This wasn't precisely what I thought it was going to be but it wasn't necessarily bad. I enjoyed certain aspects of it

As a big fan of Carrie's work, I was keen to pick up this title - something different in the Marvel books, as it focuses on a comparatively famous team (even if they're 'B' string) rather than an individual.

The plot seemed pulled from Doctor Strange's comic career, full of magic, multi-dimensionality and unravelling of mysteries. However, as the story progressed, it became clear that this was not the only challenge facing the Shadow Avengers.

While the main adventure was good and the characters excellently realized, my favourite part of this book was seeing their humanity. Doctor Strange being so driven that he forgets whatever's outside his focus (causing even more problems). Miss Marvel being so young and nervous about her powers and being part of the team. Spiderman is known for his worries, but his kindness here shone so brightly - I'm sure Tom Holland would approve.

And the 'baddies' being controlled and unable to fight back was a surprise! For a good part of the book, I was looking forward to how this would resolve (messily, I anticipated!).

A great ensemble piece that any Marvel fan will enjoy.

This was a fantastic novel. I just loved all the action. It made it extremely hard to put down as there was so much action and exciting things happening. It was brilliant how the badies had to work with Dr. Strange to save the planet. They are such characters that it made for fun reading with all their conflicting feelings. I especially love Venom. The story had a great pace, and there was never a dull moment. It was a fantastic roller coaster ride. I definitely recommend reading this fantastic edition to the crisis protocol series. 

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating such an exciting story. I can't wait to read the next instalment.
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/shadow-avengers-by-carrie-harris-aconyte-books-4-stars and my new blog https://ladyreading365.blogspot.com/2023/05/shadow-avengers-by-carrie-harris.html under my name ladyreading365

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Crisis Protocol book Shadow Avengers by Carrie Harris, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let this cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Marvel
Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

Marvel Crisis Protocol is a tabletop skirmish miniatures game from Atomic Mass Games based on the Marvel comic characters, with its starter set conations five of the Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Black Widow) and five of the Kabel (Barron Zemo, Red Skull, Crossbones, Doctor Octopus and Ultron).

I own the core set and its well worth investing into, if you fancy it you can purchase it from my Element Games affiliate link!

The Story
This novel starts up a few months following the first book in the series Target Kree by Stuart Moore with Doctor Strange having kept a group of heroes, he calls the Shadow Avengers, to investigate and deal with ongoing threat of Dormammu, a mystical being who desires to bring the entire multiverse under his control, and the Aconyte universe is now square in his sights.

The story kicks off with Spider-Man finding Loki and Venom battling around an OSCORP chemical tanker, pumping a strange green goo down into the water supply.

This leads Doctor Strange, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Wong, and She-Hulk going up against Loki, Venom and the Green Goblin as they investigate a series of mysterious portals opening in Wakonda and New York City, and figure out what these have to do with Dormammu and his sinister plans!

Conclusion
The last book in the series was difficult to review, but as a result it makes this book easier to review, it feels in many ways like the kind of campaign you yourself could play at home, and at the same time, is a really enjoyable story.

Yes, its rather obvious where the story was going, it wasn’t exactly filled with unexpected twists, other than the origin of the stories Asgardians.

But it was very fund to read, very cinematic in nature, and I could easily see this being the novelisation of an animated film, the locations were very well described and I felt like the locations were very real and you could almost feel being in a crocodile filled swamp at one point!

The heart of this book is Ms Marvel, and she really brings out the best aspects of all the charcters, even managing to break through Doctor Strange’s arrogance, and I found using her inexperience in the Avengers as a place for us to sit in her shoes, to be really good and very similar to the introduction of Kitty Pryde to the X-Men.

And the relationship between her and Spider-Man was fantastic, a teacher/student relationship slash big brother/little sister.

I really enjoyed this book and actually went out and bought the physical book as a Christmas present for one of my nibblings about halfway through reading it!

4.5 out of 5 stars!

Shadow Avengers is out now as an ebook and paperback!

As A Marvel Fans, this boo grabbed my attention.
It hooked me up since the first page. I really love how All the heroes team up. Reading this feels like watching MCU movies

Shadow Avengers is a great read for any fan of the Crisis Protocol series, or just any Marvel fan in general. I highly enjoyed it.

After the events of Target: Kree, Dr. Strange has formed the Shadow Avengers to stop Dormammu from enslaving the Earth. Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and the Black Panther make up the team. Dormammu's plan this time around is more subtle with Spider-Man just stumbling in to it by mistake. I really liked the relationship Harris establishes between Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel. It's somewhere between big brother / little sister and mentor / mentee. I really like that Aconyte is taking on some of these bigger stories featuring a ton of Marvel characters.

