Avengers Academy 14.1

The Ronin here,

I love this series as you might of read in my "Why aren't you reading Avengers Academy" post. So it will be harder to put my self into the mindset of a new reader, but I shall try.

Avengers Academy 14.1, like the others is marketed as a jumping on point. However this book has a harder job to do then "Secret Avengers" because unless you've been reading Avengers Academy you will recognize none of these characters on the cover. Aside from a few issues of "Avengers: The Initiative" which had Reptil in it, these are all characters new to the Avengers franchise.

The cover is nothing amazing it is just the characters running at the reader, however it does a good job showing off all of the characters. You get a good sense of what they can do from their look, and they are all very colorful and don't blend together like poor Beast did while hanging out in Steve Roger's arm pit in "Secret Avengers".


It is clear from the photo that Striker has electric based powers, Reptil can become part dinosaur. Hazmat is wearing a radiation suit, which is a clue to her power. Finesse the super gymnast is bouncing off a wall, Veil is partially ethereal and floating, and we see Mettle* his metallic skeleton form and large size tells us he will be playing the 'tough guy' in this book. Also his metal body reminds us a bit of Colossus, A mutant who has similar powers.

We get an excellent little recap page that helps to bring us up to speed further. All comic books need a recap page. Stan lee once said, "Every comic book is somebodies first." He was completely right and considering the goal of these .1 issues, it would of been insane not to have one.

After the introduction and cover, this book opens right up with the action, the students are fighting a wacky super villain, and not necessarily doing that good. This establishes several thing one, they are students, barely able to hold their own against a wacky villain who would probably not give Spider-man much trouble, it also gives us some very organic exposition.



We learn a number of things about the characters in the first action packed scenes. By three pages in not only are you up to speed, but there is enough information there to feel sympathetic towards the students. We already want them to succeed. This is good, this is what the book is supposed to do. I would wager a new reader at this point would already feel more emotionally connected to these characters then they would be at the end of Secret Avengers 12.1.



Also, it was not apparent until my second reading, but after reading AA 15, there is some HUGE foreshadowing going on here. Actually it made this second read a lot of fun when I realized that.

Over the rest of the book the students are introduced to other candidates who were not included in the Avengers Academy program for various reasons, mostly they could live a normal life, or they were cured. Each person we meet is a mirror into the soul of one or more of the students, and as they continue their odyssey we learn more about them, with the students questioning wether they can ever really make a difference by putting on a costume and fighting guys dressed like animals and the like.

The book ends with another fight, which I will not spoil but suffice it to say, like the rest of the series the fight is just another way to look into the souls of the characters. We, the reader, are left feeling that we do not know if the man they fought against is a real threat or a friend, will he menace the students further? or will they become his followers? We don't know, and neither do the students, they are left feeling somewhat hollow by the whole experience, and the reader is left wanting to know what will happen next.

Now, I did buy Avenger's Academy #15, but I was already a fan of this series. However I honestly believe this was a great introduction into the characters and the series, the only real question the reader is left with is "what will happen next?" and that is exactly how these should play out.

If AA #14.1 is your first book in the series then have no fear (look an accidental joke) because despite being intwined with Fear itself #15 is an excellent book.

To summarize this is an excellent starting point to the series, completely worth the 2.99 to try it out.



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