Great Lakes Avengers: Same Old, Same Old

by Zac Gorman

[Quirky Cat]

I read Great Lakes Avengers as single issues through Marvel Unlimited.

For sake of honestly I should tell you that I never read the original Great Lakes Avengers, and thus don’t know a whole bunch about the original crew and what they went through. Still, if I let that stop me, I’d never pick up any new series in any of the larger comic publishing worlds.
What made getting into this series a little difficult, ironically, wasn’t that I didn’t know the characters. It was knowing that the series had been canceled before I even started reading it. I know, I know – if you want a series to continue you need to buy it as the issues come out (I’ve been told that’s when they crunch their numbers and decide the fate of a series), but in my defense this series sort of slid under the radar for me.
After having read it though, I’m wishing that wasn’t the case. I don’t know if one more fan would have made the difference. Perhaps it was cancelled for a completely different, though unlikely, reason. Who knows. Still, this was a fun, quirky, and light series with lots of unique and humorous characters. I’m sad to see it go, especially after a mere seven issues.



When you pick up a new series like the Great Lakes Avengers, you may be expecting for them to start off with a dramatic fight, or a comedic scene. Something to immediately pull the audience into the mix, right? Well, that isn’t quite the case here. It does border on the humorous, I’ll give you that, but it’s also ludicrous, fascinating, and odd all rolled into one. In short, it’s a perfect introduction. That was the moment I knew I was going to like this series.
It did take me a few minutes to get used to the new cast of characters, but that was to be expected. Many of the characters made an appearance in the original, which if I didn’t know beforehand I certainly know now. There are backstories for some characters that are implied, referred to, and even flat out stated at times. It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together from there, and once I did it took me even less time to start liking the characters.
There’s at least one new character to the mix, I think. It’s almost funny in a way, because they quickly became my favorite character. But not for the reasons you’d think. Good Boy fascinated me, plain and simple. It was a spin on the whole werewolf thing that I hadn’t seen before, and while they clearly had fun with the concept…it was also oddly well done. It certainly made for an unforgettable character.
The Great Lakes Avengers didn’t have too much time to be the superheroes they so desperately wanted to be, but they really gave it their all in the time they did have. Still, I feel like there was more to their story, if it had been given a chance. For example, some of the characters introduced barely got any screen time, other than to indicate that something was going on with them (like the secretary who hired herself and moved in – there’s got to be something going on there).
This was a fun volume on the whole. It was fun enough to encourage me to go back and read the original Great Lakes Avengers, though I don’t know when I’ll be having time to actually sit down and do it. So for now it’s getting added to the list.


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