When we found out Bendis got Avengers, obviously, we were excited. I had recently bailed on the book for the first time since the Busiek/Perez #1 we very very briefly looked at years ago. Busiek stayed on the title into the 21st Century with various artists, and was followed by Geoff Johns making a brief departure from DC. It was Johns’ second arc, with a fledgling Oliver Coipel, one day to be one of the biggest names in comic art, that was so incredibly dopey I had to tap out. It involved the Red Skull infiltrating the US government using the name “Dell Rusk.” It was so silly. Johns did one arc after that, and then Chuck Austen took over as writer. Austen was an incredibly controversial figure in this period who, like Ron Zimmerman, got a lot of work despite not really turning in any good scripts for some reason. So I sure wasn’t coming back with him on board. But… Bendis! And Dave Finch, the UXM guys reunited! Exciting. Exciting? Well… not exactly. Because, aided and abetted by inker Danny Miki and colorist Frank D’Armata, they bring us Avengers Disassembled. Well, they bring us “Chaos,” the Avengers storyline of the event Avengers Disassembled, which is kind of confusing. It’s not good, folks. But it does eventually feature Spider-Man. And that’s lucky for me, because its events will be felt across the Marvel line, so covering it is convenient. But he’s not much in the first 2 issues, so we’re doing another multi-issue post. At this time, the Avengers has an unusually large roster consisting of Iron Man, Wasp, Yellowjacket (Hank Pym), Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Vision, Falcon, She-Hulk, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Captain Britain (Kelsey Leigh), and Black Panther. Sheesh! Good thing they live in a mansion, they need a lot of space. We open with much of the team hanging out around a table when a “Level Red” security breach occurs. Only on page 2!
Jack of Hearts! A lot of familiar faces in this. Not as many for long, tho.
Jack explodes in a big 2-page spread. As the Avengers dig out of the rubble, finding Scott Lang’s skeletal hand sticking out of a crater, we go to the UN, where Tony Stark, US Secretary of Defense and also now known to the world to be Iron Man, is addressing the delegates. But in mid-sentence, he falters, looks confused, begins to sweat. And then he starts a litany of derogatory comments about the ambassador from Latveria and his home country, even as Yellowjacket tries to get him to stop and T’Challa, as a member, stands up to tell him to stop. Bit Tony is now belligerent and, seemingly, very drunk. Famously, Tony was revealed to be an alcoholic in the 80s, and has been sober since. Until now, seemingly. He’s dragged off the stage, making cruel comments to his friends and teammates along the way.
So, like, the story is called “Chaos.” Wanda uses chaos magic. Wanda is portrayed surprisingly like a villain here. So everyone reading this goes “Oh, she’s the bad guy.” On the forum and all. Bendis assures us no one has guessed the villain yet.
Someone sees the Quinjet flying in. Cap says that makes sense, the whole team’s been called in. But it’s not slowing down. We see Vision at the controls as the plane plummets toward the mansion, and right into it, in another 2-page explosion. Falcon arrives on the scene as the explosion ends, and then Vision emerges from the wreckage.
Gross.
Boy oh boy, the Avengers are having a rough one! The Avengers launch into battle against the Ultrons, but it’s 5 of them in the Adamantium body he got a few years prior, it’s bad news. As the tide seems to turn in the Avengers’ favor, She-Hulk goes berserk with rage and tears what’s left of the Vision in half in front of all his friends.
Well, who’s that? The answer will… not be too satisfying. A handy checklist in this issue lets you follow all the Diassembled tie-ins, even tho none of them actually tie into the main story. That was a weird deal. Well, then. A whole bunch of Avengers have died and it’s only part one. This is a grim situation. On to Avengers 501.
This one opens with Tony being fired as Secretary of Defense on his way to the mansion, where She-Hulk is still about to smash Cap with a jeep. As her teammates try to calm her, she throws the jeep and then just starts smashing cars until…
The thing about Frank D’Armata is everything is always too dark, in my opinion, and when a scene is actually dark, hooboy, watch out. A 2004 comic colored by Frank D’Armata is like a movie now, you may not be able to see what’s going on if it’s dark. Cap’s looking rough. Captain Britain is also down, and Falcon has a badly wounded Wasp in his hands, because he was afraid someone would step on her. Hank is freaked out by this, of course, grows giant, picks up Sam with Janet in his hands, and starts carrying them to a hospital. Gee, you know who wasn’t here for any of this? Wanda. She sure seems like she could be the baddie here. Bendis assures us she is not. At the hospital, Cap gets his shoulder put back in the socket, and we get quick glimpses of Captain Britain in critical condition, She-Hulk in a sensory deprivation tank, Scott Lang in the morgue and Vision in a crate in a Stark warehouse.
Kurt Busiek put a whole lot of serious work into rehabilitating Hank’s image and his and Jan’s relationship from him having hit Jan while having a complete psychotic break back in the 70s, and Chuck Austen came in and torched all of it, because he sucks, and Bendis ran with that version. It’s so unpleasant to read again.
The boys continue to debate what’s going on until a furious Hank shows up demanding Tony tell them about the UN. Tony swears he hadn’t had a drink, and Hank doesn’ believe him. Cap does, but of course he does, and Falcon supports him, but of course he does. Hawkeye does not. Tony storms off and flies away, and while the remaining dudes are discussing his deal, they get a warning something’s up at the mansion. Hank refuses to leave Janet, so the ever-shrinking Avengers roster heads for home…
…where it suddenly gets a lot bigger. That’s just about everyone who’s ever been an Avenger (And the Human Torch and the Thing, who I don’t think ever were, but Reed & Sue were, so why wouldn’t they come?). Even Rage and Silverclaw! I don’t think Daredevil was ever on the team, either, but he’s Bendis’ guy. And look, it’s our guy in the corner over there. This issue’s letter col runs 3 letters about Avengers 500, and rather surprisingly, 1 is kind of a joke and the other 2 are very angry. They always try to have a “balanced selection” of letters (Meaning 95% positive, 5% negative) in these things, and one wonders if positive reactions just weren’t in the offing. People were furious at Bendis for coming in and just devastating the book. Even those of us in the tank for him had no idea what he was thinking. He would admit, many years later, that this was a bad decision. That a writer who’d never been on the title before coming in and killing off a ton of characters as job one was not serving the readers as well as he could have. He posited that, if he’d done a more normal story or 2 first, things might have gone differently. Maybe so! I’m not sure. But he had a plan, and he was going to get there.