Avengers Assemble annual #1

[Shiryu]

Let's inaugurate this new section of the boards with the Vision-centred Avengers Assemble Annual #1, by former EMH writer Christos Cage.

Has anyone had a chance to read it? Comments?

[Marvel Boy]

Gah! I want to read it but alas may have to wait till next payday before I can buy it. (Darn it, Marvel is putting out too many books I want to read ;D )

It's great to see Sunturion again. To my knowledge, his last appearance was his first, back in Iron Man #242-244, somewhere in that range. Arthur was operating a Roxxon space station that harnessed solar and microwave radiation. He underwent the treatment that gave him microwave powers to save on costs and consumables for him living aboard the station.

He dissolved while helping Tony stop the Roxxon station from hitting somewhere in the Midwest after it fell out of orbit. This story also marked our first view of Tony's new IM space armor (which was cool.....as was the whole story.... )

[tomspasic]

I've read the annual.
Overall, it was pretty good, which for me is a very weak praise of Gage, whose work I really, really, liked on Academy. But I found it disappointing and disliked parts of it, too.
I guess my disappointment and dislike of it is because it deals with left over Bendis stuff, which I'd prefer to just be ignored or retconned away, like he ignored and retconned pretty much all other writers.
Gage tries to make it work, to reconcile the Vision of the pre-Bendis Avengers with the events since disassembled, but the task is akin to making a silk purse out of a sows ear.
Gage certainly does a hell of a lot better job of writing the Vision than Bendis ever did, and we see a few other "classic" Avengers not featured in any of the current crop of Avengers titled books (ie Pietro and Hank Pym).
But for me, I don't want other writers to address the thousands of plot holes, fallacies and rank stupidity of the Bendis Decade. I just want to forget all that crap now it's finally over, and not have his awful plots and ideas dragging on for another ten years.
And whilst it sort of makes sense for someone to write a story where the Vision asks "why did you leave me in a crate for years?" of Stark and co., there are ten years worth of "why did you do something moronic and inexplicable", and I just don't have it in me to read why they hid from ninjas, or ran away from Norman Osborn or the Hood or any of it. You cannot make it good, you cannot make it make sense. Leave it dead in the past and write good new comics which as far as possible never mention any of Bendis work.
I'll admit my dislike of Bendis does go far enough to taint my enjoyment of a writer I actually like if the writer I like spends their time following Bendis agenda and plotlines.
And I apologize for my rancour.
I imagine for those who's prejudice is less extreme than mine, this would be a pretty good, enjoyable, done-in-one, comic that explains who Vision is now and why he's not on any of the "Now!" teams.
The art is sort of nice, using a kind of photorealistic style a bit like Gaydos that doesn't work terribly well in action sequences, as it seems a bit static. But other pages and panels are quite lovely to look at. The scenes of Vision lurking in the trees outside Sunturions former family home are redolant of Barry windsor Smith's shots of Vision brooding in Avengers #66, something I am almost sure is deliberate.

Unless, like me, you strongly dislike the Bendis Era to an almost pathological degree, I'd probably even recommend this annual.

[bobc]

I thought it was fantastic! I think Gage is a stellar writer, loved Avengers Academy, but this annual brought back the Vision in a big way--if you loved the 70's period when the Vision was questioning his human/android identity, I think you'll love this issue. The Vision is one of the worst casualties of Bendis' reign of terror (Oy) but what Gage does with him in this issue wraps up what Bendis did in a nice little, on fire, brown bag of doggie doo and disposes of it, bringing the character back to where he belongs--in the Avengers.

[Marvel Boy]

Oops, seems I got my numbering wrong.

Sunturion first appeared in Iron Man in a story that ran through issues #142-144

[comaboy]

Feb 10, 2013 12:43:15 GMT -5 bobc said:

I thought it was fantastic! I think Gage is a stellar writer, loved Avengers Academy, but this annual brought back the Vision in a big way--if you loved the 70's period when the Vision was questioning his human/android identity, I think you'll love this issue. The Vision is one of the worst casualties of Bendis' reign of terror (Oy) but what Gage does with him in this issue wraps up what Bendis did in a nice little, on fire, brown bag of doggie doo and disposes of it, bringing the character back to where he belongs--in the Avengers.

In all fairness, and I'm not a Bendis fan, the Vision has been rather absent from the Avengers going all the way back to the middle of Volume 3. (Bendis' treatment of him was by far the most egregious though). I'd dearly love to see a lot more of him including, dare I say it, having him paired up with the Scarlet Witch again.