Avengers Finale Review

Archive

Reviewer: Jesse “Baker_Baker” Baker
Story Title: NA

Written by: Brian Bendis
Penciled by: David Finch, Alex Maleev, Steve Epting, Lee Weeks, Michael Gaydos, Eric Powell, Darick Robertson, Mike Mayhew, David Mack, Gary Frank, Mike Avon Oeming, Jim Cheung, Steve McNiven, George Perez
Inked by: Various
Colored by: Various
Lettered by: Albert Deschesne
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Opening Statement
“Give me my money back
Give me my money back you b***h
I want my money back”
Ben Fold Five “Song for the Dumped”

Sadly that will not happen in the case of Brian Bendis or his editor Tom Brevoort. After being raked over the hot coals by disgruntled Avengers fans on his personal message board at ComiXfan.com, Tom Brevoort has basically stated that he stands firmly behind Brian Bendis’s violation of the Avengers franchise. For someone who was for years considered to be the only sane voice in Marvel Editorial, in an era where Marvel editors Ralph Macchio and Mark Powers were routinely being crucified by fans for the way that they ran the Spiderman and X-Men franchises into the ground while at the same time openly showing utter contempt towards the readers reading their books, Tom was someone who went out of his way to interact with the readers of the books he edited and made a huge point to know what they felt and wanted to see. Now he’s nothing more than a company shill, having drunk the Kool-Aid of Joe Quesada.

Worse yet is the way that Brevoort has taken upon himself to run spin-control for Brian Bendis’s countless continuity screw-ups (which are familiar to anyone who’s ever read his Daredevil run), rationalizing key storyline elements that Bendis told him about, but was too LAZY to include in the actual issue. Most notably the revelation that Agatha Harkness never came back from the dead in Avengers West Coast and that for all of this time, Scarlet Witch has been using her power to basically make Agatha’s corpse act like a zombie version of her subconscious mind. Which of course means that is one less murder Wanda was shown to have committed in the course of “Chaos.” Except of course for the fact that Bendis never once clarified this in the pages of Avengers #503, so no one would know this unless they read the message board, which is a really, really bad screw-up on the part of Tom as editor of the book.

And Bendis, flush with power off being the Golden Boy at Marvel who has editors covering or outright ignoring his numerous writing mistakes, has lashed out at his critics as being stupid and ignorant. Bendis stated “There are no continuity mistakes in Dissassembled. There are shocking revelations that change the true meaning behind things you thought you knew” on his message board, which is the equivalent of John Byrne’s equally egomaniacal statement, “I’m purging all previous Doom Patrol incarnations from canon because they don’t represent what Doom Patrol is supposed to be!” spiel when DC green-lighted his destruction of Doom Patrol earlier this year.

The Chaos Effect
“Look, this isn’t about the eighteen dollars ticket money anymore. This is about being able to hold bad filmmakers responsible. Just like when we got our money back for BASEketball!” Stan Marsh, South Park

I sat down and read “Chaos” Tuesday afternoon before obtaining my copy of “Avengers Finale”, remembering Brian M. Bendis’s comments to critics that they needed to read the entire story and his refusal to spoil aspects of it to the fan-press. I now know WHY he said this. “Chaos” is a complete and utter failure the likes of which Bendis, who has been the golden child of “Nu-Marvel,” has never seen before. One that proves the public doesn’t want what Bendis (who had the gall to claim to be a huge Avengers fan) wants. Hell, Bendis’s first arc, and the revelation of the new permanent roster, proves that he doesn’t give a damn about the Avengers. All he seems to care about is having a series where he can put his pet bottom-feeder characters in one book to write.

Furthermore, the presence of a variant cover scheme for the first six months of the series that involved a convoluted ordering requirement, is a scam that comes off as extortion as Marvel’s similar to the recent scheme to boost sales for “The Ultimates:” V2 #1 by way of making half of all orders be in black and white pencils.

Granted Joe Quesada has “graciously” offered to bring back fan-favorite “Thunderbolts,” a book he singled out for destruction almost immediately after taking over as Editor-In-Chief. Joe’s antics resulted in a huge fan backlash when he deemed it too old-school and not “hip and edgy” and revamped it into a poor man’s Fight Club. This revamp failed so miserably that the “New and Improved” Thunderbolts were immediately cancelled. In a way, Joe seems to be giving us that book as a token to longtime fans even though it’s pretty clear that this isn’t enough since let’s be frank, that doesn’t make up for the fact that Bendis has killed off two of the most beloved Avengers including one that ironically played a huge role in the pages of Thunderbolts. And Tom Brevoort’s ominous comments about it being cancelled if the sales dip in the slightest don’t bode well.

Which leads us to the deaths of this arc. I can tolerate Bendis killing off Scott Lang if only because it fit in with the way that Scott’s life was destroyed during the Geoff Johns run. But killing off Vision and Hawkeye is utterly unforgivable, and brings into question Bendis’s interview claims about being huge an Avengers fan.

