Avengers #675 - No Surrender Review
Spoiler Free
This is the start of the Avengers going weekly with a storyline called No Surrender. This book incorporates every active Avengers team and pulls some others back into the fold. Many characters are involved and some are taken off the table right away. This event promises to change the Avengers forever and it seems like this book takes that first big step towards that.
Spoiler Filled
As we start, we’re reunited with the Living Lightning undercover to break up a car theft ring, who is just going by Lightning now (to avoid confusion with the Living Laser). He thinks about his time as an Avenger and what it means to him. As he seems to set up a date with a detective, they notice something he calls the “End of the world.”
We pick up with Falcon who is seeing the same thing and he immediately sees things going wrong and starts to save people. There’s a snapshot of multiple Avengers in situations where they realize something is wrong, including Black Panther, Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Dr. Strange, Ms. Marvel, and Vision who tries to contact Captain Marvel and Alpha Flight. When we see Carol in space, she’s floating staring at where the Earth and Moon used to be.
Vision, Black Panther, and Beast are attempting to coordinate and get teams in motion when they discover that the planet has been moved. Vision attempts to reunite with his Avengers team. Speaking of his team, Falcon, Thor and Hercules are attempting to save people in New York.
The Wasp and Jarvis are out food shopping when Nadia has to spring into action. In the commotion, Jarvis sees a boy standing in the way of falling debris, and pushes him out of the way getting trapped under it in his place.
In San Diego, the Unity Avengers squad works to save the town from a tidal wave, which takes all the Human Torch can give. In New Mexico, Hawkeye and Red Wolf are doing what the others are doing – rescuing people from the world falling apart. At Mount Vesuvius, the U.S. Avengers cap the volcano stopping it from erupting and endangering more people. They spot an object falling to Earth, which steers itself towards Rome and falls in the Coliseum. As Captain America communicates with Black Panther from Washington D.C., he notes people in danger and goes to save them, when everything changes. Heroes begin to freeze in place. This happens to Cap, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Black Panther, The X-Men, most of the U.S. Avengers, Vision, The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne).
The call goes out to all active and reserve Avengers to Assemble. This is concerning to Lightning because he assumes that this means that it’s as bad as it can get. As they all get together, they learn about Jarvis, who means so much to every Avenger. He is badly injured from debris falling on him and he may not make it. Rogue says they need to focus on the world and not prioritize one life over seven billion in essence to save his life, which sets the Wasp off and she runs away. Beast goes after her to add his medical training to the collective pool at the hospital.
They hear a voice and realize that they’ve been brought together by Voyager.
Reflections, Impressions, and Predictions
I like the fact that we get Living Lightning, AKA Lightning is our protagonist as the series starts.
I was really sad when I thought that Jarvis died. Hopefully, he can recover.
Who the hell is Voyager and what connection does she have to the team?
What is powerful enough to steal the Earth and Moon?
I’m really curious why only certain Avengers have been frozen in time and space.
There is definitely some dysfunction in some of these teams, particularly the Unity Squad.
This issue is big and beefy, which feels right for the first issue of an event like this
Love these lenticular covers
Happy that this is a weekly series running for 16 weeks.
Final Breakdown
Story – A lot is going on, but there are already immediate consequences and questions. 8/10
Art – It’s difficult to find anyone who can illustrate all of the Avengers in this book well, and that’s exactly what we got. Very nice work. 9/10
Continuity/Character Consistency – The drama of each of these teams has been brought into this event, which is great, especially if there’s a team you love. As the weeks unfold, we’ll get a clearer sense of when this takes place. 8/10
Twist Factor – Jarvis. Man, that provided some raw emotion as this issue went on. 8/10
Final Score – Marvel Book of the Week. 8/10