The Avengers have been having a rough go of it lately at the hand of Brian Michael Bendis (writer de jour at Marvel these days—he walks on water as far as they’re concerned, it seems). He’s killing major characters and taking the Avengers apart. The long running series ended with issue 503.
Here’s how it happened:
**spoilers**
I guess at some point while I was out of comics--really only a few years in the late 80's and mid-90's--Scarlet Witch conjured up a pregnancy and ultimately two children for herself, and it was a few years before the Avengers figured out that these kids weren’t real. When they called her on it, she sort of broke down, and ultimately either had some sort of self-imposed amnesia, or someone else "made" her forget. I don’t know for sure—like I said, I wasn’t following comics at the time.
Well, turns out, she remembers now and she's pissed that her “children” and memories were taken from her. She killed Hank Pym, Hawkeye and Vision (and possibly Jack of Hearts, although he was already thought to be dead--but he is for sure now). She destroyed the Mansion by bringing about a Skree/Skrull invasion; she made She-hulk lose control and go on a rampage, she made Tony Stark (appear) drunk during an address to the UN, ultimately resulting in a revocation of government status for the group and costing Stark billions of dollars as his stock plummeted--he lost so much money that he can't bankroll the Avengers anymore. They're kaput. Fini.
So, now the series will reboot in a title called “the New Avengers.” It will feature a somewhat controversial lineup—controversial because there are some clearly out of place characters, characters that are clearly there to sell comics instead of to tell a tight story. Here’s the new lineup that will debut sometime in the next few weeks (I forget exactly when, maybe even today):
Captain America
Wolverine
Iron Man
Power Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Woman
Sentry
…and a mystery character.
Spider-Man and Wolverine are Marvel’s two most marketable characters, but neither really “fit” into the Avengers (at least, not into the Avengers as we knew them). Seems like a pretty blatant attempt to sell books, to me.
The mystery character was brought to the attention of the fanboy public in a photograph of the New Avengers cover in a USA today story. There is some speculation that it’s daredevil in a new costume/identity because of some of the happenings in his own title.
Anyway, interesting stuff…if you’re me.
Here’s how it happened:
**spoilers**
I guess at some point while I was out of comics--really only a few years in the late 80's and mid-90's--Scarlet Witch conjured up a pregnancy and ultimately two children for herself, and it was a few years before the Avengers figured out that these kids weren’t real. When they called her on it, she sort of broke down, and ultimately either had some sort of self-imposed amnesia, or someone else "made" her forget. I don’t know for sure—like I said, I wasn’t following comics at the time.
Well, turns out, she remembers now and she's pissed that her “children” and memories were taken from her. She killed Hank Pym, Hawkeye and Vision (and possibly Jack of Hearts, although he was already thought to be dead--but he is for sure now). She destroyed the Mansion by bringing about a Skree/Skrull invasion; she made She-hulk lose control and go on a rampage, she made Tony Stark (appear) drunk during an address to the UN, ultimately resulting in a revocation of government status for the group and costing Stark billions of dollars as his stock plummeted--he lost so much money that he can't bankroll the Avengers anymore. They're kaput. Fini.
So, now the series will reboot in a title called “the New Avengers.” It will feature a somewhat controversial lineup—controversial because there are some clearly out of place characters, characters that are clearly there to sell comics instead of to tell a tight story. Here’s the new lineup that will debut sometime in the next few weeks (I forget exactly when, maybe even today):
Captain America
Wolverine
Iron Man
Power Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Woman
Sentry
…and a mystery character.
Spider-Man and Wolverine are Marvel’s two most marketable characters, but neither really “fit” into the Avengers (at least, not into the Avengers as we knew them). Seems like a pretty blatant attempt to sell books, to me.
The mystery character was brought to the attention of the fanboy public in a photograph of the New Avengers cover in a USA today story. There is some speculation that it’s daredevil in a new costume/identity because of some of the happenings in his own title.
Anyway, interesting stuff…if you’re me.
