Jason Aaron and Aaron Kuder’s multiversal Avengers tale ends with a frantic planet-sized finale. Avengers Assemble: Omega #1 ends a nearly five-year long story arc by writer Jason Aaron, which followed the Avengers from prehistoric times to the far-flung future and in-between. The run expanded from the Avengers title into a spinoff series—Avengers Forever, which followed a powered up Robbie Reyes as he assembled corps of Avengers from throughout the multiverse—before eclipsing into the “Avengers Assemble” story that brought about a fittingly frantic finale over the course of a 10-issue crossover storyline.
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Avengers Assemble: Omega is an encapsulation of Jason Aaron’s best and worst superhero habits bound up in one issue. Aaron has a tendency to take big swings with his superhero stories, often with “big ideas” that feel like supersized versions of past Marvel concepts. In the “Avengers Assemble” arc alone, we see a Doom Planet, multiple Phoenix Forces, a Celestial Deathlok, and a council of Mephistos (who, of course, all die thanks to the betrayal of one Mephisto more devious than the rest).
The storyline, almost since the beginning, has had the energy of a kid playing with all the toys from the toy box and coming up with even more elaborate and over the top stories. It has produced several “This is awesome” moments, but the sheer scale of the Avengers run has often overshadowed the actual storytelling and character moments. It’s hard to make Captain America feel unique when he’s one of a hundred that appears in the arc, and the same goes for just about any character who has multiple counterparts appearing at the same time. Even Thor, who Aaron redefined in his much-acclaimed run, feels like a generic version of the character, in part because Aaron is playing with grandiose themes instead of telling a story with compelling characters.
There are a few exceptions to this—Robbie Reyes has been put through a unique gauntlet during the course of this series, as has the new Starbrand—and the issue really shines when focusing on those characters. It seems fitting that Reyes and Starbrand both get the most emotional moments in this finale. But otherwise, the comic can’t find a balance between its grandiose scale and the character moments that make superhero comics shine, and it really contributes to the mediocrity of the event as a whole and this finale.
Aaron Kuder’s artwork is serviceable but seems muddled at times by weird “camera” angles and strange page layout choices. The comic clearly wants to give Kuder a chance to draw as many superheroes doing something heroic as possible, but there are too many pages where a hero is simply shown in a heroic pose with a muddled, non-descript background and a line of dialogue talking about exactly what their heroic motif stands for or is meant to represent. Kuder isn’t helped by a muted color scheme, thick inks, and a generic background setting that prevents any of the pages from truly popping. Ultimately, the artwork neither enhances nor deters from the story, which is never a good thing when you’re wrapping up a five year run.
All in all, Aaron’s Avengers run was forgettable while it was still ongoing and this finale doesn’t do much to increase its stock. It has all the same zany energy of Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men, which sacrificed solid storytelling for goofy fun, only with more somber takes and an equally cheesy delivery. Aaron can be a fantastic storyteller, but he works best when telling a more focused story. His ensemble work has historically been found lacking and Avengers Assemble: Omega, with its biggest cast yet, might be one of his weakest finales.
Published by Marvel Comics
On April 19, 2023
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Aaron Kuder, Dexter Vines, Ivan Fiorelli, Javier Garrón, and Jim Towe
Colors by Alex Sinclair
Letters by Cory Petit
Cover by Aaron Kuder and Alex Sinclair
