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| In Trouble |
In my opinion the Avengers franchise is in
trouble. Brian Michael Bendis took it upon himself to extend his artistic license into the realm of a
complete retcon or reboot. That "Oral History Of The Avengers" running through some of the Avengers titles was absolutely
rife with errors, mistakes, oversights and
complete flubs.
One camp is arguing that he's simply trying to leave his mark on the title. Fair enough, however I counter that with
Frank Miller's run on Daredevil. Did he
completely re-write Murdock's history? No. He wrote good stories...and that's
all Bendis had to do. Come on Bendis...I've read
Torso,
Goldfish and
Jinx. You're
better than this.
It feels like 75% of Marvel readers don't read
anything other than Marvel or DC so when I bring up these titles most people don't even know what I'm talking about...and those books are his
best, most amazing amd imaginative stuff out there.
This Avengers crap, which seems to be flying off the shelves, is
fluff...and lining the pockets of people insulting
your intelligence. And The
Hood with the
Gemstones?
Seriously? Instead, he twisted everything around to
make it fit what he had in mind, and Romita Jr. has been mailing in all that horrible art. I hear someone else is coming on board but to quote a famous prince, "The play's the thing". It's Bendis' storytelling that I need to be good enough to drop close to a fin on the table to buy and read. And right now, they're 50 cent bin books.
Enough bashing...there's so much good stuff out there right it's a
great time to be reading comics. From
Skullkickers to
Walking Dead, from the brand new Hickman title
Red Wing to
Gladstone's, from
Venom,
Punisher &
Thunderbolts to
Morning Glories,
The Mission,
Haunt and
Chew. Not to mention the astounding
Moon Knight (even though it's Bendis),
Batman: The Dark Knight and
PunisherMAX,
Uncanny X-Force to the upcoming new DC titles.
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| Prominently pictured Moon Knight and Nova |
But there's
one single title out there right now that has quickly risen to the top. When I was drowning in a sea of crappy JRJR art in 1,499 different Avengers titles I tried to pick one with the coolest lineup. I read them all but Secret Avengers seemed like it was going to be the best. Promsing Moon Knight & Nova (just look at the cover) yet left
completely disrespected and
sparsely used. I'm an Avengers guy before anything else (in the MU at least). Not X-books. Avengers. So I was quite saddened by the current
quality yet
excessive quantity of Avengers titles.
One day I happened upon issue number 1 of
Avengers Academy. Man, oh man was I happy to see that.
Obviously this book stuck out from the rest just because it didn't have some boring, retread cover by JRJR. But the most important factor that made the book pop off the shelves to me was the writer, Christos Gage. You may know Christos Gage from his
Avengers Initiative run. Christos Gage picked up Initiative
after Dan Slott, yes THAT Dan Slott who is currently writing one of the most epic ASM storylines of all time.
Anyway, I picked up Academy knowing I'd be reading the origins of some future heroes (and villains) of the MU. And I knew those origins would be complex, written with heart and realism like no other writer right now - and I've been hooked since. Collecting variant covers, seeking out signatures and basically decorating my office with Academy books. Yes, it's
that good, imo.
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| Nicole Sixx from Womanthology & comicbooked.com with Christos Gage. |
Christos Gage is incredible. From
his work on video games, to
Law & Order to independent works like
Absolution which was friggin amazing the guy simply
doesn't dissappoint.
He doesn't know
how. It's not in his make up and it's not even in his vocabulary. His Home Front tie-ins to Fear Itself are outstanding...if you've followed
Robbie Baldwin, aka
Speedball aka
Pennance then Home Front is for you as well.
Even if you
haven't, Gage's writing stands on it's own, he could be writing about
anyone and he just nails it. Pick up stuff with his name on it. It's
impossible to be let down.
And that's a promise from me...Comics Nut.
Everyone knows my word is gospel.
in there in Piss Poor -1 condition for $12.99 that I can find at Target for $7.99.
...and I know I'll end up seeing it at a Target or Toys R Us in a week or so for $13.99 or $11.99. But I have been drooling over this three-pack since the day I saw it previewed. There's a nice 
that's out along with it...comes with the clunky old school Iron Man, Hulk, Wasp, Ant Man and Thor. That set is pretty sweet but there is no way I'm passing up that Warpath for the Avengers pack.