Avengers #1 Preview - Wanted, Heroes for Heroic Age

[flidgetjerome]

CBR has a seven page preview up for Avengers #1. A couple of pages were floating around the net already but now there's lettering and some of the dialog is pretty cute.






So Steve's the voice for "Forgive and Forget" and Wonder Man is the one going "We can't pretend we can just go back to how it used to be, these last five years have been really messed-up!"?

What a balanced presentation of both sides!

And it's working. (Stupid Wonder Man, talking back to Captain Rogers. Who does he think he is? Screw him!)

Suggested Tags - title: avengers, char: captain america/steve rogers, char: wonder man/simon williams, creator: john romita jr., creator: brian michael bendis, publisher: marvel comics

Comments

[icon_uk]

I think Steve's pretty much complete and utter failure to adequately answer Simon's quite valid points speak volumes.

I still can't believe they're letting either Steve and Tony Stark have anything to do with the Avengers again, from a trust AND PR point of view, it's ridiculous.

Maybe it's because I'm a Brit not American, but the worshipping of Steve as being something which is automatically the right thing to do is kinda creepy.

Nice to see the Avengers Next cartoon get SOME validation though.

[magus_69]

I still can't believe they're letting either Steve and Tony Stark have anything to do with the Avengers again, from a trust AND PR point of view, it's ridiculous.

I'll give you Tony, but Steve? His return is being treated like the Second Coming.

[flidgetjerome]

Maybe it's because I'm a Brit not American, but the worshipping of Steve as being something which is automatically the right thing to do is kinda creepy.

Steve's not the moral centre of the Marvel Universe because he's sometimes been Captain America, though, he's the moral centre because he's Steve Rogers. He's got a 70-year-old character history of being the guy who's always going to think hard about a situation and never shy from the difficult answers.

Simon Williams, on the other hand, is the dude who wouldn't let them scan his brainwaves to rebuild the Vision, who he considers his brother, so he could have a clear shot at hooking-up with his brother's wife, Wanda.

[icon_uk]

His return is being treated like the Second Coming

Which is my problem, Steve was last seen, by most of the MU, being put on trial for treason, and for fomenting a destructive rebellion against a legally valid decision by the US Government. And people were AGREEING that he needed to be put on trial. He was being vilified by all and sundry.

Sudden about-faces like do not impress me.

[cygna_hime]

...Steve, what have you done to your hair? It makes you look like a teenager.

[icon_uk]

Steve is the guy who, when last publicly seen, was having rotten eggs thrown at him for leading the rebellion in the Civil War, an act he was unrepentant for. More than half the nation was clamouring for his head. This is not someone most people would most likely have a tickertape parade reaction too for, after miraculously returning from the dead.

And regardless of who Simon Williams is, he makes valid points that deserve more of an answer than a pouty face from Steve... adorable though that is in most other contexts.

[flidgetjerome]

Actually, technically Steve is last seen being gunned down on the steps of the Courthouse and there was a massive public outpouring of grief after that. Plus Registration turned out to have been pretty useless at stopping any of the problems it was meant to stop so it turns out he was right to fight it.

I can buy that the American people are fine and dandy with him being in charge again. It's a lot more plausible to me than everyone being fine with Tony showing up to that party.

[icon_uk]

Even during the massive outpouring there were plenty who thought he got what he deserved (cf the bar scene where Bucky takes exception to a bunch of guys celebrating that Steve was dead)

[auryn]

Why does Beast not look like a cat here?

[wizardru]

"I think Steve's pretty much complete and utter failure to adequately answer Simon's quite valid points speak volumes."

Umm....is there more to Simon's arguments than this? Because I'm not seeing any casualty there that makes sense.

How is the Skrull Invasion the fault of the Avengers, exactly? How is the Mutant Decimation the fault of the Avengers, specifically, at not the simple act of Wanda Maximoff...someone who the Avengers REDEEMED (and who quite likely would have done something similar or worse under Magneto's watch). How is Norman Osborn's abuses the fault of the Avengers?

I'm not following this line of thinking at all. At best, you could blame some of this stuff directly on people who were IN the Avengers...but to suggest the Avengers were the root cause? Were they responsible for Kang's taking over the earth? For the Kree-Skrull war? Is it the Avengers fault that the Thunderbolts nearly took over the Earth under Baron Zemo?

I'm just not seeing the context where this argument makes sense.

[icon_uk]

I think Simon is meaning "Avengers" as in "Self appointed good guys who act as they see fit with little or no oversight".

Skrull Invasion I'll give you, but the Decimation was down to the downright weird way they treated Wanda, and her suddenly being a delusional retconned nutcase.

Norman Osborne was able to take power because of Tony Stark setting everything up so that it depended upon HIM being in charge centrally and completely, whereas anyone with even a basic knowledge of how bureaucracies work (and that's what the Registration Act was) should have contingencies for when things DON'T go his way.

