Episode 1452 Talkback - Spotlight on the Avengers in the 2000s
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
Speakers of Geek from two different states assemble to discuss the Avengers one final time, as our series of 50th-Anniversary retrospective Spotlights on the Avengers concludes with a look at the most recent phase (2000-present) in the decades-long evolution of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. From the grand finale of Kurt Busiek's run, through the custodianships of Geoff Johns and Chuck Austen, to the Avengers' rise to star franchise status under the direction of Brian Michael Bendis, to the cosmic expansionism of Jonathan Hickman's current run, this episode brings us up to date on the Avengers and is the culmination of an entire year of Avengers talk. Miss it not, True Believers! (2:21:14)
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Here are some of my notes:
The same month as #46 (of the Buseik Era) we get the launch of the first Marvel MAX book called Alias by Bendis and Gaydos starring Jessica Jones ran for 28 issues. (In Amazing Spidey #601 they will retconn Jessica a being a character in Amazing Spidey #4 last panel on page 12).
During the same month as #78 (Austen) Marvel released:
Secret War #1 (Bendis/Dell'oto) of 5. First appearance of Quake and Lucia Von Bardas. Fury had recruited Luke Cage, Spidey, Wolverine, Daredevil, Cap America and Black Widow for a black ops mission and ended up wiping their minds. This black ops mission came back to bite them in the ass as Lucia (from Latveria) strikes back. This causes Fury to go underground and leave S.H.I.E.L.D. It took them from April 2004 to December 2005 to release all 5 issues. Lucia would later appear in the Winter Soldier series. To me it seemed like this was Bendis testing out his New Avengers roster.
Pulse #1 (Bendis/Bagley 1st arc) Osborn is outed by the Bugle, attacks the Bugle hurting a pregnant Jessica Jones. Luke Cage beats the snot out of Osborn and unmasks him publicly.
#6-9 (Bendis/Lark) ties into Secret War
The best part of the Skrull Conspiracy is that we knew NOTHING about it until issue #31.
Jamie, Jamie, Jamie...you need to read Uncanny Avengers my friend. THE SENTRY IS BACK! and it may be hard to believe but he's much scarier than before. (Don't sleep on Remender! His Uncanny X-Force run as well as Uncanny Avengers is some great stuff!)
I'll be looking forward to whatever Spotlights you folks decide to pursue in the future, although selfishly I'd love to see you cover Thor throughout the years. ;)
Also, thank you for the long runtime on this. This episode easily lasted me from 8:00 until lunch time, making work go that much smoother.
EDIT: I also wanted to chime in and say that like others I really quite enjoyed the AVENGERS INITIATIVE series. Well-written, great art, and interesting and fun characters. Plus, as somebody who admittedly would have sided with the pro-registration side of the argument I really liked seeing the training process and individual State teams. It's a shame so much of that has been tossed aside in recent years.
I'm also hoping that Marvel continues to collect the Busiek-and-others AVENGERS series in its entirety in more AVENGERS ASSEMBLE trade collections. I like being able to grab those off the bookshelf at a moment's notice and re-read them at my leisure. I'd like to have that complete volume all in trades.
Bendis also wrote the Spider-Woman Origin mini series with the Luna Brothers.
Before we Civil War we also get:
Pulse #10 (Bendis/Lark) - House of M
#11-13 (Bendis/Gaydos) - Jessica has her baby.
#14 maybe 13? - Luke Cage proposes to Jessica
New Avengers Annual #1 (Bendis/Coipel)- the Wedding of Luke and Jessica and the new Adaptoid (former Black Widow II Yelena) attacks.
You guys didn't mention the closet scene!! At the end of Avengers #26 Hawkeye sees a closet in Wanda's house. He knew behind that door lied the answers he was seeking but instead of opening the door he goes back to sleep. We never found out what was behind the door...but in Children's Crusade we learn that Wanda was an android.
New Avengers #33- the Hood appears. BKV and Holts character created in the MAX book the Hood.
The Mighty Avengers (Bendis/Cho) consisting of Iron Man, Wasp, Ares, Sentry, Black Widow, Wonderman and Mrs Marvel
Avengers The Initiative (Slott and Gage, Casselli killing the art) we get the kids in training...atta boy Murd! I loved this series.
Thunderbolts (Warren Ellis/Deodato) the original Thunderbolts Songbird, Swordman, Radioactive Man, Moonstone are joined by Venom (Marc Gargan), Penance (Speedball) are lead by Norman Osborn and this title builds a lot of propoganda boosting Osborn's public status.
Dark Avengers- the third ongoing main Avengers book. Funny how this book follows in the footsteps of Thunderbolts in more than one way. (And Venom becomes Spidey). I really really liked this book. So much manipulation going around.
Mighty Avengers- is taken over by Slott
Matthew
It's true."
I haven't listened to all of this episode so far, and while I've enjoyed what I've heard so far, I've gotta say right now that all bragging rights from Avengers fans go out the window once you realize that Wolverine (and Spider-Man) had to be brought in for Avengers to finally eclipse X-Men in sales (for a while, at least; and once you count in the sum total of all the X-books, I wouldn't be surprised if X-Men were always ahead in sales overall). Not that I have a huge problem with it the way some people do, but they put Wolverine on the cover of New Avengers #1... and he didn't even show up in a cameo until issue #4. That sort of shameless misdirection to grab for sales seemed to be typical of the dastardly Bendis/Breevort super-villain team-up (they bring out the worst in each other imo). And I can't be the only one who senses a bit of parody in Hickman's current stuff. "Bendis made everyone in the Marvel Universe an Avenger? Okay, I'm going to make everyone in THE Universe an Avenger! And we'll see how 'big' we can make this until it all blows up!"
Another needless death.
And while @Adam_Murdough is absolutely correct about Roy Thomas’ intentions with 3-D Man, I don’t believe anyone mentioned that Roy based the character on an actual 1950s character, Captain 3-D, who was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Harvey Comics.
Just saying.
Kinda brings up the point that there is so much wildly advanced technology in the Marvel Universe and yet everyone lives and acts like its 2014 in the real world. There have been life-like sentient androids... since the 40's... teleportation, time-travel, ftl-space travel, alternate dimensional travel, cloning, cybernetic enhancements, not to mention magic, genetic mutations, known aliens, gods...
We got the smartphone, tablets and social networking and suddenly how we (especially the younger generations) interact, do business, and consume media has changed considerably, yet the lives of the people of the 616 universe is almost completely unaffected by a world so different than ours?
I'd like to see a story of what the MU would be like if it really reflected how different it is than ours.