Here's the first review video my fiance and I put together. Hopefully, more to follow. I might try doing some on my own about stuff she doesn't care about. She's chattier than I am in this one, but we're doing Punisher War Zone soon, so expect chatty EggJosh for that one...
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Lead up to the disappointing "Avengers: The Children's Crusade"
The Scarlet Witch. Oh, Scarlet Witch. You've caused so much damage in the Marvel Universe. I'd like to talk about one of Marvel's most recent "event series" comics, and how annoying and frustrating it is. However, this series in question requires background knowledge of some of the major events of the Marvel Universe in the last few years, so I'd be remiss if I didn't at least briefly cover these for anyone reading this, before I delve into this new can of worms Marvel has unleashed. So here's a brief synopsis (or as brief as I can make it) of these important events, followed by my opinion on it. Ready? Ok, here we go.
Avengers Disassembled: Wanda Maximoff, also known as The Avenger the Scarlet Witch, goes crazy after being told she had at one point had twin sons with her android husband, but then it turned out they were actually pieces of devil-analogue, Mephisto. (Yes, comics can be weird sometimes, just go with it). Her grief, combined with the unstable deus-ex reality warping powers she possesses causes her to lash out at her teammates, killing a handful of Avengers, destroying Avengers Mansion, and leading to the team disbanding. After being subdued by Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch's father, Magneto (yes, the X-Men villain), whisks her away to take care of her in his nearly vacant, mostly destroyed country, Genosha.
My thoughts on Avengers Disassembled are mixed. I didn't really get into comics until the New Avengers relaunch following this finale, so reading it retroactively, I don't think I got as much out of it as longtime fans. But on its own, it stands up as a decent event comic. Some of the tie-ins were pointless and confusing, but the main series was an interesting twist, and it was really interesting to see what happens in a world without Avengers.
House of M: In Genosha, Magneto tries to rehabilitate his daughter with the help of Charles Xavier. After presumably months of psychic therapy/coma inducing, Xavier meets with his estranged team of X-Men as well as members of the Avengers, both former and current, to discuss the situation. Some members of this meeting, most notably Wolverine, want to euthanize her, for her benefit as well as everyone else's, while the rest of the group wants to try to get through to their former friend and ally. Well turns out everyone should have listened to Logan, because as soon as they get to Genosha, Xavier gets kidnapped, and the world burns to white. When it comes back into focus, reality has been altered into the "World of M", where Magneto is king, and no one remembers anything about their former lives except for Wolverine. See, Wanda used her powers to give everyone everything they ever wanted so they'd be complacent in this new world order, but didn't seem to count on Wolverine's one desire to be remembering everything about his past, which means the universe proper. To make a long story short, Wolverine sets about tracking everyone down (Spider-Man is a celebrity, Captain America stayed active through WWII, and is now an elderly man, and Cyclops and Emma Frost are married), and puts the band back together. Thanks to a young mutant named Layla Miller (She knows stuff™), most of the heroes have their memories restored, and they attack the flourishing capital of Genosha to take out the whole crazy Magneto family. Well, turns out Magneto had nothing to do with it, and it was all Wanda's slimy brother Pietro (aka Quicksilver)'s fault, as he talked Wanda into making this new world. Well, turns out Magneto is none to pleased, and proceeds to MURDER HIS SON. But thanks to Wanda's vague power of whatever the hell she wants, Quicksilver comes back to life, and we find out the whole point of this series:
Yes, this whole series was just to cut down on the ridiculously high number of mutants in the Marvel Universe. By this point, there had been such a huge number of Mutants that they had literally become a minority in the same sense that we consider non-caucasians a minority here in America, meaning there were now millions of them. Marvel had previously tried to cut them down by destroying Magneto's mutant country of Genosha, but this act by the Witch would be the nail in the coffin. So Wanda says these three magic words, and the world goes white again, and everything is back to normal now except for almost every mutant being depowered. Somehow she missed about 200 of them, so all the nameless ones are normal humans now, but everyone we care about is still a mutant. The only notable characters, in my opinion, to get depowered were Magneto, Professor Xavier, Quicksilver, the Blob, and Jubilee. The formerly dead Avenger, Hawkeye returns as well, as a result of the reality shift. Also, the most interesting part of the entire mini-series:
A lot of consequences happen as a result of Wanda's actions. Wolverine's restored memories lead him on an epic journey of revenge and knowledge, which I will definitely talk about some other time. Focusing on Wanda, however, she is seen on the final pages of the series, in some small European village, looking blissfully unaware of all the havoc she has caused.
