• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

  • Reading Orders
    • Marvel
    • My Marvelous Year
    • DC Comics
    • All Comic Book Publishers
    • Most Recent
  • Beginner Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide To Comics In 2025
    • Marvel 2025: Where to Start?
    • DC 2025: Where to Start?
    • Best of Lists
    • Tablets for Comics
    • Guides for Digital Readers
  • Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
    • DC Comics
    • Comic Book Movies
    • Comic Book TV
    • Video Games
  • Podcasts & Video
    • My Marvelous Year
    • Best Comics Ever (CBH)
    • CBH on Youtube!
  • About Me
    • My Favorite Comics of All Time
    • Columns
    • CBH Email Newsletter
  • Support Comic Book Herald
    • Ways to support
You are here: Home / Columns / Opinion / Marvel Avengers Initiative iPhone & iPad App: Mobile Comic Book Gaming Done Right

Marvel Avengers Initiative iPhone & iPad App: Mobile Comic Book Gaming Done Right

September 22, 2012 by Dave Leave a Comment

I leap onto the S.H.I.E.L.D hellicarrier and Hawkeye immediately taps into my communicator with some intel. “You might not be ready for this, Hulk,” he warns. What a wimp, I think. I lay waste to one of Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Mandroids, finishing the puny robot with a Gamma Smash, and continue searching the hellicarrier. He’s here somewhere. Smells like him. Rotten and foul and seeped in death. Time for Hulk to Smash.

Become the Hulk. Hops like you dream about.

Welcome to the newest mobile gaming experience from Marvel Comics. If nothing else, it’d be hard to fault Marvel’s new iPhone & iPad app, Avengers Initiative, when it lets you slip into the world of the Hulk so easily. Fortunately, the gameplay itself is surprisingly solid, and Marvel has here a worthwhile gaming addition to any iOS users.

CBH Review in Brief:

[schema type=”review” url=”www.comicbookherald.com” name=”Dave Buesing” rev_name=”Avengers Initiative App” rev_body=”Marvel’s Avengers Initiative iPhone app is a pleasant surprise for mobile gaming. Great story to follow and some fun Marvel universe smashing.” author=”Dave Buesing” pubdate=”2011-09-22″ user_review=”7.5″ min_review=”0″ max_review=”10″ ]

Avengers Initiative Gameplay

This new app from Marvel lets you take on the role of the Hulk as S.H.I.E.L.D deploys him into a post-prison riot incident. The opening storyline sets up a lot like Brian Michael Bendis’s Breakout with all sorts of violent and irredeemable villains now roaming the landscape. As Nick Fury clearly knows, there aren’t many better situations to call in the Hulk.

As the Hulk, you’ll be able to click from area to area to explore a desolate town, a graveyard, a rundown electrical plant, and eventually the S.H.I.E.L.D hellicarrier. You don’t have free reign to simply roam wherever you please, instead clicking on any of the available targeted selections and getting a cutscreen as you travel towards your next foe.

 

Support For Comic Book Herald:

Comic Book Herald is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a qualifying affiliate commission.

Comic Book Herald’s reading orders and guides are also made possible by My Marvelous Year club support on Patreon, and generous reader donations.

Any size contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Support CBH’s My Marvelous Year on Patreon for exclusive rewards, or Donate here! Thank you for reading!

For the most part, Avengers Initiative is all about traveling from one fight to the next, and this was my biggest concern heading into the game. I’m not crazy about “mash-em-up” gameplay without much purpose. While the fighting here is a lot of smudging your fancy iDevice screen (more on that in a minute), there’s enough complexity and decision-making involved that this app has won me over.

I’m a big fan of Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance games and this app takes a few pages from that book, with special rage powers available to the Hulk as you fight. So not only are you in control of the direction of your brutal green blows, but you also have the option to block hits, sidestep, or use one of your Rage powers like the “Worldbreaker” smash.

Hulk Smash App
Ask this Skrull about the Worldbreaker sometime.

Add just the right amount of gameplay complexity to a beautifully rendered Marvel Universe – the graphics in this game are incredible, and the voice-acting for The Hulk and other characters is spot on – and you have yourself a fun, rewarding app for any Marvel U lover. Honestly, I can’t voice strongly enough how exciting it is to see an app that ties so smoothly into past, present, and future comic book runs, with various Hulk style add-ons and the gallery of villains collected.

Gladiator Hulk Style App
Bring Planet Hulk to Life

7 Bucks for an App?

This is probably the biggest hold-up on downloading this app immediately, the $6.99 price tag. This is, of course, borderline lunacy because I would throw away seven dollars for a cold burrito. We’re all so used to .99 cent apps that seven dollars sounds like a small fortune.

My take on this is that the game, as is, is probably worth seven dollars. Again, great graphics, several hours worth of gameplay, and you get to beat up Skrulls, Kronans, and bosses like Wendigo and Zzzax.

Zzzax!

That said, I would not endorse this game so vigourously if there wasn’t the promise of future upgrades where you get to be other Avengers (and also maybe Dr. Strange). I mean, if one month from now Marvel announces an Iron Man storyline, and so on and so forth, that $7 price tag is virtually nothing. We’ll see how good Marvel really is about updating content, but the potential is there for a great deal.

