Avengers: December 2008 Archives

I’m really interested in seeing what Dan Slott’s going to do with Mighty Avengers.  From his recent interview in Newsarama, I get the feeling he wants to a slightly more traditional Avengers book.  Hank Pym is back on the team and getting some love after years of neglect.  Yocasta is back as well, and since her brain patterns are based on Janet Van Dyne (can’t believe she’s really gone forever), Hank’s going to have a weird relationship with her.  Slott’s bringing back the Scarlet Witch (hopefully rehabilitated) and the Vision.  There’s a new Avengers headquarters in this series, and I can only hope Avengers Mansion is back.

I ran across this commission piece by John Byrne yesterday.  How fantastic!  It’s the Avengers, from around issue 150-200 era, with Wonder Man, Beast, Ms. Marvel, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Vision, Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, and Yellowjacket.  Whoever bought this piece is one very lucky Marvel maniac.  The detail of Avengers Mansion below, the view straight down at the Avengers Quinjet, and the positioning of the characters is just superb.  I love the Beast making a face at the window of the Quinjet.  Just imagine how miserable you would be to live next door to Avengers Mansion, with those Quinjets taking off at all hours of the night, the Masters of Evil attacking, Hercules stomping around drunk in the middle of the night, etc.

What was inside Avengers Mansion?  More than meets the eye!  This map was made during the early Captain America/Hawkeye/Scarlet Witch years.  Who wouldn’t want to have high tech labs and the greatest weapons collection this side of S.H.I.E.L.D. smack-dab in heart of Manhattan?  Nuff said.

You may have been as thrilled as I was to see the big change in Clint Barton’s (who was Hawkeye, who is now Ronin) life in Secret Invasion #8.  When I saw this cover to New Avengers #47, I assumed this would have a story featuring Clint:

Alas, Hawkeye is not the main character, it’s Luke Cage and Jessica Jones in a very fine story by Bendis and Gaydos.  It took me a while to recognize what classic Avengers cover (painted by Aleksi Briclot) this is an homage to.  Is that Puck on the lower left hand corner?  He was never an Avenger.  Then my mind warped backward to 1984, when Marvel dared to do the unthinkable…spinoff their greatest super-team!

Avengers West Coast #1, written by Roger Stern, drawn by Bob Hall and Brett Breeding.  If you take a look at Briclot’s cover, he credits Hall and Breeding, a very classy signature move.  This four-issue mini-series introduced the West Coast team, with Hawkeye as the leader.  The initial lineup consisted of Mockingbird (Hawkeye’s wife), Iron Man (Jim Rhodes), Tigra, Wonder Man, and the Shroud.  In many ways, this series was a major evolution for Hawkeye’s character, showing his growth from criminal turned hero under the Captain America-led team.

I love it when Hawkeye makes that proclamation! It sure does help when you make it on an Avengers compound that resembles Hearst Castle!  Nuff said.