As far as crossover events go, I really liked House of M. It was like a What If story that the main characters are actually aware of! It featured a lot of characters I really enjoy, such as Wolverine and Quicksilver, and was a great conclusion to the Xavier/Magneto story that had been building in the Excalibur series. As I mentioned above though, the aftermath was what really counted about this series. Mutant-kind had become an endangered species, Hawkeye was ressurected, and Wolverine got his memories restored. Man was that full page Wolverine reveal great. After all these years of Wolverine only knowing little pieces of his past from the breadcrumbs that others had left him, suddenly he remembers ALL of it. That's awesome, and opened the door to a whole new area of storytelling.
Post House of M: Wanda shows up sometime later in a solo story about Hawkeye featured in the New Avengers series. We're finally told what Clint has been up to since HoM ended. Upon returning from the dead, he seeks out Dr. Strange, and gets caught up on all he has missed in his absence. He seeks answers about why he was killed and resurrected (twice technically), so he ventures to Wundagore Mountain, a location with ties to Wanda and her family, in search of her. Hawkeye does eventually find her, but she is totally clueless as to who he is, or even her former life for that matter. After a one night stand, Hawkeye departs, eventually joining up with Luke Cage's team of New Avengers.
The next known person to contact her is Hank McCoy, aka the X-Man, Beast. Hank is trying to find a way to reverse the effects of her spell, and so therefore seeking her out is a logical option. They have a deep conversation that implies that Wanda is at least suppressing her memories of her past life, and wishes to remain living her simple and happy life.
Both of these stories were pretty good, as it acknowledged that yes, Wanda was still alive, but she was pretty much a non-entity in the Marvel Universe now. She couldn't be redeemed, so it was best to just get rid of old Wanda, and let the new girl be happy. Or at least that's what I'd hoped would be the case...
The Young Avengers: Backing up a ways, following the disbanding of the Avengers thanks to Wanda, there was a void for heroes to fill. Luckily, the Young Avengers came to be! Iron Lad (a young version of Avengers villain Kang the Conquerer) came back from the future to put together this team of youngsters that all had ties to the Avengers. Along with Iron Lad, there was Hulking, who was actually the son of the late Captain Marvel, Stature, daughter of the second Ant-Man, Patriot, grandson of the ORIGINAL Captain America, and Hawkeye, who just kind of showed up, and was a girl who was good at archery. Can't all be winners. Most importantly, though, were Wiccan (formerly Asgardian) and Speed. These two had never met before but had nearly identical faces, and had similar powers to Wanda and her brother Pietro. They were also named William and Thomas, the same names as Wanda's former demon magic non-children. Wiccan immediately made the assumtion that despite having their own families, they were somehow the Scarlet Witch's children too, either reincarnated, or magically recreated, or something to that effect.
I LOVE the Young Avengers. The characters are surprisingly original, despite their ties to some of the "big guns", and the mixture of action and inexperience leads to very fun and interesting stories. These kids are new, and have no idea what they're doing, so they totally screw up sometimes, but try hard to fix their own mistakes. The only downside with this series was that after the initial 12 issue run, they haven't had a regular ongoing title. They had a short anthology series called "Young Avengers Presents", with each of the issues focusing on a different team member, and two crossovers with the Runaways series during the Civil War and Secret Invasion events. While these were all decent reads, I couldn't wait to get another maxi-series with original plots and character development that did its own thing, like the original book. Unfortunately, we wouldn't get that. Instead, we get:
Avengers: The Children's Crusade. So many bad decisions are made over this 9 issue series, that its going to take a while to cover it all. So, come back next time when we get to this frustrating little ditty.
