Warren Ellis (writer)
Mike McKone (artist)
Jason Keith (colorist)
In 2012, Joss Whedon dazzled audiences all around the world with his feature film adaptation of one of Marvel Comics' longest running series, The Avengers. Marvel has, since then, published several titles meant to capitalize on the success of this film, including, quite notably, their first stand-alone, original graphic novel in many years: Avengers: Endless Wartime.
The story kicks off in a fictional country in the Middle East named Slorenia, where a fictionalized version of the Taliban is using mercenaries in an attempt to depose the democratically-elected (i.e. U.S.-backed) government, with the U.S. responding by sending in drones. The mercenaries shoot down one of the drones, which is quite unlike anything they've ever encountered; it's basically a dragon-like creature fitted with U.S. military hardware. When the story hits the news, both Captain America and Thor recognize the strange creature as something terrifying from both their pasts, and the Avengers spring into action, not realizing that the threat is even greater than they imagine it to be.
I have been a fan writer/futurist Warren Ellis' work for a while now. I may not have his edgier stuff like Transmetropolitan or The Authority but I was hugely fond of his work on Marvel titles like Iron Man, Nextwave, and Astonishing X-Men. Considering that his six-issue Iron Man storyline "Extremis" was hugely influential and served as the main inspiration for Iron Man 3, it seems apropos to me that he should be tapped to write an Avengers graphic novel for audiences bowled over by last year's blockbuster. His narrative is vividly realized by artist Mike McKone and colorist Jason Keith, whose work befits the "widescreen" nature of this story, as well as the oversized format this work comes in.
The thing is, this graphic novel doesn't exactly play out like the movie, which was basically a much more elaborate re-telling of the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comic that pitted a then-fledgling superhero team against Loki, the god of mischief. There are three acts, and there are bad guys to fight, and the story is not completely unpredictable, but Ellis being Ellis, this still doesn't read like a typical four-color superhero story, and that, to my mind, is a good thing.
An equally good thing is that Ellis keeps a lot of the humor that has become a staple of the Marvel films, particularly in terms of the banter exchanged between the characters like Hawkeye, Captain Marvel and the Black Widow. Captain America and Thor are presented very much as the archetypes that appeared in the recent movies, but Ellis nuances them a bit for the benefit of readers looking for a little bit more. Bruce Banner, aka the Incredible Hulk shows up midway through the book and plays a pivotal role to the resolution of the story. Finally, as overexposed as I find Wolverine, I have to grudgingly admit that Ellis, who has written him in X books, found a pretty good use for him as a member of the Avengers, even if it did play up to certain character cliches.
As much as I enjoyed the book, though, it wasn't quite a home run for me. The depiction of Iron Man, for example, felt like several steps back from the previously established comics continuity. Tony Stark still needs his chest piece to stay alive? He needs machines to strip off his armor? That felt distinctly like movie-fan-service to me, especially considering how, prior to the Marvel films, Tony had not needed his chest piece to live for quite some time. Coming from someone who revolutionized Iron Man as Ellis himself did, this regression felt a little disappointing. Granted, this new movie-influenced status quo was probably established before this graphic novel, but it still feels like unnecessary pandering that didn't even have to be mentioned. Perhaps even more grating for me was the way Bruce Banner repeatedly referred to the Hulk as "the other guy" in a phrase clearly lifted from Whedon's movie script. If Ellis had wanted to remind the reader that this book was principally intended for movie fans, he could not have been less subtle. These little things took me out of the story, which is a shame because Ellis' dialogue is really wonderful to read in all other respects.
I also have an issue with the creatures presented as the threat here; Captain America and Thor seem terrified by them, and yet the story begins with a rag-tag mercenary being able to knock one of them out of the sky with a run-of-the-mill rocket launcher rather than an Ultimate Nullifier or an Infinity Gem. Later, Hawkeye is able to take one down with a few of his trick arrows, and he even expresses out loud what some readers are probably thinking at this point: is this creature a serious threat or not? There doesn't seem to be consistency in how these creatures are treated in terms of threat level, even though the story is less about the danger and more about the self-perpetuation of the military-industrial complex and the crazy things people are willing to weaponize.
My final issue with the book is one of presentation. At 110 pages, all of which contain both text and lavish art (as opposed to those books that cheat by having blacked out pages and a few panels of text), this book is pretty heavy on content, and is, in that respect a very good purchase. However, because of the larger-than-normal dimensions, a relatively thin-gauge paper, and a decision on Marvel's packaging department to not include any extras whatsoever, the book looks embarrassingly thin, and more like a Dr. Seuss book than something marketed as a graphic NOVEL. Even slightly thicker paper and at least a dozen page of extras could have gone a long way. The recent Rocketeer hardcover I reviewed a few posts back only had a paltry 80-plus pages of actual story content, but it still looks thicker than this book because of a canny choice of paper as well as some strategically-chosen extras. I would have loved to have seen McKone's artistic process or even some sketches; his work here is excellent. There is a feature here that allows the reader to download the digital version of the book which I have yet to redeem, but unless that digital version contains additional content, I have to say I'm not impressed, at least by that feature. It's certainly not a substantial quibble and has no overall bearing on the score I'm giving this book, but some extras would have really hit the spot for me.
This book is meant to kick off a new line of original graphic novels by Marvel, the next one, due in April this year being a Spider-Man graphic novel by heavyweights Mark Waid, James Robinson and Gabriele Dell'Otto, and with no less than Jim Starlin, the first creator ever to produce a graphic novel for Marvel, coming up with a brand new OGN starring Thanos sometime later this year. Content-wise, if Avengers: Endless Wartime is any indication, I'm sure they're something to look forward to, but I honestly hope they improve the presentation a bit.
4/5
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