Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection, Vol. 2

Avengers (2010) #3, Avengers: Fear Itself

by Brian Michael Bendis, Bryan Hitch (Illustrator), John Romita Jr. (Illustrator)

Brian Michael Bendis' Avengers odyssey continues! When Spider-Woman disappears, the team must face the Intelligencia - just before Fear Itself hammers our heroes! The Red Skull's daughter has unleashed an evil as old as Midgard itself. The Serpent has risen to reclaim Earth, recruiting powerful superhumans as his advance guard, the Worthy. The result is all-out action in classic Avengers style! And when the dust settles, Tony Stark's fortune is gone, Captain America's leadership is questioned and Thor is no more! Worse still, Norman Osborn is back! Freed from prison by his H.A.M.M.E.R. loyalists, Osborn unites with A.I.M., Superia and Madame Hydra, seeking revenge in the worst way possible. Plus: Bendis literally writes the book on the glorious history of Earth's Mightiest Heroes! COLLECTING: AVENGERS (2010) 12.1, 13-24; AVENGERS ASSEMBLE: AN ORAL HISTORY OF EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Spider Man

168 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2014

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bendis uses a narrative trick in the Fear Itself issues, which is most of these, where you have pages of dialogue alternating with pages of only action. It would have been a fun and interesting device for a few issues, but it lasts for about 10 issues, and it wears out its welcome long before he'd finished with it.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collects Avengers (2010) issues #12.1 and #13-24, plus Avengers Assemble: An Oral History of Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Issue #12.1 is a Spider-Woman story that leads into "Age of Ultron."

Issues #13-17 are tie-in stories for the Marvel event from 2011, "Fear Itself." The Red Hulk/Thing issue is a personal favorite of mine. As with all tie-ins, there are hits and misses, so as a whole, this collection falls right down the middle in terms of ratings.

Issues #18-24 are about the the return of Norman Osborn, as he brings along with him his New Dark Avengers. These issues go hand-in-hand with "New Avengers Volume #3" (collecting New Avengers issues #16.1 and #17-23). Norman Osborn has always been a high-level "Spider-Man" villain, but Bendis successfully made Osborn a major Marvel Universe villain during his "Avengers" run.

Finally, this collection is filled out by including a mostly prose book written by Bendis in which the fictional characters are being interviewed about the history of the Avengers. Characters from the Marvel Universe give their takes on multiple well-known events, and the whole thing is in script form.

[Judah Radd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not terrible. The first arc was the Fear Itself tie in stuff. It was pretty badass, although the “simultaneous interview recounting the events while they’re taking place” thing went on way longer than it should.

The second arc was a very uninspired rehash of Dark Reign. Enough is enough. Normie Osborne is old news. Let’s move on already, Bendis! Daniel Acuña’s art is fantastic, but the story was a snore.

I like Bendis’ style, but the story here was weak. I’m ready to see him spruce this title up a bit.

[Joey Amorim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection actually wasn’t half bad. The “Fear Itself” tie-ins were surprisingly fun, and the arc of Norman Osborn running it back with the Avengers just felt right. I honestly think what Bendis did with Osborn is one of the biggest success stories of his Avengers era. He took a Spider-Man villain and made into a plausible Avengers-level threat, basically the Lex Luthor of the Marvel Universe.

[Fadzlee Abdul Rahman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The interview bit during Fear Itself arc kind of annoying. Love Chris Bachalo's art. Daniel Acuna also awesome...