Avengers the Initiative

[TheCorpulent1]

I heard Ant-Man's moving to the Thunderbolts. Taskmaster'll be around, I'm sure. Maybe Way will manhandle him in his Deadpool series, since they're old buddies.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I'd give Joey Q a backrub if I could get Taskmaster and Agent X as co-stars in Deadpool's book

Ant-Man on T-Bolts sounds fun, that team could use a jerk besides Swordsman

 

[cerealkiller182]

Ant-man on Thunderbolts definitely sounds cool. I was actually digging his on-going.

 

[Blader5489]

The Previews issue accompanying SI#8 hints that [blackout]Avengers:the Initiative will be ending soon.[/blackout] in the solicits for issue #21.

Man, Gage is just the kiss of death, isn't he?

 

[SUPER MARVELMAN]

So the Thunderbolts are Ant-Man, Black Widow II (Yelena Belova), Ghost, who are the others on the cover of Thunderbolts 128.

 

[Dread]

It does stink if A:TI isn't given a chance under Gage. I was intested in seeing where he took things solo.

Just because Skrulls invaded doesn't mean the general idea is bad, it just needs to be tinkered with and adjusted. The book is selling some 50k an issue, which is more than quite a few Ultimate books that Marvel still sold for 2-3 years. ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR towards the end had trouble cracking the Top 50.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I swear I was the only person still reading UFF

 

[Dread]

You may have been; I stopped reading it months ago. After that arc where Thing and Thanos' daughter saved everyone. It was my last toehold into Ultimate, and I haven't looked back.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I loved UFF b/c it was the only F4 book where they actually went into space.....like they should. 616 F4 has been way too Earth-bound lately.

 

[Dread]

That I can agree to. Carey was doing some decent work on UFF, but I just found myself losing interest and forgetting when it was coming out, which is usually a sure sign to depart a book for me, when I reach apathy and only buy it out of habit.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

The whole UFF and UXM cancellation smells like a way to force more Avengers/Ultimates down our throats just in time for the movie

 

[Dread]

That is true.

But on the other hand, the Ultimate universe has outlived it's purpose and creatively is in a bit of limbo. Sure, when it started, it got a lot of interest, sold VERY well (these books were Top 5-10 sellers in their heyday), helped recruit "talent" to Marvel and helped infuse "ideas" into the core line, for better or worse. It also provided some more updated versions of stories and characters for mass media interpretations, giving them another option.

But now? Aside for USM, and somehow the Ultimates, none of the books sell within the Top 25-30 anymore; even USM has bled a slew of readers since Bagley left. They're not bringing in A-list talent to do the books, and there is no buzz. Any innovative idea Ultimate had has been strip-mined for 616, and aside for Bendis on USM, just attract B-list talent (Loeb is officially B-List now). Retrenching into lessor titles makes common sense, even if the books were still selling alright (UFF was still a Top 60 book). The Ultimate line is just running it's course like a lot of alternate reality lines. Granted, it has been more successful than the NEW UNIVERSE or 2099 were in the 80's and 90's, respectively.

I bailed on USM after the Clone Sage garbage and every time I get curious enough to flip through a random issue on the shelf, I am reminded why. Kirkman ran ULTIMATE X-MEN into the ground HARD after Vaughan had injected life into it. And Ult. FF just became middling to me. Smelling Loeb & Joe Mad's ULTIMATES 3 was going to be a stinker, I jumped ship more than half a year ago, and haven't regretted it.

 

[moraldeficiency]

I'm going to say the book isn't leaving but it's being renamed. If there's no more initiative (which there won't be) I'm sure they'll still be this in a different form. SHIELD is now HAMMER. AtI reflected the basics of the status quo after civil war now that that's changed I could see it just changing names.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Wel, the solicitations point to the Initiative disbanding due to public outcry over the revelation that it was part of the Skrulls' plan all along. So even if the series continues with a name change, the status quo of the book will wind up being drastically different simply because the Initiative is not something people want around anymore.

 

[moraldeficiency]

I could see norman liking it though, I bet it just becomes more secret and such. The registration act is still in function from what I know.

 

[Dread]

The irony is getting super-teams into every state instead of most of them focusing on NY or CA was a good idea. The tactics and teaching methods needed to be changed, though.

It would be cool if Justice returned to help lead that change in the system. He was the voice for reason in that old guard of Gyrich, Gauntlet, War Machine (who didn't do much) and Skrullowjacket. Now all of them, save Gauntlet, are gone. Clear shot for Vance.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, Counter-Force is coming back to Avengers: The Initiative to fight Ragnarok, so maybe that's what it's leading up to. Granted, with Norman now in charge of it, I doubt it'll actually improve at all.

 

[cerealkiller182]

EDIT- nvm

 

[SUPER MARVELMAN]

I'm going to say the book isn't leaving but it's being renamed. If there's no more initiative (which there won't be) I'm sure they'll still be this in a different form. SHIELD is now HAMMER. AtI reflected the basics of the status quo after civil war now that that's changed I could see it just changing names.

Well the Initiative Special with Hardball, Komodo, and Trauma takes place after SI and it seems like the Initiative is still in tact. Norman got control of the whole Initiative and everything it encompasses. We see the Desert Stars and the Heavy Hitter in tact, so it doesn't seem as if the actual Initiative will be disbanded, each state will still have their own team. If the people of the MU trust Norman to run the show than I'm sure they'll trust him to "clean" up the Initiative, why if Norman has some master plan wouldn't he keep the Initiative intact?

"Norman Osborn. All that fell under SHIELD banner, including the Avengers and the 50 State Initiative now falls under the Thunderbolts Initiative."

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Or he just hadn't gotten around to whatever major restructuring he's planning. The special came out almost a month ago, long before all the stuff with Norman and the post-SI status quo was declassified, remember? I doubt he'll let the Initiative stay as it is. All the solicitations seem to indicate there'll be way too much public outcry in the wake of the revelation that it was part of the Skrull's plan for it to remain as it is.

 

[SUPER MARVELMAN]

We'll see.

 

[The Geek Vault]

I wonder what will happen to the kill krew?

 

[Kevin]

Dan, in an interview some time back, said that they would be getting a mini.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'll probably skip that one, myself. I didn't much like the Skrull Kill Krew.

 

[SUPER MARVELMAN]

I'll buy the mini.