Bendis Likes Bedlam (The Avengers: Disassembled - Brian Michael Bendis)

Member Name: plipplop

Product:	The Avengers: Disassembled - Brian Michael Bendis
Date:	05/02/09 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Awesome premise and some notable moments

Disadvantages: Terrible anti-climax

Reviewing the trade paperback, "Avengers Disassembled", which reprints material originally published in Avengers issues 501 to 503 and the one-off special, Avengers Finale.

Jack of Hearts has apparently risen from the dead - but he's doesn't look so good.

The Vision brings a terrible message from one of the Avengers' oldest foes.

A contingent of Kree warriors arrives from a distant galaxy and wages war on the Avengers.

Iron Man finds himself disgraced in office, as he addresses the United Nations in an apparently drunken state.

What is happening to The Avengers? As the team's world starts to crumble around it, only the mystic sorcerer known as Doctor Strange can help them find the answers - but will he be too late to save the Earth's mightiest heroes?

Originally introduced as a test to see if comic books could appeal to a younger generation, the Ultimate franchise has grown from strength to strength. Amidst the pages of The Ultimate Spiderman, writer Brian Michael Bendis has helped re-write comic book history and now a new generation of readers is addicted. The Avengers series has been running since the 1960s but the launch of an "ultimate" variant (surprisingly named The Ultimates) wasn't as successful as had been hoped and in 2004 it was decided to bring the original Avengers series to a close altogether. This was not, however, to discontinue the concept. This was merely to bring the current incarnation to an end and enable a new creative team to set a new direction for the team. It seemed that the world had finally grown out of the Avengers' values.

Disassembled was something of an event in the comic book year, pitched only over three issues of the main series, with Finale a sort of gathering up of loose ends rather than the expected climactic showdown. In the entirety of those three chapters, Disassembled feels as though it is going to become another classic chapter in Avengers history, joining the likes of the Skull/Kree War, the Masters of Evil and the Korvac Saga as firm fan favourites. There are certainly some essential ingredients here. Major characters are (apparently) killed off. The ranks of the team are decimated by an unknown foe and everything that the team holds dear is destroyed or damaged, from the physical (the mansion) to the less tangible (the reputation and the image).

And it's true to say that there are some classic moments here. David Finch's excellent artwork brings some incredible scenes to life and there's a breathtaking scale to the whole thing that, initially at least, leaves you wondering just what can/will happen next. An enormous explosion outside the mansion, an incoming Kree armada and the Hulk's cousin cutting loose are just some of the highlights of an exciting and fast-paced storyline. Indeed, the storyline is arguably TOO quickly-plotted, with scarcely a moment for the reader to draw breath before something equally cataclysmic unfolds. But whilst this is epic stuff, it's not just the big action pieces that entertain. There's a lovely, double-page conclusion to chapter two, where nearly every current and former Avenger assembles outside the mansion in the team's darkest hour. It's classic Avengers stuff, borderline overly jingoistic but indisputably affectionate towards a vast array of characters and more than forty years of continuity.

Shockingly, however, Bendis drops the ball in the third chapter, where the story's nemesis is soon revealed. The villain's identity feels like something we've all seen before and it's difficult not to be disappointed that this doesn't see the return of one of the series greatest foes, when the story is, after all, supposed to be the swansong of an era. The resounding feeling that we've been here before dampens the bristling enthusiasm and the conclusion is too neat, too easily wrapped-up and simply not appropriate to what has gone before. The reality is that this is a storyline that should have simmered for far longer than it did. This should have been a story that was told over at least six issues, more if necessary, and is, instead, crammed rather clumsily into just three issues. When collected for the trade paperback, it all seems even more rushed.

The fact that Finale is such a gratuitous self-indulgence doesn't help. With little to add to the events of the previous three chapters, it instead opts to reflect in a melancholy manner, showing the teammates discussing the previous events and individually starting to make decisions about going their own way. It's when they start reminiscing that the whole thing starts to wear really thin. Admittedly, this section is a visual treat, with a host of different artists drawing 2, 3 or 4 pages to showcase an enormous variety of styles. Most notable are Michael Gaydos's hideously grotesque pages (in which Ms Marvel looks more like a crack whore) and in complete contrast, David Mack's stunning watercolour painting of the moment that the Vision and Scarlet Witch first kissed. It's an interesting way of looking at the series' history, but it's so terribly self-indulgent that you feel as though you've gatecrashed a private party. Rather like a DVD boxed set, there are other "extras" including an interview with the writer and a montage of all the Avengers book covers (too small to fully appreciate, but fascinating to peer at, if nothing else.)

Value and variety aside, however, the overwhelming reaction to Disassembled is to feel rather cheated. Aside from the fact that it leads up into something of nothing, the entire premise is rather flawed, given that everybody knew that Bendis was also going to pick up the replacement series, innovatively titled The New Avengers. As such, the idea that The Avengers have "disassembled" is really only ever a transitory notion and any apparent boldness is quickly dismissed as boastful showmanship.

There's lots to like here, and every Avengers fan should have a copy of this, but as the Heroes Reborn reboot previously demonstrated, in the Marvel Universe, there is nothing permanent about anything, not even death. Every reader knew that if this didn't work, it could all conveniently be pieced back together because it's all been pieced back together before.

This is an American publication but is easily purchased via www.amazon.co.uk for around £9.

Summary: The Avengers are finished - or are they?