X-Men and the Avengers: Search and Rescue

X-Men: Gamma Quest Trilogy #2

by Greg Cox

With the help of the Incredible Hulk, the Avengers and the X-men set out to find the Leader, the gamma-powered evil genius who abducted two of their teammates--but the Leader has the power of the Gamma Sentinels behind him

Genres: Science Fiction, Comics, X Men, Fiction, Superheroes, Mystery, Fantasy

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second book of a trilogy that is set in the Marvel universe. The first book must be read before this one. In this one, the X-Men and Avengers with the Hulk as a tag along are still searching for their respective team members.

I enjoyed the first novel of this trilogy as I thought it was a nice introduction into a new story line. This one didn't do it for me. It wasn't the writing as the author continues to show that he knows these characters and their voices. One really gets to see the different voices of Iron Man, Storm, or the Hulk. The problem with this offering was that there was a battle after battle. I know one including me expects battles in a book based in this universe. The problem with the battles in this book was twofold. I have a pretty decent knowledge about this whole universe but one lengthy battle was with a squad I have no knowledge about. It seems that the author is digging deep into the annals of this universe just to impress us. The biggest problem with the battles was that with all the battles there was very little plot advancement. Yes I want to see battles but I also want the story to move along.

Maybe this book suffers from middle book syndrome but this was a step down in entertainment. Sometime there isn't enough material for a trilogy and I am thinking that this is one of those times.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Gamma Quest trilogy succeeds quite well in everything it attempts to accomplish, which is to provide an extended prose version of a mighty Marvel team-up adventure. The first thing the Marvel heroes have to do when they meet is have a big fight, then figure out there's a super villain behind the problem that they'd be better off fighting, then split into small groups for separate quests within the frame-work of a big team quest, assign team leaders (one of whom should be Cap), flirt with one another, fight some more, have hair-raising adventures and nick-of-time escapes, rescue their comrades, shake hands and promise to stay in touch, prepare to repeat next month. The X-Men and Avengers are the two biggest (in both senses of the word) teams in comics, and Cox set them up and carried them through quite well. I thought he captured the personalities and voices of almost all of the characters quite convincingly, and though I wasn't ever really surprised, neither was I disappointed. I don't see it as a trilogy so much as one long story that happened to be printed in three volumes; there are no good break or entry points, and I don't think anyone reading them out of sequence would get much from them. Altogether, lots of fun Marvel mayhem, lots of fun interaction between characters that don't normally spend much time together, and a good time is had by all. Excelsior!

[Christian Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but not great. I feel like this story is being stretched to hit the trilogy mark. Hopefully the last book will move things along to a satisfying conclusion.

[Hyann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well only the fighting scenes are good in this books, better than the first one because the heroes fights against bad guy so the author can make winners not just no-conquest/draw when x-men/avengers were fighting againts each other like the first one.

90% of the book is fighting, you only have a 10% of story. I never like the use of look-alike robot who mimic other supers, superpowers should be unique if not why having super?

Will read the third book only because I bought it... and keep it just because I collected all superheroes novels but who knows I have sold most of my comic books..

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to revisit, on the one hand. It moved at a fast pace; it held my interest. I don't know how much it really moved the story along, though, as it felt like one giant "slug-fest" (or something along those lines). It revisits the captured heroes a time-or-two early on, but then they disappear maybe a third of the way into the story. I felt the author stayed pretty true to the characters, how they talk, act, think, and fight.

There were a couple of missteps, though (mostly editing errors, such as typos or missing words). For example, when discussing the feet of one of the heroes, "feet" is spelled "feat." Pronouns were occasionally missing from sentences, making the reader assume what was supposed to have been there (I don't know if that is particular to the omnibus or the original book; I am reading the omnibus but reviewing each story individually as I finish it). Another "mistake" had to do with Iceman inside an enclosed laboratory. He is battling a "Gamma Sentinel" made to look like the Harpy, an old foe of the Hulk's (back when Betty Banner was alive and had been transformed into the Harpy). Iceman jumps off the Harpy Sentinel’s back and somehow finds an updraft in an enclosed laboratory to lift him “higher” into “the air”?!? (260) what "updraft of air"? How does that work??!?? There was another moment during the battle in Moira's lab where it seemed like there was a mistake, but I forgot to make a note of it. Most of the errors I came across in this story occurred in the fracas that occurred in Scotland at Muir Island.

