Even More Avengers!

The Avengers are ushering in the Heroic Age come May. Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. are bringing back the classic “Big Three and Hawkeye” roster (albeit with Bucky Cap and not the real one) plus Bendis’ unhealthy obsession pet character: Spider-Woman,  I don’t mind that, she’s a perfect fit for The Avengers, and watch Bendis and Maleev’s Spider-Woman motion comics, they really show the potential for the medium.  Anyways, Bendis and Romita have only teased the roster so far, and more are on the way, here’s hoping Hank Pym finally dies at the end of SIEGE and not slapping his way through books again.

This is the fifth image for Hank Pym on a Google image search, really.

And this is the very first.

Now, for those of you who are freaking out because your precious Avengers books is going to be whittled down to one, fear not! Where have you been if you think a major comics publisher wouldn’t do a major re-launch without several other titles, three tie-ins from other titles, a special lead-in mini, and an array of dealer incentives and special promotional items? Well guess what, Marvel has got that, except the whole dealer incentive/Promo items, yet.

Along with “Avengers,” Brian Michael Bendis and artist Stuart Immonen (snicker, I’m Moanin’) are continuing their “New Avengers” Partnership with, “New Avengers.” Restarting at issue 1, these new “New Avengers” will be a team consisting of Luke Cage, Wolverine (because Marvel wants him in everything), Spider-Man, The Thing and Jewel, not the really hot once you check her out singer. For those of you who don’t know, Jewel is Jessica Jones, Luke Cage’s wife and mother of his daughter Danielle. Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos created Jones, for their incredible MAX title “Alias,” which had nothing to do with the Jennifer Garner in lingerie show that was on ABC.  What it does deal with is Jessica Jones, a former super-hero, choosing to forego the heroics to live a day-to-day life .Anyways, if you haven’t already, you should check the series out, mainly because it showcases Bendis’ writing perfectly, as he is the best at the man-on-the street books, that and in the first issue, Jones gets drunk and lets Luke Cage pick door number three, if you catch my drift.

The only problem with the  New Avengers roster is having Jones be a hero, Alias was such a great book, and worked exceedingly well in showing why this woman doesn’t choose such a path, making her an Avenger cheapens the character and the writer, for trying to force significance onto his creation; see Miller-Elektra for further info.  This book sounds very promising nonetheless,  it’s not really an Avengers book, but having the Cages along with Ben Grimm feels like this could be sort of a Fantastic Four for the modern family.

Next up is “Avengers Academy” by Christos Gage and Mike McKone, this title is basically the same concept as “Avengers: The Initiative” from the looks of it. Think of this as an Xavier Institute for both mutant and non-mutant super humans. Most of the characters that have been introduced have been completely new, and so far none of the faculty have been shown. My guess is that Hank McCoy, will head back East and start teaching again instead of dealing with whatever the X-Men are doing

Possibly the most exciting new title is “Secret Avengers” which is a bit gimmicky, but it is written by the best writer Marvel has: Ed Brubaker and drawn by “Thunderbolts”/”Dark Avengers” artist Mike Deodato. So far, no characters have been announced, but several silhouette images have been shown such as the guy with a hanging Dong:

Tell me I’m not alone on this.

Along with Dong Guy, this full fledged roster teaser has been released, and the guy up in the top left sure does have the classic Steve Rogers pose, sans the shield.

My guess is that this team consists of Steve Rogers, Scarlet Witch, War Machine, Venom/ or that Gorilla Guy, Nova and The Hood. What do you guys think?

Check for these titles launching in May and June.