When we said that we wanted to see an ending to all this Norman Osborn and Dark Reign stuff, we didn't think they'd take it this far! But the week of insanity continued late on Friday as news broke over on IGN today that when the Siege event within the Avengers books ends with Siege #4, that will mark an end to EVERY Avengers title.
Now that is a bit dramatic, but when you think about it and couple with the fact that we know that after Dark Reign is coming "the Heroic Age", this news kind of makes sense. Brian Michael Bendis' run on the Avengers books started with Avengers: Disassembled which ended the long running Avengers title, only to start New Avengers, and then Mighty Avengers and Avengers: Initiative and then Dark Reign begat Dark Avengers. These Avengers books, while ranging in quality, really didn't have a life after Dark Reign ended, especially Dark Avengers, so it makes sense that they'd close up shop and relaunch the line of books, bringing back the glory of the main book, simply titled Avengers. The real question will be, will it be a #1 issue or will they adopt the numbering where Avengers left off? Ha. You know it will be a #1 issue.
The post on IGN outlines the final issues of all the titles being canceled, as well as the final issue to New Avengers, New Avengers: Finale, with Bendis teaming up with Bryan Hitch. There's also info on the Siege one shot books and other Avengers related titles solicitations in April.
No word as to what the new line of Avengers books will be called, when they'll relaunch or with whom, but you know that news is coming…
image courtesy of IGN
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Hooray!
There is a reason to read Marvel comics again!
Has this ever happened before, with either company? I can’t imagine there being a time without JLA or Avengers on the stands regardless of qualty.
Also has anyone ever figured out just what they’re supposed to be Avenging?
Honestly, it’s pretty much what I expected. Marvel isn’t afraid to cancel and re-start books, and books like Dark Avengers don’t really make sense.
I suspect they’ll be replaced by a couple of Bendis-written Avengers titles (maybe a West Coast Avengers?) and maybe a couple of offshoot books.
I’m sure we’ll get the inevitable complaints about renumbering and relaunching, but personally I ilke it when they make a clean break that works thematically as well. So I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next after Siege and these finales.
Finally I can pick up an Avengers comic in the future and say:
"Are there any other teams calling themselves the Avengers? No? Good!"
I hope they call it "the New NEW Mightiest Avengers (this time we promise no Osborn! Or Sentinel. Please buy this?)"
er, books like Dark Avengers "don’t make sense AFTER Dark Reign," that is.
I’m kind of excited about this. I’ve been reading New Avenges since issue 1 (same with Dark, but that book hasn’t been around as long) so for me it’s cool I’ll see it to the end. Now whatever the new book will be, wither it’s back to the old Avengers numbering and just called Avengers, I don’t know, but I’m excited to see where this goes. I’ve been a big fan of what Bendis has been doing and am pretty pumped to see what comes up with when the original 3 are back together (or so we’re to believe they will be after "Siege")
I don’t mind the relaunch but I wonder what will happen. The Dark Avengers book will be canned like Ron said, the New and Mighty books will be combined into The Avengers, but what about my favorite Avengers: Initiative?
I am pretty sure that "The Avengers" + "New Avengers" + "Mighty Avengers" = ~600 issues.
I predict a re-launch with "Avengers #600" to begin The Heroic Age. I also suspect a schedule similar to Amazing Spider-Man.
@Heroville – DC and Marvel have cancelled and restarted JLA and Avengers a few times. This doesn’t mean there won’t be an Avengers book. They’re just relaunching them the following month.
@TNC – You’re making a lot of assumptions there. It’ll still likely be Bendis (i’d bet), and he’s not a traditionalist, so you could still end up with two rival teams of Avengers. 😉 (but for the record, I don’t think that’ll happen.)
@IanX – that’s be a good bet. I was thinking something like that will happen as well.
I really hope that after Siege we get some more lighthearted stuff from before Civil War. I stopped following Marvel on a regular basis after Civil War happened. My hope is that Marvel and DC will be similar in light hearted tones after Darkest Night and Siege are over.
