Avengers Academy Retrospective Part 3: Side Stories

[majingojira]

Now, back to the fun of Avengers Academy.  The series as a whole did not have a lot of tie in material.  Some of the kids appeared in Wasp & Ant-Man, and they also played a role in Marvel Universe vs. Avengers.  We already covered the former, and we're not touching the later for several reasons: 1) It's honestly very bad, 2) It's an AU, 3) They barely do anything there, 4) the art is horrible, 5) They keep drawing the wrong Hazmat (yes, there are two characters named Hazmat at Marvel, the other one was created for the crappy Rise of the Imperfects video game.

But there are a few others, and we'll be going through them here. Avengers Academy Giant Size #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #661-662.  Also, we have #13, 14 and 14.1 of Academy.  Most of these are just side-stories and setup for what's to come. 

Oh, and a dance. Because stress. 
 

We start with Avengers Academy Giant Size #1, which takes place between #9 and #10.  Originally, this was planned as a multi-part crossover with the series Young Allies.  But that series crashed and burned something fierce.  Debuting dangerously close to cancellation point and ending with #5.  Instead, the story was done as a Giant Size issue, 69 pages of story (80-Page giant my ass!).  The Young Allies didn't even form technically, though they do hang out on occasion.  The team consisted of Anya Corazon (Spider-Girl), Firestar, Nomad, Gravity and Toro.  Nomad and Gravity aren't part of this crossover.

Much like Hazmat and Mettle are not in this crossover either. 

The plot: Arcade catches the kids and does his usual shenanigans.  Re-reading this honestly pointed out a lot more problems with Avengers Arena than I initially put together.  I'll be commenting along with them.

Finesse, Veil, Striker and Reptil are visiting New York for a day as a 'vacation'.  They see Spider-Girl and Firestar but split up, but when they try and meet up again, things aren't right.  Reptil and Veil go to track down Finesse and Striker, but go down a blind alley. 




Finesse and Striker were captiured similarly.  Beaten by flying bricks and super advanced robots. 

Spider-Girl and Firestar are taken out by another "Mundane but Murderous" trap. 


 

Clothes Pin Tanq Darts!

Let's do a quick comparison: this elaborate trap is what catches them here.  In Avengers Arena, what catches the kids?  A teleportation device.  It's simpler, but it's also less dynamic and entertaining.  We're going to be seeing that a lot as we compare. 

Moving on.  Reptil manages to escape his transport vat and frees Spider-Girl as well.  His reptilian physiology did not take as strongly to the sedatives.

Acrade shows up, kicks their asses.


 

Something Arena missed out on: An Or-Else clause.  It gives the kids neither stick nor carrot to get them to play.  Here, Arcade gives them both.

He sets up the rules (complete a task for points, the first to five gets to choose who lives, the loser gets to choose who dies).  Then he shows off the traps.






Look at these traps!  They're visually dynamic, entertaining on their own and interesting.  Arena gives us none of these things.

It also doesn't give any groundwork beyond "It's just like X! Only done by an idiot!"

That brings up an interesting aspect of Arcade's character design.  The suit has it's color scheme going for it, as well as the design itself: He's a clean cut showman, a killer and he is goofy.  In their attempt to revamp him and make him serious, Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker ditch the bow-tie and go with a regular tie, the color scheme still having sickness and death amongst itself.  And then they gave him frilly sleeves, undermining he entire point of their redesign.

Arcade also explains that he's going after them to rebuild some of his cred.  Just like he's trying to do in Arena, but has a much more visually interesting way of doing it: walls of screens with kills and non-kills.  This story actually remembers that he's killed regular humans with his traps, just not super heroes.   And he also reveals he has a live audience (which is not really impressed with his showmanship at all).


Robot Megalodons.  I'm primarily posting this page just for that.  Robot Megalodons. 

Anyway, the competition starts!

Spider-Girl uses the opportunity to put a cell phone on him so they can talk.  They get their next assignments: Reptil has to get some wine, Spider-Girl has to get a picture of a dog.

Reptil sort of fails, Spider-Girl has a harder decision:

Reptil get's all guilty about stealing the kiss and Spider-Girl brushes it off because, well, he's not bad at it. 

Must have been all the practice.

