Current Avengers

[Spyder-Man]

Does anyone know what the current line up of the Avengers is?

[WadeDeadpool]

Don't ask. Chuck Austen is writing it. After freaking out like the fan I am when Havok came back to Uncanny X-Men, the fact that even though he's the team leader hasn't stopped Austen from leaving him out of the past seven or so issues. Drop Avengers now, like I did. Don't feed the Austen craze at Marvel. Please, for the betterment of all comics.

[Spyder-Man]

Well thank you for an interesting but useless reply. I realize that not everyone likes every comic but I never said anything about supporting the Austen craze. I haven't picked up any Avengers comics for a while and I was just wondering who is on the roster right now.

[WadeDeadpool]

Ah, sorry, I went into defensive mode for a moment. My hate for Austen is fueled like no other. Either way, I'm pretty sure the current roster looks like this:

Captain America
Hawkeye
Vision
Scarlet Witch
She Hulk
Iron Man

As far as I know, Thor's not back, but I'm going by what I hear. Hope that helps a bit more.

[redherringj]

Add:
Wasp
Yellowjacket

[redherringj]

Hey, someone answer me this: When did Quicksilver leave?

Oh, and add that Manta Ray guy.

[redherringj]

And Triathlon is merely on hiatus.

[redherringj]

I think that Austin is already doing some great things on Avengers. Captain Britain's return, Wasp is hot, her relationship with Pym is heating up, and that "why you never score" discussion that Hawkeye had with Cap was classic. I'm in for this arc fo' sho.

[turdburglar47]

I do kinda like that he's building the Wrecking Crew into these really brutal savages, and finally noticing that Thunderball was a nuclear scientist of some sort, and is therefore actually intelligent. And completely evil.

SPOILER:

I also like that the Wrecking Crew just beat the living #### out of Hawkeye. You NEVER see that happen. This is like taking a beating from Thor. Hawkeye should be near death next issue, or at least utterly broken and laid up for a long time.



I don't know where Black Panther is, though. Johns made a point of building him up on the team (even though I had some dissonance with the Priest run I'm a huge fan of) and now he ain't around, it seems. Panther gets no love.

[MadCap#1]

Ant-man I believe is still part of the team as well as Black Panther. That I know of Falcon did not leave the team either,
Jack of Hearts is dead (maybe) and Warbird joined the US government.
And I do enjoy the current issues, ever since the Red Plague story line the series has been awesome.

[Rokk_Krinn]

Ant-Man was on the cover of last issue but didn't appear at all in the story. *shrug*

Wasp is now growing as well as shrinking.

Tony seems to be more involved with the team as an administrator type than as Iron Man.

Clint, Cap, Shulkie and Wanda are all fairly active.

Hank is around but doesn't seem to be active in a field capacity. Unfortunately Austen seems to have failed to read the last twenty+ years of Hank's backstory wherein Pym took care of his mental breakdown and got his act together. This seems to be a requirement of all new writers on Avengers - if you can't think of anything to do, just put Hank back into his stereotypical role. Hank's thrashing of Ultron back in Busiek's run was apparently neither a cathartic closing of a chapter in Hank's lifestory nor just a hero defeating a villain but is now apparently viewed as a breakdown. Sorry for the mini-rant but there's a lot more to Dr. Pym than that one freaking incident from the early 80's and I really wish writers would stick to how he and Jan have moved on since then.

[WadeDeadpool]

Believe me, if there's one thing Austen doesn't do, it's read past issues.

And yes, anyone who suffered through his Draco story in UXM knows the "On the cover but not in the story" gig.

[Numeral]

austen makes laugh...a lot, and thats bad for a comic book writer, unless you're bendis writing ultimate spider-man.

i mean austen is gonna be remembered as the worst writer who has had a stint in uncanny x-men

[WadeDeadpool]

Ah, yes, Austen. The man who sacrifices consitancy so long as there are lots of sex scenes in the book.

[Spyder-Man]

*Spoilers*

I just picked up an Avengers book yesterday, though I did make sure to stay away from the Austen books. I picked up one with Johns, Sadowski, and Currie and I'm trying to figure out what year its's from since I don't see a date anywehere on the cover. It's called Full House I believe. It's the one where Ant-Man's daughter gets kidnapped and he goes to save her and almost kills her captor. Jack of Hearts breaks in and grabs the guy and drags him into space and blows up. He's then seen drifting in space in the last three panels. I'm trying to get the rest of the arc cause this one seemed like a really good book. I know it has to be sometime recent because of the ads like Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga...etc. Anyone know anything about it?

