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The Avengers


The NZA

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avengers.jpg

 

(weve threads on team books, and the New Avengers and such, but i wanted a thread for the core title/talk on the team and its characters in the regular marvel u)

 

So, to answer Arch's request for my thoughts on Fallen Son: Bargaining (# 3), here's my thoughts:

 

This issue was amazing, and afterwards, i was on the phone with Panch for like an hour. Here's why:

In the 90's, i read almost everything with an "X" on it. Between Age of Apocalypse, Onlsaught etc, the X-books had some really great writers for the time, and pre-end of clone war, Spider-Man was doing great, too. But you couldnt get me to read an Avengers book. The whole purpose of Heroes Reborn was to bring back the hot aritsts and revitalize those core books, and even i lost interest about 3 issues into each one. It didnt work.

 

Mark Waid & Ron Garney's run on Captain America was one of my favorite books of that time, but the rest of the characters and the team book really didnt do it fo rme. And id often think of this quote from Wizard wehre Grant Morisson said something like "The Justice League are some of the most iconic figures in comics, but you cant get anyone to read a solo or team title on them, and that's not right." And he did much to fix it at the time, but i remember thinking it was obviously true of Marvel's team, but would could be done?

 

Flash forward 10 years or so, and the beginning of new marvel. Bendis and Millar, against all the "its been done!" hate, revitalize pretty much all of marvel's flagship books in the Ultimate universe, and even with Utlimate Spider-Man and X-Men being great books and commercial sucesses, none really argue that Millar's Ultimates (haivng also just finished last week) was the finest of the titles and proved that, written differently, this team could be completely badass and interesting. Joe Q slowly allowed (id agrue) these 2 to tie their entire universe together, and then started to let them do the same to the regular Marvel U.

 

Think about it. It all started shaky with "Dissasembled", happened way too fast. I didnt know enough about the Avengers to call bullshit, but it felt forced. All the shit written on the side of the event was horribly forgettable...except for, you know, Thor dying. Secret War was awesome, but the timing didnt flow with anything...only Bendis' books even referenced it. The end point was: Fury stepped down, S.H.I.E.L.D's not the same/possibly corrupt so there goes another marvel institution. Next was House of M, whose core book i still enjoyed, but also surrounded/followed by crap. The big point was "No more mutants"; the sleeper hit? Hawkeye returns in a solo issue of The Pulse with more character than ive ever seen him having.

 

Finally, Bendis ties up more of continuity with The Illuminati, and the fallout/leadup to Civil War, leading us to where we are now. And you just know Bendis looks forward to tying all these events together into some big conspiracy, possibly involving the New Avenger's problems ever since the jail breakout and discoveries since. All that is where we are now, plot-wise. But what about character? Let's look at the very core Avengers:

 

Captain America: dead.

Iron Man: dead? Ultron? If not, running S.H.I.E.L.D. with more problems on the way.

Thor: dead.

Hawkeye: dead, but back now, kind of.

Vision: dead.

Scarlet Witch: irrelevant now/might as well be dead.

Quicksilver: villian (basically) behind House of M, currently causing the war with the Inhumans.

 

Thor's coming back, and just in time for Planet Hulk. How do you think he's gonna return, ready to help (given that he's about the only non-Sentry/Ares guy who can), when he finds out that a) he was cloned, andt aht killed another avenger, b) his allies are all dead or disbanded, and c) the one man whom he trusted/respected enough to ally with is gone?

Enter Stark, who's gonna have to answer for this, while pleading for help cause let's face it, his Initiative kids are not long for this world if they take on Hulk and his warbound friends. He may be top dog, but he knows its Fury's house. He cant even find half the avenger team, his team's got muscle but no cordination/stategy/leadership, oh, he might be dead and if he's not? He's on the top of Hulk's "to kill" list.

