Before we begin, let me say that I am NOT a professional book reviewer. I just enjoy reading and sharing my thoughts about them. I also have no sense of what a spoiler is, so read at your own risk. I cuss like a sailor, too.

So, I've had this book for a while now because I really enjoy the MCU. I've recently caught up with the movies and decided I would finally read this and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed this book, too. The author did a good job of keeping the Avengers in character. There were a couple spots that were hard for me to read simply because, instead of writing one sentence, the author broke up a sentence into multiple sentences. I don't know if that makes sense? Basically, it felt like the two sentences should be combined into one because the stop between them made me pause and broke my immersion a bit.

One of the first things that threw me for a loop was where Hawkeye and Widow landed. When Hawkeye fought fucking dinosaurs, I lost my shit. Since when did Marvel have dinosaurs?! I had to stop and look up the Savage Land and dinosaurs in Marvel because I was losing my mind lmao

{"What did he want?" asked Fury.
"Ultron? He wanted to rule the world."
"Everybody wants to rule the world."}

He said it! He said the thing! I don't know why but I felt so excited when I read this part haha

{"How'd you get the A.I.M guy to talk?" asked Fury.
"Arrows are pointy," replied Hawkeye.}

I felt like I was watching one of the movies, man. Their lines are brilliant and perfectly in character. This is one of my favorite lines because I actually laughed at this (which helped because I was suffering high anxiety at the time.)

{The sentries had brought star systems to their knees.
But the Hulk... was the Hulk.}

Not gonna lie, I snorted at this one. The truth of this is just so on point that it's hilarious. Also #HulkSavesTheDay.

{"You want to do this or shall I?" he asked.
"Be my guest," said Cap.
"I think it's your turn," said Stark.
"Just do it," Cap said.
"It should come from you," said Stark. "It sounds better coming from you."
"Gentlemen..." growled Fury.
Stark smiled and nodded to Cap.
"Okay," said Captain America. "Avengers... assemble."}

Fucking iconic, bro. I want to see these two in a movie fighting over who should say it. Has this happened? I hope so. I didn't really like how he added the speaking tags after each line. It feels unnecessary after the first time because we know it's them speaking. This happens a lot throughout the book to the point where I kind of stopped reading them lol Unless the character did something other than just saying it, I ignored the speech tags.

Another thing that was hard to read in this book was the placement of the sentences. Typically, when you write something like [Cap looked at her.] and then you have him speak, it would be on the same line, right? But it's not. It goes like this:

{Cap looked at her.
"We know where he went?" he asked.}

When this happens, it feels like a character break, as if the baton is being passed on to the next character but then it's still him. This happens a lot through this book and my dumbass brain had trouble keeping up with it because I expected the next character to be speaking only for it to be the previous character so I had to re-read it.

{Cap and Iron Man looked at each other.
"Your turn," said Iron Man.
"I did it last time."
Tony Stark sighed.
"Okay," he said. He turned toward the others. He turned toward the others. "Avengers?" he called. "Guess what I'm going to say next."}

Overall, this book was pretty awesome. Then again, I'm a bit biased because, like I said, I love the MCU - and yes, I know the MCU is technically just the movies and TV shows but I'm including the other media because MU doesn't sound as cool. One thing I kept trying to figure out was where this book fit into the Marvel timeline and if it did at all.

Now, I've never read the comics (aside from Deadpool) and I've only seen the movies and some of the shows which I know doesn't cover the entire universe. I'm really interested to learn the timeline of all Marvel content, including the books and comics, too. It seems like this book would be somewhere in the middle of the timeline, before Infinity War. But... it's been a while since I've seen the movies at the beginning and doesn't Pietro die in the same movie he appears in? In the book, he is alive and well and very much a part of the Avengers. This was confusing to me.

I guess that kind of comes along with the territory, though. When you have a universe that is so damn vast and you have all these people coming together to make content for the same characters, it makes sense that some of the information wouldn't line up. I wish the full timeline of Marvel was in order and made sense but I know that's not the case and is probably impossible to accomplish, especially now. One can dream though.

I definitely recommend this book if you love Marvel or even if you just love superheroes. ( )

3.5 stars All of the bad guys get the same message from an unknown source to, as it says, take over the world. The Avengers scatter all over the world in response to the threats, each confronting an enemy who is determined to take advantage of the situation, even one not of their own making. Abnett is good at keeping all threads straight, even if the story itself feels a bit scattered at first.

Decent read. ( )

****First title in Titan Books' Marvel fiction reissue program, featuring the classic Avengers story: Everybody Wants to Rule the World.**** HOW MANY VILLAINS DOES IT TAKE TO RULE THE WORLD? Hydra has a synthetic pathogen that will make the entire human race dependent on them for the cure. A.I.M.'s newly developed nanotech compound to enslave humanity is dangerously close to contaminating the world's water supplies. Ultron is poised on the edge of Singularity, Earth's technology at his metallic fingertips. Dormammu has a plan to save the world--by claiming it as his own. The High Evolutionary is rewriting the human genome in a bid to turn humankind into a eugenic slave-race. Everybody wants to rule the world--and only the isolated Avengers can stop them. THE MIGHTY AVENGERS FACE AN ARRAY OF THEIR GREATEST FOES--ALL AT ONCE!




** ( )

I have listened to a couple of the Marvel prose novels that were adapted by GraphicAudio. I highly recommend them as they are excellent full cast audio productions. Those were based on specific Marvel events (like Civil War), but this one didn’t appear to come from any specific comic storyline. I own this on audio, but decided to try reading it first.

The story throws the reader right into the action. Some “bad guys” walk into an office building to collect a special order they’ve made – and kill everyone in the conference room. The leader is none other than Baron Strucker and Cap is hot on his trail. The book then jumps to Tony Stark trying to avert a global catastrophe when Ultron rises again. The book skips among each of the Avengers dealing with separate “Alpha level” events. Global communications are down, so they can’t communicate with each other. But why are all the supervillains suddenly determined to rule the world right now?!

The first half of the book is fairly chaotic and the action is nearly non-stop at break neck speed. The POV changes every chapter. This was a bit frustrating at first, but suited the nature of the story. Around the mid-point, the Avengers finally begin getting the upper hand in their situations and can communicate again. It quickly becomes apparent that someone is orchestrating these crises.

What I loved about this book was that the author assumes the reader is familiar with the characters, either from comics or film, and dives right in. The characterizations are not limited to film or comics, and the story stands alone. The Avengers featured are the line-up from the recent Age of Ultron film, but their powers and personalities hue more to the comics and SHIELD is still active. Dr. Strange is mentioned but doesn’t appear.

One thing I did not like about the book is the price - these Marvel novels are ridiculously overpriced. The retail is $24.99, but these are very short books. The product page says 304 pages, but that is with a slightly larger font, bigger margins and a smaller format hardcover. The actual length is probably more like a long novella - I read it in one evening. I actually like the physical design, but these should retail at $17.00 like YA novels do.

Overall, I loved this book and look forward to more of these novels as a way to expand my enjoyment of the Marvel Universe, but recommend that price conscious shoppers wait for mass market or buy it used. Highly recommended. ( )