Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The All Avengers Thread

An interesting 'reserve' team whistled up to help rescue Luke Cage... all with ties to Power Man.

Docs Strange and Voo-doo, The Thing, Hellcat and Valkyrie (Nighthawk should've been there- the *real* one!) We got to see some of them in action and that was fun- though I wanted more.

Wonder if any of them will stick around?

The Valkyrie shown here is wearing a pretty ugly new costume (Marvel keeps trying to give her new uniforms-- don't know why, the 'breastcups' she traditionally wears is still the best look they've put her in). I'm still unclear if this is Samantha Parrington acting like Brunhilde, Brunhilde in her own Asgard-resurrected body, or Brunhilde's spirit inhabiting Samantha's body.

I wonder if anyone at Marvel knows? If it's meant to be the gal who was in the LADY LIBERATOR (should be it's own title, written by Peter David!!) story in SHE-HULK, *that* Valkyrie sure spoke and thought like a Viking, not a rich girl!

Hellcat draped all over Doc Strange was kind of weird. Guess she's been lonely up there in Alaska...

The AVENGERS INITIATIVE book's been pretty good- with some good sidebits for Tigra and Justice while the main feature's been Trauma and Penance/Speedball. Finally, that little storyline's going somewhere. I hope it isn't too much longer till Robbie reveals himself to his former teammates.

It seems as if the cast has been cleared for more Taskmaster and co. as DARK REIGN appears to be heading to its end. Will the characters who seem to be making exits still appear in this title?

PAD said it was Brunnihilda. And then a Handbook said it was Parrington.

Thanks for the info, Reboot. I've seen the Handbook entry, I believe. Can you point me to where PAD discussed Val's ID?

Catching up on some Avengers Reviews in preparation of Siege:

New Avengers
New Avengers remains, IMO, the best Avengers comic ongoing right now—head and shoulders beyond the rest. While the ongoing plot of Norman Osborn and HAMMER as their antagonist, as well as the Hood and his mega-Master of Evil, might seem like it could be repetitive, I believe Bendis has done it in a way where it is not. His stories are all about character interaction and I feel like he’s really stepped things up a notch in the last few months. The stars lately have been Ronin (Clint Barton), who is taking a more pro-active stance, which is very much in character for him, and Luke Cage, who at this point, I have to say I really enjoy reading about. I said so in my last post, but have to reiterate, Bendis has really made me grow to like Cage quite a lot.

I’m very interested in what this title will look like post-Siege. The idea of the ‘Big 3’ Avengers being on the team seems so likely that I wouldn’t mind being surprised and having Captain America stay on with the New Avengers.

Mighty Avengers
I stopped reading this a few months back. A recent browsing in the CBS made me glad I did so.

Avengers: The Initiative
I also cancelled this a few months back but my CBS guy really likes this series so he gave me a free copy of the Taskmaster issue. While on the one hand, I think the Taskmaster is awesome, on the other hand, I found this issue to be pretty weak. I was hoping it would show some cool behind the scenes interaction between the Cabal but all it did was show Taskmaster talking about how overwhelming it was to be among the A-listers. I’ve grown to hate when writers describe heroes and villains as A-listers and B-listers after seeing so much of that this past decade and this is a clear example of why. It makes the Taskmaster seem like a nerdy high school kid who wishes the seniors would think he’s cool.

Dark Avengers
I’ve collected this on and off and here I picked it up for the Molecule Master story. It was okay, and I see what Bendis is striving for here, a widescreen larger than life type series, but its just not my cup of tea. The art, on the other hand, is simply fantastic, so it didn’t feel like I wasted my money. If only there were a few characters I liked in here, I’d probably just add it to my pull list finally. I hope post-Siege this team is reshuffled and if they can get rid of Bullseye, Venom and Norman Osborn that would be perfect for me. Every scene with those three is painful to read.

Comic Book Review Month Note: There are threads for the individual series in Gym'lls you can check out. I usually use this thread as my catch-all for the various Avengers titles.

Wow, I like Mighty Avengers a whole lot more than you do, CK! I thought it did suffer a drop-off in quality after it's debut with He-Wasp and co., but I've liked it quite a bit in recent issues.

