Avengers Discombobulated

When I heard that the Avengers were going to have a fresh start with the Heroic Age after the dreaded Dark Reign cloud that hovered over the Marvel Universe, I was elated.  I have fond memories of the Avengers from the 80s and wanted to recapture that excitement.  I've picked up the first three issues of The Avengers, the first two issues of The New Avengers and the Avengers Academy, and the first issue of The Secret Avengers.  Color me unimpressed.  The only one that has interested me so far is the Avengers Academy.


The Avengers Academy takes a group of relatively unknown teenagers and allows them to interact, working out their personality differences, learning how to use their powers together, and coming to terms with why they were chosen for the group.  This is great storytelling.   

What isn't great storytelling?  Avengers, New Avengers, and Secret Avengers.  The stories have been pretty bland and generic and aren't a very good starting place for newcomers.  The characters aren't given enough time to interact before they're thrust into battle with some other worldly villain.  We never get to really know them and, frankly, at this point, I don't even want to.

My main pet peeve: why are Spider-Man and Wolverine on both the Avengers and the New Avengers teams?  Furthermore, they each have their own comic book series (Spider-Man's is published thrice monthly), and Wolverine is in the Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, Astonishing X-Men, and the new plain ol' X-Men comic. Talk about overkill.  I wish I had that much free time.  No wonder they created clones of Spider-Man.  Then there's the addition of the Thing who is and will always be a member of the Fantastic Four.  I think there are plenty other Avengers out there with good tales to tell that could use a wee bit o' screen time.

Unfortunately, Marvel missed the boat on this "revamp" of a classic series and team(s).   2010 isn't so much the "Year of the Heroic Age" or even the "Year of the Avengers."  It'll be remembered by me as the year I wasted $3.99 a comic on some crappy Avengers wannabe series.  

Check out: Avengers Academy: Permanent Record