a highlight; a shame it’s undone immediately.
Image by Marvel Comics
Committing to a death scene, and then undoing it a page later, sums things up in a nutshell. Rather than do something different or new, Waid plays the trope dead straight. Rather than try to do something different with his readers’ expectations, he just reveals them to be right. And what happened between Viv’s death and that one page funeral in regards to the Higher Evolutionary? Did he just give up? Was he beaten as effortlessly as his father? It should matter, yet it doesn’t.
Image by Marvel Comics
At Least the Art Is Pretty!
In fact the only consistent highlight is the art and colors by Jesus Saiz. The man did his best to make fighting a comet look epic, and he does the same here. The battle between the heroes and the giant animal-men is a visual feast. Higher Evolutionary himself is an interesting design. He looks similar enough to his father, yet has some differing facial features. I could imagine another artist botching it, yet Saiz really gets the most out of those scenes between he and Viv Vision.
Image by Marvel Comics
Next: Witness the most lopsided battle in history in Champions #14!
There’s one more chapter left, but to be honest I have little hope for it. While not a terrible story, spending almost $24 for a mundane story is almost worse. Rather than bring excitement about the upcoming fact that Avengers is about to become a weekly title, it only fills me with concern that Mark Waid makes up a third of its writing team. The same success that has almost become easy with other titles eludes him with Avengers. I will be pleased when this is over, so Champions can get back on track.