So I've decided to start writing a monthly column about The Avengers and the benevolent Mr. Roach has been oh so kind as to allow me to spew my thoughts all over geek-tastic.com. However, I realize that a lot of crap has happened in the last couple years with these teams. If you haven't been in the loop then odds are you'll be really lost and confused. So the following is a recap of what I feel are the important events in recent Avengers history, much of which as been created and written by Brian Michael Bendis who is my hero. Seriously, dude's amazing! If you are caught up, then this might be a fun recap for you if you haven't reread this stuff in awhile. Either way, enjoy!
Before I get started I'm sure some of you may be wondering who the hell I am and why you might care to read my insights about these comics. Well, my name is Mike Noyes. I'm in my early 30's and I live in San Francisco with my wife and two cats. I've been collecting comics off and on (currently on!) since I was a kid. Currently my collection runs almost 1500. Outside the Avengers books, I also currently read most X-Men books and I'm trying really hard to stick with Batman (curse you Grant Morrison!). I am, however, enjoying "Streets of Gotham" (thank you Paul Dini!) Some of my other favorite books include "Watchmen" (duh!), "Sandman," "Transmetropolitan" (pretty much anything Warren Ellis, really) and "Bone."
My biggest passion is film and I'm current in the (never ending!) process of finishing my thesis film for my Master Degree in film. I've written and directed several short films, most of which can be seen on my Facebook or long forgotten MySpace page. I've written several screenplays, none of which have ever been made, but I keep trying! I've written theatrical and DVD reviews for movies.insidepulse.com since March '06 and I'm really excited for the opportunity to finally write about my second favorite love: comics! All right, enough about me. Let's talk spandex!
The newest era of The Avengers began in 2004 with "Avengers Disassembled" written by the brilliant Brian Michael Bendis. I can honestly say I'd only ever read and owned one "Avengers" book in my life ("Avengers" Annual #10, the first appearance of Rogue.) They had never really interested me as a team as I'd always been an X-Men fan (my largest run on "Uncanny" goes from 142-320 with over 250 in my total collection.)
I'd gotten out of comics for a few years but was starting to be drawn back into the world of spandex, capes and superheroes. A friend put "Disassembled" in my hands. I must say I was hesitant. I had never liked The Avengers, why would I start now?
Well, never let it bet said that I'm completely unwilling to try new things. I read Bendis's four issue arc ("Avengers" #500-503) and became an instant fan. What followed was a frenzy of reading everything I could to start catching up.
I started buying "New Avengers" monthly and picked up all the trades to complete my run. Around that time "Might Avengers" was getting started so I started buying that as well. But I'm getting ahead of the story.
In "Avengers Disassembled" the team is attacked from all sides. A dead Avenger shows up and explodes, killing Ant-Man (Scott Lang, not Hank Pym). Vision crashes and unwittingly releases a crap load of Ultron robots. She-Hulk goes nuts and rips Vision in half. Then a bunch of alien ships appear in the sky! Just about every hero in Manhattan shows up. In the end Hawkeye sacrifices himself to destroy a Kree warship. They also learn that Scarlet Witch has completely lost her mind and control of her reality altering powers. And while none of what they faced was real, the devastation very much was and the Avengers disband.
2004 also saw the launch of "New Avengers." An attack on a high security prison called The Raft where all the super villians are housed brings together Spider-Woman, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the mentally unstable Sentry. In the end Daredevil chooses not to join the team as he has other issues to deal with but the others are joined by Wolverine (he really is on every f'in team!) Iron First, Doctor Strange and the mysterious Echo. More on this series later.
In 2005 Bendis followed this with "House Of M," but more on that in second, as Bendis delivered another important story in 2004: "Secret War." In "Secret War" Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., uncovers a plot by Latverian Prime Minister Lucia von Bardas to fund a group of B-List super villains with advanced technology, presumably that of previous Latverian dictator Doctor Doom (who was trapped in Hell at the time), as a means of wreaking terror on American soil. Fury attempts to convince the President of this threat, but he won't listen. So he, the bad ass that he is, decides to handle the threat on his own. He enlists Captain America, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Black Widow, Luke Cage, Wolverine and Daisy Johnson, a superhuman S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to over throw Latveria.
How this event plays out we don't learn at first. We cut to a year later and a series of attacks is unleashed on the heroes involved leaving Luke Cage in a coma. None of those involved seem to remember what happened. After winning the battle they confront Fury and learn the truth. It turns out that the attack on Latveria was a huge mistake. Fury had the heroes minds wiped of the event and is forced to go underground, leaving S.H.I.E.L.D.
All right, "House Of M." Here Scarlet Witch recreates the entire Earth giving each superhero their own perfect existence. Spider-Man is married to Gwen Stacy; Cyclops and Emma Frost are married; Dr. Strange is a psychologist; Carol Danvers (usually known as Ms. Marvel) is now Captain Marvel, America's most beloved superhero; Gambit is a criminal; Steve Rogers is an aged veteran; and Wolverine is now in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s House of Magnus Red Guard, and wakes up onboard a helicarrier sleeping next to Mystique. No one remembers anything of the real world, no one accept Wolverine that is.
So it's up to Wolverine to track down all the heroes and make them remember the truth so they can set things right. The moment when Spider-Man is forced to remember his entire troubled past is brutally tragic. His life really is better here, but he now knows it's a lie. This series also introduced us to the young mutant Layla Miller, whose mutant power was to make people remember the real world.
So the heroes go after Magneto, now ruler of Genosha, who they think has caused all this. However Layla Miller helps Magneto remember the truth too and they all learn that it is Scarlet Witch that has done this. She freaks out again and utters three words that will truly forever alter the Marvel Universe: "No More Mutants."