A Crisis Protocol novel

I received an advance reader copy of this book from Aconyte Books via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a sequel to Target Kree, where refugees from a dead planet were targeted for elimination on Earth. The plot was foiled by Miss Marvel along with several other heroes, and afterward Dr. Strange announced that Dormammu had instigated the plot as part of his plan to add Earth’s dimension to his list of conquests. Dr. Strange formed the Shadow Avengers to help him.


The Shadow Avengers consist of Kamala Khan (Miss Marvel), Luke Cage, Spiderman, Black Panther, and Dr. Strange. Making things harder, Dormammu is manipulating Norman Osborn and Venom along with Loki and several other Asgardians to assist him in his takeover. Readers are treated to a great deal of action, and the author takes advantage of the prose novel format to give us insights into the various characters that graphic novels just can’t provide.

I gave Shadow Avengers five stars. These Marvel prose novels continue to be among my favorites to read and review. I’m looking forward to future volumes in the series.

Doctor Strange calls together a group of New York based heroes to combat the demon Dormammu in this Marvel tie-in novel. Starring Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage, Spiderman, and a pitch-perfect anti-hero turn from Venom, with some dimension-displaced Asgardians disrupting the world. Still need a Doctor Strange fix after seeing Multiverse of Madness? This is the book for you.

Shadow Avengers by Carrie Harris is utterly fantastic. The world is once again in jeopardy and it’s up to Dr. Strange and his team of Shadow Avengers to thwart Dormammu’s latest plan.

I’ve been a huge fan of comics all my life, actual comic books as well the movies, and as much as I love both those formats, over the last several years I’ve really come to love the novels even more. Sure you don’t get the gorgeous art work (other than the covers of course) of the comics or the incredible stunning visuals or stirring soundtracks of the movies, but I think what you get from the novels is an even more in-depth look into our favorite heroes, beyond what is seen in either the comics or the films.

The ShadowAvengers roster consists of Dr. Strange, Ms. Marvel, Spider-man, Luke Cage, and the Black Panther, and it these heroes along with Loki and Venom that are the main players in this story, though there are plenty of smaller rolls and cameos from the likes of Wong, Shuri, She-Hulk, Valkyrie, Green Goblin as well as several more. And I must say I think Carrie Harris did an absolutely masterful job of handling so many powerful characters (personality-wise, not just in terms of their superpowers) I truly appreciated the fact that each of the main characters—heroes and ‘villains’ alike—were given the respect they deserved, as well as their own chance to shine.

The story is fantastic. Great build up with each character getting a chance to play their role, working up to an incredible climax. Classic comic good vs. evil stuff with a healthy does of self-sacrifice. As I said all the characters get their chance to shine. And I loved how the ending sets us up for more adventures to come. I can’t wait to see what comes next in the Marvel Crisis Protocol series.

I’d like to thank Aconyte Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Shadow Avengers.

https://www.amazon.com/review/RN84XCTCEAYBV/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I will be very upfront and say that the only thing that saved this is the fact that I love Ms. Marvel and the last chapters that dealt with the big fight against the big evil, Dormamu, and his minions were action-packed and highly entertaining.
I'm usually a big fan of long-form stories featuring my fave comic characters, but this one might have been written with younger readers in mind. I kept finding entire passages that felt completely unnecessary but might be justified as existing to explain basic elements of the characters to younger readers that might not be as familiar with the heroes. I mean, do we really need two paragraphs on Spider-Man thinking in-depth about the mechanics of how he can crawl on walls? There was also the fact that the characters were constantly referred to by full name, ie, Peter Parker or Luke Cage, even when they were referring to themselves, which got annoying pretty fast. It's just a bunch of writing/story decisions that make no sense or just hinder the flow of the narrative to overpower how good certain elements of it are, which is a massive shame.
The story idea is great. The group of heroes that make up the Shadow Avengers is varied and works great together. There are some really amazing action moments and some even better morality/think moments. And I won't even get into how well Harris employs the villains in this. I mean, there were moments when this story was more about Venom than the Avengers and I'm not even mad about that because of how well the character is written.
Overall, I can't decide if this is a wrong-audience issue or a story issue, but there was great potential that wasn't lived up to.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Aconyte for the exciting early read!

I was given a digital copy of this book for an honest review. #Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review

Shadow Avengers is a solid superhero fiction novel from a great author. I would caution potential readers that this is the second novel in a series that began with Target: Kree: A Marvel: Crisis Protocol by Stuart Moore. While you can read Shadow Avengers as a stand alone adventure, it bothered my obsessive/compulsive nature to not have read the series in order. I would also note that it was unclear which "universe" this novel takes place in. A few of the characters feel like the Marvel Cinematic Universe but there are also references to the comics universe.

I really enjoyed how the author described the interaction between the Venom Symbiote and Eddie Brock. Very cool.

