Avengers Inc. #5: Assemble!

Avengers Inc. #5 marks the untimely conclusion for Al Ewing and Leonard Kirk’s ode to the combined mythos of Ant-Man, the Wasp, and the Avengers. While it’s sure to delight those with vested stakes in the ongoing continuity surrounding Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, it’s a disappointingly safe wrap to what started as a series distinct from everything else going on in the Marvel Universe currently.

The issue picks up with a flashback built to explain everything behind Hank’s construction of Victor and the revelation of his true identity as an Ultron. From here, we spiral into what feels like rushed emotional catharsis as an, admittedly, really intelligent use of continuity places Vic under a new light. With a semi-reunion for the West Coast Avengers and a mass of Ultron-infected supervillains coming to blows, will the legacy of Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne’s history as Avengers be decimated in the wake of battle? The answer is, as expected, no, not at all.

While Ewing is no stranger to delivering books that manage to be both fresh yet loyal to the source material he’s building off of, there was just no brake or bite to this finale as it shifts away from the fun, detective-focused tale it started as and into a big, dumb, stakeless superhero smash fest rendered with muddy and unattractive art.

He does a good job penning story beats that should hold some sort of emotional resonance within the story itself for the reader, but they all come into play with a sense of hurriedness that the book’s pacing just barely manages to disguise. Moments such as Victor’s full transition into Ultron may have had more of an emotional impact if there was an extra issue somewhere in here to help stake more emotional weight into his existence as a character that, frankly, the book failed to establish.

It’s hard to have the necessary emotional reaction to the fulfillment of his arc when he had been nothing but a plot device for the story up until, and even during, this issue. While some could argue that him being nothing more than an object for the plot is thematically relevant to the exact reason Ultron exists as he does, Ewing does nothing with that on an emotional level with him to drive that point home.

Leonard Kirk’s art continues to be smothered under flat colors and messy inks that do his underlying pencils a huge disservice. Not once did the visuals manage to elevate the obviously rushed action finale of this issue, his work lacking in excitement, flair, or emotional detail on the character’s behalf. The assembling of a hackneyed Avengers team at this end of this book was conceptually fun, and made good use of tying in somewhat standalone events from previous issues into the finale, but it lacks punch, excitement, and a sense of tangibility.