Ding Dong the Bendis nightmare will soon be over.
Matthew
@daccampo: I hope after all of this Mighty and New nonsense, Bendis would get the picture and not ever consider splitting the team up. I know that’s more Millar’s fault cause of that stupid Civil War. Still, just have one team!
Besides, even if it is Bendis writing it it’s better then nothing.
Good, there are too many Avengers books right now. Just one is fine by me.
Actually the thing I’m most excited for is Bendis writing less books. I think his titles were much better before stretching himself too thin.
personally, I liked the split teams of "underground" New Avengers and "registered" Mighty Avengers. I didn’t think that scenario ever got to play out like it should have.
That said, I suspect something more like an Avengers/West Coast Avengers split.
Since I follow writers and I am happy with the writers on all four Avengers books, I am a little worried about the relaunch.
I hope Gage gets to continue to write a book in which he can explore the lesser known characters of the Marvel Universe.
@daccampo I would love to see West Coast Avengers again. Especially if they throw NY based heroes on the team again. I love how that made no sense.
This has to mean that the Reistration Act is offically over? Not like anyone was really following that after a month’s time of it being developed.
I’d be excited except I know whatever Avenger title emerges will be $4.
I’m gonna guess we see Avengers #504. I really hope there’s some way to keep the diversification of the Avengers titles and in a way other than the Amazing formula.
@jstump — I totally have a soft spot for the West Coast Avengers, so I have to admit that I’m kinda hoping for something like that. With Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Yes, I can be nostalgic, too. 🙂
…so, is there any particular reason some of you think they’re canceling 4 of their more popular books and not just replacing them with 4 books the following month? They still, as far as I know, like money.
I am happier than a pig in slop with all of this. It’s like they’ve planned the last year just for me.
Definitely seems a bit foolish to cancel New Avengers, which is one of the top selling comics of the decade.
@Jimski: Oh I have no doubt that they will abandon this hope of 1 Avenger title after a couple of months. I also expect a ton of tie in books to give us a ‘more in depth’ look into the new team.
But for the 3-4 months with only 1 title…..It’ll be heaven.
Here’s looking forward to "The Adjectiveless Avengers" #1!
I had already decided to drop new Avengers because of the inconsistent qaulity, but if a singular avengers book comes along I made need to reconsider this decision. Especially depending on who the creative teams gonna be.
So Bryan hitch is doing the finale? That’ll be good in 2011. When the sorry isn’t relavant anymore because every other book blew the reveal.
This is cool. It really shows that New Avengers was one giant story and now we’re moving on. It’ll be nice to get back to one team instead of random people running around using the name. It’ll also be nice to get the team back on top and kick Osborn’s ass.
There will be the #1 issue which will run up through issue #11 followed by issue #700. Cool?
Siege is the right place to restart the traditional Avengers book. Loki has always been the main Avengers enemy, from Issue 1 to Acts of Vengeance (the first truly amazing Avengers tale I’ve read) to Siege. Bold move by Marvel, and it will still maintain high the interest on the book.
So Josh finally stops moaning and whining?!
I curious where they will go with this, but I’m kind of bummed, because The Initiative is one of my favorite books.
If they do a split, West Coast/Normal Avengers, I’ll be happy as well (I just bought all the West Coast Avengers issues from back in the day, and it’s AWESOME)
I like the idea of having only one Avengers title, but the problem is we’ve got too many characters, now. 🙂 Where’re they all gonna go?
looking forward to BRAND new avengers
@ian as I said bfore i’m hoping for thrice monthly with a brain trust of slott bendis and fraction
I’d like the Avengers to go away for awhile. And Siege. And any other big event. Why don’t we give a few of the various Avengers their own books, kill some off in limited series, have some retire or something and then start fresh with a new Avengers title or two? Or we could have an entire 37 event book run in the Savage land. Yes!
I’d like to see the "true" Avengers team again.
I don’t feel that Spider-man, Wolverine and Luge Cage are Avengers; They just don’t belong.
Even with several years behind them, the New & Mighty Avengers have always felt like The-Temporarily-Standing-In-For-The-Real Avengers.
