Marvel's Heroic Age

[The NZA]

 

USA Today, of all places.

 

Marvel superheroes are leaving the dark side.

After seven years of grim and grimmer story lines, including a superhero "civil war" that pitted Iron Man against Spider-Man and the death of Captain America, Marvel Comics will usher in a more optimistic "Heroic Age" approach in May.

 

"Heroes will be heroes again," says Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada. "They've gone through hell and they're back to being good guys — a throwback to the early days of the Marvel Universe, with more of a swashbuckling feel."

 

The change begins with a relaunch of Avengers #1, which will reunite Iron Man, a reborn Captain America and Thor as comrades rather than foes.

 

All this would be of interest only to comic fans except it comes just months after Disney purchased Marvel for $4 billion and as Iron Man 2 and other Marvel films are on the way.

 

It also could mark a major shift in comic book storytelling, which took a turn to grittier stories after the success of DC's The Dark Knight Returns and Marvel's more adult take on Daredevilin the 1980s.

 

Quesada says that Marvel's return to "good guys" was in the works for two years, was finalized eight months ago and that the Disney takeover had no role.

 

"There is no sanitizing of the Marvel books at all," he says, promising stories will remain "edgy" and contemporary. "Our philosophy here is to just keep telling good stories."

 

Quesada pushed a complete makeover for Spider-Man two years ago in a "Brand New Day" story line, which wiped out Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane and repositioned the hero as the teenage loner he was in the 1960s.

 

In the upcoming Avengers' story line, however, the changes will remain in continuity and will not be a "reboot" of the franchises involved.

 

Likely to give the "Heroic Age" considerable fanboy cred will be the participation of writer Brian Michael Bendis, who was chief architect of the "disassembly" of the Marvel Universe in the first place. Most recently, he has overseen the "Dark Reign" story line where villain Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) has taken charge of the superhero community. That approach ends with the "Heroic Age."

 

"The 'brand new day' of the Heroic Age presents a tonal shift to optimism, a world filled with hope but quite hellish villains," Bendis says. "The heroes realize it's a blue-sky world worth protecting."

 

Bendis says the story line was approved long before the sale to Disney. "This was always the plan, and I have the memos to prove it," he says with a laugh.

 

"This was always the whole point — the reunion, the Avengers getting back together, because this is what the world needs right now," Bendis says. "Now we get to the good stuff."

 

...alright, i'm on board. doesn't say so much about single-issue events as i'm hoping for, but you know? these last several years of events have been off-and-on fun, but i keep saying it, they've (mostly Bendis) made me care about the core Avengers more than i ever did growing up. Hawkeye went from a nobody to me to one of the cooler characters, i havnet been this excited about Cap coming back since Mark Waid wrote the book, and Stark finally has a personality. if they can get them back and get them villains too, we should get some good stories out of this.

 

I know the "Brand New Day" tagline is off-putting, but honestly, Amazing Spider-Man in the last year or two has started to feel a lot more like its better days than it has for years now, that kind've feel for some other characters/books would be great.

[Newtype]

Quesada says that Marvel's return to "good guys" was in the works for two years, was finalized eight months ago and that the Disney takeover had no role.

 

Translation:

 

Threw this together over the weekend and we'll make stuff up on the fly.

[The NZA]

...baytor?

[Newtype]

...Jay?

[The NZA]

no, no, no: you're pessimistic before an event starts, that's baytornig it. to properly JZA it, id have to comment something slight off-topic about an issue of Avengers i read as a kid that was absolute garbage, end in on a hopeful note here, come back 6 months after we're done talking about it to say "WHAT THE FUCK ISSUE # 1 WAS SUCH SHIT WHAT'RE YOU CUNTS ON ABOUT" and then finish issue 3 and concede i liked it.

[Newtype]

no, no, no: you're pessimistic before an event starts, that's baytornig it. to properly JZA it, id have to comment something slight off-topic about an issue of Avengers i read as a kid that was absolute garbage, end in on a hopeful note here, come back 6 months after we're done talking about it to say "WHAT THE FUCK ISSUE # 1 WAS SUCH SHIT WHAT'RE YOU CUNTS ON ABOUT" and then finish issue 3 and concede i liked it.

 

You know him a little to well if you ask me.

[The NZA]

well, not to brag, but....you may not know, i was voted his best internet friend 4LYFE.

 

 

/back on topic: pretty sure i can guess the 3 in the top picture. i know everyone wants Sentry gone, but who do you think of the New and Dark Avengers might stay around? Spidey and Wolvy i see back off the team, mebbe Luke Cage and the obvious former ones like Ms Marvel stay. Of the Dark Ones...i dunno, i cant even say Ares, he's almost pointless with Thor there, unless his writing goes back to how it was in the Oeming mini.

[Mr. Hakujin]

I like the phrase "JZA it."

 

Anyway, at the risk of "baytoring it" I have to say labeling something an "age" before it even starts is just setting it up to fail. And is Steve Rogers back to being Captain America? I thought he told Bucky he was "Cap" now, right?

[Jables]

Translation:

 

Threw this together over the weekend and we'll make stuff up on the fly.