 

With Cap, Waid showed it during the one issue of "Project Rebirth" he was allowed to leave Cap gone: when youre that iconic, its interesting just having people talk about you in your abscense, hence why Cap's solo book (along with an amazing supporting cast) can live without him...neveryoumind that Bru apparently has an epic, continous tale a la Bendis' DD run in mind. He keeps saying that Steve's death was "just the beginning" for Red Skull's master plan, and i mean nobody listened before in every interview when he said this story would be something big and different, but you kill Cap and now everyone's paying attention. I mean hell, he took out the Skull himself in issue # 1.

It doesnt hurt that he, you know, led an underground resistance, took out a S.H.I.E.L.D. batallion on his way out and damn near killed his best friend before the war ended.

 

Iron Man..hate him or love him, Tony has character. Before, i thought he looked cool, and overcoming alcoholism in the day was something, but his cast of villians sucks. I wasnt even interestd when he became secratary of defense. Now, Bendis adds this futurist angle, and i can call him an uncle tom all day but he thinks he's doing right and he's interesting enough that i read his title long after Warren Ellis left.

 

Thor, who hasnt really been cool since, wha, Simonson (save Ennis' mini)? I still havent gotten around to reading "Stormbreaker" but if Oeming or JMS covers him, im hoping for a fun run like when Jurgens wrote "Dark Gods" or the short Ellis "Worlengine". I like how Oeming fleshed out Ares in his own mini (even if I dont know that Bendis read it...) but im hoping for Thor to come back and put these new kids in there place.

 

And Hawkeye, between that Pulse issue and this issue of Fallen Son? I'm dying to see him on the New Avengers now, even more so than my interest in Ronin. I read those 2 issues and think "this is how a character like him should be written". Its like he's the only one that's clearly changed from House of M.

 

Id like to take a second to applaud Bendis, Millar, Brubaker and others for, in this short time, making me hyped about the eventual return/possible forced reunion of all these characters i previously dindt give a fuck about. Seriously, there's a huge X-event in like 2 months and i dont even remember its name yet. It finally feels like Marvel's biggest team has actual character; so much so that i atually wanna read all the individual titles as well. The old Marvel would've fixed the fractured team long before and i woudlntve cared anymore for them having done so; now, whenever that does happen, itll mean a great deal more.

 

now lets just see them do that with the fantastic four one day.

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its prolly more my fault than anything. They had a good run in recent times with JMS (guy writing "Back in Black") but i can never shake the image of them being Marvel's 7th Heaven or some shit.

 

You know these writers are rubbing off when im using more Avengers in Ultimate Alliance than X-Men. Im sorry, sitting on the sidelines during civil war doesnt win a lotta points with me.

 

:wolvy: what the fuck man? you respected the shit out of Charlie, but you constantly went against his wishes! Emma takes over, tells you "sit this round out once youre done with nitro" and you're what, doing your fucking taxes when cap gets shot?

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Right, but...the opressed team who's been fighting a registration act their whole careers, and now an all-out one comes up, and...Wolvy cant even be in the final fight?! Fuck man, Daredevil just got outta jail, and he was like "I should really call my wife, check my messages and...oh shit, i guess were going to the negative zone."

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  • 4 years later...

WDLHW.jpg

 

not the look i'dve gone for with Hawkeye (and where's Thor?), but

 

AVENGERS #19

Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS

Pencils & Cover by DANIEL ACUÑA

• Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. return!

• Witness the new Avengers line-up in action!

32 PGS./Rated T ...$3.99

 

wait, what? ...why?!

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That's a very Ultimat-ey Hawkeye costume. Y'know, before the universe got stupid (better known as "The Loeb Factor" on the streets). It's still better than some of the abominations Hawkeye has worn in the past (sorry Joe Mad, it's true and you know it).

 

Who's the douche with the gun? Looks kinda like Kree military gear, but I'm going to furrow my brow and ignore the obvious answer and ask anyway.

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man, i really gotta get around to reading that one, i think newt recommended it years back, and he's good with stuff like this.

if it helps (did you read Dark Avengers? was some fun shit), he was indeed an awkward fit, and dipped like halfway through.

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