The OLD ORDER CHANGETH: A weekly column by AML founder Van Plexico ******** This is the first of what I hope will be a series of weekly columns in which I get the chance to address various aspects of Avengerdom. As I have recently given up the position of Moderator of the Avengers Mailing List, and left the List itself, this will be my only real forum for reaching the List's members until I'm able to rejoin. Okay, on with the show. Please note, YOU REALLY WANT TO HAVE READ AVENGERS #3 BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER!!!!!! ******** A variety of thoughts after the first reading of AVENGERS #3: 1) VINCE!!! For our purposes, they could not, IMO, have picked a more appropriate person to serve as the very first lettter-writer of the new era. It was Vince, after all, who first wrote to me after I created the website, eventuallly leading to what became the Mailing List. All things AMLish flowed from that first e-mail from Vince. Now all letters to AVENGERS will flow from this first one from our own VA. Twenty years from now, think of how you'll be able to say, "I had the FIRST letter ever published in AVENGERS vol 3!" And it was a great letter, too, Vince. (24 exclamation points!? Not enough, I say!) 2) So, the big intro storyline is over. Y'know, this story ended up being much more "epic" than I'd expected. When Simon and Vizh both experienced their... setbacks... (and for a moment I thought Herc got his genitals fried off-- look at the picture!)... it suddenly dawned on me that we were nearing Korvac/#177 territory. This storyline never really touched that "cosmic epic" level of drama, but it wasn't really that type of story, so it shouldn't have. I'm still ambivalent about the whole Morgan Le Fay deal-- she never became anything beyond a cardboard-cutout megalomaniac who brainwashed the group and swapped their clothes-- and she lacked, shall we say, Dr. Doom's or Kang's more endearing qualities. But in the end, Morgan wasn't what was important to this story, and I suppose a "stronger" villain would have stolen some of the limelight. The Avengers themselves were the whole show, here, and they shined, top to bottom. 3) Wondy's gone again. It took Mike M. and me till issue five (#407) of our fanfic series to bring Wondy back. Kurt had it done by the end of #2. In retrospect, I should have suspected that it wouldn't last-- it was too easy, too quick. I was tempted to go the same way, as those who've read the fanfic know, but refrained at the last moment, having Simon NOT explode at the end of the story. I suppose this was a powerful ending for the introductory story, and such a loss made this story much more serious than it had seemed to that point. As you can tell by now, I'm not sure what I think of it. Mainly, I think Simon'll be back again (for life number, what are we up to? Four? Remember the cover caption that time-- "Born again.... and again.... and again...) Clearly, Kurt wouldn't have gone to the trouble of soo clearly delineating and reiterating the Wanda/Vizh/Wondy triangle again, if he planned to do away with two thirds of it for good. Which brings me to: 4) Duck, Kurt!! Vince and Mike are comin' for ya!! (And you guys thought the "Ghost of Stone" bit was cruel! Ha!) I was stunned when Kurt and George pulled the ol' saw-the-synthezoid-in-half routine, and even more surprised when Vision didn't revert to normal after the reality shift. I have no idea where this is going, but I'm intrigued. I just hope it doesn't mean yet another new body for Vizh... Unless we're getting into Torch territory again.... hmmmmmmmmm.......... Maybe I'm going to have to start reading HEROES FOR HIRE after all...... Kurt may be planning to "fix" more stuff than I'd even guessed (and he's already covered a surprising amount of ground.) 5) The art: amazing as usual. I'd be up to "taking it for granted" stage by now, except that I keep finding new things to bug my eyes out over. I am, however, curious as to what George's pencils look like before Al Vey get ahold of them. Something about the faces... I don't quite know what it is. Let's just say, I'm looking forward to that "rough cut" book. 6) Anybody notice how much the Medieval Hawkeye looks like Vanth Dreadstar? Or Pietro looks like Fixer/Techno? 7) Anybody notice how darned nice Wanda looks these days? WHO wanted her back in that Crossing costume?? (But, heck-- I wouldn't mind seeing her stay in the Medieval one! Nice bellybutton!) 8) Lots of Beast!! (relatively, anyhow-- this issue continued to be Captain America and friends.) So happy that Hank got the last panel-- but I don't immediately get the quote reference. A little help? [Editor's note: Okay, this question has been answered to my satisfaction since I originally wrote this!-- Van] 9) Dammit-- Iron Man's armor is screwed up again. I thought they had this problem solved after #1. He's lit up like a Christmas tree again. 10) Wasp was great. She got to DO stuff-- and be effective at it! And the scene where she plopped down on Cap's shoulder-- very nice. Same with the "apology" to Hank after she zapped him. 11) Thor's gone. No big surprise there-- the classic "Thor shows up for the big fight, then delivers a dramatic line and bugs out" routine. I have no problem with that-- a little Thor goes a long way, in my book. You don't want to bring out the nuclear missiles for every conflict. I'm now pretty sure Shellhead will be leaving by the end of next issue, too. My latest roster prediction: Hawkeye, Cap, Beast, Wanda, Wasp, Giant-Man, Vision (in intensive care), and hopefully Carol, and my but Justice has been getting a lot of air time... Hmmm... That would be a fairly "weak" lineup, wouldn't it-- especially with Vizh disabled. No really big hitters at all, except possibly Carol. Almost a revised "Kooky Quartet." And much closer to the Thunderbolts in overall power levels. Hmmmmmmmmmmm... 11) The story was much tighter this time. More focused on a smaller number of characters-- mainly Cap, Hawkeye, and Wanda. And that much more effective, I felt. Simon, as he was used here, could have come off as a mere plot device, but I never really feared Kurt would go that way, and he didn't. Simon was Simon, the way I remember him, and if this is all we get of him, at least he came across as heroic, caring, and haunted. And that's Simon. 12) Kurt told us he had no interest in "fixing" old "problems" just for their own sake, but that if certain things could be "fixed" in the course of telling good, new stories, then he might do it. Well, so far, that's exactly what he's done, and by my count, only three issues in, he's way ahead of schedule. 13) The alternate reality/mind control situation. Well, it's pretty much over, and I don't have a strong feeling about it. I was never complaining, mind you-- it may have gotten construed that way at some point, but all I ever really did was ask "why?" in the most innocent and curious sense. When we look back at this later-- say, in the inevitable TPB reprint of #1-4-- it won't matter as much that this came out concurrently with the mind-controlled-Avengers story in T-BOLTS, or with the spate of alternate reality stories in AVENGERS and other Marvel comics of late. In the final analysis, I can't criticize Kurt and George for doing a GOOD alternate universe story, just because theirs came AFTER a few BAD ones. I'll leave it at that-- as long the Avengers stay in their own universe for a good long while now, and fight some better villains (one's battleship gray; one has a blue mask; one's big and green and mechanical; you get the picture!) 14) I give this issue an 'A,' the storyline (1-3) an A-, and the overall progress of the book, all things considered, a massive A+. Can't wait for #4. --Van Plexico (One last gripe-- I'm still waiting for the heads in the "head-box" to be all the same scale! Go look at the covers starting with #185, to see how it could be...)