POBB May 29, 2023

 Pick of the Brown Bag

May 29, 2023

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  My name is Ray Tate, and I review comic books.  This week, I look at the newest incarnation of The Avengers and the second issue of Scarlet Witch.

If you were to judge by the tags, you would come to the conclusion that I'm not an Avengers fan.  That's not exactly true.  It would be better to say that I haven't enjoyed the direction of The Avengers since the 80s.  

I sampled The Avengers here and there, but nothing really stood out like the cinematic Avengers.

Nor the old-school Avengers of my youth.  

Because of my appreciation for Jed MacKay's writing, I felt it was definitely time to give The Avengers another try.  Incidentally, I also still subscribe to MacKay's Moon Knight, which features Tigra as a co-star, and the Black Cat, which is now Black Cat and Mary Jane.  I just haven't had the time to read as much as I'd like.

Jed MacKay has a knack for characterization and sensible but often times twisty little plots.  A short hand description for the kind of writing I like.  Furthermore, you usually never feel lost in a Jed MacKay book.  Let's see how he does with Marvel's flagship title.

Already, I'm feeling positive about this choice.  The story is about the formation of a new team of Avengers and their rationale for joining.  It's also about Carol Captain Marvel Danvers.  Right on page one, we get that.  MacKay is making the story about the characters not events.

The former members of the team vote in Captain Marvel as the new leader of the Avengers.  A precedent reminiscent of the Legion of Super-Heroes.  Captain Marvel gets to work establishing herself and recreating the Avengers.

All of Marvel's heroes gained baggage over the years, and it doesn't help that Marvel seldom blows up its multiverse and starts over again, like DC Comics.  

To say that MacKay pays lip service to the at times confusing history of the cast would be unjust.  Rather, he uses the events in the comic books as episodes in the characters' lives.

I've lost track of Vision.  I didn't know about his active role in the Marvel Universe.  I didn't know he's sporting a more aesthetic look with the color scheme of his original costume.

I don't actually know what Vision's talking about, but the way MacKay writes the scene, and the way Black Cat artist C.B. Villa stages the scenario, tells me that this recent continuity impacted the Vision.  

I don't need to buy those back issues to find out what the hell bothered the Vision.  I've got this moment summarized through superb dialogue right in The Avengers and art that presents emotional depth.

There's been an overall effort to reclaim the Scarlet Witch and the Falcon--now Captain America.  So, MacKay makes their encounters with Captain Marvel playful and provides the much needed humor to balance the gravitas of world ending threats.

The metal fellow may look familiar to John Byrne fans.  That is Terminus, who first tried to destroy the earth in The Fantastic Four.  He's a scorched planet kind of thing connected to an old enemy of the Celestials, from The Eternals.  If you didn't know that, well, Iron Man has got you covered.

You see.  You can go into this book blind.   MacKay will give you everything you need to know without belaboring the point.  

The increasing danger is another fascinating element.  It's easy to dismiss the first issue of The Avengers as just another round one.  Instead, MacKay positions a heavy-weight threat for the Avengers to face, and as the battle ensues, the solution turns out to be something that just might wipe them all out.  That's the unexpected twist to which I alluded.  I really didn't expect one Avenger possibly sacrificing himself to save the world in the premiere of the new volume.

The debut of Steve Orlando's Scarlet Witch, established Wanda's new gig as the proprietor of an occult curiosity shop that also doubles as her base of operations.  

A person in dire need will find herself at the opposite side of a special door that leads to Wanda's place.  The epilogue last issue depicted Viv Vision walking through Wanda's door.

Viv Vision is the constructed daughter of, you guessed it, the Vision.  Vision decided to make himself a family in his eponymous Tom King horror themed superhero mini-series.  It's definitely recommended but not your usual fare.

It's your right to question whether a synthezoid can have nightmares.  However, this is not Blade Runner 2049.  For comic book fans, who don't need some tedious stab at existentialism, Viv is alive.

After a really nicely staged conversation between Wanda and Viv about their connected history, Wanda puts she and Viv to sleep.  In Viv's dreamland, Wanda confronts the problem.

Do I know who this whacko is? Nope.  Do I care? Only after Wanda begins her supernatural/dream battle against her.

Dreamqueen is no lightweight, but Wanda runs her down as if she were roadkill.  One should expect that.  

So what we have in Scarlet Witch is a feminist, empowering bit of beautifully illustrated entertainment courtesy of artists Sara Pichelli, Elisabetta D'Amico and Matthew Wilson.  Keep 'em coming.

Oh, what? There's more? Stephanie Phillips and artists Chis Allen and Dee Cunniffe partner Storm with the Scarlet Witch in a short story pitting them against a Hippocampus.

Or given the green, a Kelpie if you prefer.  The Hippocampus is the earlier beastie.  The steeds pull Poseidon's chariot in Greek myth. 

Anyway, in the brief sweetly illustrated pages, Phillips brings up the idea of Storm sharing more than teammates with Wanda.  Chris Claremont raised the idea way early in The Uncanny X-Men.  The deific ancestry often falls by the wayside when most writers emphasize Ororo's mutant status.  Bonus points for the literary reference.