Oh, yeah, Spider-Girl is now an orphan.  Really.  When she got a solo series, the first thing they did was have Red Hulk (Mind controlled) crush her home and her dad vicariously.  It was . . . about as bad as the start of Young Allies beginning with a villain nuking Ground Zero. 

Meanwhile:

Veil being badass.  Not a common sight, so I had to share.  Striker and Finesse manage to escape their trap.  Reptil and Spider-Girl team up to take the fight to Arcade, finding robot doubles of themselves along the way.


Frankly, even if he does succeed, it would do little for his reputation.  Arena included. 

Veil continues her sneaking around and taking out the armed guards. 



The control panel makes me smile.

Toro is freed during the ruckus and they all end up fighting he killer robots.  Striker shorts out the electrical systems so Arcade can't watch anymore.  Arcade's backup goes into play as the kids et up their plan.

The robots trip the explosives. That's one dead.  When he gets to the others, they're already mostly dead thanks to the robot henchmen, and he gets to watch Spider-Girl die of poison. 

Then he rushes over to see it in person and . . . they're all fine. 

And Free.




Arcade proceeds to run and throw up a litany of great little distractions and traps to hold them off.  Again, visually dynamic.




Ya think Arcade would hold a grudge for that.  But no, like many things, Arena forgets that. 

Also, take a look at that last panel.  Double or nothing within 5 years or at most a decade, Arcade will be back to this position depste Hopeless' best attempts to make him 'serious' (and vicariously, making him more inept than ever). 

The two teams thus become friends. So much so that, well, they're invited to a 'prom' being held by the Academy along with a few Initiative kids. 

Thus we go to Avengers Academy #13. 

Pym puts on a corsage, all nervous because he is NOT good at this sort of thing (being a nerd and all) and Tigra . . .


Sweet Jesus.

I love that dress. 

There's a lot of great bits in this issue.  DJ Speedbal among them. Go.  Read the issue and see for yourself!  Also, Komodo flirts with Reptil, heavily, to his chagrin (Reptil's still in his adult body if you remember).  Then he tells her the truth:



Then Hardball comes over and gives Reptil crap for hitting on his girl.  Komodo aruges with him and things get out of hand until Pym steps in to calm things down.  Yes, really.


One one hand, I feel for Pym.  On the other hand, Komodo and Hardball pretty much summarize their entire relationship in those background bits. And make me laugh.



Wow.  That is extremely hot.  Pym leaves Speedball in charge (oh God, we're doomed).




Oh Speedball, you're such a dork.  Also, Ultra-Girl?  Yeah, wow. 

Firestar is pissed at Justice.  Extremely pissed.  And punches him into a punchbowl. 

He wanted to wait for Marriage for Firestar and him to consummate their relationship.  



Justice and Firestar talk out their problems rather maturely afterwards, but they're still hurt over it.  And still care. 

Mettle goes and vents. . .



I love Mettle's expression in that last panel.  It's just adorable.

And they go Dance together and puppies and rainbows suddenly appear.

Striker's expression really hits home due to it's overall truth.  A truth that is unknown to Arena.  Sorry, SORRY! It's just such an easy target!

Spider-Girl and Reptil talk and she manages to get through to him and point out that the hangup that's keeping him morphed is psychological rather than anything else.  She uses the best weapon at her disposal: "I liked you better as a teenager."  BAM! Undone.  Hardball sees this and how close they're getting and assumes he's a player of some kind and goes to defend his girl's honor.  Speedball tries to break it up, but ends up at ground zero.  Pym and Tigra hear the commotion from their position and run down to see what's happened.  he entire dance hall is filled with balls and everyone is partying even harder!



Daww . . . And then the Young Allies were disbanded, Nomad killed and Toro retired in an Onslaught related crossover.

Next, the Academy kids meet THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!

The issue starts with Spidey lamenting that he doesn't teach the Future Foundation, and how he misses his teaching days.  A monster appears and the Fantastic Four spring into action.  It's a microverse giant gorilla grown huge.  So Giant Man also shows up to help. 

But he's really there to see Ben Grimm, asking him to teach for a day as a fill in.



No Mettle/The Thing talk makes me sad.  Nice going Spidey. 



