Review- AVENGERS: ABSOLUTE VISION BOOK 2

AVENGERS: ABSOLUTE VISION BOOK 2 (Marvel, First Printing, 2014; Softcover)

Collects Avengers #242-254 and Avengers Annual #13 (cover dates April, 1984- April, 1985)

Writer: Roger Stern

Artists: Al Milgrom, Joe Rubinstein, Joe Sinnott, Bob Hall, Jack Abel, Brett Breeding, Joe Delbeato, Kim DeMulder, Steve Ditko, Brian Garvey, Carmine Infantino, and John Byrne

Roger Stern's brilliant run on the title kicks into high gear with his long gestating Absolute Vision storyline. The events in the previous book (Absolute Vision Book 1) saw Starfox connecting the comatose Vision to ISAAC, the computer mind which controls his homeworld (Saturn's moon of Titan). ISAAC (Internal Synaptic Anti+/Anionic Computer) has been communicating with The Vision, opening up parts of his synthezoid mind which he had never before utilized, resulting in the chaos which slowly progresses as this year's worth of comics unfolds.

This book starts out where most of The Avengers have been whisked away to the mysterious Battleworld by The Beyonder to fight the original Secret Wars. All 12 issues of that series take place in between 242 and 243. Like every title Marvel published in 1984, the heroes return with many changes apparent. The reasons why are not revealed until the end of that mini-series, so every title had little bits and pieces revealed alongside the main series. While most of The Avengers are gone The Vision assumes role of chairman and cobbles together an ad hoc team of Avengers.

ISAAC is steering The Vision through all of this, advising him to form a second Avengers team to better respond to emergencies, meeting with the President Reagan with the intent of giving The Avengers a cabinet position, and directing him in the construction of a mysterious machine. The Vision decided that he has the knowledge to run the world better than anyone and eliminate all of the world's problems. In the process he alienates his wife, The Scarlet Witch, and almost causes nuclear war.

Backing up a bit, it is fascinating to watch The Vision become slowly unraveled under the pressures of leadership and trying to solve all of the world's problems. The Avengers have many battles while all of this is unfolding, fighting The Dire Wraiths from ROM and an adventure with The Eternals which resulted in a battle with Maelstrom.

This brings us to #249, one of two issues in this book which I bought at the time of release. It was a scorching hot August day in 1984 when my mom sent me to 7-11 to buy her a pack of cigarettes and told me I could buy myself a comic book. This was back in the days when an 11 year old kid could go to the store and say that the cigarettes were for were for your mom and they would sell them to you. Cripes. #249 was the comic that I picked because it had The Avengers and the Fantastic Four in it. Wow!

The contrast of a freak blizzard in the comics and a super hot August afternoon stuck with me through the years. I wasn't reading this title or Thor at the time, but Stern's writing was clear enough that I picked up enough to be blown away. There are a million things going on in this issue, and I read it probably a dozen times that first week. This issue continued in Thor #350, a comic which I still have never read! I know that there is no good reason. It's the Walt Simonson run, which I have read part of, but I am not interested in the inferior recoloring currently available in collected editions and will wait for the material to be properly remastered when the Marvel Masterworks line gets there. Maybe I'll just go and snag a back issue for cheap.

The other issue which I picked up off the spinner rack at 7-11 at the time of release was #252 back in November of 1984. It was one of those days where I had scraped together 60 cents and was spinning the rack around looking for something to read. The cover blurb Who is strong enough to smash Hercules? Hint: There's two of them! reeled me in. Until recently I felt that cover blurbs had lost their zing until my 11 year old son showed me a newer comic he has and read the blurb like it was the coolest thing ever. While the blurb seemed silly to me, I got it. It was important to him, just like this one was to me. There's no way that whatever comic he was referring to is anywhere near as badass as The Avengers battling the Blood Brothers though!

The book ends with the two-part Absolute Vision climax. It all works. Roger Stern strung the threads throughout a year long story without it being dull for a minute. Less capable writers have tried aping this type of thing and milking it for longer, fumbling the ball at the last minute.

The only drawback to this run is Al Milgrom's workmanlike artwork. I enjoyed his art immensely as a kid, but as an adult I have to adjust to it. He is good when paired with a heavy handed inker like Joe Sinnott, but pair him with an inferior inker and the results are pedestrian. Once you dig into the book and the spirit of the era it becomes less jarring. The Annual had an interesting art pair: Steve Ditko with inking by John Byrne. Ditko was past his prime here but was still doing decent work. Byrne added polish where necessary and infused his strengths here and there.

There is no reason to not own this material, folks. Stern is on the Mount Rushmore of great Avengers writers, alongside Roy Thomas, Kurt Busiek, and Steve Englehart. “My” era on this title as a regular reader began in earnest with #258, which will be reviewed when I reread it with adult eyes in The Legacy Of Thanos trade paperback, which I will move into queue shortly.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- I am a sucker for trades that clock in over 400 pages and use this paper stock. I will buy almost anything old which is collected in this format.

Linework and Color restoration: Everything looks good except for the most part. Linework and color palette are faithful to the original comics. Books like this pose a question. As good as this looks, will the inevitable Marvel Masterworks really look any better?

Paper stock: Matte coated stock of sufficient thickness and weight. This is the same stock found in the softcover Marvel Masterworks and Epic line books and is my favorite paper stock used in collected editions today.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminatied cardstock cover.