 

Y'know, I started out believing that Disassembled, than House of M, and even Civil War were 'several years in the making: this will answer all those unasked questions you've had about the Heroes of the Marvel U'. But old, weary, Bayted JZA just shakes a cane at these whippersnapper events and complains that the colours are too loud.

 

If this is what they feel they gotta do to get attention, cool. But if years of defending Supes & to a limited extent Cap, I gotta say: it's a shallow well they're trynna draw fresh water from. I guess if anything your Hawkeyes, Punishers, Cages and Power Fists of the set will probably get set up as paper anti-heroes that the 'golden avengers' fight ever other issue to keep the world Christian and white, teaching them to recycle and whatnot.

 

Big danger here is, with a more one-dimensional hero comes also the one-dimensional villians. Expect Kang to twirl a waxed moustache as he lowers Cap into a poisoned reservoir.

[The NZA]

Big danger here is, with a more one-dimensional hero comes also the one-dimensional villians. Expect Kang to twirl a waxed moustache as he lowers Cap into a poisoned reservoir.

 

if bendis, bru, way etc are writing the dialogue for that scene, im excited, and hope he spends at least 3-4 panels explaining his nefarious plot.

 

this presser reads to me like a possible return to smaller arcs, not necessarily as large events of dark, existential crisis/magnitude, etc. in other words, kinda what a lotta fans have wanted to see for a while again, a number of which from this board as well. if tying up the big, melodramatic events and moving the fuck on to let their currently excellent stable of writers/artists tell their own stories without being bogged down sounds like it warrants preemptive hate...all i can say is that writers like Ellis (that's who JZA's channeling there, for the kids in the back) are right, the best thing creators can do is not listen to anyone on the internet ever.

 

 

crap in a hat, haku's bitching about the event having a name and his inability to keep up with good comics.

 

[Jables]

WHile my first instinct is to get pissy and point to books like Web of Spiderman for designated small arc books, I guess I gotta see how this plays out. Marvel hasn't interested me in the longest time, so I guess caring at all on my part is arbitrary.

[The NZA]

wait, i havent read Web yet (its tied to the clone thing, yeah?)...you're saying it hasnt been good? i gotta catch up on that one.

 

ill say this much: Benis was clearly building towards this since Disassembled. you read the same Wizard shit i did: he's a diehard fan of classic Avengers, and his first week on the job, he wrecks them in such a way they dont come back for, shit, how many years now? i keep saying, amongst the bad endings, there's been some good character moments, in House of M and such, that stand out when you re-read and dont focus on the leftover shit that followed like Decimation, etc.

if they'dve done this "Heroic Age" and tried to get fans hyped about the 3 main Avengers.....no one'dve given much of a shit, or at least not enough to get the sad readership that team book must've had for years. take them off the table for a while, create a world where you want them back in it to kick the shit out of Osborn & his team...and people herald their return, if even just to see Thor wail on Ares/Sentry, etc. i stand that its been a rough, sometimes ill-thought-out ride (Civil War and Secret Invasion both'd be remembered so much better if their endings were different), but you gotta admit, nobodoy was reading Cap, Iron Man, Avengers etc pre-Bendis. they kept having to launch new series of each book to get noticed, and it wasnt working. now, theyre some of the best Marvel puts out...so im willing to say it worked, and way better than when DC tried this with "One Year Later".

[Iambaytor]

...baytor?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm cautiously optimistic for the time being, Dark Reign was kinda fun, haven't read much Siege yet.

[Jables]

wait, i havent read Web yet (its tied to the clone thing, yeah?)...you're saying it hasnt been good? i gotta catch up on that one.

 

ill say this much: Benis was clearly building towards this since Disassembled. you read the same Wizard shit i did: he's a diehard fan of classic Avengers, and his first week on the job, he wrecks them in such a way they dont come back for, shit, how many years now? i keep saying, amongst the bad endings, there's been some good character moments, in House of M and such, that stand out when you re-read and dont focus on the leftover shit that followed like Decimation, etc.

if they'dve done this "Heroic Age" and tried to get fans hyped about the 3 main Avengers.....no one'dve given much of a shit, or at least not enough to get the sad readership that team book must've had for years. take them off the table for a while, create a world where you want them back in it to kick the shit out of Osborn & his team...and people herald their return, if even just to see Thor wail on Ares/Sentry, etc. i stand that its been a rough, sometimes ill-thought-out ride (Civil War and Secret Invasion both'd be remembered so much better if their endings were different), but you gotta admit, nobodoy was reading Cap, Iron Man, Avengers etc pre-Bendis. they kept having to launch new series of each book to get noticed, and it wasnt working. now, theyre some of the best Marvel puts out...so im willing to say it worked, and way better than when DC tried this with "One Year Later".

 

 

Yeah, while I have a few gripes with Marvel Events, DC really soured that fucking apple, so good on them. And your point about these books all being read when they weren't previously, well that's mostly Bendis right there. Fucking up the chessboard inspired a whole new generation of writers to get on and make their mark. Inevitably though, this Golden Age will die in the arse when Joey Q realises there's not so much scratch in Silver Age morality tales(mostly about the Red threat & recycling).