Pym goes on to tell him he'd be perfect for teaching the kids because he's made so many mistakes (like the Spider-Mobile).  After that, Spidey's a little nervous about the endeavor now, but after a talk with his girl of the moment (what's her face), he gets the confidence to go see the kids. 

I love this scene.  I really do.  Poor, poor Spider-Man. 

They go on patrol, the kids beat spidey to the punch and save a lady from some muggers.  Spidey isn't to happy about it all.



He starts to monologue, but much like how the kids don't cotton to traditional heroics, they don't cotton to monologuing.  However, his abilities are mind control (exploiting Hate, Fear and Doubt)  and they have never really faced that before.  Leaving spidey alone against Avengers Academy!


 

Yeah, he holds his own, because he IS Spider-Man, throwing Hazmat into a dumpster to save people. Mettle steps in to crush him, but Reptil rushes in too--and knocks Mettle aside with a Thagomizer.



Awww

But Spidey won't give up on them!  Because, well, he's Spider-Man! Saving a crowd of people when the kids are lead to attack them by Psycho-Man.



Spidey used "I know you're in there, fight it!" 
It's Super Effective.




Veil flood the area with antiseptics, bringing back all their memories of being tortured and used by Osborn.  This breaks the mind control and they beat Psycho-Man, destroying his armor and he retreats back into the Microverse.

The entire experience was pretty  . . . troubling.

They bitch about what happened, but the kids grew from the experience overall and don't blame Spidey for it.


Spidey rags on himself and his teaching a bit more, until:


Oh, Striker.  You card.

Pym laughs and says "Hey, we should make this a regular thing!"




And thus ends the Spider-Man appearance.  Next is #14.1   Yes, really.  14.1 is before 14.  It's a thing. 

Here, the kids go and meet one of the kids that didn't go to the Academy.  Jeremy Briggs. 




They see one kid, Weston Minkovich, who was a hulk-like monster when he came in.  With him, anything could set him off.  Anything.  He might sneeze hard and suddenly BAM! Monster form.  While not Hulk-level, it was still dangerous.  Jeremy cured him. 

Planting SEEDS OF DOUBT!

He takes Striker and Finesse to see a healer named Kelly working in Haiti (after the Earthquake and all).  She's scheduled to do a reality TV thing and asks Striker if he'd show up to boosts the ratings (and thus get more help for her work). She also comments that the whole Hero/villain thing is rather stupid: "Why not just be a cop?"

She also flirts with Jeremy a bit.

Reptil and Veil go see a kid named Steve.  He had Ice generation powers and REALLY wanted to be a hero.  The only reason he's not at the Academy was because of his parents: they wanted him to have a normal life.  He acted as a hero anyway.  It was just in him.  Great meet, right? Well, by the time they get there, Steve's . . . dead.  Killed by a Wendigo, which was responsible for some cattle mutilations he was investigating.  Torn apart at 16.  Jeremy comments that the Wendigo went north from there.  "So he probably saved a few cows." 

Then comes his pitch. 





But she has no proof, he points out.  Then he asks is Mettle and Hazmat want their first kiss.  They tell him to go to hell and attack.

He mops the floor with them all.  Not only is he a molecule manipulataor (turning air to CO2 or to water in your lungs), he's also superhumanly durable: Finesse's baton just bouncing off him to no effect.  By the time security arrives, he's got them all handled. He then lets them go, hoping they'll consider his point and doesn't even blame them for attacking him.  They are "Products of their education system."


 

Jeremy Briggs is THE Arch-enemy of Avengers Academy.  And a damn good one. 

Now, comes #14, which I can sum up in three words: THE SINISTER SIX.


They watch Pym and Quicksilver deal with a volcanic explosion and, after Briggs and Spider-Man, want to help too.



So, hearing of Electro in a Robery in France, they go and investigate with Tigra. 

Electro beats striker one on one, and Tigra gets KOed quickly and it's revealed that the entire thing was a setup by Doc Oc and the rest of the Sinister Six. 

Who proceed to trounce and school the kids something fierce.



And they pull a switch-aroo on Tigra with Chameleon to boot!



Oc takes over Pym's doorway tech and escapes.  But it causes a chain reaction that destroys the lab.

The owners are NOT happy.


