Or – “In Which My Personal Theory About Marvel Comics Becomes Clear…”
This weekend, during a conversation with co-worker Chris at Gatekeeper Hobbies (HUNTOON & GAGE, TOPEKA!), I realized something important about Marvel Comics in general (and Brian Bendis in particular):
They have a poor sense of time…
This theory came to me after reading the final issue of ‘Siege’ as it made it’s way to the back issue bin, and found the issue referring to itself as “An Event Seven Years In The Making!” Remember, we’re now in the era of ‘Shattered Heroes,’ which theoretically followed the gilded Heroic Age. The Heroic Age actually lasted nearly a year-and-a-half in the real world, and the creators have probably been working on the books for even longer. Why do I bring this up?
AVENGERS #19
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Daniel Acuna
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Previously, in The Avengers: Since 2003, the Avengers have had at least half a dozen “fresh new starts,” with new lineups and new team members and such. Civil War actually splintered the team into TWO separate groups of Avengers, allowing for more than one fresh new lineup (often in the same month), and eventually we’ve come to the point where the Avengers franchise consists of four monthly titles about at least three individual teams, some of which share many of the same members. The last time an Avengers book made a big deal about a lineup change was a month or two ago, when the New Avengers added a couple of members (Daredevil and Squirrel Girl.) So, what makes anyone think that we need a big “Meet your NEW AVENGERS team (who aren’t the New Avengers, but in fact the Avengers who are New!” issue?
Poor. Sense. Of Time.
THE GUYS ON THE COVER? NOT THE NEW LINEUP…
Let’s start with the plus column: Daniel Acuna can draw like a mofo, and the book looks really good. The opening sequence builds on the flirtation between Clint “Hawkeye” Barton and Jessica “Spider-Woman” Drew, while S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson interrogates the former U.S. Agent about Norman Osborn’s recent escape from his prison. In the man’s defense, said prison had been blown to smithereens less than three months ago by the Juggernaut, leaving a great big hole in the wall that I’m sure could be infiltrated by the crack strike team of Louie Anderson, Zach Gowen, Estelle Getty and myself. (I’m the debonair leader, while Tenacious Z is the confidence man, Louie the explosives expert and Estelle the muscle.) Warden Walker calls her on her crap, pointing out that the Avengers were on the scene and Osborn still got away, and before we know it, a third of the book is gone. After a brief moment between Captain America and Iron Man, we set off in search of the new Avengers!
AND I’M STILL NOT SURE WHO’S ON THE TEAM.
There’s a really lovely bit of character work that comes in the middle of the issue wherein Cap tries to recruit T’Challa, the Black Panther, but it all comes crashing down with one line of dialogue from the Panther: “You ARE in bad shape if I’m a friendly face…” When the story makes little sense (as this does, given that T’Challa’s exit from the Avengers a few years ago involved him being outed as a spy from the get-go, joining the team to protect his powerbase and spy on them), a writer simply cannot have the characters point that out IN THE STORY. Hell, the moment wherein John Walker shoots off his mouth earlier in the issue is really the same thing, and we get yet another such moment later in the issue (which I’ll get to in a moment.) The upshot of all this is that T’Challa suggests that the Avengers don’t need the King of Wakanda so much as they need the QUEEN…
…and that’s how Storm becomes an Avenger. Tony Stark performs a classic ass-pull moments later, revealing that he has rebuilt The Vision (Which begs the question of who is the guy over in Young Avengers) while Captain America brings Agent Johnson (aka ‘Quake’ from Secret War) onboard. The third puzzling “shot in the foot” moment comes as Captain America takes his team (Himself, Iron Man, Quake, Red Hulk, Storm, Spider-Woman, The Vision, The Protector ((UGH)) and Hawkeye) public, and Wolverine and Spider-Man question whether they’re still members. “They got their mutant and spider-person,” Wolverine grumbles, but I will lay down money right now that they both keep appearing in the book.
THE VERDICT: ACUNA SHINES, BENDIS TRIES…
The biggest problem with the issue comes in the big reveal at the end, as Norman Osborn interrupts the press conference with the intention of bringing it all crashing down. I recently dropped the New Avengers title after the truly AWFUL point-one issue, and I had hoped that the titles would not be intertwined in their pursuit of a THIRD shot at the Dark Avengers. Again, I’m sure the creators think it’s been long enough since the end of Dark Reign that it’s time for Osborn to take center stage as a villain, but for my money it clearly has not. No matter how lovely this issue is, it’s really only about ten pages of story (for FOUR BUCKS) padded out with a couple of long conversations. (This, by the way, is part two of the arc which promises to introduce the new team, an arc which the cynical part of me knows will be six issues long to fill the trade paperback.) All in all, Avengers #19 is mostly filler, well-drawn, but essentially same ol’, same ol’, earning a very disappointed 1.5 out of 5 stars overall.
