Thinking on it a bit, it actually makes sense that they would have Eric Selvig investigating the mysteries of the Stones. He's had direct experience with three of them. He studied the Space Stone for SHIELD, was under the influence of the Mind Stone and helped to defeat the Reality Stone. In fact, the back cover also indicates that they'll be focusing on two of those three stones, Space and Reality.
Also, Selvig is working with Darcy and not Jane? She must have gotten dusted.
If I'm being honest, I just might check this one out even if it is just mostly recap.
OK, I saw this while Christmas shopping and decided to pick it up. I knew going in that the book was aimed at much younger readers, so I can't complain on that score. And it did tell an original story with a minimum of recap, much to my surprise.
Post-Decimation, Darcy Lewis responds to a mysterious message from Erik Selvig, and Darcy is afraid that he's gone "banana-balls" again. She finds him at a motel in New Mexico in full pants-less research mode, which fuels Darcy's fears.
However, Selvig is less nuts and more obsessed with figuring out the cause of "The Decimation", and is sure that his previous experiences with powerful cosmic object is the key. Selvig is determined to find the missing Jane Foster due to her experience with the Aether. Darcy fears the Jane is among the dead, but Selvig won't hear of it.
So the two of them go on quest in Darcy's little car. Luckily, through the power of the Plot Contrivance Stone, all of the people that Selvig and Darcy are looking for, including the not-dusted Jane and oddly enough, Darcy's ex Ian, are found in the US Southwest and provide pieces of the puzzle.
In the end, Selvig, Darcy, Jane and the crew that they picked up on the way make their way to Tonsberg, Norway, site of Odin's battle with the Frost Giants, former hiding place of the Tesseract and home of the Water of Sight (I don't recall Age of Ultron connecting the site to Tonsberg, but it makes sense) where they find a way to manipulate the water and learn the history of the stones, Thanos, his quest and how it all turned out. (Darcy: "We just witnessed a lot of crazy stuff in that cosmic cloud thingy, but did you see a
tree person and a
raccoon with a gun at one point?" "Yes", replied the group in unison.
)
In the end, Selvig rededicates his work to learning more about the stones and the secrets that they carry.
Like I said up top, it is a book for young readers so I didn't expect it to go into great about the Decimation and the chaos that would result but was disappointed that such was actually almost entirely avoided in the narrative. Earth is depicted as surprisingly business as usual in this book. As I mentioned, all of the people that Selvig sought out were still alive and all of the motels and dollar stores and such were operating as if nothing unusual had happened. One new character (who reminded me of Amadeus Cho, although it wasn't) lost both of his parents and there is a bit of macabre humor when the book's bad guy mentions having to drain his hot tub after his "assistants" dissolved, but otherwise Earth is depicted as unrealistically normal under the circumstances.
A fun quick read (I got through it in a single sitting), and as mentioned upthread, more Darcy is always a good thing and she serves as our POV character throughout.
