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The Avengers
Vol 1
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by John Romita Jr.
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
The Avengers
Vol 2
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by John Romita Jr. and Bryan Hitch
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism
The Avengers
Vol 3
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Daniel Acuña, Renato Guedes and Brandon Peterson
2012
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism
In Vol 2 of Tony Stark gives this speech about how he could create an utopian paradise: "a world without alcohol or drugs."
What I'd really like to know is if Brian Michael Bendis included that line because he really believes that a world without alcohol or drugs would be something great and beautiful or if he's being snide and just playing up to the genre: you know - it's superheroes and stuff - so we need to pander to like: an 8 year old level: and 8 years olds look at the world and think stuff just like how much better things would be if there was no alcohol and no drugs [1]: because well: they're 8 years old and everything when you're that age is simple and black and white and the stuff people tell you is bad is bad and the stuff that people tell you is good is good and never the twain shall meet. Not that I'm saying this to be mean: no sir - I got a kick out of it: it fit so nicely into the mood and tone of the comic that when I read it I just smiled.
But - of course: by the time I finished reading I realised that if you want to talk about destructive influences and the cycle of addiction and compulsive urges and all that kind of stuff then maybe what Tony Stark should have been wishing for was a world without alcohol or drugs or
mainstream superhero comics. Because - goddamn it: they're the
worst.
Please don't get me wrong here: I am not having a go at the whole medium of comic books and I'm not talking about the genre of superhero comics (they are so many great superhero books out there that I don't even know where I should even start: so maybe just click on that Genre: Superheroes tag on the bottom right hand side and just find some of whatever): I'm talking specifically about the mainstream superhero comics pumped out by Marvel and DC: those ones are the in particular that are: well leaving me with all these feelings of guilt and emptiness and blah.
Let me describe the cycle: you take a mainstream superhero comic - oooh: it looks nice huh? Check out cover. And look: it's Brian Michael Bendis - he's one of the good ones - (top of his field) he did that solo stuff with Goldfish and then got his big break and totally smashed it with his Daredevil run and then became Marvel maestro and it was like: woo! Yeah: you see? Talent is key and the cream rises to the top - this is a guy that knows what he's doing.
So then you find somewhere comfy to sit and you settle down and start to read. And then you're inside: and it's warm and it's comfortable and there's all these great ideas hitting you every which way: loads of bright colours and crazy stuff happening all over the place and John Romita Jr. [2] sure knows how to draw a punch so that you can
feel it (and I much prefer to have him drawing the light silly superhero stuff with Bendis rather than the messed up torture-porn-whatever with Mark Millar on Kick-Ass: because - you know - like I said: he's a comics legend - and: well - it's like watching your grandfather dressed up in a leather one-piece or something (you know?) - it's - a bit
yucky). And then when we move from Vol 2 to Vol 3 and Daniel Acuña [3] steps in - and - it's like it's a whole different book: but still full of awesomeness. I mean - it's obviously still the same thing because it's still The Avengers, it's still Bendis behind the wheel and it's still (mostly) the same characters - but if you ever wanted an example of just how much an artist can affect the same a comic can feel then I'd say you should compare the way these series shifts between it's first two volumes and it's third: its like going from a Saturday morning cartoon to a late-night serious drama or something: ok - yeah - it's still superheroes - but the sheen that Daniel Acuña brings to things makes everything feel somehow more weighty and realistic - it's like if someone dunked Sean Philips into some gloss paint: and - well yeah: it's great.
And there are the little moments of stuff: I mean - the very first issue is full of these great little moments from beginning to end: Captain America making his big state of the union-style speech ("Our president asked me what the world needs now... I told him the world needs what it always needs." [4]) trying it directly into the 2010 Marvel "Heroic Age" theme [5] which then cuts to the Bendis' trademark of a page full of responding head-shots and then with a small preliminaries with setting The Avengers up and running there's big explosions, a twist nicked straight from the end of Back to the Future (namely: "It's your kids, Marty, something has got to be done about your kids!") and a tantalizing final page ("Those Avengers are going to learn...): it's just - well: it's great - total comic book heaven. And then: scattered throughout: (well) the way Acuña draws Norman Osborn with his hands in his pockets like Richard Nixon's evil kid brother, #11 in Vol 2 is pretty much all done in single page panels: which - you know: is kinda nifty - no? And gives things a different kind of rhythm (makes things feel more giant and momentous and all-caps EPIC somehow) and Bendis (as has been said before and will be said again) is exceptionally good at doing the lazy back-and-forth and general superhero chit-chat (I mean there are dozens of examples I could choose from but my favourites are: (in Vol 1) "What? He wants us to cook him an egg?" "It could be silly putty.
Evil silly putty... from the future." (from Vol 2): "So Steve Rogers would be the mother and Tony Stark would be the father" (and from Vol 3 - which I think might be my favourite) the bit where Norman Osborn speaks to Madame Hydra about her head (trust me: you'll know it when you get to it): it's all these little bits that make it feel like it's worth the time it takes to read - like you're getting your money's worth or whatever.
