"Avengers: Time Warp Teamwork" is a picture book for ages 3 and up (but probably up), featuring The Avengers. It was written by horror movie critic Alexandra West and illustrated by Dario Brizuela, Gaetano Petrigno and Tomasso Moscarino. Its characters seem to be the same as the The Avengers from the movies, with some alteration. It has Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.

The Avengers are practicing, but Tony Stark feels left out because he doesn't have superpowers and there is no crime to right. So he decides to build a time machine. After he does so and announces it to the rest of the Avengers, Captain America objects, pointing out the inherit dangers of time travel. But the rest of the Avengers want to try it out, and we see Hawkeye and Black Widow rescuing Queen Victoria, Hulk, Thor and Captain America fighting cybernetic wolves in 4029 and finally Iron Man fighting a laser-gun armed bandit in 1792. But Iron Man gets caught in a time loop, and it is up to the rest of the Avengers to rescue him. Back in the present, Iron Man admits to Captain America that time travel shouldn't be used casually, and we end on a panel of everyone being friends.

Normally, when I write things like this, it is part of a schtik. I will let you in on a secret: there was nothing I could really think of to say about Hot Wheels: Shark Attack, which I bought at the same time as this. But this? There was some stuff going on here. I did think this was a bit mature for three year olds: the mechanics of time travel, the interpersonal conflicts of the Avengers, and the presence of weapons (however censored---a cowboy in 1792 has a laser gun, presumably because that is less violent than a period-appropriate gun, although in Victorian times, we have a man with a crossbow--- I wonder what the censorship policy for this book was). But this book actually was based around a concept that has been important in the Avengers, and in the world. Because the basic concept is the clash between the hubris of technocracy (represented by Iron Man) and the warning voice of democracy, represented by Captain America. It was a theme that was at the center of both the comic book and movie version of the "Civil War" storyline. And this story book, in as simple as a form as it could, communicated that concept.

Which is why all story books should be written by people who have graduate degrees in film from The University of Toronto.

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