[deliandra]

Why do I get the feeling I have seen this pages before?

[wizardru]

AFAICT, that's never been considered to be the mainstream opinion in the MU. Hell, there are Americans who were vocally in support of the Oklahoma bombing and who expressed. Plus, I think it's a little late in the day to notice the fact that events in the MU (or most comics) is patently ridiculous. One of the biggest problems with 'Civil War' is how it really doesn't understand anything about the American political system or patently ignores it in service of the story it intends to tell. I mean, you have to ignore huge swaths of MU history to allow the MU to function. The actions of 'Secret War' alone should have been enough to invalidate everything that followed, if we were following logic.

As for Captain America...he's always been regarded that way. For the past 40+ years, he's been the MU's moral center. Most heroes regard him as a leader and living legend. He's one of the few heroes to very publicly abandon his title and admonish the government on purely moral grounds. He's had a long history of asking the tough questions, taking the moral high ground and serving his country, from SHIELD to the Avengers to free-lancing.

[colonel_green]

I really want to see everybody's reaction to the AU child of Steve and Natasha named "James".

[icon_uk]

AFAICT, that's never been considered to be the mainstream opinion in the MU.

What? The vilifcation of Captain America? It's prevalent throughout Civil War, where Iron Man was not only seen repeatedly as the sensible one, but the one with media and public backing. Captain America was the one who went against Presidential authority and fomented a superpowered rebellion against the laws of the country. He was seen as being supportive of the actions (or at least the manner of behaviour) that led to the destruction of Stamford, he didn't have a MySpace page either, which was clearly the ultimate sin.

And of course it's too late to notice things are ridiculous, it doesn't make new examples any less annoying, especially when they are the crux of the next big event.

And I'm also not saying that Steve Rogers isn't a thoroughly moral person, I'm saying he's a thoroughly moral person who took a massively unpopular stance and I've seen nothing to suggest why that stance should be in vogue again with the public.

[arilou_skiff]

The MU would be much better if Steve would just stay away from it. I can't stand the sheer mind-numbing stupid self-righteousness that oozes out of his every pore.

It's not even that I disagree with the sentiments: It's the idea that we're supposed to buy it because who is saying it that is extremely irritating. It's an Ad-hominem (although not the usual case) they're arguing from WHO is saying it rather than WHAT he is saying.

Screw you Captain America.

[greenmask]

I am amused at Draco-Steve, bottom-right first page.

[skalja]

1. Steve has oddly fine bone structure.
2. Wonder Man's haircut is aaaaaawful. It's not the early 90s anymore!
3. I'm always happy to see Spidey get some background love, but what is he actually doing there? That webbing looks like it's getting in the way, not helping.

[sinisterlink]

"I'm always happy to see Spidey get some background love, but what is he actually doing there? That webbing looks like it's getting in the way, not helping."

Obviously he's doing it just to annoy the crap out of Tony. :p

[kirke_novak]

At the beginning I thought it's Johnny Storm and blamed it on the bad art... until I understood! Cap will be played by Johnny in the Captain America film, so it's some clever thinking on their part.

Brava, Marvel, brava... *slow claps*

[panthyr]

That's an appeal to authority.

[valtyr]

Maybe it's because I'm a Brit not American, but the worshipping of Steve as being something which is automatically the right thing to do is kinda creepy.

As a Brit, compare it to Diana, who went from being a controversial figure to a ~saint~ by dying.

Also, since Steve died the world has been pretty disastrous, and now he comes back as Osborn turns out completely insane and helps defeat Osborn's pet Lovecraftian horror? I can see how he's regarded as positive, and people are hoping he'll make things better.

While there were evidently people who believed he got what he deserved when he died, I think his death - and the coverage of it - swung general opinion the other way. (He also died throwing himself protectively in front of one of his captors, which had to help.) Evidence being his huge funeral with vast statue, and in Thor it was shown that people were constantly invoking his name to aid their political stance. For that matter, Osborn releasing Sharon's name as Steve's murderer and expecting a vast outcry against her shows that general MU opinion had changed.

M-Day wasn't the fault of the Avengers; they supported Wanda as best they could. You can pitch it as their fault if you cite their refusal to murder her, but I'm not inclined to do that. We can't blame the Avengers for retconning. Secret Invasion, not their fault. World War Hulk, the Illuminati, not the Avengers - only one Avenger involved.

[lieut_kettch]

It looks like The Avengers will be under the authority of the US government. I'm surprised the Russian, Canadian/Utopian, and Asgardian said yes so quickly.

AUGH

[sianmink]

AUGH! Now I can't un-see it!

[sianmink]

And all is right in the world.

Plus, he can expense the chemicals and get reimbursed, cause he's 'helping'!