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Title: The Avengers Companion by Alain Carraze, Jean-Luc Putheaud, Alex J. Geairns ISBN: 0-912333-61-8 Publisher: Pub Group West Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95

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Average Customer Rating: 2.4 (5 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Good But Not Great
Comment: If you're an Avengers fan, you'll want this book for the pictures. If you just want one book, then get the Complete Avengers.

Rating: 2
Summary: This book could have been better.
Comment: I'm going to have to agree with the other readers. This book had excellent pictures. But the writing was not up to par. The other Avenger books are far more interesting. Still, if you collect all Avenger memorabilia, you might as well add this book to your collection.

Rating: 1
Summary: Pretty pictures, but the text is a waste of time
Comment: "The Avengers hinted at a world of miraculous transformations hidden beneath the ordinary and the overlooked."

This is a book that wanted to be a video compilation. I don't have a scrap of fact for this assertion save that it would clearly make more sense as a frustrated boxed set: short 'interview' pieces by stars and fans, inadequate in a book, might be delivered to camera; exhaustively detailed synopses of episodes the authors really just want to show to us; even the photos which are the book's main attraction point to a visual, rather than a literary, aim. Originally published as 'Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir' ('Bowler Hat and Leather Boots'), this is perhaps the best-looking book on 'The Avengers' so far, yet has a strangely unprofessional feel; the writing style is more that of an old-fashioned fan magazine than a book. Other features seem short and slapdash, such as an episode guide with too many similarities to that in Dave Rogers' 'The Ultimate Avengers' - for example, neither can distinguish a local from a Westminster by-election in 'November Five', and the financial mistake in 'Death of a Batman' crops up here too! Their thirteen 'selection box' episodes are just inferior substitutes for videos or repeats, recounted at lifeless length; almost everything but the dialogue is given, complete with minute details of scenery and still the odd stupid mistake (such as missing out the main red herring in 'The Cybernauts'). They reflect little of the series - nothing with Ian Hendry or Honor Blackman (the series' real groundbreaker), but eight from the single colour Diana Rigg season. Yes, I think the black and white Rigg and the colour Thorson seasons are a better mix of the silly and the sinister, but if the authors had made comments on their choices they might communicate some of their enthusiasm to the reader. Sadly, the width of coverage without the added depth of performances, music and dialogue gives little idea of why 'The Avengers' was special - instead bringing you perilously close to boredom. There are suddenly several 'Avengers' books around, and more variety with the Movie - though I still reckon Lily Savage makes a better Mrs Peel than Uma Thurman! The best episode guides are in Dave Rogers' 'The Complete Avengers'; for background information, try his aforementioned 'The Ultimate Avengers', despite the largest number of typos ever; the most readable is Patrick Macnee's 'The Avengers and Me', which looks great too (even if it's not quite so unputdownable as his autobiography 'Blind in One Ear'); the best 'feel' for the series, with dialogue quotes and reviews, is Cornell, Day and Topping's 'The Avengers Dossier', despite my not agreeing with all their opinions (particularly their attacks on Linda Thorson's wonderful Tara King). My liberal hatred of monopoly notes this is the only one with no involvement by Rogers - unless you count his helping get its original version withdrawn, which is why the current re-release has been nicknamed 'The Avengers Unpulped'! So what's the unique selling point here? The photos. Some are previously unpublished, and I love the one on page 67. Otherwise, I'd only recommend it to beginners and completists. It simply isn't "the definitive Avengers guide" its publicity claims, and if you've seen a fair number of episodes and want a book about the series, it might be pretty but it's not the best one for you.