Banned from Paris, France.  Ouch.

Reptil tries to take responsibility for the screw up (and the overconfidence), but Pym blames himself more still. 



Man.  Downer ending after downer ending.  Well, the future surely can't be that bad for the kids, right?  Let's see, what's next . . . Fear Itself.

Oh. 

Never mind then. 

Alright, Scanners, gird your loins for the next post as Avengers Academy faces its greatest challenge and, honestly, has its best arc as they stare terror in the face and do not blink.

Comments

[crinos]

So... they already did a story just like Avengers Academy, only much better that wasn't publicized at all?

Wow, that would be very embarrassing for Marvel if it came out that this happened.

[majingojira]

Indeed. The ineptitude of Arena is frankly awe inspiring at this point, particularly emphasized due to what gems that do shine through underneath the premise that the writer does not understand.

It's good and bad elements combine into a perfect storm of overall mediocrity, mired further by the vileness of the meta-narrative behind it.

[northstarfan]

No lie, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Gage and Baldeon as a creative team. Adore Baldeon's art, big fan of Gage's writing. These scans make me happy. Is the Arcade story collected anywhere? I don't recall seeing it in any of my Avengers Academy trades.

[majingojira]

It has it's own trade: "Avengers Academy: Arcade - Death Game" which also includes two early Arcade appearances (Spider-Man #25 and Marvel Team-Up #89). Gage is not the writer on the Arcade story (Writing by Paul Tobin), but it's an entertaining story. Not to great, but fun.

[northstarfan]

Hurm. Maybe if I can find it cheap. This looks OK, but Tobin's not a writer I'm particularly fussed about.

[majingojira]

If it helps, the other writers for the other stories are Chris Clarement (Back in his golden days, in the first story to introduce Captain Britain to the US IIRC) and Terry Kavanagh. I picked it up because I have some completist elements.

[long_silence]

Personally I was not a fan of Gage and Baldeon's run on Legacy.

[northstarfan]

I stopped giving two flips about Rogue back in the 90's, so for me the title was mostly good for kid-watching, Chamber cameos, and Frenzy. No complaints on those fronts. Wasn't pleased to see Sandoval take over art duties; there were a few spots where he blatantly recycled his expressions.

[long_silence]

The kids' cameos weren't that good, not enough to warrant buying the book every month.

It wasn't good as a team book either (Seriously it was supposed to be a Rogue, Frenzy, Rachel, Gambit, Iceman, Husk, Chamber team book, it's kinda perfect on paper and yet it was so boring and awful) It was just mediocre on every conceivable level

[northstarfan]

Do you have a cite for that? Because every interview I saw said the direction of the book was still supposed to be Rogue and Her Amazing Friends.

And, as can probably be guessed, I disagree completely with your opinion. Different strokes.

[skemono]

Huh. I didn't realize they brought Gravity back to life after Beyond!

Also, Speedball needs to get invited to more parties. He's like a living ball pit!

[long_silence]

He was brought back in McDuffie's run of Fantastic Four, he was suppose to become the new Protector of the Universe like Captain Marvel was but that didn't pan out.

Then he came back to Earth, joined the Initiative and was leader of the Nevada 50 State team, and then Osborn had him transferred to the Great Lakes Initiative for shits and giggles. Of course that always bothered me because Gravity was a first year student at NYU, so all that moving around must have messed with his civilian life.

But he moved back to New York after the Initiative shut down and went back to NYU and ended up teaming up with the other Young Allies a few times. But it seems he's slipped back into limbo

[jlbarnett]

maybe they just need to stop introducing teen heroes. Cause they can't write them.

Personally I bought most of Academy because I've liked lots of books with teen heroes. I never liked this book.

And Young Allies... no more non-team teams please.

Next teen hero book, a group of people who share common interests and enjoy spending time with each other.

[benuben]

Why? What's wrong with stories about diffrent people who don't like each other at first, but become friends and comrades over time?

[jlbarnett]

why are they making the effort if no one forces them together for one?

[benuben]

I wasn't talking abut anything paticular. Usualy, in stories like that, they are forced due to circumstances. If you mean AA, they are all at the same academy and the same team. Whether they like it or not, they are in this together.

