Avengers #8 Review/SPOILERS

[Prof. Warren]

Now that the fighting's done (for now) and the world is saved again (for now), it's time for the Avengers to have some downtime and plan their future as a team.

It's Avengers #8 from Aaron and artist David Marquez and it's a damn good issue.

With its first six issues devoted to much sound, fury and bombast and issue #7 being a flashback to the prehistoric Ghost Rider, this is the first time we've gotten to have a more relaxed look at the new Avengers team.

In this issue, we see the aftermath of the Avenger's battle with the Dark Celestials.

Loki is in custody and warns the Avengers they're being watched, as he says, "from beyond the raw void between dimensions. Eyes of night and nuclear decay and all the colors of rage."

Before he can say much more, the remaining Celestials spirit Loki away to (one assumes) deliver their own brand of justice to him. Despite Thor's wish to have Loki answer for his crimes on Earth, there's not much they can do.

Before the Celestials depart altogether, they leave the Avengers a gift. They exhume the body of the original deceased Celestial, the Progentior who helped spawn life on Earth, and mount the body in the North Pole to serve as a beacon of hope and wonder and a warning to any who might try to stomp out life on Earth.

With the help of Wakanda's finest architects and Alpha Flight technicians, the Avengers are outfitting the interior of the Progentior to be their new HQ.

Jennifer, de-Hulked, undergoes an examination by Dr. Strange. He determines that her body is storing more gamma radiation than ever before - her gamma counts skyrocketed after her encounter with the Celestials. This explains why her Hulk out during the battle with the Celestials led to a bigger physique, increased power levels and gave her less access to her full mental faculties.

Jen says that her own intelligent personality was in control (she thinks) but that she couldn't control her speech. Strange recommends further testing before returning to the field but Jen declines. She says these new powers are a blessing, not a curse. She knows she needed to be at her strongest during the battle with the final host and she knows the Avengers are going to need that strength again (beyond what even Bruce can generate) in the future.

Despite his doubts, Strange lets it go.

Striding through the halls of their new HQ, Carol and Tony have a talk. Despite their past troubles, Tony surprises Carol by asking her to stick around. Of course, being Tony he can't help but come on to Carol by the end of their conversation and subsequently get his butt handed to him.

Most importantly in this issue, T'Challa is voted in as the new Avengers Chairperson. T'Challa warns Steve, Thor and Tony that Washington DC might not take kindly to the leader of Wakanda being in charge of the Avengers but Steve, Thor and Tony are fine with whatever waves it makes. T'Challa is the guy they want.

And so, with an "Avengers Assemble", T'Challa calls his first meeting as chairperson. He determines that seven active members is enough, with an eighth slot open for rotating or reserve members. Before he can start to talk about potential trouble spots in the world, a warning of an international incident in the Southern Ocean comes in.

The team races to discover what's going on while we see that Namor has boarded a Roxxon ship whose crew has slaughtered several Atlanteans. He's brought a creature from the deep to help him kick some ass and he's out for blood.

TO BE CONTINUED!

This was a really fun issue, that sees the team really gelling as a unit and Aaron laying down tracks for the future. It's evident that his plans for The Avengers are as grand and far-reaching as what's he's done in Thor and he's just getting started.

I love the attention he's given Robbie Reyes (complete with Robbie continuing to get his own thought balloons so we can see his nervousness about proving himself as an Avenger as well as his joy at being on the team), I love the cool as hell Avengers Mountain HQ (it's about time they had better digs than just a prosaic old mansion!), I love that T'Challa is leading the team, and I'm glad we finally get to see more of what's going on with Jen - which makes the prospects of a Jen/Thor romance much more palatable.

If the first arc wasn't your cup of tea, I'd recommend giving this issue a shot.

I enjoyed the opening arc quite a bit myself but this issue really got me more jazzed than before for where Aaron's going with this team.

[Frontier]

I love the cool as hell Avengers Mountain HQ (it's about time they had better digs than just a prosaic old mansion!), I love that T'Challa is leading the team, and I'm glad we finally get to see more of what's going on with Jen - which makes the prospects of a Jen/Thor romance much more palatable.

Hey, Avengers Mansion is classy as all heck, and wholly original compared to a Mountain HQ .

[Digifiend]

Hey, Avengers Mansion is classy as all heck, and wholly original compared to a Mountain HQ .

True. Justice League's first HQ was a mountain!

As for why they don't just use Avengers Mansion... are a few of the No Surrender Avengers still using it, perhaps?

[Vic Vega]

Hey, Avengers Mansion is classy as all heck, and wholly original compared to a Mountain HQ .

Funny thing is the Avengers have already had a moutainside cave HQ, albeit an emergency one.

It first showed up in Avengers #16 (Vol. 1), when the public had briefly turned against the Avengers (because of a crime spree done by impostor, irrc) and they needed a hide out.

Last time I remember seeing it used or even mentioned was in Young Avengers (Iron Lad was using it as his base, I think).

[JKtheMac]

Funny thing is the Avengers have already had a moutainside cave HQ, albeit an emergency one.

It first showed up in Avengers #16 (Vol. 1), when the public had briefly turned against the Avengers (because of a crime spree done by impostor, irrc) and they needed a hide out.

Last time I remember seeing it used or even mentioned was in Young Avengers (Iron Lad was using it as his base, I think).

I suspect Aaron wants to lean into the idea of the Avengers as deities so this is supposed to be a whacky Mount Olympus. A cave system inside a mountain is not quite the same as a mountainous, iced up, huge Celestial corpse at the top of the world. Like I said before this feels quite cartoon like. I think that is deliberate.