I also like the Initiative Avengers book, mostly (though not the art). Mainly for Tigra and glimpses of Cloud-9 and Vance. And Taskmaker, Constrictor and Trauma.

I like the cast of NEW AVENGERS, I just feel like it's contiually treading water, pacing wise. It should be the 'big story' book, and I just don't think that it is, even when it is. I really did like the friends of Luke who popped up the last couple of months, and wish a few of them would join the cast permanently (Valkyrie *deserves* a home, though she's way too bulky here).

I miss YOUNG AVENGERS and look forward to that resuming in the summer, though I won't believe it till I hold it in my hands.

You know, I'm liking Luke Cage so much in New Avengers I'll probably pick up his miniseries in a few months by John Arcudi who really seems to have a handle on Luke. Looks to be a gritty crime mini.

Unlike Cobalt, I also continue to enjoy Mighty Avengers a good bit. Its tone seems to have settled into a mix of '80s Roger Stern Avengers with a touch of that old JLI interplay thrown in. So far it's working well enough for me that I still continue to buy it off the stands, though it hasn't made it into my official pull list.

Mighty Avengers 32 features the team delving further into finding out the truth about the "Scarlet Witch" imposter. Said imposter, readers know, is Loki and we see Loki manipulating the Mighty team against the Dark Avengers after Osborne tells Loki he wants Hank Pym dead. Instead, Loki fees the Absorbing Man at Project: Pegasus and draws Hank's and Osborne's teams into conflict as both teams attempt to stop this threat. The issue ends on a cliffhanger as the Absorbing Man has absorbed shards of...a Cosmic Cube! Sounds kinda '80s Stern, right? Not a bad thing in my opinion.

In addition there's a great moment at the end where both Hank and Osborne yell, "Avengers Assemble!" Hank and Osborne stare at each other, then Cassie says to Osborne, "Jinx. You owe him a Coke." Next panel and off to the side, Bullseye says to Daken, "during the fight when no one's looking...I call dibs on killing the girl." Now, that's bringin' the Bwah-ha-ha!

It looks like this is gonna be a fun, breezy tale, which is much welcomed in the midst of all this Dark Reign crap that takes itself much too seriously.

Previews for next weeks Marvel comics are out. Including ones for Dark Avengers and Dark Wolverine.

That Daken is one sick puppy. Why do I like this guy?

I personally don't really care anymore what happens with the Avengers as long as Bendis and Quesada are still in charge, but I'm sure many of you will be interested in this announcement.

I doubt they'll be gone for long. I wonder what this "Heroic Age" will bring. Probably won't mean mush for the X-Titles, though.

I agree. Unfortunately, the X-Titles seem to have become Quesada's unwanted stepchildren. As for what "The Heroic Age" will bring, my fear is that it'll just be more of the same Bendis crap.

Whah?!?! I thought you were enjoying that "Bendis crap" over on New Avengers at least. Something else else happen?

Yeah, I came to my senses.

No, seriously, I finally admitted to myself that even with Stuart Immonen on art, it wasn't worth paying for. It was mildly diverting at best, which for Bendis is quite an achievement as far as I'm concerned.

And, truth be told, if it does end up being one Avengers book written by Bendis, I'll give it a fair chance -- just like I gave Millar's FF, and I hate Millar a lot more than I hate Bendis -- by Byrne-stealing the first few issues and seeing what I think, especially if they retain Immonen.

Y'know, even if I were inclined to try New Avengers (and I was tempted by reviews here), ultimately I didn't because it cost 4 damn bucks a pop! Marvel is pushing the $4 price point (with no extra content) WAY over the top. The only regular-sized ongoing Marvels I'm buying at $3.99 are Ultimate Spidey and Punisher Max. I'm only getting Cap Reborn and Marvels Project as limiteds and Incredible Hercules (with the extra original backup content) as an ongoing. In each of these cases I'm assured by the presence of solid creative teams to make my money worth it.

