Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Aaron Kuder
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: December 22, 2021

I have not been a fan of Jason Aaron’s Avengers run because it’s all over the place, story-wise. It feels like he wants to write everything but an Avengers book, and while this is its own thing, it still feels like an extension of that. Still, I am jumping into this, hoping to enjoy and have fun with it. Let’s see if I feel as optimistic after this first issue!

Avengers Forever #1’s story picks up out of Avengers #59 / #750 from a few weeks back, and I suggest you read that before jumping into this. It’s not 100% necessary, but it will slightly decrease the “WTF is going on here” factor.

The story opens with a horrific scene of Earth-818’s past before heading to the present to see the ramifications. It’s a neat little twist, setting it up that way and allowing Aaron to have an alt-future of a multiversal Earth. However, Aaron has to do a lot more to get me invested, especially since he just put me through Heroes Reborn, which I didn’t like much at all.

Unfortunatley, there wasn’t a lot here that got me excited. I enjoy this type of story because you get to see the writer’s imagination with fewer boundaries, and the art team usually gets to go nuts. Unfortunately, Tony Stark as Ant-Man didn’t have the wow factor I was expecting, and seeing an overlong scene of him searching for ancient superhero relics didn’t help either. Aaron does enough world-building to have me a bit interested in Earth-818, but only a bit because it comes off as the Wasteland that we’ve seen so much of since Old Man Logan.

It’s not a total loss, though, because of one major factor – Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider! Robbie deserves the spotlight, and while he was an early focus of Aaron’s Avengers run, he slipped into the background after a while. I’ll eat up any chance to see Robbie in the spotlight, and that’s what I’m here to do!

By the end of the issue, we get to see Ghost Rider be a hero, find out who the Big Bad is, and get a peek at the ragtag Avengers team that Tony has put together. Aaron’s Thor fans will probably be more excited about the cliffhanger than me. It made me think this was a vanity project for Aaron more than anything else. The issue looks fantastic, but everything story-wise feels too much been there, done that for me to get that excited. Of course, that can change very quickly, starting with the next issue, but I feel disappointed by this one out of the gate.

We will be talking more in-depth about Wastelanders: Wolverine #1 on this week’s Marvel Podcast, which comes out every Thursday Night. You can search “Weird Science Marvel Comics” on any podcast player to find us!

Final Thoughts:

Avengers Forever #1 wants to be big, but the formula here feels too familiar to get me excited. Everything looks great, but overall, this was a disappointing start to a book I wanted to love but barely even liked. If things pick up in the next issue, I’ll be the first to recommend it, but that isn’t the case right now.

6.0/10