Things go back to normal but 99% of all mutants lose their powers. Now there are only 198 left. The aftermath of this is covered in a handful of books, the two most important being "Decimation: X-Men - The Day After" and "Decimation: X-Men - The 198." But, as this is a column about The Avengers and not the X-Men, I won't recap those here. However, they are certainly worth reading.
In 2006 yet another epic story rocked the Marvel Universe: "Civil War." A battle between a group of villains and the superhero team New Warriors ends tragically when Nitro uses his powers to destroy several city blocks including a school. Three New Warriors, three villains and 600 civilians including children are killed. This is the catalyst to bring the Superhuman Registration Act to the Senate which as been brewing since Nick Fury's Secret War. The act would require every person with superpowers to register with the Government and reveal their identities to the authorities. Some heroes lead by Iron Man, champion the cause while others, lead by Captain America, rebel against it saying that it is a violation. This escalates to a violent war between the clashing heroes in New York. When Captain America looks around and sees that he's doing more harm then good he surrenders and turns himself in ending the war. Later when he is about to go on trial he is assassinated. (But we know now that he's back, no on in comics ever really stays dead. I'm still convinced Jean Grey will be back at some point. And Kitty Pryde better be frakin' back!) (stupid Joss Whedon!)
So the Registration act goes into effect and heroes either sign up with the Government or go underground. The adventures of the group that goes underground are chronicled in "New Avengers" (now consisting of Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Strange and Ronin (who we later learn his Hawkeye, but wait he died, didn't he? I guess not). Meanwhile Iron Man, now the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts his own team of Avengers. This team, consisting of Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Black Widow, Ms. Marvel, Sentry, Wasp, Wonder Man and Ares, is called "Might Avengers," this comic launched in 2007.
At this point it begins to become more apparent that events have been leading up to the next major event in the MU. In fact, upon further inspection, you can actually look back as far as "Secret War" and the first issue of "New Avengers" to see the beginning machinations of this even. The Raft break out in "New Avengers" #1 was orchestrated by the Skrulls!
Yes, it is now 2008 and the trilogy that Bendis began with "Avengers Disassembled" and "House Of M" comes to a climactic conclusion with "Secret Invasion."
It turns out that the alien race known as the Skrulls are pissed at Earth. They advance their shape shifting ability so that they can completely mimic a superhero in look, personality and powers so that not even Hank Pym, Prof. X or Reed Richards could detect them. They systematically begin to kidnap heroes, villains and even regular humans if they are important enough, and replacing them with Skrull agents. We learn that some of our favorite characters have actually been Skrulls for the past couple years. The first blatant hint of this comes in New Avengers when Wolverine kills Elektra only to learn she's a Skrull. We also learn that Nick Fury has known about this for a long time and has spent his time underground putting together a team of new heroes that he knows the Skrulls would not be interested in replacing.
At the beginning of "Secret Invasion" the Skrulls finally make their presence known and invade. They take out Stark Tech, Iron Man's technology, crippling just about everything, including Iron Man's suit. Battles wage everywhere and chaos ensues. As with all good final battles, this one ends in New York. By this time we have learned that Spider-Woman is the Queen Skrull and Wolverine is about to kill her when Norman Osborne, formerly the Green Goblin, currently the leader of Thunderbolts (a team of villains turned good) comes out of nowhere and shoots her in the head. Osborne is now the hero of the day. Iron Man is ousted as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s leader and is held responsible for all that went wrong.
So now we are in the midst of Dark Reign. Norman Osborne has been put in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D., which he dismantles and renames H.A.M.M.E.R. (he hasn't thought of what it stands for yet). Realizing the need for a legitimate Avengers team he creates his own team, Dark Avengers, from villains, having them take on the mantle of heroes. Moonstone becomes Mr. Marvel, Bullseye becomes Hawkeye, Daken, Wolverine's son, takes on the mantle of his father, Venom becomes Spider-Man and Noh-Varr becomes Captain Marvel. Osborne convinces the still unstable Sentry and Ares to stay on the team. The other two Avengers teams (having undergone a few roster changes) have gone underground.
On top of that we are also in the middle of the Avengers/X-Men crossover event Utopia. The X-Men are now living in San Francisco (which excites me to no end as that's were I live and I love seeing my city in a comic!). An anti-mutant group, Humanity Now, marched into SF which led to rioting. Cyclops and his X-Men could not contain the chaos so Osborne came in and used the even as leverage to start his own Dark X-Men team much along the lines of his Dark Avengers.
Whew... that pretty much brings us up to date. The Might Avengers current roster is lead by Henry Pym who he has taken on the mantle of Wasp, as his ex-wife Janet died during Secret Invasion. He leads: U.S. Agent, Stature, Quicksilver, Jocasta, Hercules, Amadeus Cho and Vision. Loki disguised as Scarlet Witch is leading them to his/her own agenda and they don't realize it. In the last episode a very powerful and evil Inhuman showed up in China and laid waste to China's super team. Now it's up to The Might Avengers to stop him.
The New Avengers currently consists of Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman (finally herself), Wolverine, Ronin and Mockingbird who was found alive amongst the other people kidnapped by the Skrulls. They are trying to deal with The Hood and his team of super villains and at the end of the last issue it looked like The Hood finally gained the upper hand.
There obviously is a lot more to all this, but I think I've written enough. If you've never read this stuff and what you see here interests you, I highly, HIGHLY recommend going out and picking these books up and reading them. You won't be disappointed. Well... Civil War is a little uneven... but whatever.
Okay, so now we're all caught up. From here on out I'll be recapping and reviewing each of the three Avenger titles ("New," "Mighty" and "Dark") as they come out and filling you in on any other Avengers news that seems applicable.
See you next time true believers!
No comments:
Post a Comment