I would probably be all over many more iof their titles if it weren't for the price point. I'd probably be buying EVERY Ultimate Comics title, Wolverine: Weapon X (because of Jason Aarons) and would have likely tried out New Avengers after reading good reviews here. At least DC has been consistent about giving extra content in all their $3.99 titles; Marvel just can't be bothered or justifies it with "bonus previews" of upcoming titles (that DC gives us for free, btw). In any case it seems every new title that debuts is getting that price point while the list of $2.99 books continues to decrease.

Okay, end rant.

Yeah, the continous raising of prices without any extra (and jeez, skipping $3.25, $3.50 and $3.75) causes me to refer to Marvel's executive team by the nickname that Swearigin from Deadwood most frequently used for people. It's not a nice one.

The favourite (or at least most-speculated) scenario for the Avengers titles post-Siege seems to be:

• A single, adjectiveless, Avengers book coming out two or three times a month (with Bendis involved, yes) to replace New/Mighty/Dark, starting from #1 and jumping to #600 at #33 (including the New Avengers numbering - if you try and add in Mighty, let alone Dark, they'd overshoot #600. Be interesting if they started from #504 though...);
• The all-but-confirmed Gage/McKone Avengers Academy replacing Initiative on the side;
• And - just possibly - Heinberg's Young Avengers v2 seeing the light of day as either a five/six issue miniseries or a twelve-issue maxiseries. That seems the most tentative though.

The only way I would consider trying a thrice-monthly Avengers is if the price is $2.99. If they do this and release it as $3.99, there's no way I'll pick it up.

If they just restart 1 or more new series, I'll evaluate trying them on a case-by-case basis. If they're all $3.99, the odds I'll pick up even one are slim to none. Extra story for the money would help its/their chances. An intriguing creative team and a good character mix would be essential.

All I'm hoping for is that Dan Slott and Jeph Loeb have absolutely no involvement with any of these titles.

I actually do hope Bendis is involved in some way with the characters he loves.

While I really want Iron Man and Thor together on one team, I'm not opposed to Cap being on another, if they go the multi-team route.

I'm not exactly sure if a thrice-monthly Avengers book would work as well as a single-character driven thrice-monthly book. But it'd be an interesting experiment.

I've got basically 0 interest in Young Avengers anymore. If they all died in Siege I'd probably shrug it off. So Heinberg better deliever the greatest story of the next decade for making us wait this long.

JUNIOR????



Then this is official, too -- they're not getting my money!

He's one of my favorites . I'll definitely be buying any Avengers title he works on. I know he has his detractors on LW but I actually prefer him to any other recent Avengers artist.

I haven't been crazy about JR Jr for the past several years and I'm not sure why since I liked him before and his style hasn't changed much since the time I liked him. I think his faces are kinda off these days though - that might be it.

We also have Spider-Woman on the lineup, which I think is great, but I'm not a fan of how Jr depicts her mask going around her head, with the hair just coming out the top like that...

Here's my two cents:

Junior got off to a strong start on his first Iron Man, Spider-Man, and X-Men runs; by the time he took over Daredevil, his style had gotten too weird and angular for conventional superheroes, but it suited the inspired weirdness of Ann Nocenti's Daredevil scripts just fine. After he left Daredevil and went back to conventional superheroes, his work started to look uglier and sloppier and from what I've seen of it over the years, it seems to have gotten progressively worse. I've heard people defend his Thor run, which I haven't read, and his work with Millar, which I wouldn't read even if someone offered me money to, so I'll have to cop to ignorance there.

Ahh, BUT as a true-blue Avengers fangirl, I'll borrow the trades from the library. Luckily, my local library system is good about getting in all the most popular trades.

Brubaker to write "Secret Avengers" ongoing.

This could go either way, as far as I'm concerned. Let us not forget that he's not infallible -- his X-Men space opera "epic" was a load of utter crap.

Bru's essentially been writing a "Secret Avengers" type book in "Captain America" for awhile now with Cap's supporting cast and the occassional Avenger. If he manages to keep this book in the same vein (which I imagine it will with the main book being much more "super-heroey") I can see myself picking this up every month.

Any ideas who the first silhouette might be?