I would think that the Architects would take over Avengers but they seem too busy. Ed Brubaker has Captain America, Winter Soldier, and various indie projects, Jonathan Hickman has Fantastic Four, FF, Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, and indie projects, Matt Fraction has Mighty Thor, Invincible Iron Man, and Defenders, and Bendis is leaving the books.
The only Architect that might be able to take over is Jason Aaron who is just working on Wolverine & the X-Men and the Incredible Hulk.
Marvel is willing to have certain books written by committee. Three writers are credited with BATTLE SCARS, and likewise in FEAR ITSELF: THE FEARLESS. All five of the "architects" will write AVENGERS VS. X-MEN, which is akin to five writers handling 52 over at DC. Hell, Bendis' name was slapped onto the first few issues of SECRET WARRIORS because he sneezed on Hickman's scripts or something. Thus, it is possible we could see some double or triple teams here.
That said, you're likely right about the workloads of Bendis, Brubaker, Fraction, and Hickman. Aaron is the most probable choice of that lot. My opinion of that is partisan. I liked him overall on GHOST RIDER, but he had some hiccups there. ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE was damn weird. I've read some mixed reviews of WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN. Still, if it came down to him or Bendis, I'd take Aaron in a heartbeat. He at least likes obscure characters. He trucked out a long forgotten Kirby monster for GHOST RIDER, after all. He has a fondness for the Orb.
Yeah, it did more damage to the line than it did good. I think they saw what Morrison did to Genosha and how well it worked, and decided to re-create it on a larger scale. Time to put the pieces back together and move on. You know it's bad when you have to pull muties from the AoA timeline for stories.
Not to take credit for something but a few of my ideas here have been made reality by Marvel, most recently things like Steve running SHIELD instead of going directly back to Cap and re-opening the X-Men's Westchester school by Beast (not Wolverine) as sort of a East Coast/West Coast Avengers vibe to it. I know that Marvel isn't reading my posts and using my ideas, I just think it's funny that I'm on the same wavelength as them on some stuff. I should apply for a job there.
t: If they are stealing my ideas that means Waid will surely be the next writer on Avengers.
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Some Marvel talent are posters at Hype, such as Dan Slott or even Christos Gage on rare occasion. Still, I wouldn't think they're ripping you off per say, but more like you have similar instincts as some of the decision makers there.
In fairness, Marvel has invested more into AVENGERS ACADEMY than they have quite a few other "young hero" books in recent or even distant memory. I simply don't think they have the stones to do what you suggest with NEW AVENGERS. And in fairness, it may end up being treated as a "stealth relaunch" where another franchise takes over a long running book, such as when INCREDIBLE HERCULES took over INCREDIBLE HULK and when BLACK PANTHER took over DAREDEVIL: MAN WITHOUT FEAR. The sales eventually dove off once the readers figured it out, and that happened quicker the second time.
The question is whether the Avengers continue to have their high sales without Bendis, or if retailers and readers simply figure they're no longer as "important" without him. That said, Marvel took some effort to promote Bendis' MOON KNIGHT, and that's not lighting the charts aflame. After six issues, it's seeing sales not far removed from Greg Hurwitz's VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT (albeit near it's peak). It'll last 12 issues, but maybe not much longer. Is Marvel willing to devote A-list creative talent and A-list advertising and buzz to young heroes on a big book? They've some sparks of it with ACADEMY, but NEW AVENGERS is always a full court press.
runawayboulder said:
I could totally live with Aaron. The thing is, traditionally writers don't dabble in both the X-Men and Avengers franchises at the same time. I can't recall a time when a former writer of one of the franchises went over to the other later on in their careers. John Byrne would be the closest, even though he technically didn't get a writers credit on Uncanny X-Men.
The issue with Aaron is that Wolverine and the X-Men is rapidly becoming the top X-Men title along with Uncanny. It's something 'X-Men' was supposed to be, but failed to do.
In fairness, Chris Claremont has written for both UNCANNY X-MEN and AVENGERS, even if he only wrote one issue of AVENGERS and an infamous annual (the one that redeemed Carol Danvers from being date raped by Marcus). He also wrote FANTASTIC FOUR for about 2-3 years, technically. He had a longer run on that than Mark Miller had.
W&TXM's success will likely boost Aaron's profile, so he is likely the most probable of the architect trope. There are other writers I'd prefer, but I imagine Marvel's instincts will be to go with an obvious popular name for at least one of the 3 Avengers titles Bendis is ditching, and Aaron is one of 'em.
Okay, finally read Children's Crusade.
I don't think Cassie's staying dead. They pushed two things too greatly in this book and I'm predicting it was for a reason. The first was that you shouldn't screw with time. The second is that there's always a price to pay with magic.
I think the time issue is refering to Scott Lang coming back and the price of using magic to save Stature is that Scott dies somehow to make it happen. I'm thinking Wiccan will have a part in it.
So in the end, I'm predicting that Scott is dead again, Cassie is alive again, but she has closure in having a proper goodbye with her father.
Just my prediction.