But then there are the niggles. The same niggles that come with all mainstream superhero comics (and from now one I'll just call them MSCs - because typing it all out each time is starting to wear a little thin: ok?): like how every single issue just has to have some form of big superhero crazy battle punching whatever [6] - that I dunno all just feels like it's been done before and before and before and (well) done better and that all this trying to make everything bigger than anything bigger before (like it says at one point (some self-awareness slipping through?): "The power of a God and all he can think to do is fight.") - it's like being dropped into inside the mind of an 8-years old head as they play with their toys [7]: which - you know: is kinda fun and exciting and all - but doesn't really give you much in way of any actual
nourishment (you know?): it's just - well - MSC: business as usual (and - yeah - ok: I mean it's easy to set up possibilities and there's always going to be a shortfall between your nebulous hopes and the fact that a story can only ever go one way [8]. Like - seeing how the first issue of this was released in the big build up to Joss Whedon's first Avenger's film I guess I kinda thought that maybe these books were gonna act as a convenient jumping on point for new readers and that maybe - just maybe - this was going to be a comic series that was going to showcase just how much potential there is in superhero comics: and something maybe that used it's position as a market-leader (or whatever the right term is) to try something a little different and further reaching... - but no - everything is as much to thrall to continuity as every other MSC book out there (so before you start on this you might want to read the past Avengers books plus: Civil War, The Illuminati, Red Hulk ("There's a red hulk?") and - erm - Marvel Boy if you want to be understanding exactly what and who are fighting for why [9]).
And (I think is the kicker) it goes through the same cycle again and again and again: bad guy comes along to destroy the world and upset the status quo and usher in some big new crazy world (that always sounds - if you forgive me for saying: somewhat cool and exciting) and you get to the mid-point where everything seems bleak and hopeless for our heroes and somehow (even tho you know it's stupid) you think - this is it! This is gonna be the big one! This is going to be where everything changes and you can almost hear your heart jumping around in your chest and then - and then: just when you think it's going to reach somesort of - well - climax (ahem) as it's building and building to some bigger and bigger point of
something: then - well then the forces of good prevail and everything goes back to how it was before and so you've left with that - well: slightly empty feeling: a world where all change is only temporary and as soon as one big bad eveil enemy is defeated - the next is already getting started to take it's place: always and and forever and forever without end.
The feeling that you're left with then isn't one of satisfaction - it's just this kind of unfilled promise: like you thought that you could reach the end of the rainbow only to realise that it's all just a trick of the light. And that - well: that is MSC in a nutshell: a total waste of time: worlds where nothing changes and there's no end to anything - not even in death. Which: well - leads me to think: well - what's the point? When the best of the best can't make something that's going to leave you feel like you've put in some time well spent then why am I even still bothering to read these things? And: I guess - well - it kinda acts like a drug - because there are moments of this almost ecstatic pleasure when you think you're going to get to this amazing high and I guess that's what keeps pulling me back - this hope that maybe the next one is the one that will hit that elusive space inside me: even as (at the exact same time) I think that maybe I would be happier if I just quit them altogether.
I dunno.
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[1] And please note: I'm in no way saying that alcohol and drugs are like good things (
unlike some people): but I just think it's a little simplistic (to say the least) to suggest that the world would suddenly be perfect if someone (somehow) magiced them away.... And surely I'm not alone in this - right?
[2] Who - pointing out the obvious - was an industry legend well before Kick-Ass (he started off doing Iron Man all the way back in 1978) - altho I get the feeling that's where most readers will probably now know him from: like those who think that Orson Welles is just that guy who did the voice for
Unicron (wow - check out my dated references).
[3] Ok - yes: Renato Guedes and Brandon Peterson do stuff too (and they're also both pretty good at bringing the realism on): but it's Daniel Acuña who wins my heart - and he's the one I miss when he's gone. So.
[4] Shockingly - the answer to this isn't "
love sweet love" (oh well).
[5] Or as they put it on the wikipedia page "
"The Heroic Age" is a 2010 comic book branding that ran through a number of books published by Marvel Comics." - but that just makes it sound so unnecessarily
ugly - you know? But - well: what can you do? Corporate synergyness hangs over this series like a bad smell. But - hey - that's mainstream superhero comics for you!
[6] I mean: maybe that's a silly thing to say about a mainstream superhero team comic (which we can all agree are pretty much the lowest of the low - no?) but - well - there's a bit in Vol 1 where a character voices his displeasure at his (supposed) friends by smashing through a window and then punching them in the gut: which just makes me think - like: couldn't they have selected this over a phone-call? Or by going out to lunch? Or something? I mean: yeah - ok they machine needs to be feed etc blah I know: but still... It's kinda hard to put much stock in the characters when they act more as plot devices than as actual - well: people (even if they are dressed all up in purple or whatevers).
[7] Have I already linked to
this before? (I mean - not that it matters: sometimes I think I should link to it in every post up here with the message: "I mean - it was good - but not as good as....").
[8] Unless of course you're
Jason Shiga: but that's literally - a whole other story.
[9] Of course (then again) you don't really
have to: I mean - you can pick up more than enough of the basics as you go along (ok: so that's the good guy and that's the bad guy and - they don't like each other): I guess it's just a matter of perspective - the sneaky trick that they pull is that the more you read the more stuff makes sense and so the more the want to read until - well - I guess until the point that you end up reading every single superhero comic
ever. And then
you die.
........................................................................................................................................................
Further reading:
The Ultimates,
The Ultimates 2, The New Avengers,
Ultimate Comics: The Avengers,
The Avengers: The New Avengers: Illuminati,
Kick Ass,
Civil War, Red Hulk,
Marvel Boy,
Goldfish,
Daredevil (2001 - 2006).
Profiles:
Brian Michael Bendis.
All comments welcome.
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