Title: Avengers Academy Vol 1: Permanent Record HC
Publisher: Marvel
Retails: 24.99
Writer(s): Christos Gage
Artist(s): Mike McKone with Jorge Molina (Issue #5)
Colorist(s): Jeromy Cox
Letterer(s): VC’s Clayton Cowles (Issue #1) & Joe Caramagna (Enter the Heroic Age, Issues #2-6)
Cover Artist: Mike McKone
Collecting Issues: Avengers Academy #1-6 and material from Enter the Heroic Age
Breakdown: Are they the next Avengers…Or the next Masters Of Evil?
Recruited by Norman Osborn during his Dark Reign as chief of national security, sex teens – Veil, Finesse, Mettle, Hazmat, Reptil and Striker – were subjected to torturous training methods by Osborn to mold them in his image. Now, in the Heroic Age, they are enrolled by Hank Pym – and his team of instructors including Tigra, Justice, Speedball and Quicksilver – into the Avengers Academy!
Told they are the most promising of the new generation of heroes, the troubled team members soon learn the shocking truth: They are instead being monitored to see whether they will unravel and wreak havoc on the Marvel Universe!
Now, it’s up to these young adults to decide whether they will join the ranks of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes or become the villains of tomorrow. School is in session, so grab your seat for the critically acclaimed wild ride that introduces the next class of captivating and controversial Marvel legends!
Story and Concept: (7/10) Not the most original concept at this point, especially after the launch of the original Thunderbolts team. But I do like the concept of this time it being a teen team that there using and having the ties back to Osborn. That gives some credence to his Dark Reign in the Marvel U and gives with this book a long lasting imprint from that time.
Writing: (8/10) I have to be honest I have not read much from Christos Gage but I must say I hope to read more from him in the future. Just simply amazing work you can tell by the way the characters where written that a lot of love and care went into creating them. It takes me to the feeling when I first read through Young Avengers a few years back, classic comic book goodness. The character are very well thought out and fleshed out within these first six issues and engages you to want to continue read there exploits as long as Mr. Gage is at the helm. I know he has me onboard full steam ahead.
Art: (8/10) Mike McKone has been a part of many successful books in his career Teen Titans, Fantastic Four, and Exiles. I love Mckone’s line work just very smooth lines rounded corners and a perfect fit for this book. Every character stands out on there own, there all very expressive and just explode with personality. Not every artist can do that but Mike McKone has cornered the market on this it seems from is track record on Exiles and Teen Titans which both books centered around a lot of teen aged characters. Only one issue in the collection was not drawn by Mike McKone, but the one he didn’t do they found a very capable Jorge Molina which style matched up seamlessly with McKone so it was no jarring change at all with art style for that one issue for which I’m thankful. I’m a stickler for consistency within a series; especially one I’m a fan of, like I have become of this book. But it leads me to question one thing for the future of this book will Mike McKone be able to keep up with the book over the long run? I hope as a fan he can but his track record has not showed to date any long definitive run as lead artist on any ongoing series yet. Hopefully with Avengers Academy he can change that for everyone’s benefit.
Cover: (7/10) Nothing special, overly new or awe inspiring about the cover but it is a standard classic comic book cover.
Design and Overall Presentation: (8/10) This was a very nicely packaged hardcover collection. I liked how they also put in the short story from the Enter the Heroic Age comic because it tied into the main series and gave you some vital information on the background of one of the book’s main characters. Also each issue is fairly represented in this hardcover by having it’s original cover and issue number shown in the interior of the book so you can tell the separation of the chapters as you read. Marvel did a good job in packing in some nice goodies in this hardcover as well you get a cover gallery of all the alternate covers that were released for the issue of the series, character profiles and even a creator interview to boot. So with all that said I think you definitely gets your money worth, but that gets us into the one problem I had…cost. A few years ago Marvel was in the forefront of seriously transitioning over to consistently trading all their past and present properties but in there lies the problem.
After being a leader in the market of collected editions especially the Premiere Edition Hard covers they have not decided to gouge us the consumer. The original concept of the Premiere Edition Hard covers was to make the current and past material accessible to a larger audience the price point of 19.99 I thought was more than reasonable especially for six issues in a hardcover format but now they have gone up to 24.99 for the same amount of content which sucks big time. I think and hope that at some point soon Marvel reconsiders their stance on this and drop the price back down to 19.99. Also adopt a consistent presentation to the Premiere Edition line because it seems to differ in layout from title to title.
Bottom Line: (8/10) Not much bad I can say about this book other than if you’re a fan of the Thunderbolts gives this one a try. This might be the next big thing from Marvel kind of like what Young Avengers did just a few years prior.