Avengers Disassembled: Wanda Maximoff, also known as The Avenger the Scarlet Witch, goes crazy after being told she had at one point had twin sons with her android husband, but then it turned out they were actually pieces of devil-analogue, Mephisto. (Yes, comics can be weird sometimes, just go with it). Her grief, combined with the unstable deus-ex reality warping powers she possesses causes her to lash out at her teammates, killing a handful of Avengers, destroying Avengers Mansion, and leading to the team disbanding. After being subdued by Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch's father, Magneto (yes, the X-Men villain), whisks her away to take care of her in his nearly vacant, mostly destroyed country, Genosha.
My thoughts on Avengers Disassembled are mixed. I didn't really get into comics until the New Avengers relaunch following this finale, so reading it retroactively, I don't think I got as much out of it as longtime fans. But on its own, it stands up as a decent event comic. Some of the tie-ins were pointless and confusing, but the main series was an interesting twist, and it was really interesting to see what happens in a world without Avengers.
House of M: In Genosha, Magneto tries to rehabilitate his daughter with the help of Charles Xavier. After presumably months of psychic therapy/coma inducing, Xavier meets with his estranged team of X-Men as well as members of the Avengers, both former and current, to discuss the situation. Some members of this meeting, most notably Wolverine, want to euthanize her, for her benefit as well as everyone else's, while the rest of the group wants to try to get through to their former friend and ally. Well turns out everyone should have listened to Logan, because as soon as they get to Genosha, Xavier gets kidnapped, and the world burns to white. When it comes back into focus, reality has been altered into the "World of M", where Magneto is king, and no one remembers anything about their former lives except for Wolverine. See, Wanda used her powers to give everyone everything they ever wanted so they'd be complacent in this new world order, but didn't seem to count on Wolverine's one desire to be remembering everything about his past, which means the universe proper. To make a long story short, Wolverine sets about tracking everyone down (Spider-Man is a celebrity, Captain America stayed active through WWII, and is now an elderly man, and Cyclops and Emma Frost are married), and puts the band back together. Thanks to a young mutant named Layla Miller (She knows stuff™), most of the heroes have their memories restored, and they attack the flourishing capital of Genosha to take out the whole crazy Magneto family. Well, turns out Magneto had nothing to do with it, and it was all Wanda's slimy brother Pietro (aka Quicksilver)'s fault, as he talked Wanda into making this new world. Well, turns out Magneto is none to pleased, and proceeds to MURDER HIS SON. But thanks to Wanda's vague power of whatever the hell she wants, Quicksilver comes back to life, and we find out the whole point of this series:
Yes, this whole series was just to cut down on the ridiculously high number of mutants in the Marvel Universe. By this point, there had been such a huge number of Mutants that they had literally become a minority in the same sense that we consider non-caucasians a minority here in America, meaning there were now millions of them. Marvel had previously tried to cut them down by destroying Magneto's mutant country of Genosha, but this act by the Witch would be the nail in the coffin. So Wanda says these three magic words, and the world goes white again, and everything is back to normal now except for almost every mutant being depowered. Somehow she missed about 200 of them, so all the nameless ones are normal humans now, but everyone we care about is still a mutant. The only notable characters, in my opinion, to get depowered were Magneto, Professor Xavier, Quicksilver, the Blob, and Jubilee. The formerly dead Avenger, Hawkeye returns as well, as a result of the reality shift. Also, the most interesting part of the entire mini-series:
A lot of consequences happen as a result of Wanda's actions. Wolverine's restored memories lead him on an epic journey of revenge and knowledge, which I will definitely talk about some other time. Focusing on Wanda, however, she is seen on the final pages of the series, in some small European village, looking blissfully unaware of all the havoc she has caused.