I was surprised how many Marvel characters were featured in the novel. Lot's of fun. The plot is standard comic book, villain invasion stuff, but it is fun to see it broken down to almost a police procedural story. You actually follow the heroes as as they unravel the mystery.

I would recommend this novel for YA readers.

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL

Good story picking up from the last novel. I liked how the characters each jad their own specific chapters which allows their view to be experienced. Not too many heros and villians allows just enough time with each.

Looking forward to the next.

Shadow Avengers is the follow-up book to last year's Target Kree, which saw several characters coming together to stop a threat to the Earth that had already destroyed another planet. Towards the end of that book not only did we learn that a larger force was at work behind the scenes, but we saw Doctor Strange recruit Miss Marvel into a new secret team. This book picks up several months later, where this team, the Shadow Avengers, have been working to protect the Earth from the threat of Dromammu.

The story begins in typical comic book fashion, by giving the readers what at first appears to be a completely unconnected super hero fight to get them drawn into the story. Whilst trying to grab some pizza, Eddie Brock, the host to the Venom symbiote, sees an Oscorp truck being driven through NEw York by Loki, the Asgardian trickster god. Following the god, Venom discovers Loki dumping strange looking chemicals into the New York sewer system. A fight ensues between them, over the course of which Loki manages to place a magical necklace around Venom's neck. This necklace puts Venom under the control of some unseen presence; just in time to Spider-Man to arrive and think that Venom is being a villain.

Spider-Man brings up the incident during a meeting of the Shadow Avengers, but gets little interest from Doctor Strange, who wishes to focus on the threat posed by Dormammu. Leaving Spider-Man and Miss Marvel to look into it, things begin to spiral out of control when other strange incidents begin to happen across New York, and Wakanda. With magical storms raging in both locations, and strange portals appearing and dropping out alternate reality versions of Asgardian gods, Strange begins to realise that these incidents may not only be connected, but might be the latest invasion plan from Dormammu.

When I say that Shadow Avengers reads like a comic I mean it in the best possible way. A lot of novels based upon comic properties tend to read like novels, stories that take a more character focused approach, putting us in the heads of one or two main characters and telling a story that whilst great, probably wouldn't work in comic form. This story, on the other hand, feels like its leapt off the comic page. It's paced really fast, with characters always doing something important or learning something new. We jump perspective a lot, going from one member of the team to another, and there's a lot of action and fighting scattered throughout the book. This story would take very little alteration to be made into a several issue long story arc, and making that work in book form is extremely impressive.

As the name suggests, the story doesn't focus on one particular character, but a roster of heroes. There are some who get more stuff to do, such as Miss Marvel, but every single member of the Shadow Avengers does get to do something, and gets at least one moment to shine. The book also manages to give a decent amount of time over to Eddie Brock, who became a much bigger part of the book than I was expecting from the description. Carrie Harris does a good job at keeping all of these plates spinning, at giving every character something to do, and making sure that no one has been left out of things for too long.

One of the things that I liked about the book was how Harris didn't try and make a big thing of the mystery around who was doing things. There is a level of secrecy to begin with, with some of the characters referring to a mysterious master pulling the strings; but with this being a Shadow Avengers book, and them being exclusively about stopping Dormammu it was pretty obvious that's who it was going to be. And thankfully the book doesn't try to make it seem like some huge, unexpected revelation when his identity is revealed during the story. It's not treated like some big revelation that you were never going to guess; and because of that it never feels like the book is trying to trick you or treat you as stupid in any ways. That's something that I can respect.

Shadow Avengers is a good follow-up to Target Kree, a book that took the small hints and promises at the end of that book and gives readers something exciting as the pay-off. It manages to pack in the action, gives just enough mystery to keep readers guessing what might come next, and features some great depictions of some of Marvel's biggest characters. Carrie Harris clearly knows this universe and these characters, and she's the perfect author to tell this story.

Thank you to Aconyte and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

So this was my first venture into the Marvel Aconyte novels that have been being published for a couple of years now. I kind of thought they were all standalone, but this one references Target: Kree pretty often and I regretted not reading that first for the context. Fortunately, I'm very familiar with these characters already so I was easily able to jump in

The Shadow Avengers are made up of Doctor Strange, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Ms. Marvel. It's a very interesting bunch of characters to have work together, although they pretty much pair up and throughout the story and don't work as a group except for a meeting at the beginning, and then again at the end. Standing against them are Dormammu, Green Goblin, Loki, and Venom. I liked this team of villains because not everyone has an equal and opposite member of the Shadow Avengers to fight. We don't actually get to see a lot of the villains except for Venom, who is a point-of-view character.

There is not much character development going on, but that's not really surprising to me. You can only change such well-known characters so much outside of the comics. The fun part was really seeing the characters work together and try to figure out what's going on. Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel are among my favourite Marvel characters and they're teaming up for a good chunk of this book.