Faithful Spoilerite Question Of The Day: Is ‘Deja Vu’ a good enough reason to stop reading a title?
16 Comments
“Deja Vu” is when the Matrix resets itself after a glitch, Matthew.
Hawkeye and Black Widow? What happened to Mockingbird?
Yes.
I really don’t want to read about the Dark Avengers AGAIN.
Mockingbird is over in New Avengers, and they’re treating the characters resurrections as somehow negating the marriage…
Hey, Matthew.
Honor the man, please… Is ACUÑA, not Acuna. We, spaniards, take the “Ñ” really seriously.
It’s easy:
ASCII Code – ALT+165 = Ñ / ALT+164 = ñ
Unicode – ALT+0209 = Ñ / ALT+0241 = ñ
¡Así se dice mi buen “Ambush Bug” (pero en español un “ambush bug” sería una chinche asesina, lo cual es aun mas cool ) EnseÑÑÑemosles a estos Gabachos el poder de la Ñ:
¡: ALT + 173
Letter Ñ: http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/flxcardona/palabras_con_letra_egne.htm
Chinche asesina/Ambush bug: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduviidae
Que?
Honor the man, please… Is ACUÑA, not Acuna. We, spaniards, take the “Ñ” really seriously.
I honestly attempted to get the thing to work with the ñ, but it didn’t copy over when I imported my first draft into WordPress. Mea culpa.
If Marvel wants to stop losing money (and having to cancel titles), it needs to get Bendis off ALL the Avengers books immediately. He may be okay at writing other stuff, but he’s ruining one of the company’s flagship titles.
I think Marvel LIKES the “Start a character’s (or plural in the case of the FF) book at #1, then revert to “legacy numbering”, then cancel, rinse, repeat” cycle.
I think Marvel needs to a reboot of all its titles. Maybe they could publish 52 new #1 issues.
Silly man, you can charge $20 now for a trade that only collects FOUR issues.
Just a couple of thoughts here:
1) If Red Hulk is now an official member of the main Avengers group and he’s the transformed version of a long-time military General why does he still wear torn-up gray pants? You’d think a military man would want to be squared away if you’re on a stand in front of a crowd, especially if they’re portraying you as a “hero” instead of a radiation powered old guy that hates his former son-in-law.
2) If Wolverine and Spiderman are still members of the New Avengers why would they be that worried about being part of Cap’s team? And if Wolverine is running the Jean Grey School doesn’t that cut into his time to go out slicing and dicing with two Avengers teams?
3) Who the hell is “Quake” and why does anyone care?
4) If after all the crap Tony Stark has pulled behind Captain America’s back they can still work together (weren’t they fighting about something before this ‘Fear Itself’ series that ran for the last two years or so?) why would T’Challa and Steve Rogers still be on the outs?
5) If you’re going to push The Protector down our throats at least give him a decent costume and give him the Captain Marvel name back. It’s not like anyone’s using it right now in either Marvel OR DC.
6) The Dark Avengers has been used more than Terry Funk retiring. Please someone make them go away. Dark Avengers, Revengers, EastEnders…what does it all mean, Basil?
7) “Oh, Steve….while I was doing all this other stuff behind your back I also rebuilt the synthezoid that damn near took over the world and then got smashed into itsey-bitsey pieces crashing a Quinjet into my family’s mansion killing folks. Never mind the kid version that’s the former Iron Lad which is someone’s armor and will now be known as Vision Lad. SURPRISE!!!”
Feh…..
I’m still wondering where Ross’ mustache goes when he “Rulks out”.
Quake is the love child of Mr. Hyde and a ho, she debuted in the miniseries Secret War teaming up Nick Fury, and other B-List capes like Daredevil, Luke Cage and Black Widow against Dr. Doom and his cyborg servant Andreas Von Bardas. She later took part of Fury’s Secret Warriors against The Kraken and The Hive. She has seismic powers, thus the name of Quake, she was based on Angelina Jolie.
Well, actually, The Protector is Robin’s replacement in Tiny Titans. That’s a prized guest spot. It’s like when Wolverine or Batman guest stars in a title.