As far as crossover events go, I really liked House of M. It was like a What If story that the main characters are actually aware of! It featured a lot of characters I really enjoy, such as Wolverine and Quicksilver, and was a great conclusion to the Xavier/Magneto story that had been building in the Excalibur series. As I mentioned above though, the aftermath was what really counted about this series. Mutant-kind had become an endangered species, Hawkeye was ressurected, and Wolverine got his memories restored. Man was that full page Wolverine reveal great. After all these years of Wolverine only knowing little pieces of his past from the breadcrumbs that others had left him, suddenly he remembers ALL of it. That's awesome, and opened the door to a whole new area of storytelling.
Post House of M: Wanda shows up sometime later in a solo story about Hawkeye featured in the New Avengers series. We're finally told what Clint has been up to since HoM ended. Upon returning from the dead, he seeks out Dr. Strange, and gets caught up on all he has missed in his absence. He seeks answers about why he was killed and resurrected (twice technically), so he ventures to Wundagore Mountain, a location with ties to Wanda and her family, in search of her. Hawkeye does eventually find her, but she is totally clueless as to who he is, or even her former life for that matter. After a one night stand, Hawkeye departs, eventually joining up with Luke Cage's team of New Avengers.
The next known person to contact her is Hank McCoy, aka the X-Man, Beast. Hank is trying to find a way to reverse the effects of her spell, and so therefore seeking her out is a logical option. They have a deep conversation that implies that Wanda is at least suppressing her memories of her past life, and wishes to remain living her simple and happy life.
Both of these stories were pretty good, as it acknowledged that yes, Wanda was still alive, but she was pretty much a non-entity in the Marvel Universe now. She couldn't be redeemed, so it was best to just get rid of old Wanda, and let the new girl be happy. Or at least that's what I'd hoped would be the case...
The Young Avengers: Backing up a ways, following the disbanding of the Avengers thanks to Wanda, there was a void for heroes to fill. Luckily, the Young Avengers came to be! Iron Lad (a young version of Avengers villain Kang the Conquerer) came back from the future to put together this team of youngsters that all had ties to the Avengers. Along with Iron Lad, there was Hulking, who was actually the son of the late Captain Marvel, Stature, daughter of the second Ant-Man, Patriot, grandson of the ORIGINAL Captain America, and Hawkeye, who just kind of showed up, and was a girl who was good at archery. Can't all be winners. Most importantly, though, were Wiccan (formerly Asgardian) and Speed. These two had never met before but had nearly identical faces, and had similar powers to Wanda and her brother Pietro. They were also named William and Thomas, the same names as Wanda's former demon magic non-children. Wiccan immediately made the assumtion that despite having their own families, they were somehow the Scarlet Witch's children too, either reincarnated, or magically recreated, or something to that effect.
I LOVE the Young Avengers. The characters are surprisingly original, despite their ties to some of the "big guns", and the mixture of action and inexperience leads to very fun and interesting stories. These kids are new, and have no idea what they're doing, so they totally screw up sometimes, but try hard to fix their own mistakes. The only downside with this series was that after the initial 12 issue run, they haven't had a regular ongoing title. They had a short anthology series called "Young Avengers Presents", with each of the issues focusing on a different team member, and two crossovers with the Runaways series during the Civil War and Secret Invasion events. While these were all decent reads, I couldn't wait to get another maxi-series with original plots and character development that did its own thing, like the original book. Unfortunately, we wouldn't get that. Instead, we get:
Avengers: The Children's Crusade. So many bad decisions are made over this 9 issue series, that its going to take a while to cover it all. So, come back next time when we get to this frustrating little ditty.
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