Avengers: No Surrender (Comics) | Review

What happens when you merge three Avengers books into one weekly storyline where Earth gets frozen in time and roughly 20 heroes realize someone's been tampering with their memories since day one? You get ambition that doesn't always stick the landing.

Avengers: No Surrender isn't your standard event where heroes assemble, punch the threat and everything resets to normal. This is renowned writer Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, Original Sin) merging three separate Avengers books into one weekly 16-part story that asks whether spectacle can compensate for uneven pacing.

Tagging alongside Al Ewing (Venom: Dark Web, Venom: Deviation) and Jim Zub (Thunderbolts: Back on Target, Thunderbolts: Winter Soldiers), Waid sets up Avengers: No Road Home, the 2019 sequel that continues exploring Elder of the Universe arc with same creative team.

The story opens with Earth displaced from its orbit and frozen in time while cosmic objects rain destruction across the planet. The Grandmaster and the Challenger, two Elders of the Universe, have turned the world into their personal game board. Their pieces: reformed villains fighting as the Lethal Legion versus the resurrected Black Order.

The Challenger isn't some random cosmic threat. He's the original Grandmaster, erased from existence by his brother En Dwi Gast through a rigged game eons ago. Now he's back demanding revenge through impossibly high-stakes contests where worlds burn if you lose.

Three separate Avengers rosters scramble to stop the destruction while dealing with Voyager, a blonde teleporter who insists she's a founding Avenger despite nobody remembering her. The memory manipulation angle gives the story its hook because Voyager's presence feels simultaneously wrong and completely natural.

Voyager isn't a retcon, she's a weapon disguised as nostalgia and her actual defection to the heroes side becomes one of the story's more earned emotional beats because it's built on her recognizing she's been used as a game piece her entire existence.

Waid, Ewing and Zub fill middle chapters with resurrection beats that feel calculated rather than surprising. The Human Torch returns from his crystallized state. Bruce Banner comes back to life because plot convenience demands it. These moments happen because the plot needs them, not because they've been built toward.

The weekly structure creates momentum but has pacing problems. Some issues sprint through developments while others stall on team dynamics that add little. Roughly 20 Avengers fight for page time and most get reduced to reaction shots during action sequences.

What works is the Grandmaster and Challenger's dynamic. Their brotherhood-turned-rivalry gives the cosmic stakes a personal edge. The Challenger doesn't want to destroy Earth, he wants to humiliate his brother as proof that he's still the superior game master.

When the Grandmaster sacrifices himself to save Voyager and let the Avengers win, it reframes everything that came before as tragic family drama played at universe-ending scale. In the end, the Challenger transforms into Grandmaster Prime, a new Elder obsessed with games but now focused on earning rather than stealing his victories.

It's mythology building that feels purposeful beyond just sequel setup, though the story absolutely plants seeds for No Road Home's exploration of primordial night forces and Nyx mythology that continues developing Elder of the Universe lore.

Supporting cast moments feel like padding rather than meaningful development. Jarvis gets hospital bed scenes meant to generate emotional investment but land flat. Vision's struggle adds nothing substantial. Lightning and Synapse, members from less prominent rosters, barely register despite getting dedicated focus issues.

Where the story succeeds is using frozen Earth as constant pressure forcing different Avengers to actually collaborate rather than just pose together for obligatory team shots. Quicksilver gets genuine spotlight moments using his speed in creative tactical ways that feel smart.

Rogue's power absorption becomes tactically crucial during key confrontations with Lethal Legion and Black Order. These are veteran characters being written like they've done this before instead of figuring out teamwork from scratch for the first time.

The rotating lineup of artists includes Joe Bennett, Kim Jacinto, Paco Medina (Deadpool: Dark Reign, Deadpool: Secret Invasion) and Pepe Larraz (Avengers: Rage of Ultron, Inhuman: AXIS) , each handling different chapters with varying degrees of success. Larraz's pages are clean and dynamic, especially during the cosmic-scale shots.

Jacinto uses shadow work for darker beats. Medina handles resurrections with weight while Bennett focuses on ground-level destruction. Aburtov's colors shift between warm tones and colder palettes when cosmic forces take over, rendering frozen time as crackling energy fields.

Waid, Ewing and Zub's collaborative writing occasionally shows seams between approaches. Waid writes cleaner traditional superhero dialogue. Ewing injects weird mythology and cosmic horror touches. Zub focuses on team dynamics and interpersonal beats. This mostly creates variety, occasionally tonal whiplash between issues.

Avengers: No Surrender succeeds at cosmic storytelling while stumbling over ambition. This isn't heroes randomly assembled to punch threats. It's three rosters forced together to deal with memory manipulation, cosmic games and family tragedy between immortals.

The weekly format delivers momentum that monthly books can't match but exposes pacing issues when chapters don't advance plot meaningfully. The Grandmaster and Challenger rivalry provides solid backbone while resurrections feel obligatory rather than impactful.

Ewing, Waid and Zub deliver ambitious work that succeeds despite rough patches. Artist rotation maintains visual quality without clashes. If you're invested in Avengers continuity, this bridges gaps and establishes future arc. If you want tight storytelling, the sprawl might frustrate you and leave you wanting more focused narrative.

The story works when it commits to its cosmic elements and the Elder of the Universe myth rather than trying to give every Avenger equal screen time. Voyager's arc justifies the memory manipulation while the Challenger turning into Grandmaster Prime creates consequences.

Avengers: No Surrender collects the weekly saga from Avengers #675-690 into a massive trade paperback and hardcover. You can grab the physical edition through bookstores and major online retailers. For digital readers, it's available on Amazon Kindle, ComiXology and Marvel Unlimited, making it easy to experience the entire event in one go.