Jesse, it’s the world of comics. Do you really think Hawkeye and Vision are gone for good?—Chris

If he was a big fan of the Avengers, why would he kill two out of the four people who represent the Avengers franchise? Oh yeah, they aren’t marquee names like Luke Cage or Jessica Drew. And don’t get me started on Sentry being made an Avenger! Can someone justify Sentry joining, outside of Marvel wanting a bastardized version of Superman on the team? If that’s the case why not just import the old-school Hyperion from the original Squadron Supreme into the new book? Or even better, KEEP THOR on the roster while Marvel tries to find someone to write the book.

So goodbye Hawkeye, Vision, Wasp, Hank Pym, and Scarlet Witch! And hello Luke Cage, the 1970s Spiderwoman, Sentry, and Wolverine. A craptastic conglomeration of characters that is not appealing whatsoever when you sit down and think about it, especially with regards to “Mr. Over-Exposure” Wolverine. Wolverine isn’t Avengers material. He’s not a joiner. To have him suddenly join the Avengers is not within the guy’s character. Especially since Wolverine is already over-exposed by starring on all three of the X-Men teams. This will make Wolverine a regular in FIVE titles, which is enough to make even the most slavish Wolverine fan scream “ENOUGH” in terms of over-exposure…

Which brings me to the deaths of Hawkeye and Vision; Vision’s death was cold (especially in light that it served absolutely NO purpose aside from a plot device so as to allow David Finch to draw Ultron) and sterile with the added insult to injury of having She-Hulk tear his body for some cheap angst. HELLO? Did anyone tell Bendis that She-Hulk has her own book that is pretty much light-hearted and not at all as dark and depressing as Bendis’s various books? And let’s not forget the final fate of Vision; he’s just boxed up and put into storage and forgotten about. Shouldn’t Iron Man and/or Hank Pym make fixing Vision a high priority?

That’s colder and crueler than anything Spider-Man said about Vision.

And that brings us to the death of Hawkeye. Quite frankly it was a lame death. Bendis may try and spin it on his Internet fiefdom as a meaningful death that makes perfect sense in the story being told. In truth it was a stupid, stupid death. The only redeeming thing about it (and I’m being EXTREMELY charitable about this) is that it opens the door for someone like Kurt Busiek to not only bring back Hawkeye but also (if the Gods are willing) to wipe out the entire character assassination of Hawkeye at the hands of Chuck Austen.

But of course the biggest sin is the treatment of Scarlet Witch, by Bendis. What was once the strongest of the female Avengers has been turned into a murderess and a madwoman who’s been insane for just about all of the time in which she has been around Marvel Comics. It’s such an insult that it makes the treatment of Sue “I was killed and then retro-actively raped” Dibny in “Identity Crisis” look absolutely pro-feminist in comparison.

And Now the Quote Unquote “Finale”
“You symbiotic, patriotic, slam butt-nak… RIGHT? RIGHT?” REM “It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”

Three months after the events of Avengers #503, the Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Warbird, Wonder Man, Beast, Falcon, Wasp, and Hank Pym) show at the charred remains of Avengers Mansion for a final supper together. You see, Iron Man is claiming poverty and announcing that he won’t be able to support the Avengers anymore. So, naturally, the party’s over. Even though the team has others who can fund it (Wonder Man and Black Panther for starters), not to mention the notion of the Avengers saying “Screw Money” and staying together regardless of Iron Man being able to fund it. Hank and Wasp (who are back together) announce they are moving to England along with the new Captain Britain, who despite Bendis’s comments about clarifying what the status of her was in “Avengers: Finale,” says nothing about her nebulous status. And both She-Hulk (in her normal human form) and Quicksilver show up for brief words of regret and the Avengers give a final toast to the dead and leave to a crowd of cheering fans waiting for them outside.

Oh and we get eight double-page pin-ups of classic Avengers moments: the founding members, Captain America being defrosted, the Kree-Skrull War, a pin-up of Vision and Scarlet Witch gazing longingly in each other’s eyes, the Korvak Saga, the Avengers teaming with Adam Warlock, Captain Mar-Vel, Spiderman, and Thing versus Thanos, the Mansion Siege with Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil, and Ultron Unlimited done by various guest artists. Eight pin-ups at two pages each equals 16 freaking pages that should have been used for story.

In short, we get a finale that resolves little and does ZERO to close the door on the Avengers. And, once again, Bendis drops the ball with Wonder Man. The guy was utterly and completely obsessed with Scarlet Witch to the point that he ruined her marriage to Vision. He barely says a word about what happened to Wanda! Instead we get Warbird (who only knew Wanda for twenty issues at best) being the one who shows any emotion regarding Wanda’s fate.