Please Marvel, get the team back on track with actual Avengers and TRY to maintain that group to stay in the Avengers for longer than 1 or 2 story arcs.
This is very unfortunate. I just got into Mighty Avengers and New Avengers is pretty much a solid title every issue in my opinion. Even though Dark Avengers wouldn’t make much sense to keep after Siege I am sad to see it go.
I swear I remember Bendis saying that Dark Avengers would be staying around after Seige. I guess things changed mighty quickly since that interview.
I can’t see Marvel renumbering Avengers even with Marvel’s fuzzy math.
Avengers 503 + 1 is you count the finale + 64 NA + 1 NA Finale + 36 MA = 605
add the other 2 titles and you get 16 + 35 + 605 = 656 or 654 if you don’t count the finales. Kind of an odd number to restart on. I see a new #1 and then a renumber when they hit 700. Marvel sure likes making organization freaks like me go crazy.
I’d be down for a weekly Avengers book though.
Sad for Mighty but the rest needed to go. Glad they’re consolidating.
Dude! I just bought the New Avengers Premier Hard Covers Volume 1-7 on Saturday to catch up! This is why DC rules…
PLEASE KILL OFF THE FRIGGIN SENTRY !!!!!!!!!!!
First Prediction: This will be the base classic team and but expanded mostly from the New Avengers.
Second Prediction: They’ll go with #1 and then change it when it gets close to the nearest _00
Third Prediction: Replacing 4 books, this will be a weekly book ala Spider-Man.
Fourth Prediction: If the third prediction is true and does well. They kill all the X-Men books and do the same in 2 years. This guarantees they hit _00 with 2 series of books every 2 to 3 years.
Wait… so we don’t like The Avengers and Dark Reign? Dark Reign has been going on for too long? Are we the same group of fans who complain that companies never let anything "play out"? Who complain that Marvel started ignoring "The Registration Act" immediately? So Marvel listened, and they’ve made Dark Reign last… what, a year? Gave it some legs? Are we those fans?
Hey, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. "Dark Avengers" and "New Avengers" are must-reads, for me. The entire Bendis "Avengers" run has been exemplary.
Bummer. I wonder what franchise group/character/title Bendis will kill off next. It’s time to bring the Defenders back out of the mothballs.
@RaceMcCloud: I am constructing a plaque for you in the museum of my heart right now.
RaceMcCloud wins the thread. You have also perfectly described Josh.
It is not a "real" Avengers if Wonder man is not in it! grumble, grumble… Marvel hates me and doesn’t now what comics are about. Only I know…. ; )
I’m just wondering how this will affect the only Avengers book I read: Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers.
The Avengers stopped existing in my world months ago. Thank you, Bendis!
Considering how much Marvel has been trying to steal DC’s thunder lately, I’m guessing the new book will be called Brightest Avengers.
What Bendis did on New and Mighty Avengers made me like the teams in a way I never did before. In the early ’90s the book was just atrocious. That said, as much as I enjoyed that fact the Bendis actually made me like characters like Luke Cage, Ares, and Ms. Marvel, I’ve never liked having Wolverine and Spider-Man on the team. They just never worked for me (continuity issues aside, but that’s a whole other ball of wax).
Does this mean Ronin will become Hawkeye again?
I wonder if an Avengers weekly book, just like ASM is right now, would work with an Avengers braintrust.
@Race: I hear what your saying mate, and yeah we are kinda contradicting ourselves here.
But I think what we want is a GOOD story to play out for a long time. For the most part Dark Reign has been anything but that. It’s been predictable, pointless, dragging itself, and pretty much doing the same thing with Osborn in EVERY Marvel book. Plus a year is not good enough for me. Not that I want Dark Reign for more then a year, but a good story for a couple of years would be great from Marvel.
But if they continue to keep doing one story a year and go right to the next; then what hope do we have?
Totally makes sense really. I was planning on dropping New Avengers anyway (Really, ask yourself, when was the last time it was really good?), at least the collector mentality of me can rest knowing I have a "full run" of New Avengers.
ah shucks, i was really liking mighty and the initiative.
