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A review by uosdwisrdewoh
Avengers: Endless Wartime by Mike McKone, Warren Ellis, Clark Gregg
3.0
A blockbuster that never really busts any blocks.
Ellis burst onto the scene at Marvel almost 20 years ago with his bold, iconoclastic work on Hellstorm and Doom 2099, but his mainstream superhero work has always been less exciting and more straightforward. Here, he uses the extended page count and long form to take a slightly leisurely approach to a tale of the Avengers versus inhuman war machines. Where a typical comic series wouldn't allow him ten pages at the top to slowly introduce his cast (because that would be half an issue gone right there) here he revels on that space, taking time to play his cast against one another. It's a nice contrast to Jonathan Hickman's very plot driven storyline on the main Avengers title, but Ellis's character work still feels a bit glib, too on the nose from the movie, with the banter not really serving any purpose.
On the other hand, Ellis writes up the kind of widescreen action that he did with the Authority, but unfortunately, Mike McKone's art never rises above workmanlike. Big moments that intend to wow just read like yet another beat in the story, and some storytelling in the huge explosive moments is a bit hard to follow. It all combines to make a book that feels ambitious, but comes off as a bit by the numbers.
Ellis burst onto the scene at Marvel almost 20 years ago with his bold, iconoclastic work on Hellstorm and Doom 2099, but his mainstream superhero work has always been less exciting and more straightforward. Here, he uses the extended page count and long form to take a slightly leisurely approach to a tale of the Avengers versus inhuman war machines. Where a typical comic series wouldn't allow him ten pages at the top to slowly introduce his cast (because that would be half an issue gone right there) here he revels on that space, taking time to play his cast against one another. It's a nice contrast to Jonathan Hickman's very plot driven storyline on the main Avengers title, but Ellis's character work still feels a bit glib, too on the nose from the movie, with the banter not really serving any purpose.
On the other hand, Ellis writes up the kind of widescreen action that he did with the Authority, but unfortunately, Mike McKone's art never rises above workmanlike. Big moments that intend to wow just read like yet another beat in the story, and some storytelling in the huge explosive moments is a bit hard to follow. It all combines to make a book that feels ambitious, but comes off as a bit by the numbers.