Avengers Forever #15 Review

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artists: Aaron Kuder, Mark Farmer & Frank Martin

Cover Artists: Aaron Kuder & Alex Sinclair

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Reviewer: StoryBabbler

The Avengers have an army of Avengers from across the Multiverse facing against Doom Supreme and his army of Dooms, as well as the demonic lord of evil himself, Mephisto who set everything into motion. The Avengers are making their final push against these villains to save all worlds across the entire Multiverse. See how the heroes face the odds in Avengers Forever #15.

Review:

Alright, the Avengers are making their big push against the army of Dooms, Doom Supreme, and Mephisto who’s become a giant. But despite how big the stakes are and how many alternate versions of the Avengers and Doctor Doom there are, the fight doesn’t have much steam behind it. There’s some good moments, a WTF moment, and plenty of flaws to be sure. There will be SPOILERS throughout this review in order to better explain the good as well as the bad in this comic. Let’s get into the review.

So, the comic picks up where it left off in Avengers #66, with all of the gathered Multiversal Avengers shouting their battle cry of “Avengers Assemble” as they all charge against the army of Dooms. Meanwhile, giant Mephisto is trying to reach the hidden power of the God Quarry and ends up facing off against Mt. Deathlok, the Avengers Celestial Mountain HQ that’s come alive thanks to an alternate Deathlok uploading himself into its mind. But even in the midst of this chaos, things turn in Mephisto’s favor by the end.

Now, let’s start with the good. The art is fine as ever in this series. The comic has a great start with the first pic being Galactus taking out Doom the Living Planet, while there are two or three pages of the “Avengers Assemble” battle cry going on as various Avengers take on the army of Dooms. There’s also a neat little chat between Robbie Reyes and Brandy (the aged-up Starbrand girl) who motivate each other to get into the battle even if it costs them their lives and humanity. Sadly, that’s where the good things in this comic end before we delve into all the bad and WTF moments.

Now, the bad is pretty obvious. The book is cluttered with so many characters, and what’s worse is that it’s just a series of things happening with little payoff other than with Robbie and Brandy and Mephisto, mainly Mephisto. (Something strange I noticed is that all of the characters saying “Avengers Assemble” throughout the comic are characters Jason Aaron either made or really likes, and not any of the main Avengers.) Not even the battle between Loki Prime (Avenger Prime), Namor, and Doom Supreme is that cool since we kept getting their fight in bits and pieces throughout each issue, a consequence of sharing this storyline with so many characters. And it’s in this quick “battle” where we get our main WTF moment that deserves its own paragraph to understand why it is such a weird and ultimately unnecessary WTF moment. You can skip the next paragraph to continue the main review.

QUICK SPOILER POINT:

While the three are fighting, we see the Dark Phoenix from the Multiversal Masters of Evil, an alternate version of Mystique who obtained the Phoenix Force, arrive just out of the blue to attack Doom Supreme. Recap: she’s furious that Doom Supreme left her with the other Masters of Evil to die against the main Avengers teams while he gathered his army of Dooms to attack the God Quarry. Now, Doom Supreme says he didn’t abandon her and was simply waiting for her to catch up. And just as she’s threatening to bite his tongue with her mouth he taunts her to try as he removes his mask, and they straight up kiss. As in, a romantic kiss.

I’m not joking. There was no build up, and certainly no foreshadowing in any previous issues nor in their main debut story arc to suggest such a relationship between them. Heck, we don’t even see if the two are actually back on good terms or speak with each other after that, or if Doom Supreme is mind controlling her or anything. Mind you, that all happens in just one page. After that, Dark Phoenix just shows up later in the comic ready to fight Old Man Logan Phoenix and Echo Phoenix before Jason Aaron’s First Phoenix (Thor’s new retconned mother he made) shows up to blast her and that’s the extent of Dark Phoenix’s involvement in this comic. Making this reviewer wonder why Jason Aaron even brought her back if she wasn’t going to even do anything at all.

MAIN REVIEW RESUMES:

What’s more frustrating is that with all of the fighting, you’d wonder just what Doom Supreme and Mephisto are even fighting for. Well, it’s just some cosmic energy of destruction that’s somehow related to entropy the scientific force not the Marvel cosmic being called Entropy. The book doesn’t really explain what it is that well, but Mephisto wants it to literally destroy everything, no exaggeration or embellishment, that’s been Mephisto’s goal the whole time. Which leads to the other letdown of this comic as we finally get to see Mephisto in action, against Mt. Deathlok no less, but he’s so mundane.

With all of the craziness going on, Aaron fails to capitalize on Mephisto as a fighter as all he does is punch things and that’s it. It’s not until the end where we see Mephisto get a little more dangerous as he literally get’s a drop of the destructive power that makes him grow even more and gives him a purple flaming head. And from there the stage is set for the final issue, and hopefully Aaron and company are able to make it a straightforward battle compared to the previous parts.

Final Thoughts:

Avengers Forever #15 is the penultimate issue of this Avengers Assemble storyline, and it’s underwhelming. We do get some good art from the art team, but it’s the story that’s lacking unfortunately. There is a nice talk between Robbie and Brandy (the Starbrand girl) but that’s really the extent of their presence. There’s a weird moment with Doom Supreme and Dark Phoenix that feels out of place, you’ll know it when you see it. And the action with Mephisto in his current giant state is sadly mundane compared to all the crazier action going around him. The ending sets the stage for the final part in this storyline to get crazier, and hopefully the creative team can stick the landing.