The plot was pretty straight-forward and fun to read. I would definitely add more books to my TBR that are written by Carrie Harris, and also more Marvel books published by Aconyte. I recommend checking this one out!

Thanks to NetGalley & Aconyte for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed seeing the perspectives of different heroes--and even villains! It was a fun light read and although I hadn't read the previous book, I was still able to follow along. Kamala and Luke Cage's chapters were my favorites, honestly.

Must-read for any Avengers fan!

The Shadow Avengers by Carrie Harris
I think the consensus with this latest instalment in the Crisis Protocol, Shadow Avengers, is that it is a fun book. I cannot disagree with this! It’s a fun, fast paced, action packed addition to Aconyte’s ever growing retinue of Marvel Books.
I was a little surprised by the Shadow Avengers as I thought it may be similar in tone to DC’s Justice League Dark. However, I was happy to find that it bore no resemblance to that superhero team that was formed to fight magic.
The premise of the book is that the Shadow Avengers was formed by Dr Strange to combat the ever-present threat from the Dread Sorcerer Dormammu attacking earth. And yes, you guessed it, this is what the story revolves around.
In the Shadow Avengers, we start the story with Venom witnessing Loki dumping what appears to be some form of toxic waste into the water supply in an Oscorp truck. Venom, being the anti – hero that he is attempts to stop Loki, and finds himself enslaved to Dormammu’s plan to invade the earth. Loki disappears in a puff of portal magic leaving Venom to deal with the truck full of toxic waste. (Enter stage left Spiderman as he is on his way to the Shadow Avengers meeting) Well, you can see how this is going to turn out can’t you?
The initial few chapters deal with introductions and various heroes seeing this same incident from a different perspective, including Black Panther.
This is the second Carrie Harris book that I have read in the Marvel Universe and have enjoyed them immensely! She gives already established characters that we all know and love more depth of character. For instance, Spiderman’s relationships with Ms Marvel and how he takes her under his wing to show her the Superhero ropes. It’s a lovely relationship that shows an almost fatherly side to his character as he instructs and nudges her to increase her confidence with her powers and her abilities. He never condescends or looks down on her but gives her patience and understanding. Similarly, with Ms Marvel herself as she grows in confidence throughout the book. At times she is a typical teenager adrift in a sea of grownups, wanting to make her observations known, but at the same time finding it difficult to make her voice known in a group of personalities that includes Dr Strange, Luke Cage and Black Panther.
The writing style is quite light and Carrie Harris has an almost cinematic approach to the book, regularly peppering the story with set pieces that you would expect in a Marvel story, including death defying escapes from planes, massive fight scenes etc etc.
In essence, Shadow Avengers is like a big slice of pie. You know what you are getting, and you get that warm hug that you know you wanted in the first place. Coz, that is why you ate pie!

<i> Please not that this book was provided by Netgalley and Aconyte Books in exchange for an honest review </i>

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL

From Asgardians to Ms Marvel to Venom, this is a real romp through the world of the Shadow Avengers. I was fascinated by the plot hooks from the very beginning and each new character's perspective loaned a new insight into the direction of the story. Peter and Kamala provide much-needed light relief, while Luke and T'Challa offer significantly different but mature views on the problems their team is facing. This is very much a Doctor Strange novel with a good chunk of perspective dedicated to Stephen (Sorcerer Supreme fans will love his meta) but there is so much heart givne to minor characters that you never feel any one character has the spotlight for too long, always switching up the viewpoints.

Personally, as a huge Loki fan with the last 60 years of Thor comics in my collection, his heart-rending struggle always reeled me right back in to each scene that he ended up dominating through subtle emotional tells, masterfully written. Each of the Shadow Avengers highlights their own priorities as relating to their lifestyle and choices, yet each delicious slice of information never obscures the plot from moving forward, it only adds to it.

This is a fantastic book for all Marvel fans to enjoy, I would particularly underline the importance of Doctor Strange and Ms Marvel fif their fanbases are eager for more canon content ahead of MCU releases.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Aconyte Books for an advanced copy of my first Marvel Book other than comics.

I had great fun reading this book about some of my favourite Marvel characters. The book is about a division of the Avengers called as "Shadow Avengers" lead by Dr. Strange fighting against one of his biggest enemy Dormammu and his team.

All the characters, Heroes and Villains alike is true to the comics. Their powers, characters traits, reasoning etc. This provided me as a background of what is happening in this book.

The author Carrie Harris explained the scenes very well and it was like i am reading a comic or watching a Marvel Movie. I am excited to read more on Marvel books in the future.

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL

I had a lot of fun with this book, although the writing was a bit frenetic at times and the dialog could be kind of cringey (although it is based off of comic book characters, so I guess you could say that's to be expected). I would still recommend to Marvel fans looking for a fun, new story and especially fans of the game on which this book is based.