The Van Lente Avengers thread

[TheCorpulent1]

If they reworked the Invaders into a team for the descendants of WWII heroes in addition to the surviving originals who aren't otherwise engaged, that'd be cool. Alex Ross, unsurprisingly, is interested only in the originals, though.

 

[Dread]

If they reworked the Invaders into a team for the descendants of WWII heroes in addition to the surviving originals who aren't otherwise engaged, that'd be cool. Alex Ross, unsurprisingly, is interested only in the originals, though.

Yeah, I imagine he's like the Austin Powers of the comic book world, thawed out from decades ago and can't adapt.

 

[Tron Bonne]

What're the odds of any of the "Dead Avengers" staying alive after CHAOS WAR, and if so, which ones?

I kind of won't be surprised if none of them come back and just go back to being dead. The only two that I can think of that would warrant a big return is Mar-Vell and Vision, but I don't know, just don't see Marvel bringing them back with this.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I could see the Vision coming back. He's still a B-lister at best, so they wouldn't feel the need to make a big deal about his return. But of course, they're knee-deep in another Young Avengers series right now with Vision, Jr. involved, so maybe they wouldn't want to confuse the kiddies.

 

[Dread]

I kind of won't be surprised if none of them come back and just go back to being dead. The only two that I can think of that would warrant a big return is Mar-Vell and Vision, but I don't know, just don't see Marvel bringing them back with this.

Mar-Vell is tricky. He's been dead for about as long as many Marvel readers were reading comics, or anything, or were even born. He's become a legacy character, what with Phyla (also dead), his son Hulkling, and Genis (alive, but unused), and especially Ms. Marvel. Marvel in general has been trying to boost Ms. Marvel for years, and while she started out as a female version of Mar-Vell, she has since outlasted him and probably is more known to the fans of today than him. After all, she's been in SUPER HERO SQUAD. Marvel teased his return back in 2006-2007, but it turned out to be a Skrull sleeper. On the one hand, returning him and having him interact with his legacies could be interesting, or it could diminish them at a time when Marvel as a company REALLY wants their fans to squint and pretend Ms. Marvel is Wonder Woman.

As for Vision, the only major confusion between him and "Jonas" is appearance. Their designs have become too similar. Brubaker probably confuses them, because the Vision he used in Reborn seemed to be less like Jonas and more like the original, although it didn't really matter.

To be honest, I think the less "harmful" resurrections would be of the smaller characters. Deathcry being alive again wouldn't upset anything. And no one is using the Yellowjacket name now, and Rita has been off stage for so long, she's even more of a blank slate.

I could see the Vision coming back. He's still a B-lister at best, so they wouldn't feel the need to make a big deal about his return. But of course, they're knee-deep in another Young Avengers series right now with Vision, Jr. involved, so maybe they wouldn't want to confuse the kiddies.

Or, it could be done because the Young Avengers, and by proxy Vision Jr., are off limits to anyone else at Marvel until Rugrat's Crusade is over. That's more than a year from now. It could be used as a way to allow other writers to use "a" Vision again. After all, "Victor Slade" is the one most are familiar with anyway.

To be honest, I am stunned the original Vision has been dead this long. He's a robot. He's been pulled apart to bare scraps and reassembled before; all She-Hulk did was tear him in two. Red Tornado over at DC would call that a holiday. Robots are perennially resurrectable.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Tell that to Hourman.

 

[Dread]

Red Tornado is probably more well known than the robotic incarnation of Hourman at this point.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Whatever, I just want Hourman back, goddamnit.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Whatever, I just want Hourman back, goddamnit.

Yes

 

[Dread]

Forgive my ignorance, and I know I could just look it up on Google or Wikipedia, but...how can a robot he called Hourman? The original Hourman got his name from taking this super-steroid like drug whose effects only lasted an hour. How did that gimmick work for a robot? Was the original Hourman's brain patterns DL'd into a robot body? Could the robot only be active an hour? I missed that era.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Hourman's body was built in the 853rd century with Miraclo-like strength as a standard feature, so he's always super-strong. He's described as a "sentient machine colony," which I've always taken to mean that, at his most basic level, he's actually a bunch of nanites. The fact that he has an auto-repair ability (comparable to a healing factor for biological things) seems to support that. His brain patterns are based on Rex Tyler, the original Hourman--Rex actually went to the future and helped build him, in fact. He has the full range of human emotions but not a whole lot of emotional maturity initially.