Gameplay and Troubleshooting Notes

  1. When you play, play with headphones. I didn’t get any sound playing on my iPhone without earbuds, and I’m pretty sure I missed Nick Fury’s opening explanation because of it. A wide number of reviewers have pointed out this issue in the app store, so hopefully it’s fixed soon. In the meantime, have headphones available.
  2. When you’re standing still as the Hulk, don’t immediately jump from destination to destination. If you scroll around your view some, you’ll a) see just how awesome these graphics really are and b) be able to collect Purple rock money (start playing and that will make more sense), S.H.I.E.L.D dossiers, and medkits.
  3. Same goes for video cutscreens – if you see money on the screen while you’re walking up to Wendigo, you can still click that and boost your totals! Just figured this one out and am kicking myself for not trying sooner.
  4. If you leave the Hulk for long enough he’ll say “Hmm, Quiet introspection is getting me nowhere.” So if it wasn’t already clear from The Avengers movie, we’re dealing with relatively intelligent Hulk here, and I’m more than ok with that.
  5. Don’t get discouraged when you come to the seeming conclusion of the Hulk run. I don’t want to spoil exactly how this plays out because it’s kind of fun, but there are loads of gameplay hours left after this point, even though it will seem otherwise.
  6. My main complaint about gameplay is the fighting responsiveness. Much of the fighting is contigent on reading your opponent’s next move and responding accordingly. This is awesome, but it’s immensely frustrating when you try to swipe one direction and get no response. This may be less of a problem on the iPad, but my iPhone experience is a lot less precise than I’d like. Really the only thing that takes my overall score of the game down a few notches.
  7. When you swipe up for an uppercut attack, there’s like a 95% chance you’ll accidentally pause the game. Try to angle your swipes away from the center of the screen.
  8. Apparently the gameplay is very similar to that of Infinity Blade. So if you’ve enjoyed that game previously, and like The Avengers, I’d stop reading and buy this game right now.
The Wendigo on an iPhone
Nothing says morning commute like Wendigo on your iPhone
All in all, I’m a big fan of the Avengers Initiative  addition to my iPhone apps. I really didn’t expect much more than a half-hearted romp through some smashing, but this game is very well done. I’m fully expecting to upgrade my overall score of the game when some new characters are added, but until then, you can purchase here. Enjoy smashing away.

 

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: App Store (iOS), Hulk, iPhone, Marvel Comics, Marvel Universe

Heroically Support Comic Book Herald!

If you like Comic Book Herald, and are able to donate, any small contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Donate here! Or, support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards! Thank you for reading!

Become a Patron!

CBH Newsletter!

About Dave

Dave is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Comic Book Herald, and also the Boss of assigning himself fancy titles. He's a long-time comic book fan, and can be seen most evenings in Batman pajama pants. Contact Dave @comicbookherald on Twitter or via email at dave@comicbookherald.com.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

The My Marvelous Year Podcast!

Apple PodcastsRSS

CBH Newsletter!

My Marvelous Year Podcast and Reading Club 1

Recent Posts

  • 2010 Variant Cover E: Thunderbolts Review w/ Tiffany Babb May 12, 2025
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 2 (2000) May 8, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 9: Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Bucky on Trial, & Invincible Iron Man May 5, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of April 2025 May 1, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover D: Dave Interviewed Donny Cates & Chris Claremont! And Daredevil: Born Again Review! April 27, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 8: Daredevil: Shadowland April 21, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 7: Wolverine, Second Coming, & Uncanny X-Force April 14, 2025
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 1 (2000) April 7, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover C: Marvel Rivals Resurrects the X-Men’s Krakoa, Trivia & Jiggle Physics! April 7, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of March 2025 April 7, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 6: Hickman’s Fantastic Four: Three March 31, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 5: Realm of Kings & Thanos Imperative March 24, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover B: Daredevil Born Again (Again) TV Series Review! March 17, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 4: Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time & Dave’s Favorite Black Widow Story March 10, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of February 2025 March 4, 2025

Popular Articles

DC Rebirth Guide

Batman Reading Order

DC New 52 Reading Order

Marvel Ultimate Universe Guide

Civil War Reading Order

Marvel Cosmic Reading Order

The Best Comics of All Time!

Deadpool Reading Order

Justice League Reading Order

Complete Thanos Reading Order

X-Men Reading Guide (Modern Era)

Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

Modern Marvel Universe in 25 Trades

Best Tablet For Digital Comics

Is Marvel Unlimited Worth It?

Footer

New to Comic Book Herald?

Hey there - my name's Dave and this is my comic book blog. It's my way of sharing my borderline obsessive addiction to the comic book medium, and I hope you like some of what's going on here.

Most people that come here are looking for my (WIP) Marvel reading order guide. You can probably also get a sense if CBH is for you by taking a look at some of my columns.

If you like what you see, let's connect on Facebook or Twitter. Or, leave a comment on the blog here, I'm always looking for new awesome people in the comic book community.

More on Comic Book Herald

  • Home
  • About
  • Support CBH
  • My Marvelous Year
  • Join!
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

Recent Posts

  • 2010 Variant Cover E: Thunderbolts Review w/ Tiffany Babb
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 2 (2000)
  • 2010 Pt. 9: Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Bucky on Trial, & Invincible Iron Man
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of April 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover D: Dave Interviewed Donny Cates & Chris Claremont! And Daredevil: Born Again Review!

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in