Hot Pants: Marvel Adventures: The Avengers
What is a “Hot Pants” pick? Quite simply, it’s a book that all four reviewers on this site believe is worthy of your time. It may or may not be one of our favorite books, but it’s that rare breed of comic that struck all four of us, with our different tastes, as a good read. Marvel Adventures: The Avengers is our first “Hot Pants” pick.
Writing a good, approachable all-ages book that is still fun for adults is a tough job, but Jeff Parker has succeeded admirably with Marvel Adventures: The Avengers, and Manuel Garcia provides beautiful, realistic style art from the Neal Adams/George Perez school.They use a non-traditional line-up that includes Spider-Man, Wolverine, Storm and a newly-created heroine Giant Girl alongside such stalwarts as Captain America, Iron Man and the Hulk and mix them up with classic villains like The Leader, Baron Zemo and Ultron, all in a series of “done in one” stories. Where Kurt Busiek’s Avengers aimed straight at the heart of the lifelong fans, and Bendis’s New Avengers strikes out for the newer Marvel fans who might not know or care about the old Avengers, Marvel Adventures: The Avengers splits the difference, serving up old school style with a fresh coat of paint that should appeal to anyone with a fondness for the super-team concept. And it definitely appeals to all of us, which is why we’ve made it a “Hot Pants” pick.
David Martindale posted a full review of issue #4. Read it here.
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I agree this book is a lot of fun. I picked, the first issue expecting it to be sorta middling fare, but because I’ve always dug the Avengers, I figured I’d give it a shot. The first issue was better than I expected, it didn’t blow me away, but there was enough of an old school vibe that I picked up the second and then by third book I realized I was hooked.
The stories are strait forward, as one might expect from an all-ages book, but they are told with a fun loving flair and sensibility that just puts a smile on my face. They are also rather well told little tales, better than some of the more “mail-line” titles out there.
28 Aug 2006 at 10:22 pm
QuoteYeah, for me it’s not that I see the book as what The Avengers should always be (it’s a little too lightweight for that), but damned if it ain’t fun. Isn’t it weird to just see heroes so consistantly victorious? I’ve gotten a little numb to all the failures and pyrrhic victories of most superhero books, such that it’s actually a little shocking to see them taking the bad guys down so definitively in MA:Avengers. It’s nice. Even the Hulk gets respect and clever use, with the swanky idea of using a VR machine (or whatever it is) to keep Banner chilled till he’s needed. We’ve seen the grim ‘n’ grittay take on this from the likes of Millar and Azzarello - Hulk as last-ditch weapon - but in Marvel Adventures:Avengers, it’s more like the Hulk is just the BIG GUN, not a nuke that doesn’t distinguish between friend and foe. All that plus the book’s sly sense of humor has me fondly remembering the Batman Adventures comic of the 90s - to my mind, the most consistantly good Batman comic of that decade.
28 Aug 2006 at 10:35 pm
Quote“Hot Pants.” “Comic Pants.” I love the names you guys have come up with.
This was an interesting review. It made me rethink whether or not I want to pick up the eventual trade digest. I now think I will.
29 Aug 2006 at 1:28 pm
QuoteThanks, Lex! We were particularly happy with the “Hot Pants” name. In fact, the name came before the feature, and then we tried to figure out if there were any features we were planning that would fit “Hot Pants.”
I highly recommend the Marvel Adventures Avengers series. I’m planning on diving a little more into the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four series as well. Just solid, well-constructed superhero books with light to no continuity and an all-ages focus.
29 Aug 2006 at 6:10 pm
QuoteDavid’s right, this book beats any Avengers book being published right now. I noticed that Tony Bedard is on as writer in the upcoming Previews though- hope that’s a fill-in, cuz Jeff Parker is the tits.
29 Aug 2006 at 10:14 pm
QuoteIt does seem like the writers cycle pretty frequently on Marvel Adventures. I would hazard a guess that the pay rate is not the best on these books, and the royalties (given their direct market sales) probably a bit shifty as well. Bedard’s a solid writer, though, and has been doing some good stuff on Exiles, so I’m holding out hope. Throwing the Juggernaut in (another villain who hasn’t really faced off with the Avengers in the main continuity, just like The Leader) is the right spirit, at any rate.
One of the things I’d also like to see in the book is more members, either as guest stars or in an “old order changeth” actual roster shakeup. I’d have a blast seeing Hawkeye in this book, he’d fit in with the vibe. Same with Hercules, really, and who wouldn’t want to see Thor show up? Even me, devoted Thor-hater that I am, thinks it’d be cool to have the thunder god guest star.
30 Aug 2006 at 7:50 pm
QuoteI vote for Hercules as a guest star. He’s much cooler than that hammer wielding chump of God, Thor, any day.
30 Aug 2006 at 7:59 pm
QuoteI knew there was a reason I liked you, Nick. Hercules got Galactus drunk… what has that long-haired hippy god ever done for anybody?
30 Aug 2006 at 8:18 pm
QuoteRandy, you want Hawkeye in everything. That’s a given. And no way is Hercules cooler than Thor, you psychos. That Greek lush has possibly the lamest looking weapon ever, the battle nub. At least Mjolnir looks cool. And Thor kicked the crap out of people as a frog, let’s see Hercules match that. :p
31 Aug 2006 at 2:28 am
QuoteWell okay, I’ll give you that Hercules’ weapon is lame but he did fight Godzilla that one time, and probably would have kicked the crap out of him if S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn’t gotten in the way. And since Hercules is a drunk, he could at the very least out drink Thor…So HA!
31 Aug 2006 at 3:21 am
QuoteY’know what Hercules-lovin’ geeks are like? The bubbleheaded 80s chick on this classic Thor cover:
http://tinyurl.com/gcyfv
That’s right. That chick is YOU, Randy and Nick.
(It’s an awesome issue, though.)
31 Aug 2006 at 11:01 am
QuoteDan, I don’t want Hawkeye in everything. I’d rather he never show up in the pages of New Avengers and Mighty Avengers, ‘cuz I don’t want Bendis to screw him up anymore. Seriously, killing Hawkeye off is probably the best I can hope for out of Bendis at this point, because at least that’s a relatively easy thing to reverse for future writers.
Oh, and by the way, Hercules got drunk with some hotties from the Serpent Society and showed up drunk to Avengers Mansion. When has Thor ever had the cojones to try something like that, huh? Thor talks about the mead lifestyle, but Hercules is living the godly street life, yo.
31 Aug 2006 at 8:24 pm
QuoteJust a quick addition here… after reading two issues of Tony Bedard’s Marvel Adventures: Avengers, I think we should be clear that the Hot Pants pick applies only to Jeff Parker-written issues of the book. Nothing against Bedard, who writes solid and enjoyable stories in the pages of Exiles, but his all-ages Adventures tales have been… well… kinda boring and predictable.
25 Oct 2006 at 10:25 pm
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