Avengers World #5

[superboyprime]

She takes him to another Earth, where he witnesses incursion.

Comments

[philippos42]

1. This does not look like Dr Banner to me. Since I was just reading some scans with Midnighter in'em, my brain has decided it does look like Jack Hawksmoor.
2. That "Millennials" rant. That was not an answer Bruce Jack.
3. On third thought, maybe he looks more like Pete Wisdom.
4. Thanks for the actual (passable technobabble) explanation, Tony. You are now a better comic-book SCIENCE!itist than Banner Hawksmoor Wisdom.
5. Arrgh. "Incursion."
6. I clearly need to go to bed.

[drtechnobabel]

Yeah, the 'Millennials' rant really ticked me off too. It had nothing to do with the topic at hand and came out of nowhere. And like you said, it didn't even answer the question at all. It honestly just seemed like a mean-spirited jab at the very people I imagine Marvel would want to actually encourage to start reading their comics.

[drexer]

Yeah, it's the generation that's currently in power when it comes to creative liberties insulting and destroying the characters and themes that the newer generations prefer while patting themselves in the back.

In other words, it's that Times article all over again.

[drtechnobabel]

It's worse than that. It's a case of the generation currently in power when it comes to creative liberties using said power to directly insult the younger generation while patting themselves on the back.

Honestly, the most unbelievable part of this to me is that someone as smart as Bruce Banner would buy into that sensationalist bullshit.

[ensiform]

Wow, you millennials are incredibly sensitive. jeez. A fictional character said one word and you're all whiny.

It's almost as if the stereotype is true!

[drtechnobabel]

I really hope you're being sarcastic, but in case you aren't, I want to clarify the point that myself and several others here are making: we aren't annoyed that a fictional character went on a rant about 'kids these days', we're annoyed that from all appearances it's an author's tract that has no place being there and happens to insult a notable part of Marvel's fanbase. It makes absolutely no sense in context for Banner to go off like that due to a perfectly legitimate question (that, as we see in the very next scene, has a perfectly legitimate answer that he could have easily given her), and none of the things he's saying about Millennials are relevant to the people he's talking to. If he was saying that stuff to a person who actually fit the description he's giving, no one would really care, but the person he's directing the insults at is a SHIELD agent, and a pretty good one at that judging from the fact that she's currently on a think tank with Bruce Banner, so there's no reason for him to think she or anyone in that room with them are either unemployed or reliant on their parents in any way whatsoever. That'd be like walking into a CIA agent's office and telling them they should be ashamed that they haven't gotten a real job yet.

The only way that scene makes any sense in-universe is if you imagine Banner as being completely irrational and flying off the handle with little to no provocation whatsoever, in which case SHIELD shouldn't be trusting him with anything at all. But even that doesn't really make sense from a narrative standpoint since the way the scene is framed implies that we're supposed to AGREE with Banner's nonsensical straw man argument. This is a case of Hickman venting his frustration at his critics through the characters he's writing without any regard as to whether it makes sense for said characters to actually say that.

[bizarrohulk]

I've noticed that there doesn't actually seem to be a definitive character model for Banner. As long as he's drawn as a white guy with brown hair that seems to be good enough. Probably why the movies were able to cast three such different-looking actors.

[shadowpsykie]

and this one has black hair. lol

[q99]

I like that AIM gets some props. Recently the level of super-science in Marvel seems to be emphasized more with Tony and Bruce (and some competition between them), and Arno and etc.. But it's nice that the super-science villain club hasn't been left in the dust with all this.

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

I'll say this, those are some pretty backgrounds. Especially the Dreamtime.

[michaelhealy]

Since she is a goddamn SHIELD agent I don't think your insults apply to her in the least there Bruce.

[theflames]

why would he even bring up 'unemployed' when she's sitting right there, at her job.

[auggie18]

Bruce: We need a way to get past the force field.

SHIELD Agent: *logical suggestion*

Bruce: AUGH YOU DAMN KIDS EXPECT EVERYTHING HANDED TO YOU GET A JOB!

SHIELD agents: *work at SHIELD*


Seriously Bruce, be more of a giant cock for no reason. That rant seems totally out of place, particularly considering he's talking to people with jobs who probably don't live at home.

[bruinsfan]

Anyone who hasn't gotten a doctorate, designed a new weapon of mass destruction, and turned herself into a living weapon of mass destruction by 25 is obviously a slacker who makes no productive contribution to society.

[avantre]

"I was both saving AND destroying cities by the time you were doing your first mission!"

[shadowpsykie]

Seriously Bruce, be more of a giant cock for no reason.

you do NOT want to know what i was thinking right now... it was green.... and ready to smash....

[lieut_kettch]

Is it a gamma-irradiated rooster?

[shadowpsykie]

after a fashion... something along the lines of what Iceman Blue and flint_marko posted a while... but yes, lets go with rooster

[icon_uk]

"Don't make me horny.... you wouldn't like me when I'm horny"

[beoweasel]

What I find funny, is that Bruce looks about the same age as the people he's browbeating.

[drtechnobabel]

As both myself and other commenters here have pointed out, this makes a lot more sense when you see this as what it really is: Hickman taking time out of his 'epic' storyline to insult the comic readers that pick apart his stories. That's already an incredibly petty and immature thing of him to do, but by blaming it on Millennials, he ends up making it even worse by broadening that insult to include all of his readers that are in that age group, aka Marvel's current target audience. Plus, Hickman seems to have forgotten the most important part of making a flimsy strawman argument solely to make yourself look good: having an actual strawman for the character to direct the argument against. If he bothered to do that, at least he could argue that it was actually part of the story rather than the one-sided dick measuring contest it really is.