[flakbait]

Spyder...i think that was the last iss before Austen took over. i'm about to drop the book now that Austen is on board. jack of hearts (obscure) death was the end of that arc, you'd have to go back and get the chrimson death story to get the rest.

is it just me or was the shift from busiek to the newer writers really really jarring? i don't agree with everything busiek did, but it was good and kurt has the greatest sense of continuity i think i've ever seen. now i'm feeling out of touch with the characters and all the development tha busiek had built up seems to be out the window. the chrimson death story was good, but the aforementioned ant-man/jack of hearts thing confused the heck out of me. they just seemed to hate each other for no apparent reason. and there's hardly been any mention of the avengers being put in charge of global security at the end of busiek's run. what happened to wonder man and his relationship with the scarlet witch? and apparently everyone's already forgotten about the fact that Kang conquered the world there for a while.

maybe i just need to go back and reread the past year or two's worth of books, but it just seems like things have fallen apart since busiek left.

[redherringj]

Hey people... when did Quicksilver leave?

[Rocket Ranger]

The current storyline is a 5-parter called "The Lionheart of Avalon," which sounded like a great title to an interesting Avengers tale. While issue #1 of this arc was intriguing, it has quickly gone downhill in 2 and 3. I simply don't like the way this guy writes for Captian America, and, Rokk_Krinn, I think you're right about the whole Hank/Janet controversy thing...that was WAY in the past. My only thought is that Ultimates brought it very MUCH to the forefront, unfortunately, and now they're trying to capitalize on it again in normal continuity. Let's just get these two back together already and forget the "psychological issues" for once. They sure seem to love to make Hank into a "bad" guy over and over.

I do like the inclusion of the Wreckin' Crew, but the Wrecker is supposedly the most powerful and he doesn't seem to be written that way. The only Avenger's visible in this story so far are Cap, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Yellow Jacket, She-Hulk and Stark out of costume. The storyarc has two more issues to redeem itself, but, after cringing at a lot of the of the dialogue between the Avengers in #2 and #3, especially considering what just happened(I don't want to give anything away), it's going to have to improve tremendously.

I did like the run with the Red Skull, but, since then, and even then, the Avengers sure haven't seemed like the same team in regards to the writing and characterizations. The best stories, I believe, out of recent years was the Kang Dynasty and the one where Ultron takes over an entire country. The Avengers are supposed to be Marvel's elite superhero team. I wish someone would write them as such and give them a villain or threat that requires their powers again and just give all the "relationship drama" a break. I enjoy exploring the depths of a character, but not at the expense of the storyline or "feel" of the overall book. Someone who knows and LOVES the Avengers and their history needs to take up the reigns and turn this book around before it becomes a tamer, less-interesting version of the Ultimates. I HOPE that's not their goal, cause it sure seems to read more and more like it:rolleyes: :ermm:

[RevOnline]

Apart from the UK being represented in ye olde way again it's been an ok run so far. Nothing ground breaking - but lots of nice touches - like the power of Cap's shield, and some nice Hawkeye/Cap banter.

I think issue 4 is going to be a good one.

[Rokk_Krinn]

Rocket, I'm with you on the characterization. Cap, Hank and Jan especially seem really off-base. Since when does Captain America have trouble speaking with or consoling a youth? A few issues ago Hank and Jan were deeply in love and now it's back to "Seek therapy and you're a wife-beater." (for the record, I've a real grief with the way Ultimates brought it back up...I like Millar's scripting but I swear it's like he just took one main thing from each character's MU past and decided that was the focus of their being, whether it be the time Hank went crazy (yes, crazy - it's not like it was a normal habit of his) or Tony's alcoholism). Thunderball has a history of trying to take charge of groups - as seen in Deathtrap: The Vault GN - but he's never been one to slap around the Wrecker and the Wrecker's never been one to just take it (though, in fairness, I wonder if their "benefactor" has anything to do with this). Oh, and as for the Wrecking Crew's comments to Hawkeye about arrows being useless and Hawkeye's panic about that, does anyone - including Hawkeye and Piledriver - remember Secret Wars #9 when Clint used normal hand-whittled arrows to drop Piledriver? No, sorry - Austen isn't cutting it on this book.

[bill4935]

I wasn't a big fan of Austen's latest stuff, but I guess I might hate it more if I had been reading during Busiek's run.

Can anybody tell me when Wasp realized she could grow, or when it first happened? I've read from 73 onwards, and this plot thread came out of nowhere.

[Rokk_Krinn]

Wasp first started growing as a regular super-power in, oh, this latest storyline. She had grown previously as a fluke situation of powers gone awry, but as an actual controlled power it's something new. Apparently Austen didn't realize she's already got plenty of powers that made her unique beyong "just a shrinking character" (e.g.: she actually gains super-human strength that increases the smaller she gets). Guess he decided if he's getting rid of Pym they needed to have someone around who could do the giant-thing. *shrugs* (Yes, I admit that's conjecture on my part about him getting rid of Pym but things just don't look good for Hank's future right now. :( ).

[mylo1wagner]

THe Secret Wars where Hawkeye drops Piledriver is AWESOME!

"What kind of arrow is that, putty, acid, explosive?"

"Nope, all out of those, this is a pointy ended, I shoot you with it and you bleed arrow."

After being shot

"Oh man, Im bleeding. I think i'm going to pass ou....."

FUNNY!