Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: David Finch (p), Danny Miki (i), Frank D’Armata (colors)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Ha ha! Brilliant! "Avengers Disassembled"! Get it? Cuz they say "Avengers Assemble" when something happens and they all….well…assemble. Fantastic. Now they are all….disassembled and stuff.
Well, now that we have that out of the way, lets talk about the bad points shall we?
Lets start with Marvels TPB system with the Avengers (and possibly others) and how it works….or doesn’t. Basically Marvel employed a system where they cherry pick stories and TPB them in no real order. I own the last TPB to come out before "Disassembled" and foolishly thought that it would lead me nicely into "Disassembled" (which I will call "AD" for easier reading from now on). Big mistake. That isn’t the way things work with Marvel. I open "Disassembled" and all the plot points established in the last TPB have been dealt with. How upsetting. I now have no idea what happened there.
So, on to the individual issues that make up this read. Issue one is actually very good, and the rest of the book really should have continued on the upward trend established here. It begins with the team separately dealing with the various problems that a world's premier team has to deal with at any given time. Specifically, what appears to be some Chinese food that needed eating and some world leaders that needed to be told how to run things better. The mansion gets hit by an ally thought dead, and Tony is acting strange, what is going on here? As the Avengers try to pull themselves together, additional members arrive, and the crisis worsens. More Avengers down and still no clues. End of issue one and great stuff all round. I certainly want to read more.
Issue two presents more punch ups and more Avengers dropping like gaudily clad flies, but in different ways. Some are physically harmed, some are psychologically attacked and some are disgraced. By mid-issue we take stock of casualties and witness much finger pointing as the remaining functioning members still try to get a handle on what has happened. Lots more finger pointing and some storming off. Fear not though, the last page brings salvation. Good but not great. The book should have been taken up a notch in excitement but at best it keeps you interested, not enthralled.
Issue three and salvation has become…..well…loads of bad guys basically. Huge fighting of epic proportions is ruined because no real scope is ever established. I don’t want little panels showing individual heroes fighting. Give me a massive panel encompassing the battle. Think the battle with the invasion fleet in The Ultimates and you have some idea of how it should have looked. A good chance goes up in flames. Another lost opportunity here as it presented a golden opportunity to do away with some lesser Avengers but hey, I don’t write for Marvel. A great scene involving an older member really touched me though, and I didn’t really like the guy. Hey, where did all the bad guys go? Oh, here come some answers.
Issue four and the surprise conductor of this orchestra is revealed and I, for one, was very surprised. Many weren’t. Then again I had little knowledge of other Avengers stories before this so it worked for me. A half decent battle here, though again I find myself trying to look around a 2D picture to try and get some idea of scope. Come on; shake it like a Polaroid picture, would you?
The final issue is excellent. I loved it even though I am not a flashback person by any stretch of the imagination. The remaining Avengers take stock and go their separate ways.
The idea was good. Hitting the Avengers from a number of different directions worked for me as a story. What didn’t work was the choice of characters to leave or be "removed," leaving only two major heroes for the re-formation coming later. The villain, while being a surprise on a personal level, ruined the way the story ran. All these different things done by one person? I would have preferred a group of villains working together. The strain that the characters were put under did work well as it showed that the damage being done was more than physical.
The art was, for the most part, very good. I never struggled to discern what was going on, always knew who was who. It worked for me on that score. What didn’t work was the artist's lack of vision when the battles took place. I have to assume he was being paid by the panel rather than for the work in general as a full page spread would have done far better.
In short, the concept was a good one, all the characters hit all the right notes and for the most part I was kept interested. I can’t in good conscience give this more than
as the execution of the idea was so poor, and so many opportunities were missed.Side note: if you want to know where Thor is, read Thor: Disassembled.
What did you think of this book?
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