Somewhere along the line we saw, I think, Norman Osborn refer to making a list. Maybe we didn’t, I don’t know, it’s been 6 months since I read one of these, hi, hello. Anyway, that offhand comment lead to a series of one-shots wherein Osborn has made a kill list of superheroes he wants eliminated. Some of which make sense, some of which feel very random. So you get comics called The List: Avengers, and X-Men and Secret Warriors and Punisher and Daredevil and Spider-Man and Wolverine(!!) and Hulk(!!!). And, you know… He’s clearly not going to kill them, so… This is a series of one-shots that further emphasizes how Osborn’s Dark Reign is all bark and no bite. Almost, that is. The Punisher one sees Daken slice Frank up into chunks (Drawn by a very game John Romita, Jr.), so Rick Remender can proceed with his stunningly goofy “Frankencastle” comic, which finds Frank reanimated presumably entirely because “Frank Castle” and “Frankenstein’s castle” are both phrases in the English language. So Frank actually died in his. Don’t worry, he got better. But the others, not a chance. What, therefore, is a comic about Norman Osborn targeting the Avengers for death where nobody dies, about?
Bringing us the answer to that question is Bendis, unsurprisingly, aided and abetted by Marko Djurdjevic, Mark Morales and Marte Gracia, who I did not remember having credits in Marvel books this early, but who will go on to set something of a Marvel house coloring style starting with his work on a future Bendis project (The premise of which is a whole thing and I only have so much time). Djurdjevic was, by this time, one of Marvel’s big cover artists, whose lushly painted work was highly in demand, so getting him to pencil interiors at this point is pretty shocking. We open on a 2-page spread of Norman explaining the List premise to Ares, then another spread that’s mostly a picture of the X-Men’s Utopia with a news report saying Osborn deems its existence an act of treason. Then, at bottom of that spread, Clint Barton announces his intention to kill Norman. Again. Like he did in NA 55.
If memory serves, the original Human Torch, his sidekick Toro, Bucky, and even Captain America. have all been revealed as the person who killed Hitler over the years. I imagine others have been credited with it, also. Nick Fury, probably. But it’s especially stupid when it’s Bucky or Cap, because they were blown up on a rocket before the war ended, and one came back as a brainwashed Russian assassin after Hitler was dead, and the other came back, like, a couple of years ago, Marvel-time, so unless we’re saying Hitler died way earlier than he did, what are we even doing? The gang all oppose Clint, and Spider-Man briefly reiterates his “we rise above” thing, and then Clint storms out. Bobbi chases him out and says she’ll support him, but asks him to come to bed and do it later. So he waits til she’s asleep, loads up on Bucky’s weapon supply, and takes off. He waits til he sees the Sentry leave (Convenient!), and then begins to scale Avengers Tower.
So his plan to assassinate Norman Osborn begins with making sure Osborn knows he’s coming? Clint’s famously a hothead, but come on.
“Hawkeye the Marksman” really nailing it there. Why wouldn’t he kill Bullseye? If he’s willing to murk Norman, why not all of them? Slippery slope! Also why the “TANG!” kicking Daken in the jimmies? He doesn’t have a metal skeleton like his dad.
Clint left the Avengers to lead the Thunderbolts back in the late 90s, and he and Moonstone had a relationship. I don’t know if that’s come up before here on the ol’ blog. It’s nice to be back, by the way. Moonstone decides she can’t help since cameras are watching and begins zapping. But Osborn orders a security lockdown that puts a forcefield between them, isn’t that nice? Norman is pulling on a shirt and barking orders, and suddenly Clint is in his bedroom. Despite the security lockdown, and despite the previous fighting happening far enough away from wherever Norman is in the tower that he didn’t hear all the gunfire, Ronin has successfully Jason Vorhees teleported directly into Norman’s bedroom. That’s pretty lame. He takes a shot.
Bad news for Hawkeye! This is an oversized comic, so you’d expect it to go on longer, but it does not. A staggering 17 pages of advertising for other The List product follows this one. We’re pushing the remit of this blog enough following the Avengers, we’re surely not reading all of these one-shots. I didn’t buy all of them, actually, but the ones I didn’t buy wound up in my possession when a friend was getting rid of stuff years later. I only bought the ones that impacted series I read, like this, Secret Warriors and Daredevil. But there’s a Spider-Man one, and I have it, so guess what our next post is?