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    Review

    Great Lakes Avengers #1 Review

    Matthew PetersonBy Matthew PetersonOctober 16, 20162 Comments4 Mins Read

    They’re not the greatest heroes the world has ever known, but they may be the heroes we deserve.

    Okay, the heroes I deserve.  Your Major Spoilers review of Great Lakes Avengers #1 awaits!

    greatlakesavengers1GREAT LAKES AVENGERS #1
    Writer: Zac Gorman
    Artist: Will Robson
    Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
    Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
    Editor: Tom Brevoort
    Publisher: Marvel Comics
    Cover Price: $3.99

    Previously in Great Lakes Avengers: 1989 was a weird year for comic books.  When John Byrne took over the reigns of ‘West Coast Avengers’, the first thing he did was bounce founder and team leader Hawkeye out (by government fiat), replacing him with the U.S. Agent.  For his part, Hawkeye didn’t go quietly into that good night, instead hooking up with a group of young, inexperienced heroes and working to forge them into a fighting force equal to the Avengers.

    It…  didn’t quite take.

    THE WORM TURNS, THANKS TO COPYRIGHT LAW

    This issue opens with Connie Ferrari, legal counsel for The Avengers, receiving some bad news: Thanks to a snafu on the part of Tony Stark, the team temporarily lost their ownership of the trademark for the team’s name.  As such, the mark was awarded to the only other person who ever TRIED to copyright it, Dr. Val Ventura, Flatman of the Great Lakes Avengers.  Cut to Val’s apartment in Milwaukee, where the former hero has fallen upon lean times: His team has fallen apart, the majority of them are dead (although two of them have come back from that, it should be noted) and he doesn’t have the resources to be a hero any longer.

    Or at least, he used to, before Connie negotiated the rights back, giving him a payout and the ability to once again call his team Avengers!  He manages to round up Big Bertha and Doorman, but Squirrel Girl is busy with the upper-tier Avengers, while Mr. Immortal isn’t answering his texts.  Of course, there are other forces at play that may bring new heroes into the GLA fold…

    CLEVER DIALOGUE THROUGHOUT

    I’ll tell you, I’ve long been a proponent of comedic superheroes are a regular thing, so I was stoked to see the GLA returning.  Thanks to Deadpool (and likely the smaller talent pool from not wanting to use the X-Men, who comprise 40% of their intellectual property), editorial has been taking chances on the more peculiar denizens of the 616.  This issue brings the funny, with clever dialogue throughout (even in the mouths of villains like Shriek), some really ingenious plotting moments and a nice use of the peculiarities of the characters.  Big Bertha seems to no longer shift size, which I hope is permanent, and Flatman is genre-savvy enough to know that he’s seen as Reed Richards generic equivalent, giving me hope that this creative team is self-aware enough to make the characters work.  I really like Will Robson’s art in these pages, and respect the decision not to jettison the most problematic aspects of the characters’ 1989 designs immediately.  His take on Bertha is particularly nice, keeping the idea of an overweight superhero but not making her grotesquely hideous as well.  The biggest question raised by this issue, though, is how well new characters will fit into the group dynamic and if they’ll stick around for the long haul.

    THE BOTTOM LINE: A LIKEABLE START

    Long story short?  This issue feels like it could be the beginning of mainstreaming the GLA, assuming that enough people actually read it and the book doesn’t get prematurely cancelled based on the expectation that it’s going to be.  Great Lakes Avengers #1 takes the difficult task of making fun stories out of characters that literally nobody respects, and has fun with the premise, with attractive art throughout, earning 4 out 5 stars overall.  I recommend this book, Spoilerites, not just because it needs to be an ongoing thing, but because it’s a fun read in a sea of badass avengers of night, something we can all agree to needing more of…

    [taq_review]

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    Great Lakes Avengers marvel comics Review Will Robson Zac Gorman
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    Matthew Peterson
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    Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.

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    2 Comments

    1. joncperson on October 16, 2016 5:37 pm

      I’m going to give this a shot. But damn if that solicitation doesn’t make me really not want to. That 4G line makes me worried that the jokes of the book going forward are going to come at the expense of the people from the Great Lakes region and not the characters.

      Reply
    2. Chris on October 16, 2016 8:25 pm

      I thought this was the best book put out this week. It’s amazingly hilarious, clever and full of characters almost nobody knows but should. I’ll be pushing this hard at the store.

      Reply

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