Avengers: Standoff Hardcover – July 12, 2016

I only follow a couple of Marvel series, but usually buy all the event compilations. So, I had no expectations for this even” when I ordered it. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much!Winter Soldier took over as “The Man on the Wall” from Nick Fury – watching and protecting Earth from catastrophic events. He receives an alert that one is occurring, on Earth, and ends up at a SHIELD facility trying to discover what will set it off. He ends up fighting his way through SHIELD at three different facilities. Elsewhere, I young man with amnesia is taken to the small community of Pleasant Hill. Where he repeatedly tries to escape from the Stepford-like town. Everyone here is happy. Too happy.Maria Hill has been using something known as Kobik, derived from Cosmic Cube fragments, to brainwipe supervillains and imprison them in Pleasant Hill. When several of them wake up, they launch an assault that brings multiple teams of Avengers (with several tongue in cheek jokes about how many there are), three erstwhile Captain Americas, and SHIELD into a showdown over control of Kobik.Since I don’t read most of the series which contribute here, I was unaware of the status quo when I started this. I didn’t know how Steve ended up old; or how the various superhero team incarnations came about. But, it didn’t matter. The story was self-contained enough that anyone could dive right in. I think the whole purpose of this event was to restore Steve Rogers to his youthful, powerful self, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fun ride. The concept of the prison was really cool, albeit completely unethical. It fit right in with where SHIELD has been heading for years. The reveal of Kobik’s true nature was also clever. And, I absolutely loved the appearance of the characters from the Agents of SHIELD television show! Melinda May, Daisy Johnson, Gemma Simmons, etc. are also involved in the story. Though it doesn’t have far reaching consequences (except perhaps the renewed Steve Rogers), Standoff was a fun read.

Assault in Pleasant Hill Alpha and Omega, Captain America: Sam Wilson #7 and Illuminate #6 are the only chapters that to me where really interesting. The rest of collected issues have not enough relevance to the story and only add thickness but not interest to the plot.Among the things I didn't liked is the frustration of Nick Spencer as a good writer limited by himself. You know it is a Nick Spencer comic when different characters as Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Baron Zemo, Red Skrull or Bucky use always the expression "don't see eye to eye" breaking the illusion of the characters as autonomous beings as you know the one speaking is actually Spencer. Another nuissance, is that he has a common pattern among his stories: heroes versus villains with secondary characters adding a comical relief; the repetition makes it feel as a standard recipe to write a plot. And lastly but far more grave, one I hope he is not doing anymore, is about the problematic political points of views of the writer: I grew with Marvel comics where heroes would inspire you to be polite and tolerant. The problem is that Spencer is not. He take advantage of his position as a writer of a global product to make bullying of his perceived opponents. Specially at the end of this volume he qualifies as white supremacist and nazis (because Hydra is a nazi organization) to anybody in real life that didn't vote for his presidential candidate. As a non white reader I hope Mr. Spencer knows by now that seggregate persons for the colors of the skin (whites = evil) is not correct; even more it cannot have sympathy from people with other ethnicities as myself as that means to fall in racism. Is natural if we don't agree in political postures; in my opinion politics, sports and religion are personal things in which we musn't tell others that they are wrong. We cannot put ideologies over human beings.It is a pity because it could had been a good comic. The plot although reminiscent of House of M, changing the reality and distracting the characters by giving them a happy life, it is not a copy. The idea of Kobik is tender as it is sentient but at the same time innocent, and some dialogues are actually quite interesting. Sadly it doesn't reach its potential and adding a brick of sideplots that repeat again and again the same scenes gets tiring. Outside of the core plot the addition of agent Coulson from the cinema to the comics is a bit unfortunate as he is character so out of place in the S.H.I.E.L.D.S. in comics. Also the development of the character of Rick Jones in the end makes mot all what he endured in the sideplots. You just don't need the rest of the story to understand the plot except if you purchase many hardcovers in order to realize your project of a brick house.

