artist: various
(from weeklycomicbookreview.com)
The significance of this issue (along with New Avengers #34) is that it is Brian Michael Bendis' final issue of Avengers after writing the team in various incarnations since 2004.
Bendis has a massive essay at the end of the issue detailing this relationship, hitting up its highlights and origins. Suffice it to say, but I did not read every issue (he has a count of 232), and in fact very few of them. Here's a very brief recap, though: "Avengers Disassembled," House of M, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, New Avengers, Avengers.
Anyway, not to be reductive, but the first three will remain his legacy with the team that has lately stormed the box office. "Disassembled" was the story that, as the title implies, took the team apart, famously killing off (for a while) Hawkeye. House of M was basically a very early preview of Bendis's X-Men. New Avengers was where he took the Justice League formula and more accurately the Grant Morrison JLA formula, and applied it to Earth's Mightiest Heroes. He brought Wolverine and Spider-Man, among other characters who had never been members to the Avengers, and in the process made it possible for just about every other character ever to be an Avenger.
This last issue is more or less about scaling it back to what the team was when he started. It features Wonder Man desperately trying to redeem himself. You may not know Wonder Man too well. He played a part in "Disassembled" and then went away. It also features the return of Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp, who was a founding member of the Avengers. Bendis' whole idea was to move the team away from its original concept and defining characters, although of course Iron Man was still around.
The catchphrase included in this issue is, "We go bigger" (although realistically it's impossible to go bigger than the team was in the Bendis era), uttered by Tony Stark, who is one of several characters who acts exactly in this comic the way he does in the movies (synergy!).
Bendis doesn't do a lot to make a closing statement other than undo everything he did and suggest other people will "go bigger" (by again, basically doing all of that over again). It's more implied. If you get it, that's great. Otherwise you might be forgiven to assume that this is just another issue of Avengers, aside from that massive essay.
One of the things I love about Marvel is that it still includes things like massive essays from incoming/outgoing creators, and also letters columns. Bendis is a big proponent of letters columns (although no letters column this issue), and you've got to admire that about him. Although I did not read all 232 issues, I think it's definitely worth marking his departure, although he's really only picking up a thread he laid down years ago, with a different franchise.
I've read a lot of great letters columns Tony. Glad to know Marvel has kept it's creator focus over the years.
ReplyDeleteI read Greg Pak's final issue of Incredible Hulk because of the same essay thing, even though I didn't read his work on the series. It's always good for the comic books themselves to acknowledge both themselves and their readers.
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