Customer Reviews

Avengers: Celestial Madonna

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This tpb collects Avengers Volume 1 issues 129-135 as well as Giant Sized Avengers issues 2-4. It is filled with origins tales (The Kree, The Cotati, Moondragon, Mantis, The Vision, The Original Human Torch, etc.), and a few good brawls. As another reviewer noted, there are many plot threads going on throughout, but they all converge at the end to form a cohesive whole. There are better Avengers tales out there, but this trade reeks of Marvel History and is necessary for any true Avengers fan. 5...

An excellent and nostalgic trip though Avengers past, with stories by Eaglehart and beatiful artwork by Sal Buscema. While centering around the enigmatic character of Mantis, there are numerous pearls in this collection such as the origin of the Vision (and his relationship to a certain fiery android from the Golden Age), as well as origin tales of Moondragon and Mantis. The collection also includes the death of a certain sword-wielding Avenger. The story lines wander and converge, yet in the end all come together in an issue including the weddings of not one, but two Avenger's couples. Numerous villians appear, the central being Kang which of course means lots of cosmic time travelling tales. All in all, an excellent and enjoyable collection for Avengers' fans..

I love the character Mantis (featured on the cover). She was different from the average girlfriend-motif superhero in comics at the time. She could beat up the most powerful Avenger, and still flirt with the whole team. She was confusing and conflicted, and still came through when she was needed. I thought I was going to love this collection.

It was ok.

The stories in this collection are difficult to come by (I had been trying for years). It's a great price to be able to read these stories. But, like other collections of older works, comics from the 40s-70s were meant as disposable monthlies, so the writing tends to be overly expository and a bit contrived. The art is cool though.

Pick it up if you're interested in older Avengers stories. This particular collection holds up better and is more consistent than some of the other Marvel trades of 'classic' works. If you're looking for stories where Mantis gets more action, you'll have to, like me, try to find earlier appearances of the character (unless Marvel decides to put them together).

Looking back, what was so important about being the Celestial Madonna?

One would think that an event of such magnitude would still have reprecussions in the Marvel Universe today. It has not. Mantis' spawn has yet to make a significant contribution nor has the offspring done anything to be a factor in any storyline since. I say this as the Death of Captain Marvel is still brought up, as Adam Warlock has fought Thanos, and as Steve Rogers has since passed this mortal coil.

The Celestial Madonna has not made an appearance since the Silver Surfer had some involvement with her in the early 90's.

There are only two somewhat significant events that happen within this storyline. 1)The ultimate fate of the Swordsman and 2)the revealed truth about Rama Tut and his repeating fate.

Other than that this is filled with the superhero bickering that was the trademark of Marvel in the mid 70's along with a convoluted storyline that didn't seem to go anywhere.

An excellent and nostalgic trip though Avengers past, with stories by Eaglehart and beatiful artwork by Sal Buscema. While centering around the enigmatic character of Mantis, there are numerous pearls in this collection such as the origin of the Vision (and his relationship to a certain fiery android from the Golden Age), as well as origin tales of Moondragon and Mantis. The collection also includes the death of a certain sword-wielding Avenger. The story lines wander and converge, yet in the end all come together in an issue including the weddings of not one, but two Avenger's couples. Numerous villians appear, the central being Kang which of course means lots of cosmic time travelling tales. All in all, an excellent and enjoyable collection for Avengers' fans..

I'll let others argue over the quality and merits of the story. For myself, the big downfall was the near-constant misuse of colors.

Just a brief rundown: Scarlet Witch spends about half the book with the pink sleeves and leggings of her costume colored with a fleshtone. In some panels Vision's face is also fleshtone instead of its normal crimson. The blue-skinned Kree (identified as such in the text!) are consistently colored as Caucasians. The Cotati Swordsman, identified as green in the text, is blue half the time. Other little errors abound in nearly every panel, hitting every character multiple times.

Considering that we're dealing with comics that have been "restored" with new colors, and that there are reprint editors and such, I find this inexcusable. I was pulled out of the story several times due to characters suddenly having an entirely different palette applied to them from one panel to the next. It's frankly atrocious work, and obvious that the colorist had no guidance or familiarity with the source material. I have no doubts whatsoever that the comics would have been better off with their older, faded coloring, or in the B&W of the Essentials (this entire trade can be found in Avengers vol. 5 or 6). If you're going to re-color the comics, take the time, make the effort, and do it RIGHT!

"She CANNOT marry a TREE! And even if she could, she could never become a Madonna because they could not have a child!"

Only in the bronze age of comics could you read a line like that delivered straight and with complete sincerity. And it's that unabashed, kooky charm that helps make the sometimes crude, unorganized and incomplete story "AVENGERS: Celestial Madonna" a little more palatable.

"Avengers: Celestial Madonna" includes Avengers issues 129-135 and Giant Sized Avengers 2,3 and 4. There are some problems with this trade. Firstly, it's less of a "Mantis" story and more of a "Kang" story in that several key Mantis appearances needed to help flesh out and give depth to the Celestial Madonna saga are not included such as Avengers #112 (first appearance of Mantis) and Avengers 120-123 (first origin of Mantis, Libra and the "Zodiac War" storyline) as well as other key Mantis plot points such as her budding relationship with The Swordsman that developed in the issues leading up to "Celestial Madonna". Since those early Mantis appearances are even harder to come by than the ones collected in this trade, this is extremely disappointing to say the least. Without those stories, the only real relevant "Mantis" story in this collection is the final entry...Giant Size Avengers #4.