[Vic Vega]

I suspect Aaron wants to lean into the idea of the Avengers as deities so this is supposed to be a whacky Mount Olympus. A cave system inside a mountain is not quite the same as a mountainous, iced up, huge Celestial corpse at the top of the world. Like I said before this feels quite cartoon like. I think that is deliberate.

Yeah, I got that.

That kind of thing works better for the Justice League, IMO (I'm not really feeling Aaron's run in general).

[JKtheMac]

Yeah, I got that.

That kind of thing works better for the Justice League, IMO (I'm not really feeling Aaron's run in general).

But it is not and never was exclusive to the Justice league, and why should those of us that don't really like Justice League books not get to see this theme explored?

[Prof. Warren]

I suspect Aaron wants to lean into the idea of the Avengers as deities so this is supposed to be a whacky Mount Olympus. A cave system inside a mountain is not quite the same as a mountainous, iced up, huge Celestial corpse at the top of the world. Like I said before this feels quite cartoon like. I think that is deliberate.

I don't know about "deities", per se, but I definitely feel that Aaron is leaning into a grander vision for the Avengers.

"Cartoon like" would be one way to describe it but I think it's simply Aaron embracing the larger than life, comic book-y possibilities of a team that's labeled as "Earth's Mightiest Heroes."

Residing in a mansion on Fifth Avenue is all well and good but living in a dead Celestial at the top of the world just feels...bigger.

[JKtheMac]

I don't know about "deities", per se, but I definitely feel that Aaron is leaning into a grander vision for the Avengers.

I have yet to hear him suggest or confirm it, but his treatment of 'Legacy' over time feels inspired by Wicdiv to me. But as I see Wicdiv as a superhero book with deity themed heroes then I am not implying Captain America is a god as such, more 'godlike'.

Aaron is clearly providing a mythological underpinning of his heroes, but with a more secular style and with different interpretations available. So for example Loki's insistence that the superheroes are a cosmic accident is questioned and left open, and may just be a consequence of the way Loki sees things, making the question subjective.

I think Issue #5 has been widely misinterpreted as suggesting humanity is a result of the First Celestial, when I believe Aaron was suggesting superheroes were the result. That at the dawn of life on Earth evolution was "altered" to use the word Loki did. He is not suggesting life on the MU was kicked off by this event, but that it is one of the differences between our own world and the MU. The difference that sees it inhabited by Superheroes.

And the apparent conflict between Superheroes and Supervillains is a continual playing out of a heavenly war. Repeated over and over. An epic that spans the aeons like Paradise Lost.

[Captain M]

Jason Aaron has been promoting the false idea that Avengers big 4 is cap,tony,thor and panther since before this book started in his interviews. Not surprised he made T'Challa the leader. I don't think it fits him to be the avengers chairperson, nor I think this would have happened without his huge movie success. So I don't like it, the way it was done felt annoying to me, knowing the last time Cap, Thor and Tony appointed a leader it was Janet. But of course Jason Aaron doesn't know she exists.

I've said this before but I don't like that this is Avengers. Majority of the roster is so overexposed that I can't help but feel ver uninterested by this team

[Prof. Warren]

Hey, Avengers Mansion is classy as all heck, and wholly original compared to a Mountain HQ .

Hey, props to the mansion but it's I think it's time the Avengers got something a little bit cooler! Class is fine and all but a little style doesn't hurt.

The best JLA HQ, for my money, has been the Watchtower and I'm digging seeing the Avengers getting something comparably bad ass of their own.

True. Justice League's first HQ was a mountain!

Yes, but was it inside an Alpha Celestial? I don't think so!

Jason Aaron has been promoting the false idea that Avengers big 4 is cap,tony,thor and panther since before this book started in his interviews. Not surprised he made T'Challa the leader. I don't think it fits him to be the avengers chairperson, nor I think this would have happened without his huge movie success. So I don't like it, the way it was done felt annoying to me, knowing the last time Cap, Thor and Tony appointed a leader it was Janet. But of course Jason Aaron doesn't know she exists.

I'm sure Aaron knows Janet exists, even if it might gall her fans that she isn't represented on this team (at least not yet).

As for T'Challa leading the team, I think it totally fits him. Would it have happened without the movie's success? Who knows? Maybe, maybe not.

Either way, I'm down for him having a tenure as chairperson.

I've said this before but I don't like that this is Avengers. Majority of the roster is so overexposed that I can't help but feel ver uninterested by this team

I don't know. Robbie, Carol and Jen don't have ongoings at the moment so I'm happy to see him getting a regular spotlight here (along with whatever rotating members pop in).

As for T'Challa, Thor, Steve and Tony, they might have solo books, sure, but what they do as individual is different than having them as part of a team.

[Witchfan]

I support the idea of seven members with a rotating eighth member.

[Captain M]

I don't know. Robbie, Carol and Jen don't have ongoings at the moment so I'm happy to see him getting a regular spotlight here (along with whatever rotating members pop in).

As for T'Challa, Thor, Steve and Tony, they might have solo books, sure, but what they do as individual is different than having them as part of a team.

Robbie and Jen were the ones I was thinking of. Carol has a mini and I mean we all know she'll get a solo very soon after that's done. That's 2/8

And I'm not saying a combination of the other 6 shouldn't be in Avengers, but I wish 2 or 3 of them were cut. It's just such a boring team for me. And I realize some love it but imo there should be a middle ground. Too many A-Lists in 1 team? Like I keep saying, if that's to happen there should be a secondary team.

What is Strange doing in the team still? I thought his position was going to rotate? He'll be in Defenders too, no?

[MindofShadow]

All hail the king baby!

[Rumble]

T'Challa is in charge?

Well deserved and long overdue! Fits his character and stature