Sorry if that rant comes off as unfairly harsh. I already hate it when writers do this sort of thing in general, but when I'm also part of the target group that's being insulted, it's hard not to take it personally on some level.

[bruinsfan]

Oh, I think it sounds just about the right amount of harsh. And I'm chuckling at the implication that it's just know-nothing youngsters with their hipster glasses and their Rock n' Roll that take issue with the author's plots - I strongly suspect I have a few years on him and every time I read one of his oh-so-portentous books my eyes roll like the reels in a Vegas slot machine .

[drtechnobabel]

I'm kind of baffled by that implication as well. I'd imagine that the people most annoyed by Hickman's 'grand epic' are people who've been reading comics long enough to know what an actual epic storyline looks like. I admit, I only have a passing familiarity with the works of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, but even I feel that Hickman comes off as trying way too hard to write like them when in reality, he's nowhere near their level.

[long_silence]

Isn't Nick Spencer writing this series?

[drtechnobabel]

He might be a co-writer, but Hickman's name is definately on the cover, so he had at least some hand in writing it. And from interviews and quotes of his, it sounds like Hickman's the one running the show overall.

[beoweasel]

Anyone get the feeling that Bruce's inexplicable rant against millennials is less aimed at the SHIELD agents, and more directed towards the audience? Like this is Hickman giving a big middle-finger to the fanbase who often pick apart and question plot points and character decisions?

Comes off as Hickman is saying, "Oh, YOU think we should be doing THIS? WELL YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF UNEMPLOYED LOSERS LIVING IN YOUR PARENTS' BASEMENT."

[michaelhealy]

Since the rant makes no sense in the context it's presented I don't see any room for doubt.

[miramira]

Any way to at least pretend it's just him trying to psych them into showing him up and coming up with a solution?

[mrstatham]

There would have been had Bruce not started invoking the 'unemployed, reliant on their parents' stuff, which.. As others have pointed out - THEY'RE AGENTS OF SHIELD, not jobless teenagers. One presumes they would be expected to make intelligent suggestions like, you know, using a teleporter rather than expending SHIELD manpower pointlessly.

[icon_uk]

"You don't just hop along space-time like most"

Actually most of the teleporters I can think of in the MU don't hop so much manage to circumvent space-time by sidestepping into a completely different dimension; Magik, Vanisher, Nightcrawler...

[theflames]

Tony isn't really a friend of the mutants these days i guess. Though he managed to be on good terms with this guy.

[bruinsfan]

...Thor. I mean, he usually uses his hammer to actually go to those other dimensions and have cool adventures there, but I've always understood that he can target his exit point wherever he wants when he comes back from them. And take bunches of people with him. So does AIM's super-duper force field take into account magical means of interdimensional travel and only Hickman's special snowflake Gateway knockoff will do, or is the Avenger's brain trust too busy being smug/hostile toward their allies and patting themselves on the back for it to remember the capabilities of their longest-standing teammates?

[thanekos]

Doctor Banner, " brilliant asshole " is supposed to be tempered with withering sarcasm, not frothing rage!

[mrstatham]

YES YOU VULNERABLE, MORTAL, EASILY HARMED SHIELD AGENT, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO PLAN OUT A STRATEGIC OPERATION AGAINST AIM THAT COULD LOSE SHIELD DOZENS OF AGENTS MERELY TRYING TO INFILTRATE THEIR CITY RATHER THAN ACTUALLY, YOU KNOW, USING RESOURCES LIKE SUPERHUMANS IN A SENSIBLE FASHION. NOW EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO OFF ON A TANGENT NOT ALL THAT PERTINENT TO THE TOPIC BECAUSE YOU ARE EMPLOYED AGENT OF SHIELD PRESUMABLY NOT RELIANT ON YOUR PARENTS, UNEMPLOYED OR STILL LIVING WITH THEM BECAUSE MY WRITER WANTS ME TO LOOK COOL. ALSO, RAGE, BECAUSE YOU KNOW, I'M THE HULK AND GOD FORBID ANYONE SAY ANYTHING REMOTELY CONTROVERSIAL TO ME BECAUSE I JUST MIGHT THROW A TANTRUM.

Seriously, this Bruce seems like one who would throw a tantrum at the store clerk if they didn't have Vanilla Coke in or some such shit. Terrible.

[silverhammerman]

Having Bruce Banner turn into the Hulk over something as trivial as a difficult to crack physics problem kind of makes him seem like an unstable asshole, doesn't it? Especially if he's going to rampaging around, destroying entire decks, it doesn't exactly color him as a likable dude.

Even without turning into the Hulk, a dude who devolves to screaming over reasonable suggestions is not a dude who anyone is going to like.

[mrstatham]

Again, this feels like a Bruce who would throw a fit if they didn't have what he wanted down at the local store. And then he'd probably go off on one at the clerk, ranting about how it's their fault they're in a dead-end job and they aren't aspirational or inventive enough.

[matrix_dragon]

A comic about the worlds mightiest heroes fighting global scale threats should not be boring.

[wizardru]

That's my criticism of everything Hickman has done with the Avengers since the very beginning.