He’s known as the Lost One. He’s really old, and he’s telling the reader about his health problems. He’s literally had the same body for eons, though, and it’s not like he gets much of a chance to talk to people anymore. He’s just sitting on a throne and leering at the reader with a decaying face. It’s not polite, but then...he’s not a really nice guy. He IS, after all, the central villain in Avengers Beyond #5. Writer Derek Landy, artist Greg Land, and inker Jay Leisten wrap up their mini-series commitment with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The whole thing has been pretty silly since the end of Landy and Land’s prior series All-Out Avengers. The current series lands a characteristically goofy ending.

The Beyonder doesn’t know how to help the Lost One. If he could do something, he would. As it is, he’s lost his power, and now, the Avengers are all that’s left to protect the ruins of New York City and work out some way to defeat a being of near-limitless power. It’s okay; they’ve done it before. It’s kind of...their thing, with them being Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and everything. They’ll save the day. They’ll work something out. They always do.

When Landy’s script isn’t being silly, it’s actually got some good moments. The Avengers consult with a fragment of the Beyonder that he kept out of the way for safety’s sake (sort of). The Beyonder returns and tries to convince this fragment of thought to return to him, and it’s reluctant to do so. It’s a cute moment. There are a number of others like that peppering an otherwise strange issue involving great powers, great responsibility, and all the life in Manhattan being turned back on like a light. 

This is a very dramatic moment in the history of the Marvel Universe...like so many other dramatic moments in Marvel’s history. And so, there’s a lot of passion being flung around the page...lots of yelling. Land’s execution of that passion in this issue features a lot of people with wide-open mouths...and the way Land delivers that to the page...it just kind of looks like anyone who is yelling is actually...yawning. The physical aggression in the passion feels a bit over-extended in Land’s art. This is a pity. Landy’s script could have benefited from a slightly more nuanced approach to all of that drama. 

All the cosmic energy burns off of Marvel Manhattan one more time. Everybody gets back to all of those things that they were doing before. There’s kind of a lot of other activity in Marvel Manhattan...and all over the world, for that matter. There’s an impossible city in orbit around the Earth. Interdimensional cityslayers from that city are attacking Manila, Helsinki, Toronto, Sydney, and Vatican City. The Avengers have to go to work on that in their OWN title.

Grade: C