Post by spiderwasp on Jan 20, 2009 14:05:45 GMT -5
In another thread, I talked about how I just finished rereading the Avengers. As I did, I remembered hearing people talk about the need for the Bendis shakeup being because of the poor quality of the Johns/Austen era immediately preceeding it. Upon rereading, I think Johns is getting a bit of a bad rap here. No, his run will never be up there with the Korvac Saga, Kree/Skrull War, or Celestial Madonna in many people's eyes but it was actually not that bad.
Let's take a look at his short stint.
First there was Red Zone. It stretched out a little too long and not enough happened in each issue. It could have been told better in 4-5 issues rather than 6 and perhaps the idea of the the Red Skull using an anagram such as Dell Rusk was a bit corny but the story was pretty decent when read straight through. This decompression was no worse than Bendis' and was pretty much mandated by Quesada, in my understanding, because everything needed to lend itself to TPBs.
Then comes the issue he is mostly remembered for and it was a definite misstep. The Yellowjacket/Wasp in Vegas story just didn't work and contained that one scene that was horribly inappropiate for a mainstream comic book.
This was followed by "The Search For She-Hulk." Again, not brilliant but not bad. It, again, could have benefited by being told in at least one less issue.
The run ended with a one-shot featuring the Jack of Hearts and Ant-man and resulting in Jack's death. Another decent installment.
All along the way, Johns focused on character. His Jack of Hearts/ Ant-man rivalry was a bit heavy handed and the motivation wasn't always clear but it proved interesting. I think, with less editorial control and more writer freedom, Johns could have been a very good Avengers writer.
Part of the problem, IMO, is that he gets lumped in with Austen. The two short runs came very close together and Austen was (Yes, I'm really saying this) possibly a worse writer than Bendis.
"Lion of Avalon" was highly inconsistent. There were some nice moments dealing with Kelsey and her kids but they were mingled with some really lame scenes revealing how Kelsey got her powers. Little was explained and the whole mess was just confusing. I think the character herself, however, had great potential and I'd really like to see what happened to her and her kids. Last we saw, she still couldn't reveal herself to them and there has been no resolution to her story at all.
Finally, he went into the almost unreadable "Once An Invader" mess. This was one of the worst Avengers tales ever told and after three of the four parts were told in Avengers, the fourth part was told in Invaders, so if you only read Avengers you don't even know where the story went. On the other hand, I didn't buy the Invaders book because I just didn't care.
The Austen run was also full of character assasinations and forgotten history. Hawkeye suddenly couldn't stand the sight of Hank Pym and everyone looked down on Hank, including Jan. This totally ignored the closeness that Hank had experienced through the years with Clint and others and the fine work that Busiek had recently done to redeem the character. Clint and Jan also quickly grew interested in each and almost immediately decided to sleep together. There was even such carelessness as having Cap notice a pair of women's underwear in Hawkeye's pocket, even though Jan was still in her underwear when Hank caught them.
An interesting side note on Austen's run is that it was here that Jan showed her new growth powers and used them, though carelessly, several times. Of course, that piece of recent history was totally ignored by Bendis who had Hank give her growth powers. (When bad writers collide) All Bendis had to do to have made his story make sense was refer to the fact that growing and shrinking caused Jan to faint. He could have offered her something to fix that problem with the powers she already had.
I know this was long and rambling and many people might disagree with what I've said, but I really think that if you separate what Johns did from what Austen did and compare it to what's happened since, people may realize that he did a pretty good job.
Let's take a look at his short stint.
First there was Red Zone. It stretched out a little too long and not enough happened in each issue. It could have been told better in 4-5 issues rather than 6 and perhaps the idea of the the Red Skull using an anagram such as Dell Rusk was a bit corny but the story was pretty decent when read straight through. This decompression was no worse than Bendis' and was pretty much mandated by Quesada, in my understanding, because everything needed to lend itself to TPBs.
Then comes the issue he is mostly remembered for and it was a definite misstep. The Yellowjacket/Wasp in Vegas story just didn't work and contained that one scene that was horribly inappropiate for a mainstream comic book.
This was followed by "The Search For She-Hulk." Again, not brilliant but not bad. It, again, could have benefited by being told in at least one less issue.
The run ended with a one-shot featuring the Jack of Hearts and Ant-man and resulting in Jack's death. Another decent installment.
All along the way, Johns focused on character. His Jack of Hearts/ Ant-man rivalry was a bit heavy handed and the motivation wasn't always clear but it proved interesting. I think, with less editorial control and more writer freedom, Johns could have been a very good Avengers writer.
Part of the problem, IMO, is that he gets lumped in with Austen. The two short runs came very close together and Austen was (Yes, I'm really saying this) possibly a worse writer than Bendis.
"Lion of Avalon" was highly inconsistent. There were some nice moments dealing with Kelsey and her kids but they were mingled with some really lame scenes revealing how Kelsey got her powers. Little was explained and the whole mess was just confusing. I think the character herself, however, had great potential and I'd really like to see what happened to her and her kids. Last we saw, she still couldn't reveal herself to them and there has been no resolution to her story at all.
Finally, he went into the almost unreadable "Once An Invader" mess. This was one of the worst Avengers tales ever told and after three of the four parts were told in Avengers, the fourth part was told in Invaders, so if you only read Avengers you don't even know where the story went. On the other hand, I didn't buy the Invaders book because I just didn't care.
The Austen run was also full of character assasinations and forgotten history. Hawkeye suddenly couldn't stand the sight of Hank Pym and everyone looked down on Hank, including Jan. This totally ignored the closeness that Hank had experienced through the years with Clint and others and the fine work that Busiek had recently done to redeem the character. Clint and Jan also quickly grew interested in each and almost immediately decided to sleep together. There was even such carelessness as having Cap notice a pair of women's underwear in Hawkeye's pocket, even though Jan was still in her underwear when Hank caught them.
An interesting side note on Austen's run is that it was here that Jan showed her new growth powers and used them, though carelessly, several times. Of course, that piece of recent history was totally ignored by Bendis who had Hank give her growth powers. (When bad writers collide) All Bendis had to do to have made his story make sense was refer to the fact that growing and shrinking caused Jan to faint. He could have offered her something to fix that problem with the powers she already had.
I know this was long and rambling and many people might disagree with what I've said, but I really think that if you separate what Johns did from what Austen did and compare it to what's happened since, people may realize that he did a pretty good job.