However, there is also much to enjoy here. Some fine artwork by Sal Buscema, Dave Cockrum and George Tuska for example. And the Steve Englehart/Roy Thomas scripted story packs in everything but the kitchen sink. We get one of the most classic battles between Kang and the Avengers in which the Avengers discover the true nature of Kang, Pharaoh Rama-Tut and Immortus as well as Kangs plot to capture the Celestial Madonna. We also get a rather intriguing battle between The Avengers and Kangs "Legion of the Un-Living" a team of previously dead heroes and villains that includes Frankenstein, The original Human Torch, Baron Zemo and Wonderman. In Avengers 130 the Avengers travel to Viet Nam and end up battling Crimson Dynamo, Radioactive Man and Titanium Man. Over the course of the story The Avengers are witness to the origin of the Human Torch and The Vision (elements of this story were retconned in the classic and epic Busiek story Avengers Forever). We also get the tail end of a subplot involving Scarlet Witch, Agatha Harkness, Dormammu and his sister Umar.

And of course in the final issue of this collection, Giant Size Avengers #4 (the classic issue with the Vision-Scarlet Witch/Mantis-Swordsman double wedding) we finally discover the origin and identity of The Celestial Madonna which anyone who's even remotely familiar with Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy (or anyone who looks at the cover to this trade) already knows. Unfortunately, GS Avengers 4 is the weakest entry of the collection from a visual standpoint. Don Heck was one of Marvel Comics "workhorses" but his art tended to be a bit crude at times.

Contemporary fans might find this collection of Avengers tales rather quaint compared to later works by Busiek and Perez and that's a valid criticism. While I can't recommend putting this at the top of anyone's buy list, I do recommend it to those Avengers completists out there as well as those looking to read some classic Avengers history or for those looking for a little Bronze Age nostalgia.

I mean, its 180 pages with nothing but word bubbles and pictures! O.k. well, since I think the message of Mantis marrying one of the cotati is sort of hard to grasp, I can spell it out. She was destined to marry this cotati, and so the Swordsman is ressurrected but with this cotati's consciousness to facilitate the mechanics of making the prophecy of the Celestial Madonna work.

As for Kang, stories that feature him as the main villian are the most often purchased, most well-reviewed, most memorable Avengers stories. Peruse Amazon for an hour and you'll see this. Convoluted? If you're anyhting of a Marvel historian, you'll see that this story actually ties up a lot of questions posed in other stories; "The Last Avengers Story," and "Avengers Forever" come to mind.

"Did he just tell her to marry a tree?" If you wanted, you could see all comics as this. Captain america has cloth wings on his face. Batman dresses in horns and tights and swings around with minors. Its not the specifics that give comics their appeal, its the story being told, often through metaphoric device.

As for all of those extra characters showing up in the story, that's what Marvel does. They make up characters and then use them. In stories. Like this one.

Ever since I was a kid in the late '70's, I've heard comic fans speak in hushed, reverential whispers about the classic "Celestial Madonna" storyline in The Avengers. So of course, I couldn't buy this book fast enough. In the agonizingly long three days it took me to read the book, I learned a very valuable lesson that I will carry with me for the rest of my life: You really CAN'T go home again. Or, more precisely, just because something was good almost thirty years ago, that doesn't mean it'll stand the test of time.....

Celestial Madonna is awful. Just awful. I can't say enough bad things about it. The book is tremendously overwritten, in typical '70's Marvel style, by Steve Englehart & Roy Thomas, with art by some true Marvel greats, that is unfortunately marred by Marvel's tendency of the time to match pencillers with inkers that didn't compliment their style. The Don Heck art in the last chapter is particularly atrocious looking. The story, such as it is, revolves around the character who, to me, is the kiss of death to any Avengers story: Kang the Conquerer. Where Kang goes, convoluted storytelling follows. He attempts to abduct the female Avenger who will become the fabled "Celestial Madonna" so he can mate with her and conquer the universe. Too bad for him he doesn't know which lady Avenger the Madonna IS, so he abducts Mantis, The Scarlet Witch, and the 80-something-year-old Agatha Harkness(!)........Ewwwwwww. From there, the writers throw in averything but the kitchen sink, as the waters are made more and more muddy by the inclusion of The Frankenstein Monster, The Kree, The Skrulls, living plant-people, The Flying Dutchman, Rama-Tut, Immortus, Ultron, The Original Human Torch, Dormammu, Quasimodo The Living Computer, I could go on and on. I consider myself pretty well-versed in Marvel Universe history, and not only did I find myself reeling under all the references to past stories, but after a while, I just stopped caring. As I said, the book is waaaaayy too text-heavy, and it's just a chore to read. The end is a big anti-climax, as we learn nothing about the true role of the Celestial Madonna......But I give the book 1 star anyway, since I've never seen anyone tell a woman she had to marry a tree before.........