It is very strange, how the three captured heroes manage to temporarily escape. Wanda exhibits a "new" power (or talent) in terms of her abilities. Because Rogue had temporarily accessed Wanda's powers for an earlier experiment, Wanda tries to access any remaining "hex powers" in Rogue before they disappear and discovers she can now see through Rogue's eyes and control Rogue's body. Wanda is able to cast some hexes through Rogue and free Rogue, who then frees Wanda, and then the two of them free Logan. They end up battling some of the Leader's "humanoid" creations before Rogue grabs the other two heroes and blasts through the roof. Only, as they blast through the roof of the Leader's "lair," they discover they are on the moon. And that is the last moment we see of them in the story (until the third book). No mention is said if they managed to return to the Leader's base before the vacuum of space does them in, if they survived or not. The reader has to wait until the third book to find out if they survived (which is safe to assume they did; the author's not going to kill off these three characters, and Marvel wouldn't let him, anyway); so it's more if it is explained how they survived. It's kind-of annoying.

This book picks up where the prior book had left off, backtracking a bit so that Iron Man can save Captain America (with an assist from Storm) after the Hulk threw Cap over the American side of the Falls. The heroes prepare to start fighting again, but Beast recovers and is able to stop the fight between the Avengers and X-Men from breaking out anew (which is only fitting). Then he manages to distract the Hulk long enough for Bruce Banner to regain control, which was pretty cool. After returning to Avengers Mansion, Bruce tells them what he knows about the Leader (and Freehold) before they receive a distress call from Muir Island. I did like how the heroes were paired off into two teams for the two missions. Hulk, "Wolverine," Iron Man, and Storm flew to Muir Island to deal with the Gamma Sentinels that had attacked the facility. Vision, Cap, and Cyclops went to Freehold. It made for some interesting moments as the various heroes had to get used to working with new people with whom they were unfamiliar and had not worked with before. I think the author did a good job describing how it worked out. We discover the Beast was left behind to man the comm station at Avengers Mansion, and the book ends on another "cliffhanger" as the "Gamma Sentinel" Hulk "invades" Avengers Mansion.

I liked how Wanda was able to use the hex powers that Rogue absorbed to take control of Rogue's body in order to find a way to free the three heroes. I thought that was pretty cool; it was something I had never seen her do before and it was a nice expansion of her powers, her abilities. I think it would have been interesting if this "new talent/ability" had carried over into the comics, but that sadly was not the case.

I also liked how Hank McCoy was able to distract the Hulk long enough for Bruce Banner to regain control. The Hulk was angry that Hank had managed to stop the three-way fight from restarting and had come after Hank. Hank started asking questions about Gamma radiation and other points of interest. The Hulk actually started answering them, which threw me for a loop, as the answers were fairly intelligent (I think it surprised Hank, too). The conversation calmed the Hulk down long enough for Bruce to regain control, and that was that.

It was funny to read about Tony flirting with Storm; I half-expected that to happen, so it was not much of a surprise when it did. I was kinda surprised that Storm half-flirted back, even though she thought she was flirting with Tony's bodyguard and not Tony Stark himself (such as when she began mentally comparing Tony with Forge and wondering what Iron Man looked like without his armor on). Also, Tony makes a crack about taking lessons on negotiation from Donald Trump (at Avengers Mansion before they leave for Scotland); I doubt such a thing would be said if it had been written today. There are also some "nice" conversations between Storm and Tony, as they discuss their different points-of-view and agree to disagree. It was fun to read about how they realized they had more common ground between them than they realized (similar to both Rogue and Wanda eventually realizing that as well during their captivity; more Rogue than Wanda, though) and were able to recognize the truth behind the validity of what the other was saying.

Tony and Storm did a better job of working together, it seemed, than the team that went to Freehold. Cap and Cyclops helped each other out, but the three heroes tended to fight their own battles individually as opposed to it being a "team effort." Cyclops helped Cap out, initially, but then Rock came after Scott and it became a "solo fight." The Vision faced off against Ogre while Cap faced off against the youngest two members of Freehold's "Riot Force." Cap tried negotiations and talking, first, before "easily" defeating his opponents. From there, he assisted Cyclops in defeating Rock. The Vision was able to defeat Ogre, whereupon Omnibus appeared and the three heroes discussed why they were there with Freehold's leader.

