SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Manga
  • All Ages
  • Young Adult
  • Interviews
  • News

February 18, 2021 by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Marvel Action: Avengers: The Living Nightmare | Review

February 18, 2021 by J. Caleb Mozzocco   Leave a Comment

Marvel Action: Avengers: The Living Nightmare coverMarvel Action: Avengers: The Living Nightmare (Book Four)
Writer: Matthew K. Manning
Artist: Marcio Fiorito
IDW Publishing; $9.99

IDW Publishing’s Marvel Action line was always a bit of an experiment. Could the publisher, which has plenty of experience with licensed comics like Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the various Hasbro toy lines and others, make widely appealing, kid-friendly comics featuring Marvel’s characters? Could they, in fact, produce comics featuring Marvel superheroes that are just as good as, or better than, those that Marvel itself was publishing? With the release of Marvel Action: Avengers: The Living Nightmare, the fourth and final collection of the Marvel Action: Avengers series, I think we can say the experiment was a success.

The Living Nightmare concludes writer Matthew K. Manning’s 12-issue run, and, like any good serially published comic, each three-issue arc functioned as its own story while also being part of a bigger, complete story. In this volume, the affiliation of mad scientists known as A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) and led by the evil giant head M.O.D.O.K. seem to have finally won their war against the Avengers, the one that started in Marvel Action: Avengers: The New Danger, when A.I.M. hijacked Iron Man and turned him into the “Advanced Iron Mechanic.”

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Here, “Captain A.I.M.erica” is one of several similarly brainwashed and re-costumed Avengers serving as enforcers and helping A.I.M. rule over the conquered New York City, some of whom have even worse-sounding A.I.M. names (Spider Mechanic, Ant Mechanic, Advanced Idea Marksman, Advanced Idea Magician, etc).

A small group of remaining heroes, including Black Widow, Black Panther, and Iron Man, manage to deprogram Captain America and help enlist him in their fight, but it quickly becomes apparent to Cap that he’s not actually in the real world, but some kind of nightmare world he needs to wake up from to truly escape…although none of his allies seem to believe him.

While fighting against A.I.M. in his dream world, Cap eventually finds the real villains, one of the Fear Eaters from the third collection (sub-titled, naturally enough, The Fear Eaters), and a classic Marvel villain.

By treating Marvel’s heroes as just one more license to translate into kids’ comics, Manning (and IDW in general) have managed to avoid many of the pitfalls of long-lived superhero universe comics, instead sticking to the most popular and most familiar versions of these characters. Marvel Action: Avengers seems to owe as much to the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” as it does to the Marvel comics universe, while plucking various antagonists and concepts from the latter.

The main weakness of the series has been that Manning hasn’t had a consistent artistic partner for all 12 issues. Each of the artists who has drawn issues and arcs for the series has been good, and this volume’s Marcio Fiorito, who also drew the third volume, is no exception, but it has meant that there’s been no single visual voice or even style defining the book. That’s always unfortunate in the comics medium.

Of course, that’s not a problem unique to Marvel Action: Avengers but to super-comics in general: These days the genre is dominated by the voices of the writers, who can produce more contributions more quickly, than the artists, who are treated increasingly interchangeably.

That aside, Marvel Action: Avengers, like IDW’s Marvel Action line in general, has succeeded in producing high-quality superhero comics featuring Marvel’s characters, comics geared towards young readers and new readers, the two groups that the comics Marvel itself creates and publishes tend to leave behind.

Filed under: Reviews

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
AvengersIDW PublishingMarcio FioritoMarvel ActionMarvel Action: Avengers: The Living NightmareMatthew K. Manning

About J. Caleb Mozzocco

J. Caleb Mozzocco is a way-too-busy freelance writer who has written about comics for online and print venues for a rather long time now. He currently contributes to Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog and ComicsAlliance, and maintains his own daily-ish blog at EveryDayIsLikeWednesday.blogspot.com. He lives in northeast Ohio, where he works as a circulation clerk at a public library by day.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

June 2022

Banana Fox and The Gummy Monster Mess | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

June 2022

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

June 2022

Review | Red and Rover: Fun's Never Over

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

June 2022

Review | Mickey Mouse: Zombie Coffee

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

June 2022

The Elusive Samurai, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Notes on June 2022

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Review of the Day: Listen to the Language of the Trees by Tera Kelley, ill. Marie Hermansson

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Banana Fox and The Gummy Monster Mess | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Heavy Medal

Mock Newbery Update – Our List of First Half Suggestions

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

by

The Classroom Bookshelf

by

The Yarn

Shark Week, Vanilla Ice Cream, and the Honda CRV: Bob Shea and Brian Won Team Up for ADURABLE

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

15 Returning Faces for Graphic Novels Shelves | Series Update

Top 10 Manga of 2020

First-Person Graphic Memoirs Bring Events to Life for Students

Best Graphic Novels 2020 | SLJ Best Books

Best Graphic Novels 2019 | SLJ Best Books

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2022


COPYRIGHT © 2022