Okay, so apparently March comes in like a lion and out like an even bigger lion riding an elephant and facing a gigantic force of ancient werewolves designed to capitalize on the charm of the new 300 movie because Jeph Loeb will not admit he has no idea where he’s going with this story and has just taken to telling the artist to draw something ‘awesome’.
But I digress.
Let’s talk about the Avengers, shall we? I didn’t do an All You Need to Know for the last issue of New Avengers because, surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad a read. Sure, it was full of holes in characterization and plot but in comparison to the Mighty Avengers, it seemed to me a well put together romp.
Can I just say how very very disappointed I was in the Mighty Avengers? It was promised to be a ‘back to basics’ approach to the Earth’s Mightiest and right from the get-go, I had to wonder who’s ‘basics’ these were going to be. Mine simply involved heroes uniting together for the common good against a defined foe. Easy, right? And to get technical, yes, Mighty Avengers #1 brought together heroes to go fight Mole Man and then Girl-tron. I think where my issue lies is with the ‘common good’ aspect of the equasion. Your milage may vary.
For the sake of my arguement, I’m not going to mention what a fugly Hellicarrier that Tony has from that issue. Because, really, that’s an easy target and less to do with good actions and more about bad design. It looks like Ronald McDonald is missing a shoe and there’s no one to blame but whoever told the colorist. Moving on.
The main story is Tony gets Carol in a room with a bunch of pictures of heroes in the Marvel Universe and together they play Kickball by selecting people for their new team as a flashback, while we watch the team they’re choosing in the present day fighting a big monster in the middle of the street. Not exactly climatic, but a good way to explain who’s there and who’s not. Or a device to have the two main characters get really catty about their fellow teammates. When trying to figure out the Wasp’s current relationship to her ex-husband, Tony declares that “I’m pretty sure they are what drove me to drink in the first place.” Okay, so I know he’s not serious (at least… I hope not) but still, that’s a really petty crack at someone who doesn’t really deserve it. Sadly, she and Hank Pym seem to suffer from the fact that Hank Pym can be wound too tight, hip writers find spousal abuse ‘edgy’, and Janet Van Dyne hasn’t been given much personal characterization outside of that for a very very long time. Saying that their relationship is so bad it must be countered by people who aren’t even involved with alcohol got the point across in a negative way, especially since not a beat in the conversationbefore that Iron Man says he misses her.
They go back and forth on the Black Widow, one part skills rundown, one part ‘hot or not’. Wonder Man is called the second best Avenger which I’d want to hear a little more about why about but the conversation is sidetracked by needing a Wolverine and if there’s anything going on between Simon and Carol. The very idea of adding the Sentry to this mix is called out, based on his lack of anything during Civil War and the fact that he’s “a basket case”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like the Sentry… IN HIS OWN SEPARATE TITLE where people pay attention to him and his particular nuances. Name me one thing the guy did on the last Avengers team he was on. His character works really well outside the mainstream and the reasons they give for not having him on this version of the Avengers make sense. Tony disagrees, saying “You have to think of him as a hero in training, a young Avenger. … That’s the mistake everyone is making with him. Everyone treats him like a world class hero because he has the power. But he’s not there yet.”
Maybe I’m reading it wrong, but it sounds to me like he’s actually disagreeing with his own arguement in the middle of his explaination. He’s not a world class hero… but let’s put him on our world class Avengers team! He’s in training, so let’s put him on the front line with us! Carol doesn’t think this is a good idea, but Tony wants him so he’s in.
Which is a major theme of this book. Tony wants it, it’s his. No matter how he may say Ms. Marvel is in charge, he’s directing the show. The Avengers are traditionally brought together by fate, Tony doesn’t like that anymore so he gets the jump on things and makes his own personal team of Avengers. He wants Sentry, he’s in. He has the gall to tell a living God of War that he has to register with the US government (wait- shouldn’t he be here on a work visa or green card from Greece? Sorry, thinking too technically there.) and come be an Avenger, Ares follows. Ms. Marvel sounds like she doesn’t even want to lead the team in the first place, but Tony inisists so she caves. Tony wants a giant hellicarrier that’s frikkin’ GOLD PLATED, it’s done. Doesn’t the man have his own book?
And sure, this could all be a plot by Ultron to gather up these heroes for some revenge or another (that… apparently has to be taken when looking like a buxom naked hottie, but heck if I know what Ultron’s planning), so Tony’s general attitude could be forgiven as part of the major plot in the end. But thanks to the new darker, grittier, ‘real’-er Marvel Universe, I cna’t look at personality shifts like this and think to myself, ‘This has to be a trick!’ I did that all through Avengers: Disassembled and it never was. I thought House of M’s ending would be better thought through then just a big white page and a rewrite, but I was wrong there, too. I have been waiting for that one story that’s going to go back to Spider-Man: the Other - Evolve or Die for how long now? Remember, in the Marvel Universe, anything is possible, even the crappy stuff. So saying that Ultron was totally manipulating him the entire time is a wash. With as many times as they have fought Ultron, saying that Tony doesn’t have any defenses for a total takeover like that is ludicrous. That and the fact that Tony really has been getting his way since Civil War, so all of his actions, however petty and demanding, are actually rather in character for him right now. That, and if no one else who’s supposedly close friends of Iron Man doesn’t note a change in behavior, who’s to say there is?
