Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Once An Invader 2 and 3
Written by: Chuck Austen
Penciled by: Scott Kolins
Inked by: NA
Colored by: Christ Sotomayor
Lettered by: Comicraft
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The last two issues of Chuck Austen’s Avengers run have finally come out, signaling the end of the darkness that has been his tenure as Avengers writer. Of course Bendis is coming next month so we’re trading one hack for another and worse, a hack who has fooled the comic press as towards him actually having talent instead of being a Grade-A hack.
The good part of these two issues is that the bulk focuses primarily on the new Invaders team. In Avengers #83 we meet the final two members of the new Invaders: Lady Torch, who like the original android Torch has to be kept in an airtight jar because she too explodes into flames and original Invader Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The New Invaders have been summoned together by USAgent under the supervision of Dell Rusk, who as we all know is really the Red Skull. Before being exposed, the Red Skull ordered USAgent to prepare a mission to overthrow the dictatorship of Mazikhandar and replace it with a US-Friendly regime. Of course this doesn’t go over well with the rest of the Invaders as Spitfire is disgusted at how she’s been lied to about the true mission they are to carry out while Namor just wants to stop Mazikhandar from attacking Atlantis.
In Avengers #84 we finally get the requisite Avengers/Invaders battle as Captain America and the Avengers don’t take kindly to the path of death and carnage USAgent cuts through the countryside. And while Namor (who is prominently displayed on the cover) is AWOL in this issue, we still get Cap versus USAgent as Cap makes it pretty clear that he doesn’t like USAgent wearing the Cap Costume and disrespecting his reputation like he has. Sadly, the fighting distracts everyone long enough for the hand-puppet selected by the US Government to rule Mazikhandar to show up and execute the dictator.
THE UGLY
Memo to Chuck Austen:
You need to get it into your head that not every wife beater (and let’s be perfectly frank, Hank’s quote unquote “abuse” of Wasp basically amounted to one single slap and some yelling, hardly the horrible “Lifetime Channel” movie nightmare everyone else makes it out to be and has almost always been taken out of it’s proper context whenever it is mentioned) is unredeemable and irresponsible. Chuck Austen’s evil view of Hank Pym is insulting to the character and to the notion that anyone who beats their wives basically can’t change their ways and shouldn’t bother getting help. And given Austen’s own admissions to have been abused as a child, it is highly hypocritical for him to condemn Hank like he has when put into the context that Hank’s abuse was a one-time thing and that he spent a great deal of time rebuilding his bridges with Wasp and the rest of the Avengers, with the help of Hawkeye, I might add.
And speaking of Hawkeye, another major crime has been Chuck Austen’s assertion that Hawkeye needed to be regressed and all of the maturity that he developed during the course of the “Avengers West Coast” and “Thunderbolts” series needed to be discarded. In his now infamous Silver Bullet Comic Books interview, Austen made a point to want to address Clint’s grief over the death of Mockingbird (a good point given how fast Hawkeye was shunted off into Limbo after the events of Avengers West Coast #100. That being said, what the hell does having Hawkeye screwing Wasp have to do with Clint coming to terms with Mockingbird’s death?
And his making Hawkeye claim that Hank has never been his friend ever since he hit Wasp. Again, Austen outright ignores canon as part of his quest to vilify Hank. After all, Hawkeye was one of Hank’s biggest supporters in the years following Hank’s fall from grace and was one of Hank’s most loyal friends during their tenure as members of the West Coast Avengers.
And then there is Wasp, who has been turned into a whore by Austen. Early in interviews Austen praised the Ultimates, which features a version of Wasp that was a slut that flashed the Ultimate Marvel Hulk. He also, in his Silver Bullet Comic Books interview, states that he wanted to make Wasp a stronger more independent female. So he has Wasp fu– Hawkeye for no other reason than to spite Hank—who walks in on the two when the Avengers alarm goes off. Thankfully (I hope due to the hand of absentee Avengers editor Tom Brevoort) Hank doesn’t massacre the two but instead runs to the nearest bathroom and has another nervous breakdown while the rest of the team leaves. As the issue ends, we are left with the impression via Cap that Hank is now gone from the team thanks to antics of Clint and Janet, who fake ignorance in what they’ve done to Hank.