Really happy to see this happening – the sheer amount of Avengers teams was becoming a bit of a joke. This streamlining should hopefully make Avengers a more coherent brand. If only we could cancel all the X books and do the same….
Wait I thought Siege was ending a 7 year story, not just Dark Reign. Did I read my solicits wrong? 😛 Shouldn’t the complaint be, holy crap we’re finally done with a 7 year story that dragged on too long?
I am in complete agreement with this weekly Avengers/braintrust idea. ASM is pretty good even though for some time I did not want to admit it because of the One More Day debacle.
You know that they’ll bring back the Avengers title right before the movie is set to be released…
Look for the original line-up to be in it. Yes, that includes the Wasp. She will be back from the dead in the next few years…
*fingers crossed for Young Avengers being one of the replacement titles*
Rest in Peace, Initiative. Four other guys and myself will really miss you.
This is pretty aggrivating, but I’m sure it will sell a shit ton of books. Just imagine how easy it will be to spend money buying the various hardcovers and trades have a full run of new avengers, mighty avengers, dark avengers, etc. I refuse….well…excluding new avengers. =)
@KickAss – Hey, as much as I appreciate it, I think awarding me the thread was a bit premature… because I think @BetaRayRyan has clearly won it.
@Jimski – I was going to make a further joke about "the museum in your heart", but over the span of five seconds I couldn’t think of anyway to make it funny, and I didn’t wait for the sixth. Either way… I appreciate the monument.
@TNC – Fair points. You know me, though; Bendis could copy the Encyclopedia into a 22 page monthly illustrated by Bendis and I’d buy one to read and one to slab. Not really. Slabbing sucks.
maybe they all come to an end TEMPORARILY for an AoA-esque crossover. Marve’s big on technicality of wording.
Will Bendis still be writing? Or is he moving on?
I love Initiative. Why cancel that one?
Thank good. That means we will have a real pay-off to Dark Reign ( so promising in the begining..became one of the most boring cross-overs I can remember.)
bendis is moving on ???????……..this move willl make marvel much better
and my pull list continues to get thinner and thinner.
@mikeandzod21 – I was about to say that… putting Bryan Hitch on the finale book is a **** VERY BAD IDEA *****. We probably will get the new line of books before he can finish up doing the finale.
73 posts without any additional input from Ron, Connor or Josh?
Hmmm. I can’t blame them.
After reading that post about "Whining Josh" I have to wonder how he comes back here to post his thoughts at all.
I understand that not all comic book sites have to be Rainbows and Lollipops, but damn, I remeber when this this site was something else.
Guess I’m too old, or jaded or niave…
I may not post a lot, but I read posts here every day and have done so for years.
You are all welcome to your opinion. I guess, I am just sad that I remember a forum than had (IMO) a more informed and less confrontational.
Bean
BTW, I’ll still continue to upload the podast, so you may not be free of me yet.
New Avengers is what got me to read the rest of the Marvel U again. before that it was only the ultimate line, ASM and the Ennis punisher but when NA came out i jumped on board with issue number 1 loved it. now i’m reading way more books than i was before i left comics in high school and it’s all thanks to that book. sad to see it go but excited to see what comes out of this
@kickass… get over it. Please. You’re the one that’s whining at this point. He was criticising. Big difference.
@NextChamp – I don’t think it’s fair of you to criticize Dark Reign since you read none of the books that were written by the architect. That’s like seeing random scenes from a movie and calling it an overall failure. They also didn’t forget the registration act. Multiple titles continued to use that status quo for story points, including both Bendis Avengers books. But you weren’t reading those. ASM used it quite a few times, Avengers Initiative. I could go on, but I’m busy at the moment.
I for one am happy that this signifies the end of an enormous story that’s been going on for this long. People complain that there have been no lasting stories from Marvel in a long time, but they’re wrong. Jimski wrote an article quite a while ago about the Avegers Dissasembled thru Siege saga. That’s all one overarching story so I’m just not sure what people are complaining about.
