Heroes Return (I) by Craig Lemon / May'98

So, the Heroes Return.

Having abandoned the Heroes Reborn after just two issues each, I felt much more comfortable about the Return, given the quality of the writing lineup for three of the titles, and Davis and Farmer on the FF. To give them all a fair run, I decided to buy the first few issues of each title, then read them in one sitting and see what I thought of each.

This time I'll look at Kurt Busiek's contributions, The Avengers and Iron Man.

The Avengers:

As readers of SAF I will know, the Avengers was my initiation into the ways of US comics, and thereby held a place dear to my heart for many years, almost by default becoming my one of my favourite Marvel titles. The damage this title has suffered over the last few years has been horrendous, but I went into this relaunch with a great sense of hope that Busiek could shake them up and turn them around.

The nightmare started when I couldn't get issues 2 and 3 from my local retail outlet (despite having them on order). Things didn't get much better when I went out of my way to visit a variety of comics shops, none of which had these elusive missing issues.

Finally, last week, in Brighton, West Sussex, I found both issues, and in two different shops. Went straight home, read all five that are out so far, and sat back and thought a bit.

The first three issues form an introductory trilogy to familiarize readers with the sheer range of heroes comprising the Avengers, and to focus on a core bunch that manage to escape Morgan le Fay's ensorceling. The story does drag in the middle section, and the premise (in #2) of certain heroes gradually waking up to what is really going on around them was done much better in Waid's Justice League - Midsummer's Nightmare miniseries.

Other downers with this opening trio were they felt a bit like standard fare - the small, but valiant, group of heroes that see the villain for what she really is, standing up against vastly overwhelming numbers of other heroes - Scarlet Witch being the fulcrum of events, done many times before in Avengers: West Coast amongst other places - the return of Wonder Man for an issue before he dies again - the gratuitous inclusion of other heroes that aren't involved in the plot, for example, Spider Man, just so it can be said all the heroes were there.

Of course, this is Busiek we're talking about, so as soon as you see Wonder Man die again, you know he'll be back...at least this time, it was fairly promptly, in issue 5.

Also, the end of issue 3 sees Thor flying off on an urgent mission to find out what happened to Asgard and the other gods, only to return in time for the start of issue 4 having taken a few moments to have a shave and put his quest on hold to attend a meeting to decide who should be an Avenger...I wonder how they managed to summon him back, and I also wonder why his mission suddenly lost all of its importance.

Issue four concentrates mainly on the selection of the core group, and ends with the promise that by the end of the summer, two of this core group will have left - one willingly, one not so. My guess is that it's Hawkeye and Warbird (aka Binary, aka Ms. Marvel) for the chop, from the indication given in this issue that Iron Man knows her secret - i.e. she's losing her powers - but doesn't have the proof yet - and Scarlet Witch twigs it in #5.

Issue five opens with Thor flying back to the mansion (again) and tries to instill a bit of mystery with Jarvis, of all people, writing secret letters to South America. Then we have this issue's pointless battle - the Squadron Supreme turn up, accuse the Avengers of being imposters, the teams have a fight, and everyone goes home afterwards.

Good things about these issues were the deft handling by both writer and artist of the sheer number of heroes, the decent characterisation of the same (I could certainly tell these guys apart, despite their vast number), and the excellent treatment accorded to Hawkeye by Busiek, and the rest of the Avengers. He's by far and away my most favourite Avenger, and to see him finally given a bit of respect by both the 'senior' and the 'junior' heroes is immensely satisfying.

Unfortunately, the problem with Hawkeye is he feels he should be the leader rather than a follower, witness the arguments with Cap in #5. Also unfortunately, it is Hawkeye's attitude and dialogue that really justifies spending money on this title - the stories are just too run-of-the-mill to be of any great interest.

From my point-of-view, if Hawkeye goes and the stories don't pick up, I'm going to drop it - for yourselves, the best issue to choose to sample the title is either #3 if you like fight scenes, or #4 if you'd like a bit of character interplay instead.

Iron Man:

Debonair Tony Stark, inventor extraordinaire. Kurt Busiek seems to have nearly everything right about this one, except... The first issue tries to setup far too many subplots right from the off, I don't expect they'll all be resolved anytime soon, so there's already a continuity nightmare for anyone who starts halfway through. I seem to remember having hired assassins attack the hero, then escape, with no-one knowing who hired them to be a fairly drab plotline the first 100 times I saw it, and it's not really much more interesting here.

In issues two and three there's a massive amount of hardware on display from two factions - the Dreadnoughts and The Manta-Ship of the Siege Engineers. Both of these groups are acting under orders from other people (surprise, surprise). Totally expectedly, everything gets destroyed or everyone gets away from Iron Man by the end of the story, without us finding out who or what was behind any of this.

There's quite a nice ending to issue four, although it's telegraphed as soon as Stark is on the island and mention is made of there being an extinct volcano. In addition, I don't really understand how the villain could come back so quickly, after having his 'containment unit' destroyed and blowing up underwater.

Issue five tries to explain this away, but, to be honest, I wasn't really interested by this stage. Also in this issue: an old friend nearly reveals a secret but...oops, he get interrupted.

Issue six finds Iron Man in Australia now, last time's events forgotten about, for Tony Stark to act as bait for a mission for the Black Widow, now some sort of secret agent. Usual rubbish in this issue, Stark gets to be Iron Man just in time to have a fight, and his opponent escapes from the battle before being forced to reveal her mysterious employer.

In these six issues, Tony Stark spends a lot of time in exotic locations, apparently does all of his work behind the scenes (that WebVoyager program came from nowhere, and pretty quickly at that), although I get the feeling that a lot of time passes over the course of these issues.

The whole thing reads like a fairly typical Image superhero comic, all fights and people with multiple agendas, with nothing resolved. So, the title's a mess. With a crossover with a lame duck title 'Quicksilver' on the horizon, I can't recommend it.

Disclaimer - all of the above nonsense is purely my personal opinion. No doubt most people may well disagree with some or all of my comments, but please feel free to e-mail me to discuss anything I write here.

Next time - Heroes Return II