One of my favorite periods of Avengers history is when the West Coast Avengers were around. The rivalry between the two teams sparked off some great drama as the East Coast Avengers thought of themselves as the “true” Avengers while the West Coast Avengers (or “Wackos” as they were also called) suffered a serious inferiority complex. The hot head leader of the West Coast team, Hawkeye, fueled most of the rivalry with his own sense of being the “B” team but, when written by Steve Englehart or John Byrne, it was a fun period in the team’s history. Lately if there’s one thing that Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers books have been missing, it’s that sense of his teams being Avengers. They’re collections of people and teams who call themselves “Avengers” but there’s little to connect themselves to any traditions or history of the past 40+ years. For Free Comic Book Day this year, Bendis may have finally written an honest-to-goodness Avengers story.
In May, a strange and sudden winter has blanketed New York City. Thinking he should just get inside and stay warm, Spider-Man is almost bowled over by an unconscious Thor falling from the sky. Calling in his Avengers, the underground team, they try to battle an Asgardian Frost Giant by throwing Wolverine at him. It’s not like this team has any of the big brains on it. But before they can do something else, say like throwing Mockingbird at the giant, Norman Osborne’s fully legal and “real” Avengers team show up, throwing around their authority and thinking their Greek god can take on an Asgardian giant.
While there is some fighting between the teams, they actually know that they have to work together to figure out what’s going on and to stop it. Watching the two teams reluctantly use some teamwork is far more interesting than watching them fight and angst over who’s the real Avengers. Ever since Civil War, we’ve seen enough of different Avengers team staring each other down, giving the other team the evil eye while trying to prove who’s right and who’s wrong. With Obsorne’s team of Avengers, there’s not much question about who’s wrong but it’s good to see heroes like Spider-Man and Luke Cage spending their time and adventures doing more than sulking because they’re not getting the spotlight.
Given the short story structure, Bendis has to keep his story and dialogue fairly sparse, something that he doesn’t do that often. This is a quick, tight story that features a lot of characters but only gives a handful of them more to do than stand around looking menacing. It’s odd to say about a Bendis story but this one probably could have used a few more pages but he still does a nice job of highlighting the differences between the two teams. Jim Cheung and Mark Morales are great artists for Bendis’ story, able to draw NYC in a blizzard and some wintery nether world for the big battles. Cheung easily handles the large cast of characters, maybe more difficult in this book since some of the characters wear similar costumes.
The FCBD Avengers story reminds me a lot of an old graphic novel called Emperor Doom where David Michelinie teamed up the East Coast and West Coast Avengers to battle a Doom who had taken over the world. It showed both teams working together to fight something that was bigger than them. Bendis’ story has what could be a huge threat and has two teams putting aside their differences to fight it. Bendis’ stabs at larger threats hasn’t always worked well (see Secret Invasion) but here he manages to give just enough danger and adventure to balance out the character work. This is a story that doesn’t overstay its welcome and I’d personally like to see Bendis work on more smaller stories like this.
Free Comic Book Day Avengers 2009
“The Way Things Are…”
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Jim Cheung
Inked by: Mark Morales
Colored by: John Rauch
Lettered by: VC’s Cory Petit
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Tags: Avengers, Brian Michael Bendis, Dark Avengers, Jim Cheung, New Avengers