All that being said, there is a guilty pleasure gleaned from this for me. It's not perfect. It's not terribly memorable, aside from what I mentioned about cashing in on the movie and setting up a new series. However, I find myself completely unable to hate this series as so many do. Sure, it's something I wish was handled with a little more of an all ages flair, but those are only medium potatoes compared to the fun I had reading it. With a new creative team set to take over next month, I'm hoping to see the more contrived ideas of this series start to fall by the wayside and let some real engaging stuff take over. Read Full Review

The end of the arc works well, and gives us two full pages of the two teams beating the crap out of a de-powered Thanos. There is still the matter of the Badoon armada on their way to Earth, but it looks like we'll have to wait a few months to see how that plays out when the Guardians return in their new monthly comic in February. Worth a look. Read Full Review

"Avengers Assemble" #8 is an exciting read, action-packed with great little character bits, but delivering an inordinately quick resolution for a story that has carried on for eight issues. At that length, the story becomes an event of sorts. Bendis acknowledges that with a big-time fight in the latter half of this issue, but it all happens so quickly I find myself wondering why it didn't happen sooner. Bendis is now off to "Guardians of the Galaxy," and given what I've seen here, I think it will definitely be entertaining. Before leaving this title, though, the writer was kind enough to drop a final scene on readers that is the comic book equivalent of the post-credits pieces from the films. Just a quick scene to sharpen our interest as his time on the book concludes. Read Full Review

The next issue will feature a line up change and I'm a little bummed about that too. This book was meant to feature the team from the cinematic universe so that fans of the movie that want to get into the comics will have an easy way in. Unless they're planning on introducing the new team members in Phase Two, the premise of this book is void and it's just another book in the already large sea of Avengers titles. I love the Avengers and all, but I might have to start picking and choosing which ones are the best and only get those because I might not have it in my budget to get every book with ‘Avengers' in the title anymore. Read Full Review

Bagley's art has been a mixed bag throughout the series, and things do not tighten up much here. He certainly gets the job done, but it doesn't always look like his best work. The coloring does not enhance his style, nor does it fit the tone of Bendis's story, so that can be partially blamed for the unimpressive visuals. It doesn't help that the letterer points a world balloon at War Machine when it clearly belongs to Iron Man. Luckily, Kelly Sue DeConnick will be taking over this title, and if her work on Captain Marvel acts as an indicator, then this title will now be one to look forward to. Read Full Review

I can honestly only recommend this issue if you're really excited for Bendis's upcoming GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY run. In the end it's essentially a prequel to the book. It puts Thanos in the Elders' custody, explains why Iron Man wants to tag along (spoiler alert: because he really wants to) and details who the antagonists will be in the title (Brotherhood of the Badoon). Otherwise, spend the $3.99 elsewhere. Read Full Review

Mediocre ending to an, overall, pretty mediocre run be Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. For an Avengers comic, Bendis somehow made the Guardians the most interesting and most well written characters in the book, while the first two issues failed greatly in engaging the reader. For this issue, the pacing felt off, but it’s still the icing on the cake to s strong last 4 issues.