Review by Frank Plowright
Avengers Forever didn’t start well. Jason Aaron became carried away with the troubles of the Ghost Rider, and in places The Lords of Earthly Vengeance positively dragged. The Pillars heads back in the right direction as Ghost Rider, Deathlok and their new ally Tony Stark (Ant-Man) begin gathering others to help on their as yet unspecified mission. Their search is eventually revealed to be for the ultimate form of each primary Avenger.
In turn there are individual chapters spotlighting versions of Black Panther, Captain America, Thor, Captain Marvel, and Tony Stark. One hero at a time instantly makes for a punchier story, and Aaron reconfigures circumstances with every new hero as each is on a different world, although all somehow tainted by the Masters of Evil.
Of the two artists Aaron Kuder is considerably more impressive, almost a delicacy about the way he draws his three chapters, yet also ensuring moods are captured. While the very different Captain America and Thor spotlights impress, it’s with Captain Marvel that Kuder excels, delivering a mad world of humanoid animals and Carol Danvers somehow certain she’s destined to fly. Jim Towe’s art tells a story and there’s the occasional nice composition, but it’s a chalk and cheese contrast.
The Pillars entertains, which The Lords of Earthly Vengeance didn’t, and that’s just as well as by the end the mission has been achieved, and this feeds directly into Aaron’s finale Avengers Assemble.
There is one last treat or bonus in what was originally the Avengers Forever Infinity Comic, appearing in print for the first time, having previously been published online. It’s part of an unwieldy experiment. The Infinity Comics work perfectly well as intended online, and as craggily drawn by Kev Walker this is better than most, but the print versions suffer from jumpy art. It’s here, though, that Aaron explains his idea of each of the Avengers representing a very specific protection for Earth, and the absence of one damns a planet. He also picks up on the idea that across the multiverse Thor’s hammers are connected in what’s a neat extra.
