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Avengers Forever #7: Review

Jul 2022
Jason Aaron, Aaron Kuder

Story Name:

The pillars, part 2: Escape from cellblock Steve

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Avengers Forever #7 Review by (July 8, 2022)
The multiversal recruitment drive continues. Last issue's The Vibranium Man was presumably The Pillars, Part 1 concentrating on a Black Panther. And this issue we get an army of Steve Rogers.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers Forever #7 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
It's the ordinary man in glasses' 1st day waking up in his orange jumpsuit in his cell. He ventures out the open door to the common area and announces his name as Steve to anyone who might listen. A chubby man in another cell says his name's Steve too. They both agree they don't know how they got here. Chubby Steve says he just remembers being in his room in the nervous hospital. Another man, bearded and bandana-wearing, rushes out of another cell and runs into a doorway that has just opened opposite him shouting "Death to the war mongers". And a dog wanders in from another cell with a tag saying "My name is Steve". A conveyor belt in the floor delivers bandana man back into the central room and the door shuts. Yet another older man sitting in shadows in his cell tells them that the man isn't dead, just stupid. Bandana man reports that he had to negotiate an obstacle course then someone hit him. Glasses Steve shouts out to anyone who can hear asking why they're here. Shadow man calls them a stupid bunch of Steves and says this is Hell and he deserves to be here.

Day 2 and bandana Steve launches his attack again while glasses Steve eats something out of a can and chubby Steve cowers in his room. Bandana Steve is brought back again and calls the others cowards. Shadow Steve says "Some of us are something much worse".

Day 3. Bandana man loudly declares himself Steve Rogers, a political prisoner because he opposed the war. Chubby Steve says that the dog told him he's Steve Rogers too, so they all seem to be. Apparently the dog also claims that they're all from universes different to this 1. Chubby says that he was hiding under his bedcovers in his hospital room when he sensed someone in the room with him, and then he was here. Glasses says he was drawing pages for Tales Of Suspense when he heard a car pull up outside his window, 34 floors up. Bandana tries to escape again.

As he does on each succeeding day when the door briefly opens.

Day 11. The dog barks and chubby interprets it as a warning that bandana will die if he keeps this up. Chubby and shadow still stay in their rooms but glasses joins bandana's charge. They both return beaten up on the conveyor. Glasses says he saw something and starts to scratch a picture on his cell wall with a shard of food tin. He draws more of it over the next 2 days.

On day 14 the dog joins the charge. On day 16 the 3 plan tactics for their attack but they still get sent back. Day 17 the dog tries to persuade chubby that he's strong enough to help them. Day 18 bandana asks shadow why he's afraid to join them. Shadow says he's afraid of what's inside him. Day 19 glasses gives chubby a pep talk. On day 20 4 of them make the charge. When they return shadow leaves his cell to join them. He says they're idiots playing soldiers but they've got guts, so they're more like him than he realised. We now see that he has Wolverine claws, an eye-patch and a US flag tattooed on his face. He asks them to tell him everything they've seen beyond the door and he'll tell them how they'll get out of here.

Day 33. All 5 run through the door and we finally get to see what's beyond it. After dodging or destroying various things in the obstacle course they see now 5 opponents hidden by shadows and blinding lights. The foes throw 5 round shields at them and they each catch 1. We see that they are all versions of Captain America's shield with different insignia at the centre. We also see their opponents clearly as 5 versions of Cap:- an armoured knight, a werewolf, a monkey, a child and someone who looks like US Agent.

The knight explains that they've just passed the entry stage for their training. There's a war on and they need every Steve Rogers they can get. (I don't think bandana Steve will take that very well.)

The we pull back to see Ant-Man (Tony Stark 818), Deathlok and Ghost Rider overseeing the  operation, commenting that it took a long time to get Weapon America to unsheathe his claws. Deathlok says he's detected a Steve Rogers in a universe where he was caught in a gamma explosion, so they'll go get him next.

And we revisit artist Steve's cell to see that he drew a Cap shield on his wall, along with marking off the days and a 'Steve Rogers was here'.



Aaron Kuder
Cam Smith
Guru-eFX
Aaron Kuder (Cover Penciler)
Aaron Kuder (Cover Inker)
Jason Keith (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.


Ant-Man (Tony Stark 818), Deathloks, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes).

> Avengers Forever: Book info and issue index

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