Just based off the main story of this event, consisting of the one shots and captain America issues, I'd give this story three stars, maybe three and a half. It isn't anything special, Spencer really doesn't seem to have anything to say beyond the boiler plate heroic speeches and funny bits that kind of undercut the tension of the story.The main attraction of this collection are the tie ins, as each of the avengers teams, along with the two shield based teams have side storylines baked off the pleasant hill event. I would say that the new avengers story was the best, but it really didn't have a lot to do with pleasant hill itself. It did give us the totally awesome American kaiju, a giant Godzilla monster with the American flag tattooed on its chest. The agents of shield and howling commandos issues were kind of bad, agents in particular was a whole lot of nothing. All new all different and uncanny avengers were fine, didn't really add anything but had some decent moments between the teams. This is not the best event, and frankly the main story is really rather poorly handled. It's main strength is the tie ins, and it made me want to go back and pick up new avengers. It's also good to read if you really want to know how Steve Rogers got young again, as that is really the only thing of note from the main story.

Damn near perfect condition still in plastic for a fraction of the price I should have paid

Finished reading this after "Secret Empire" so it was kinda neat to see how they connected in reverse order. I liked this story, although it seemed to drag on at some points. The art is good and the dialogue is believable. Not the greatest or most memorable story ever but well worth the read. I bought a used copy for half the price and it arrived very quickly and in outstanding condition. I'm glad I added this to my collection.

Après Secret Wars, la barre est très haute. Il y a des bout intéressants et c'est bien pour suivre un résumé de la continuité de Marvel des 6 derniers mois. Mais dans l'ensemble, c'est une histoire très moyenne avec ce que l'on nous a habitué dans les dernières années. Bien entendu, le livre est arrivé très rapidement et en parfait état.

Very interesting storyline and crossover.The overall story keeps the reader in good tension and there are some interesting twists.

Standoff è stato l'evento crossover della primavera del 2016 della Marvel, e questo volume lo raccoglie tutto.Che dire? Nick Spencer al volante fa un grandissimo lavoro, riuscendo ad unire humor (a volte anche dark) a parti più "solenni" e che ci fanno riflettere. Il numero di eroi coinvolti è molto alto (non ai livelli di eventi come Secret Wars, ad esempio, ma notevole), e fa piacere leggere come sono caratterizzati e come interagiscono fra di loro. Punto di interesse per me primo su tutti, è vedere riuniti i "3 Cap" di recente memoria - Steve, Bucky, e Sam - che ritrovano (anche se per poco) il loro affiatamento. Il ritorno di Steve non ha sorpreso nessuno, ma ha sicuramente fatto piacere a molti. Molto, molto carino il personaggio di Kobik (anche se il design non è consistente, e non sembra mai, MAI avere l'età che ci dicono abbia).Il libro finisce "non finendo", sussurrandoci subito di eventi a venire (La seconda guerra civile, i nuovi Thunderbolts), e non si prendono la briga di spiegare in dettaglio i poteri ed il personaggio di Quasar (passato e presente), ma la conclusione non lascia a bocca asciutta. Davvero un'ottima lettura che consiglio a tutti!Tra gli artisti, che non vedo inseriti nella descrizione qui in pagina, un cenno va sicuramente a Daniel Acuna e Paul Renaud, i cui disegni sono stati uno dei motivi più grandi che mi hanno spinta all'acquisto. Ma nel volume troviamo anche Marcus To, Adam Kubert, German Peralta, Mike Enderson, Jesus Siaz, Ryan Stegman,Gerardo Sandoval e Brent Schoonover. Come non menzionare poi le due meravigliose cover di Alex Ross, che il libro raccoglie assieme a tutte le variant?Per quanto riguarda l'edizione, è ben curata, copertina morbida, carta davvero leggera ma ottima la stampa.

Nice comic focusing on what happens when utopia is revealed to not be so perfect.