Raven's Haven: Brian Michael Bendis

Friday, 28 October 2016

Avengers (1963) # 500-503, Avengers: Finale (2005) # 1, What If? featuring Avengers Disassembled (2006) # 1

(I originally read these comics in mid February 2016)

The 'Avengers Disassembled' arc by Brian Bendis is where Marvel clearly realised their flagship Avengers comic wasn't working. So, instead of trying to turn the boat around the hard way with better art and writing, they decided to decimate the team in a story full of shock moments. Avengers Mansion is destroyed. Jack of Hearts, presumed dead since the conclusion of Geoff Johns' run, returns to the team - and dies. Ant-Man (Scott Lang) dies. The Vision dies. Hawkeye dies. EVERYBODY DIES. Well, just those four, though the Scarlet Witch is left comatose. 2004's 'House of M' would spin off from this and Bendis' 'New Avengers' would rise from its ashes, setting in motion the Bendis/Millar age of escalating 'event' stories (Dissassembled> House of M> Civil War> Secret Invasion> Dark Reign> Siege> Heroic Age, etc) that lasted nigh on nine years and resulted in a near-impenetrable continuity intimidating to even a hardened Marvel fanboy like me.

Avengers (1963) # 500-503 and Avengers: Finale (2005) # 1 are collected in:

Hardcover:

New Avengers Omnibus Vol. 1 (US)

New Avengers Omnibus Vol. 1 (UK)

Avengers Disassembled (US)

Avengers Disassembled (UK)

Softcover:

Avengers: Disassembled (US)

Avengers: Disassembled (UK)

Avengers (1963) # 500 is collected in:

Softcover:

Marvel Firsts: Before Marvel Now! (US)

Marvel Firsts: Before Marvel Now! (UK)

What If? featuring Avengers Disassembled (2006) # 1 is collected in:

Softcover:

What If? - Event Horizon (US)

What If? - Event Horizon (UK)

Monday, 17 October 2016

Daredevil (2014) # 1-18

(I originally read these comics in mid December 2015)

So, here is Daredevil volume 4 by Mark Waid, following on the heels of Daredevil volume 3 - also by Mark Waid - which you might recall I read a few months back.

After the events of that recent run, Matt Murdock has been disbarred from practicing law in New York so has moved out west to his old (1970s) stomping (or swinging) grounds of San Francisco, with girlfriend/new law partner Kirsten McDuffie. Matt's old law partner Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson has succumbed to the cancer that affected him previously (SPOILERS) except, no he hasn't, his death has been faked to protect him from reprisals at the hands of Matt's enemies and he's moved out west, too.

The run is mostly made up of short stories with few overarching plots, with returns for many classic - or not so classic - pre-Miller villains including the Purple Man, Stunt-Master and... the Man-Bull. Matt forms an uneasy alliance with the Shroud to take down the Owl, leading to the latter becoming enmeshed in some cutting edge surveillance technology, vegetative but omnipotent. This has later repercussions when the Shroud uses the Owl to expose all Daredevil's remaining secrets, including his role in helping fake Foggy's death, leading Matt to the one person with clout enough to force the genie back into the bottle: the Kingpin.

The final issue wraps up all plot lines, including the outcome of Foggy's cancer, simultaneously providing a good conclusion to the Daredevil story as a whole and a clean slate for the succeeding writer. I won't be reading Daredevil beyond this point, however, unless it's in the form of retro tales. His post-'Secret Wars' status, with his secret identity suddenly restored, is of no interest to me.