 

Web of Spiderman had it's moments. It was pitched as a book that focused more on small arcs about Spiderman's supporting cast, and I only have the first trade which gave us Ennis' Thousand, Rucka & Azzarello's Severance Pay(one of the best Spiderman stories ever written- anyone who hasn't read it go find it right the fuck now!! It's a single issue ffs!) and Milligan's Flowers for the Rhino, which ain't bad. I see the rest of the volumes in the $5 bin down at my store and am tempted to pick 'em up, but I get the feeling they won't be worth a tinker's damn.

[Visitant]

I'm excited but could we really take Wolverine and Deadpool out of EVERY FUCKING MARVEL BOOK? I mean really guys, it's getting old. Don't they ever get a chance to just take some time off?

 

P.s: I hope there is something to draw me back into Spider-Man cause i'm still bitter after "One More Day".

[Mr. Hakujin]

I'm excited but could we really take Wolverine and Deadpool out of EVERY FUCKING MARVEL BOOK? I mean really guys, it's getting old. Don't they ever get a chance to just take some time off?

 

P.s: I hope there is something to draw me back into Spider-Man cause i'm still bitter after "One More Day".

Word up!

[The NZA]

 

Bind - has been milked for years now; once he turns in his Avengers ID, i think itll be status quo (unless you're seeing him more these days?). Deadpool is indeed getting milked these days, he even jokes about it in the books.

 

as for - yeah, One More Day ended horribly bad, but have you picked up Amazing Spider-Man since? they had a rotating pool of writers/artists every month, and in the last year or more, its been really enjoyable: new villains, new takes on older ones, been really run.

[Visitant]

I've been hearing that Spider-man is picking up again and is doing really well. I just can't shake this annoyed feeling that all of my spider-man comics I have sitting in boxes pretty much mean jack shit in context of the story now since it's all been removed from the continuity. That being said I, like a battered trailer park trash wife, will most likely go back to it at some point even after saying I wouldn't.

 

I fell out of the comic scene shortly after one more day and finishing up all the civil war, house of M goodness. I might get slapped around for asking but what ever happened to Vulcan, and is marvel ruining one of my fave mutants (Havok) right now?

[Thelogan]

Don't feel bad, I didn't even know who the fuck Vulcan was.

 

I definitely agree that they need to chill with the big, sweeping universe wide crossovers. To me, this looks like a move in vein of the launch of the Ultimate line. They figure they're gonna have some new readers coming to check shit out because of the movies and they don't want them to have to jump in during some weird shit and get turned off because they have no clue what's going on and the movie characters aren't recognizable.

[Keth]

Don't feel bad, I didn't even know who the fuck Vulcan was.

 

I definitely agree that they need to chill with the big, sweeping universe wide crossovers. To me, this looks like a move in vein of the launch of the Ultimate line. They figure they're gonna have some new readers coming to check shit out because of the movies and they don't want them to have to jump in during some weird shit and get turned off because they have no clue what's going on and the movie characters aren't recognizable.

dude thats exactly what happened with me. I havent been reading this stuff very long and when i wanted to read some normal ass marvel stuff..... we got a red hulk, cap is dead, and Loki got a sex change... or something. The precise reason I liked Dark Reign so much is that, at least to me, it was fresh ground that i could comfortably get into..... until they force feed you crossovers that make you lose you place (Thanks alot Dark Avengers/ Uncanny X-Men). But yea hopefully good things come out of this ^.^

[The NZA]

there was that point in the late 90s or so, i wanna say Joe Q was pushing to get the "catchup" page back on there, but yeah, Uncanny X-Men is far, far too convoluted to help on such a page, even with pictures of faces. if i was doing their digital comic, id have a "help" tag and a series of wiki pages off to the side. Ultimate X-Men eventually ran into this problem, ironically, after so many issues/crossovers as well. sort've inevitable, to a point.

 

they can, however, on individual character books (and some team ones) leave stories more self-contained, like Untold Tales of Spider-Man did years back, and was a lotta fun for it. anyway, bendis is raving about this one on his board, ill try to copy some stuff over later.

[The NZA]

 

note: this is not a team lineup, and i have no idea who monkeyman there is. newt says read agent of atlas.

[Thelogan]

I recently reread Spider-Man 2099, I had forgotten that there are a lot of references to "The Heroic Age". I guess I assumed it was the then current Marvel line.

How many years are we going to give it before a universe shattering event comes and makes everyone dark and broody? I say 3, tops. The 2099 prophet says it does not end well. We're nearly 20 years closer to it now than when it came out. not so far off now.

 

I, for one, welcome our Latvian overlord.

[The NZA]

I recently reread Spider-Man 2099, I had forgotten that there are a lot of references to "The Heroic Age".

 

 

damn, nice find! its cool if they've used the phrase before, much less thought it up back at some point like that.

...and now im sad that none of us will be around in 2099 to see what marvel does.

[Thelogan]

damn, nice find! its cool if they've used the phrase before, much less thought it up back at some point like that.

...and now im sad that none of us will be around in 2099 to see what marvel does.

 

Speak for yourself, sir! I have master plans.