And what do you mean anyway? Why are people being social and starting to like to other people? The same reasons as in real life?

[jlbarnett]

No, I meant Young Allies actually.

I mean why do they always have these groups with members that can't stand each other when there's hardly anything holding them together and they could leave and find people they want to hang with

[benuben]

Well, I haven't read Young Allies. What's their deal?

I know what you mean. Any other examples?

[northstarfan]

Liu's Astonishing X-Men run. I don't think any of the character outright hate each other, but team cohesion is practically nil. Really, it's less a team book than a collection of characters the writer keeps having cross paths during crisis moments. It does work on a humanizing level in that it shows these characters do have lives outside of the X-Men and I like that at lot, but sometimes it just seems really forced.

[silverzeo]

Hmm... I would enjoy that Spider-Man story just a little tiny bit more if they,just a minor thought here, DIDN'T HAVE IT SO SOON AROUND OMIT, AND THAT HAD PETER'S BIGGEST SACRIFICES SOMEHOW NOT/DID HAPPEN, MAKING HIM THE LUCKIEST UNLIKABLE SOB EVER!!

I am sorry if I came off a unrelenting hater, like G-Whiners in Transformers or how a old StarWars fan who somehow is offended by every little change to the franchise, but OMD AND OMIT ARE JUST. SO. AWFUL!! If any high class snob wants to make a point why comic books or writers are NOT deem as artistic or knowledgeable pieces of fiction, those 2 story arcs would be the in the top 5, somewhere between Countdown and Marville....

[perletwo]

Why is the coloring/lighting in the "Spidey's Superhero Ethics Class" sequence so dark and muddy? Is it supposed to be night?

[majingojira]

Could just be the scans, I'm not sure.

[perletwo]

Shame, because the art in that sequence looks pretty nice. Anybody know title/ish # on that bit? I'll give a shot at finding it at the LCS tomorrow if I get that, do some comparing.

[skemono]

The issues are mentioned in the OP. So, looks like Amazing Spider-Man 661 & 662.

[perletwo]

Noted & will give a look for 'em tomorrow, thanks!

[beyondthefringe]

It's a shame that Young Allies didn't last a lot longer. They had potential.
I'm especially disappointed that that version of Nomad was killed off in a miniseries I didn't even dare go near. I always thought that Nomad and Arana/Spider-Girl... Rikki and Anya, had awesome chemistry. (In my head I still kind of ship them based on some of their earlier interactions...they'd have made an adorable couple.)

[salinea]

I miss Nomad and Anya so much :(

[majingojira]

Well, glad to know the Scans_Daily motto of "It's never just you" still holds true. Rikki and Anya had a lot of chemistry.

[amaniwolf]

They were a great team, I seriously miss them together. It was nice to see teen friends who were.....well....friends, both in and out of costume. Poor Rikki, she deserved so much better.

[silverhammerman]

That scene in the classroom actually kind of infuriates me, like I get what's being said and it's pretty funny and all that, but it still annoys me a great deal. It's all perfectly valid criticisms, but every time I see that scene it really annoys me that we don't get to see Spidey actually give them a decent reply. I feel like I have a similar problem with this as I do with the Invinicible/Spider-Man crossover, where Invincible keeps making fun of people's names, and not one of them ever points out that Invincible's name is a fucking adjective that's basically an invitation to kick his ass. It feels like it's only being done to show how cool the new guys are, because they're even cleverer than Spidey, the original clever hero. It's just....Gah.

Ignore me, sometimes I get too protective of the characters.

Anyway, this is all great, once they get out of the classroom it's fun to see Spidey interact with the students, and Arcade is an absolute delight, I still don't get why they felt the need to revamp him.

[bizarrohulk]

Spidey did point out that Invincible didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to making fun of people's names, and that if he were to follow Invincible's lead he'd be calling himself "Webs".

What most amused me about the whole thing was that two of the "silly" names Invincible came up with for the Avengers were the actual names of DC characters (Batwoman and Robot Man).

[grazzt]

Anyone willing to use the dance to make a "Trippin' balls" icon?

[biod]

I'm suddenly reminded of a really cool fanfiction where (SPOILERS?) a major villain commited suicide rather than degrade himself and give Arcade the satisfaction of playing along.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6199168/1/Legends