"Their God DOES Dress Like That" in Avengers (vol. 3) #63 (473), by Geoff Johns (writer), Alan Davis (penciler), Mark Farmer (inker), Dave Kemp (colorist), RS and Albert Deschesne (letterers)
I own three issues of Avengers from after Kurt Busiek left the book. One from Geoff Johns' stretch, which is where the issue above is from, and two from Chuck Austen's brief stint. Because I am one of probably three people on the planet that liked Kelsey Leigh as a new Captain Britain.
(The fact I've never had any use or affection for Brian Braddock probably has something to do with it).
Given the choice, I wanted to go with something drawn by Alan Davis, so this is from the conclusion to a three-part story where the first two parts ran in Thor and Iron Man. Thor's taken over for Odin, and is protecting some people in an Eastern European country who are worshiping him and being persecuted for it by the country's dictator. The U.S. and Russians are watching uneasily, while Doom is trying to escalate the whole thing along from the shadows. Then Iron Man showed up in armor powered by a mystic stone Thor offered Earth as a clean fuel source, to challenge Thor. Thor didn't approve of that. Then Cap jumped in trying to calm the whole thing down.
(This is the story with the classic, 'Shut up, Tony. Shut up and turn your brain back on.' panel. Steve might have wanted to save that for a few years until Civil War started.)
I remember more of Johns' run than I thought. He used Scorpio and the In-Betweener, my first encounter with either of them. Red Skull got himself appointed Secretary of Defense and released a biological agent, which he tried to pin on Wakanda to ignite a war between the two countries. 'Cause white supremacist. T'Challa broke his jaw. Thumbs up to that (Oliver Coipel drew that story). I think he tried to make Gyrich more sympathetic, which, no thanks. Put the Falcon back on the team, and had him punch Gyrich after the dipshit called him "boy". Perhaps I should retract my statement about making him more sympathetic.
Brought Hawkeye back onto the team (good), killed Jack of Hearts (bad), changed She-Hulk so her transformation was being caused by fear (boo). Gary Frank drew the Jack of Hearts issue, but Scott Kolins drew the story where Clint came back and She-Hulk's powers changed. I'm guessing this was before he and Johns worked on The Flash together, but maybe not.
There was one issue where we learned Hank and Jan use the size-changing stuff in their sex life, which was not a thing I needed to know. If I have to remember it, then so do you! Austen promptly broke those two up and had Jan and Hawkeye start up, which is better than putting Hank and Jan together again. There is too much damn baggage there.
When Austen left, Bendis came on, we got Avengers Dissassembled, and then New Avengers, which was the last time I bought what I would call a proper Avengers book (to the extent that label can be applied to Bendis' run). But we still have a lot of mini-series and books where they slapped "Avengers" on the cover before we get out of the A's.
3 comments:
I'm fairly sure the Johns/Kolins run on Avengers came after their run on Flash. Johns got snapped up in an exclusive deal with DC, leaving his Avengers run somewhat truncated -- no great loss, in my opinion, although we got Austen, who was even worse -- but Kolins stayed on at Marvel for a good while after.
Oh you just HAD to bring up Hank and Jan's...er...shenanigans, dodn't you? I vaguelly remember spme of this, but it does all seem so much more convoluted when you dare to actually explain it all.
It's stories like this that make my husband's eyes glaze over when he innocently asks me what I am reading.
Kelvin: Yeah, I wasn't sure on the timeline for Johns and DC. I feel like Johns' run is one I would have liked in theory, because what I remember of the plot outlines sounds like it could be good. But in practice, not so much.
Sally: One of my friends had the same reaction when I tried to explain the Summers and Grey family tree, somewhere around the point where Maddy Pryor tries to sacrifice her baby to a demon. Or maybe at the point said baby returns from the future with a metal arm and shoulder pads.
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