'Earth is on course for a devastating invasion from the Dark Dimension, forcing the world’s mightiest heroes into unthinkable alliances, in this heart-stopping new novel in the Marvel: Crisis Protocol series
'Doctor Strange created the Shadow Avengers to save the world from Dormammu, but instead they’re on the verge of dissolution. When sudden weather anomalies across the world correspond with Asgardian heroes emerging from portals ripe with Dormammu’s magical signature, the Shadow Avengers realise the “Master” is making his move. Loki, Venom, and Green Goblin are behind a ceremony plotting to open a portal big enough to encompass Dormammu’s presence. From the Sanctum Sanctorum to the streets of NYC to beautiful Wakanda, the Shadow Avengers must stop Dormammu at any cost – but the Master, in all his cunning wisdom, has something greater in store that will doom the world once and for all.'
Shadow Avengers is the follow-up book to last year's Target Kree, which saw several characters coming together to stop a threat to the Earth that had already destroyed another planet. Towards the end of that book not only did we learn that a larger force was at work behind the scenes, but we saw Doctor Strange recruit Miss Marvel into a new secret team. This book picks up several months later, where this team, the Shadow Avengers, have been working to protect the Earth from the threat of Dromammu.
The story begins in typical comic book fashion, by giving the readers what at first appears to be a completely unconnected super hero fight to get them drawn into the story. Whilst trying to grab some pizza, Eddie Brock, the host to the Venom symbiote, sees an Oscorp truck being driven through NEw York by Loki, the Asgardian trickster god. Following the god, Venom discovers Loki dumping strange looking chemicals into the New York sewer system. A fight ensues between them, over the course of which Loki manages to place a magical necklace around Venom's neck. This necklace puts Venom under the control of some unseen presence; just in time to Spider-Man to arrive and think that Venom is being a villain.
Spider-Man brings up the incident during a meeting of the Shadow Avengers, but gets little interest from Doctor Strange, who wishes to focus on the threat posed by Dormammu. Leaving Spider-Man and Miss Marvel to look into it, things begin to spiral out of control when other strange incidents begin to happen across New York, and Wakanda. With magical storms raging in both locations, and strange portals appearing and dropping out alternate reality versions of Asgardian gods, Strange begins to realise that these incidents may not only be connected, but might be the latest invasion plan from Dormammu.
When I say that Shadow Avengers reads like a comic I mean it in the best possible way. A lot of novels based upon comic properties tend to read like novels, stories that take a more character focused approach, putting us in the heads of one or two main characters and telling a story that whilst great, probably wouldn't work in comic form. This story, on the other hand, feels like its leapt off the comic page. It's paced really fast, with characters always doing something important or learning something new. We jump perspective a lot, going from one member of the team to another, and there's a lot of action and fighting scattered throughout the book. This story would take very little alteration to be made into a several issue long story arc, and making that work in book form is extremely impressive.
As the name suggests, the story doesn't focus on one particular character, but a roster of heroes. There are some who get more stuff to do, such as Miss Marvel, but every single member of the Shadow Avengers does get to do something, and gets at least one moment to shine. The book also manages to give a decent amount of time over to Eddie Brock, who became a much bigger part of the book than I was expecting from the description. Carrie Harris does a good job at keeping all of these plates spinning, at giving every character something to do, and making sure that no one has been left out of things for too long.
One of the things that I liked about the book was how Harris didn't try and make a big thing of the mystery around who was doing things. There is a level of secrecy to begin with, with some of the characters referring to a mysterious master pulling the strings; but with this being a Shadow Avengers book, and them being exclusively about stopping Dormammu it was pretty obvious that's who it was going to be. And thankfully the book doesn't try to make it seem like some huge, unexpected revelation when his identity is revealed during the story. It's not treated like some big revelation that you were never going to guess; and because of that it never feels like the book is trying to trick you or treat you as stupid in any ways. That's something that I can respect.
Shadow Avengers is a good follow-up to Target Kree, a book that took the small hints and promises at the end of that book and gives readers something exciting as the pay-off. It manages to pack in the action, gives just enough mystery to keep readers guessing what might come next, and features some great depictions of some of Marvel's biggest characters. Carrie Harris clearly knows this universe and these characters, and she's the perfect author to tell this story.
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