It was amusing to read about SHIELD breaking into the X-Mansion and discovering nobody was home. I say it was amusing because of how the Institute had truly become a "school" with students "for so long" that it was surprising to read of a time when there were no students, no "younger generation," at the Institute when SHIELD showed up. I did find myself wondering how SHIELD would fare after Storm discovered what the agents did to her "greenhouse" in her room.

Finally, I really enjoyed how the book was "tied into the comics" (for the most part). The author did a nice job of referencing various events that had occurred "in the recent past" of the two teams (such as the Heroes Reborn storyline and how the new team of Avengers came about, how Excalibre had recently broken up, the dissolution of Force Works, how Tony Stark treated the Scarlet Witch while both were members of Force Works (which made me wonder if Storm would pick up on that as it implied Iron Man was more than a "bodyguard" and revealed "he" had leadership qualities), how a Skrull had temporarily replaced Captain America for a short time, and other individual moments as well as "team" moments). I know some of the authors during this time these prose stories were printed tried to incorporate events in the comics to keep the books grounded in particular parts of the "comic/Marvel U timeline" whereas other authors did not take as much care to incorporate events in the comics (or other "hero books") into the novels. I think the first book in this series also referenced a "time traveling adventure" the X-Men had with Spider-Man that occurred in the prose novels.

As much fun as it was to read about the heroes traveling from one fight to the next, I think such a thing might work better in the comics (even though it still reveals the same weakness, be it comics or prose). Nothing really happens in this book. It is "one big fight after another," and the whole point is to get the reader to the third book. The Beast does finally figure out where the Leader's hideout is, but it is at the end of the book right before the "Gamma Sentinel" Hulk attacks. One cannot help but wonder if the Beast could not have applied his intelligence "sooner" and come up with the Leader's lair had he taken the time to think about it, in conjunction with Tony and the Vision assisting him. Granted, Muir Island was under attack, so that had to be tended to as well. As much as I liked this book, perhaps it could have been split in half and the first and third books written to be a bit longer?

Also, I do miss the illustrations before each chapter that were in the original novels. For some reason, the omnibus did not include those illustrations.

Overall, it was a fun novel to read. I didn't really expect very much from this novel (having read it previously), hoping that it would be again be an entertaining read. It did feel "forced" a time or two, but not enough to throw it off-stride. I enjoyed the interactions between the various heroes (despite it still feeling like the X-Men were getting "top billing," which they probably were). Even if I were to rate it below 3 stars, it would still be close to 3 stars for me. I am glad I took a chance to revisit it.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one a lot more than the first one. The pacing was really good for me and the action scenes were really well done.
Every twist and turn the story took made sense and built off of the first book really well. All of the interactions between the X-Men and Avengers felt totally believable. It felt like reading real people. I really like all of the scenes with Wolverine, Rogue, and Scarlet Witch as well. Everything made sense within the story, though the transfusion scene has left a permanent scar on my cranium.

[Ferginator88 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to the first entry, this book barely has time to get going before it’s over. I get that that is sort of the point. But when compared to the Mutant Empire Trilogy I read last year, this book is more focused on an overall plot and less structured as a group of individual novels. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you run into the issue of needing to reintroduce your characters and your plot at the start of each novel. When you’re reading back to back, it’s a bit silly.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book suffered from your classic middle of a trilogy problem. There was a lot of interesting action and things moved forward, but there was no real resolution at the end. If it's just going to be a continuation of the story, I'd rather make one longer story that pretend it's to sections.

However, it was still a fun story in the author is doing a great job with the characters as well as the plot reveals.

[Lori S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Building off the first volume, now that we're past the ridiculous fighting between teams, we find the Avengers and X-MEN working together to find their missing teammates. Sentinels are running amok and causing their own special brand of trouble. And the missing are hanging out in space.

[Zach Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s pretty ok. That plot doesn’t move along very far in the sequel. There also might be too many fight scenes. The Hulk’s dialogue gets even more cringe. Overall, a less interesting novel than the previous.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

339 - 2020

[Jonathan DeForest · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first one really wasn't all that fantastic, and part 2 was even less so. Hoping part 3 has a satisfying end...

[Derrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like x-men and avengers, but this was just boring to me. Oh well.

[Edward Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more plot is revealed in this second of three books, but the characters feel like they were written by fanboys because they use so much of their stereotyped speech. An imporvement on the first, btu only just.