He became the student of the New God Metron and ultimately inherited the Worlogog, a cosmic artifact that's said to be a map of all space/time/reality, which basically gave him godlike time manipulation powers. He can alter the speed of individual timelines to age or de-age people and things, change his own timeline's speed to simulate super-speed or "fast-forward" time around himself, travel through time at will, see the future, and all kinds of other stuff.

When he came to the present, Snapper Carr convinced him that he would never understand humanity unless he gave up his practically limitless powers, so he divested himself of the Worlogog and only kept a small hourglass filled with tachyons (theoretical particles in real-life physics that DC has co-opted to be the particles associated with time doohickery). So he can turn the hourglass and regain most of his Worlogog powers, but only until the hourglass' tachyons run out--which, of course, takes exactly one hour.

 

[Dread]

I do love how DC assumes there'll be any humanity left in the year 8000 or 9000. I figure by then, the Earth will long be an atomic wasteland populated by bacteria, bugs, and lawyers.

At any rate, that is all very complicated, but I'll admit more interesting than a guy who basically shoots up on a serum every hour to fight muggers.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Humanity has colonized the entire solar system and built a second sun called Solaris by then.

The drug metaphor has been used with Hourman before, especially with Rick Tyler, the son of the original. He spent a long time recovering from an addiction to Miraclo between his time on Infinity, Inc. and his return in JSA, which included a couple of enraged attacks on the android Hourman. There was a really good story that compared and contrasted him with Bane, who spent a long time kicking his own addiction to Venom after breaking Batman's back and then getting his ass kicked by Azrael. Rick eventually recovered and resumed being a superhero after someone--not sure if it was him or his dad or someone else--devised a new form of Miraclo without the addictive side-effects. He also inherited the android Hourman's tachyon hourglass when the android was destroyed, although it only makes him immune to time manipulation rather than conferring any direct time manipulation powers.

Anyway, the android was super-awesome. He even provided himself with a nemesis--he used his time powers to subdue Amazo when he first came to the present, not realizing that Amazo would absorb the powers (becoming a new version of himself dubbed "Timazo" by fans) and pester Hourman throughout time. Came to a head in the finale of his solo series, which was utterly wonderful.

 

[Dread]

Well, Miraclo could still be addictive psychologically, even if chemically it wasn't supposed to be addictive. After all, some people get addicted to the craziest things.

At any rate, it sounds interesting. I take it that it was from a higher quality era at DC.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I certainly felt the comics were of a higher quality at DC back then. It was from the late '90s, written by Tom Peyer (one of the most underrated writers in the industry) and drawn by Rags Morales (obviously before he could command enough attention to warrant big event books).

 

[Dread]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?disp=img&pid=1284756588

It appears that the main villain, or A villain, for this mini is an Avenger's infamous brother.

 

[bored]

So basically, the villain is Grim Reaper. I'm okay with that.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

We knew that already. Van Lente mentioned it in an earlier interview. And also, if you stopped to think about it for like 5 seconds, it was pretty obvious...

 

[Dread]

I forgot. Anyway, it is pretty cool. Although odd that Wonder Man himself isn't involved. It's like if the Avengers fought Loki, and the only one missing was Thor. But, it happens. Should be good. Van Lente's really been on a roll of late.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Wonder Man's not dead. He's too busy being a total *****ebag to the people who helped resurrect him because of Bendis.

 

[bored]

"Grrr, I regrew my mullet and now I hatez dem Avengers cuz they were around when bad stuff that they eventually stopped happened. Also, they brought me back to life twice and most of my friends are Avengers! This is character development!"

 

[Dread]

Wonder Man's not dead. He's too busy being a total *****ebag to the people who helped resurrect him because of Bendis.

Right.

When are they going to stop letting Bendis ruin perfectly viable characters? He destroyed Sentry, and he was barely viable. He destroyed what could have been a perfectly quirky villain or anti-hero in Marvel Boy. And now Wonder Man. Bendis the Horrendous needs to be stopped!

 

[NightBeetle]

CHAOS WAR: DEAD AVENGERS #2
Written by FRED VAN LENTE
Pencils & Cover by TOM GRUMMETT
CHAOS WAR tie-in!
The newest, greatest and, in the carnage of the Chaos War, only team of Avengers around faces the threat that united them: the GRIM REAPER! Eric Williams has long been one of the Avengers' most fearsome foes, and now that he has fully pledged himself, heart and soul, to the Chaos King, he's looking to kill his arch-nemesis, the android Vision, and his allies -- Captain Mar-Vell, Yellowjacket, Dr. Druid, Deathcry and the Swordsman -- twice! And if they fall, every Avenger past and present will fall with them.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99