All in all, I was looking for a common good here. The idea that the Avengers are something more than a superhero team; that fate really does bring them together for a common goal of justice, above and beyond the call of duty. Exceptional people of a like mind that no matter their personality, really want to do good and defend those who can’t. With the Initiative in place, it seems silly for one more team to be on the scene when everyone should be able to take care of themselves in this totalitarian state.
Believe it or not, folks, New Avengers is sure enough doing some Avenging.
5 Comments
Well, there was that time that Sentry helped fight that Michael/Xorn character, and was really the only one who could even stand up to him.
But you make a good point about Tony saying Sentry isn’t ready for the big time. If that’s the case, why not put him on one of the lesser teams, like Wyoming’s super-squad or something? it’s not like they’re going to throw any of the rookies from the new Initiative series on the Avengers, why the Sentry?
Tony Stark makes me sad.
Heh, I can’t agree more with the Eagle Awards when they nominated Iron Man villain of the year 2006. And that is a great hurdle someone need to overcome right there. Well at least they didn’t used 6 issues of selecting pictures of members. But yeah, I agree that they don’t appear “to protect and to serve” or even “to be bigger than the sum of its parts”, two things that any good super-team has to have. I mean why the Sentry would need help from others even if he is the most inexperienced hero of all the time? Or why a God of War would want to be a foot soldier instead of a general? I think Marvel this day is all about the money shot, the big moment, and they think that all that things that goes before the shocking revelation or cliffhanger don’t need much attention these days (funny that they gone from “we are telling long stories that don’t need cliffhangers because they are meant to be read as bigger work instead of episodic material” to “we only need cliffhangers”. That is sad.
So here is a question: what comics do you think that could be benefit from actual change instead of the illusion of change? That is something that manga excels what with having real endings and all. Me, I would like to be reading some kind of Avengers Next that while comprised of sons and sucessors of the Old Avengers, had a style more akin to the original Avengers them the MC2 book that bears its names. Also, I would have liked to read the stories of the son of Superman battling Solaris, the tyrant sun a lot more than most of what I read nowadays (Kurt Busiek run excluded).
Is not that I need the characters to grow old with me, is just that if the characters could retire, we could have a more continuity free (and maybe even more new-reader-friendly) that only referenced its ancestors ocasionally, with real #1’s issues that would mark a real starting point for new readers… instead what we have is a time dilation more and more bloated until needs some kind of reset button.
Also sorry for going off-toping and babbling so much, is just that the current of output of Marvel and to some extent DC is making think a lot of about this things and Bendis comics are problably the worst offenders, since you rarely see a thing that is fresh, or jibe well with the established characters… but I like Alias who was created by him, and probably wouln’t mind much of what he does if happened to the Texas Iniatiave team or anyone else that I don’t have a frame of reference already established. But as a depiction of the Earth greatest heroes it leaves a really sour taste in the mouth.
CalvinPitt: Actually, he just tossed Xorn into the sun. There was a SHIELD agent on hand to direct the blow, Ms. Marvel to do some energy thing and the whole affair was one of the few ‘team’ moments New Avengers had. DON’T MAKE ME RELIVE IT! I love the Sentry, don’t get me wrong but I think Tony’s just being a little spoiled on the whole thing. Maybe it’s because he’s trying to get his tower back. MAYBE HE’S BEEN ULTRON THIS WHOLE TIME!
And…Woo, Julio!
Hear hear on a lot of points you made here, getting to the hear of the matter on superheroes and what’s kind of missing from the storytelling equasion: ‘Protecting and Serving’, ‘bigger than the sum of it’s parts’, etc.
But I have to hold back on the idea of any new generations. That works FANTASTICALLY for DC; characters have families, sidekicks and successors and we get a sense of dynasty from them. That is Superman were to fall (I know, shock of shocks), that someone else might be a new standard for Truth, Justice and the American Way that would still jibe if following the same formula or some derivation thereof.
But Marvel doesn’t have that click. M2 Spider-Girl just barely pulls it off, because she’s a fully interesting and fleshed out character first, a superhero second. We remember X-Men by personality traits and then powers. We know that Steve Rogers stood for an age of heroism that defines the concept of Captain America.
I can go on and on about my Legend and Legacy Theory(tm), but if I say one thing in comic blogdom, it’s going to be my magnum opus. Stay tuned.
Sure. You got me curious, I will surely keep reading.