@bean6344: It’s not intentional, there just isn’t a lot to say from our end beyond what Ron reported. Everything is just speculation at this point. Also, it’s the weekend — we’ve been busy. 🙂
Personally, I would imagine we are going to go back to a book called AVENGERS and one other Avengers book. In my heart I’d love a WEST COAST AVENGERS book but that’s unlikely. Either way, we’ll probably see a few rebooted to #1 books.
I’m betting they use The Avengers’ old numbering, since so many books have been going back to that lately. And I too think they should bring back West Coast Avengers. One argument I think in that they are is that a few months back they solicited a Marvel Premiere HC collecting the original WC Avengers mini-series, so that may be in relation to the new book launching, but that’s just guessing on my part. I’m not really a fan of Bendis and Slott, and I’ve read they’re staying on whatever the books become, so I’m not sure I’ll continue, but if WCA comes back, I’ll be mighty tempted, no pun intended.
New Avengers = Avengers by Bendis, Mighty Avengers = West Coast Avengers by Slott, Avengers: The Initiative by Gage, Dark Avengers = ?
Maybe Avengers will be bi-weekly?
*Avengers: The Initiative = Avengers Academy, is what I meant.
For me this only has meaning if Bendis is done with the core Avengers. I think he has an incredible talent for "street level" characters and his Spider-Woman is good.
IMO he is not the guy to usher in a "Heroic Age", he doesn’t do heroic well.
I would give anything to see a clasic lineup again done by someone like Jeff Parker.
I don’t believe for one second the Marvel Universe is going to shake off all the last few years and become heroic.
This is just a ploy to move a bunch of books as new #1’s to counter DC’s recent Top Ten dominance.
Just like "Brightest Day" will be another gimmick to hold the Top Ten.
But maybe, just maybe this will give us some good books to read.
A West Coast Avengers concept would be interesting.
I do know that all the Remender stuff from Doctor Voodoo is going somewhere big so maybe a "Spirits of Avenging Vengeace seeking Legion of Monsters Ghost Riding Daredevil Ninja Guys" will be launched?
I would like to see Ghost Rider and Drumm with the other monster types, kung fu types and Moon Knight types.
Like "Champion Defenders of Avenging in the Dark"?
In all seriousness I am glad the Osborne stuff will be done, hope the Sentry goes teets up and I will buy whatever is good. But I see no reason to get excited about numbering gimmicks.
I predict a "main" Avengers team with the core members to work major threats, and a "street level team" to work locally.
Though I enjoyed New Avengers, it wasn’t an Avengers book! It was missing the feeling that all would be lost if they failed. It was good, but still lacked that "epic" quality that a true Avengers book should have. Dan Slot’s Mighty Avengers run came very close to that, and regardless of what happens, I hope he’s still involved with the Avengers when the dust clears…
I’m actually considering quitting comic books post siege.
I have high hopes for this.
This sounds interesting..Avengers could do with a reboot of sorts.
@animal: I think the early New Avengers arcs had that feel but I agree with you that after CW it got much weaker. Cap was really is (and always was) the heart and soul of the Avengers. Without him its just not the same.
Here’s hoping that when the Avengers comes back, it will be ONE monthly title. Called Avengers. With Cap and Iron Man back together. I mean, New Avengers has been really good, but how can something be "New" after this long? It’s time that got dropped from the title, and it’s time we had a real Avengers line-up again. I really hope they don’t try to shoe-horn in more than one Avengers title post-Seige (although that would take a miracle).
Damn, I love the hell out of Mighty Avengers!
The Initiative will still survive though, right? Even though it’s technically called Avengers: The Initiative?
bansidhewail, I think The Initiative may become this.
@jimski: Thanks now I’m less worried over the fate of my favorite Avengers book.
Many fans were upset with OMD and BND, but no one can argue that Amazing Spider-Man 3x/month has been Marvel’s highest selling book. Wouldn’t a single Avengers book three times a month possibly make for blockbuster sales and stellar storytelling?