I agree with your prediction. I'm not convinced Cassie is dead or that Scott Lang will be alive long.
Eh, they should both be alive. I could care less if there's too many Pym-esque characters running around. It's called the House of Ideas for a reason, give him a new name and identity - it's called a f**king IDEA. Killing a character is always the cheap way out. It's been way overdone since the 80's.
What Marvel needs to realize is that it's 2012 now. The stuff that went down in 2004 shouldn't still be letter of the law just because Bendis convinced them it was cool back then. They have hung onto a lot of these concepts for way too damn long now.
I'm just really frustrated because I read the Avengers Annual today which should have been called The Annual Ass Raping of a Classic Avenger by Brian Michael Bendis. The newest victim......? Simon Williams aka Wonder-Man.
I actually scimmed through the latest AVENGERS ANNUAL, and while some will say scimming isn't reading, I read enough that it irritated me and made me glad I didn't pay to read further. Even WIZARD magazine once claimed Wanda's resurrection of Simon Williams during the start of the Busiek/Perez AVENGERS run was one of the Top 50-100 moments the franchise had (least before the Bendis era). Now Bendis has reduced that to a dark summon spell crafted by a crazy woman. Seriously, what IS his vendetta against Scarlet Witch? While Heinberg isn't dazzling me overall on A:TCC, the gist of it I do get is that he genuinely wants to rehabilitate Wanda, and is desperately trying to saddle Dr. Doom with her crazy moments so she is redeemable as a heroine again. But Bendis seems to keep dragging her back. Now Wonder Man is a lunatic, too. Does he have an axe to grind with the WEST COAST AVENGERS? He made Tigra a victim, and he's turned Wanda and Simon into lunatics. He also killed off the Vision for 6 years.
I do struggle to find a place for 4-5 Pym particle empowered characters. But then again, I never liked the Green Lantern franchise because the powers are too infinite and similar. I imagine Rita DeMara won't show up again unless Fred Van Lente uses her, but that still would leave Pym, O'Grady, and two Langs. How many people can you have riding ants or growing to giant size? And that's assuming Wasp stays dead for much longer.
You do have a point that 2004 was already 8 years ago, and that it is time to move on with stuff that is more upbeat and has some creativity involved. THE DEFENDERS and DAREDEVIL perhaps reflect shifts in that direction.
I'd like for Gage to take the helm of avengers, AA is already great and he does team books rather well and there's no reason not to have him take two Avengers books. I'd rather it not be waid because he's writing daredevil and I always find that when someone runs one character and has him or her in a team book it basically becomes a spotlight for them. I don't want to read Daredevil and his amazing friends.
I'd let out a cheer of glee if Gage were handling a larger Avengers book. I could live with Waid, in fairness. I imagine his version of DD might fit in better on a team, actually.
I actually like all the Ant-Men because none of them are carbon copies of the others. Pym's the crazy scientist. Lang is the family man. O'Grady's goofy (and I expect him to die in Secret Avengers to be honest). I don't know much about Rita but she's a girl, so there's that.
I also like Lang because I loved the 90's run of the Fantastic Four that had him as an indirect member of the team. I thought he was great back then. I'd like to see him thrive once more, or perhaps play a supporting role in a Young Avengers book. Heck, even teaching at Avengers Academy would be cool. Hank is Giant Man, Scott can be Ant-Man.
You do have a fair point about the Ant-Men, but it's still an overlapping of the same power, and it isn't even a very vast powerset like all the Kryptonians or whatnot. You have people who grow or people who shrink and ride ants. And most do both. I'd like for Rita to not be lost to limbo, but I doubt she's turning up much. Still, Cassie replaces her as "a girl", and was on MIGHTY AVENGERS for a stretch.
I like Lang for that 90's FF run too; I was a kid when I thumbed through those. I still struggle to see a place for four Pym particle people co-existing at once. I suppose it could be interesting if Scott and Cassie Lang were both on one team, sort of like a father/daughter duo akin to the old Stargirl and STRIPES. Pym is Giant-Man but that still would leave two people named "Ant-Man". History shows having two people with the same codename doesn't last long. Does anyone REALLY take Kate Bishop seriously as "Hawkeye"? Does Jonas have much of a future now that he's not the only Vision left? It confuses the audience and makes the lessor codename characters seem like background figures. How is the Conner Hawke Green Arrow faring? Or any Batgirl that isn't Barbara Gordon (much to the world's chagrin)?
In fairness, this could be solved simply by having someone come up with a different codename. But they're hard to come by. "Speed" is the best Heinberg could come up with for a speedster. Maybe Eric or Scott could be named after a type of ant? Given what he is often full of, I could go with O'Grady being called Bull Ant-Man.
I'll concede there is more potential in this than I initially thought. That said, I don't expect Scott to survive A:TCC, and if he did, I don't expect that to be capitalized upon well. And this doesn't even include Goliath's nephew, Tom Foster, who was part of Wonder Man's hit squad lately. That would be six characters with the same power set from the same source. Crazy. Would that work without them being Lanterns or having much to do with each other?
