Post-Bendis Avengers

Now that Bendis has announced his retirement from the main Avengers books, thought we could speculate on what's next for Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

So, who would you like the next writer to be?
Which characters (heroes and villains) would you like to see featured?
Should there be the same number of books?
Does it make sense to shake things up or should the next writer keep things as is?

As I said in the Bendis news thread, if I had to choose someone, I'd choose Hickman to take over for Bendis. I feel that he has shown to have really interesting and creative ideas for character stories. I think he'd be good a splitting his focus between multiple books and keeping them separate and fresh. And if anyone can make the FF interesting, then he must be a phenomenal writer.

For characters, I really like the big 3 obviously but would really like to see Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, and Red Hulk continue as members.

I would also like to see Spider-Man and Wolverine go... in my opinion, they still don't belong on the team and they've already had a long run as comic relief.

As for villains, I'm over Osborn. But I wonder what they're gonna do with Wonder Man and his arc now as well.

Thoughts?

I'm fine with there being 3 Avengers titles. Personally, I like the idea of having two books that are written by 1 writer. This way, there's one concrete vision for the line and the two "main" group - the New Avengers and the Avengers. What the difference between those two books is would ideally be up to the writer/editorial team. Avengers Assemble I would recast as either an anthology book, headlined by various teams, or a book with a rotating cast/purpose, so long as the arcs were built around the Avengers.

As for the actual creative team...I'm much more clueless. I agree that I think Hickman would be great, simply because I love his long-term planning, but I hear nothing but love for his FF stuff. I wouldn't want to move him away from that until his plan was played out.

I tend to agree with Scott though - Wells or Pak Lente would be awesome. Wells proved that he can write an excellant team book with New Mutants and I think his time with Carnage has shown that he can do the big threats AND use the Avengers. Plus, with him writing Avenging Spider-Man, it wouldn't be nearly as ludicrous for Peter to be in two books.
Pak Lente I'm all for in almost any situation. They've shown that they can do a wide variety of stories, plus they have a love for the Avengers - I remember Wonder Man and Black Widow showing up in Hercules, as well as Thor. Plus, as stated, they did the Dead Avengers mini and that was a solid, surprisingly good book.

I'm a bit more skeptical on Liu, simply because I don't think she's ever done a team book, but I'd be more than willing to give her a shot.

I'd be interested in seeing Mark Waid write the Avengers, now that I think about it. Jeff Parker maybe, his T-bolts is great. Plus he's already writing Big Red, so that'd be a great way to work those two books together.

Well it's true that most are already doing things, though I think Pak and Van Lente are pretty free Marvel wise right now, its easier for us to name them as they are people that are proven on things. We may not know new writers that are just breaking in or other writers have either not done anything in awhile and that makes people wary, they are blah nowadays (like a Claremont lol), or would be an untested entity on Avengers. The thing with someone having a long run on a title is that you really need a tested writer there most times to keep it going for the most part. Not always plenty of these writers came out of nowhere and wowed us with pitches. Then again most new writers don't get to take on the Avengers or Justice League or big time books right off the bat. They have to work up so usually just like most of the editors we're gonna think of people already working on stuff that could use a step up or would be great at a top tier book.

Same writer on both books would be cool and give a unified feel, though the writer has to be able to make the books really feel different I'd say. Bendis did good there with Mighty and New which both felt different for his time on them at together. One with registered heroes, one with underground. The two teams now pretty much are exactly the same just with different characters for the most part. Big Avengers teams fighting big threats. Just that New Avengers are usually attacked at home and deal with it while Avengers globe trot and fight big bads.

Some writers I would say are better at staying where they are and handling the book they are on so it stays good and quality doesn't suffer. Others though I think are more adept at juggling many balls in the air. You got your Hickman's, Slotts, Pak & Van Lente (they are like DnA now lol), Gage and such who can juggle a couple of balls quite well at the same time and not have quality suffer.

I'm in favor of bringing a new upstart in and letting him/her take the reigns. I mean, when Bendis came onto Avengers, what was he really known for?

If I could really have anyone I wanted on the books, I'd pick Remender for Avengers and then Mike Carey for New Avengers. And I agree, split them up story wise and location wise so that they can have different stories and different trajectories.

I wouldn't take Remender off Secret...he's the covert-ops guy. Plus the fact he's building up this dark and seedy world, I wouldn't want to wreck it by moving him off that book.

Well the three "big" Avengers books are Avengers, New Avengers, and the soon to debut Avengers Assembled with all the Avengers from the movie in it.

If Marvel is going to insist on doing the Avengers Assembled post Bendis first arc and subsequent leaving, then I think that 'Avengers' should not have Cap, Thor, and Iron Man in it. Spider-Man and Wolverine pulling double duty on Avengers and New was bad enough (that Bendis thought it was a joke he kept doing just to rile fans is head shaking), the big three should just be on one Avengers team. There are enough heroes to give each book a roster that doesn't repeat. Hawkeye should lead Secret Avengers and be off the other books except for his small teaching stint in Academy.

I think another good writer would be Jeff Parker. His Hulk is good and is Thunderbolts, but the future of Thunderbolts is still shaky as it's one of those books that is selling very low down there. Give him a bump up to a bigger tier book and let him loose on the heroes. Bring along Songbird or such. Its time that the possible future from Avengers Forever with her as an Avenger comes to pass. They could tailor one of the Avengers books to be more just fun adventure like Parker did on his stint of Marvel Adventures Avengers. Not all the Avengers books have to be about huge over blown adventures.

Avengers Assembled with the big three should be the big threat book. They take on Kang, and Ultron, and all that. New Avengers would be the street book with Luke Cage and Iron Fist and Dr. Strange or whatever. Then Avengers could be Parker's book and it could be the one with just fun adventures. Keep Red Hulk, Storm, Vision and such and let him go nuts.

Originally posted by grief Thinking about it, I wouldn't mind seeing Chris Yost write the Avengers. I remember he did the Spider-Island: Avengers tie-in, although I don't know how well that went. I just know that I like his writing in general, and I'd like to see him do something out of the X-books long term.Talking about lesser known writers got me thinking, I really wouldn't mind seeing Cullen Bunn take a stab at Avengers. His work on the Sixth Gun is excellant and has a pretty large cast, plus he's getting his foot into the MU with Namor's FI-tie in, plus FI: Fearless.

I was thinking about Bunn as well. He seems to be being groomed for big things. First they test him out on minis and then you give him something important like Fearless. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets one of the titles or is someone who's name is being tossed out there.

Originally posted by UncannyScott   New Avengers would be the street book with Luke Cage and Iron Fist and Dr. Strange or whatever.

Why does Strange get lumped in with "street" people? A mystical sorcerer is the least street thing there is.

Originally posted by Tyler5618 Now that Bendis has announced his retirement from the main Avengers books, thought we could speculate on what's next for Earth's Mightiest Heroes. So, who would you like the next writer to be? Which characters (heroes and villains) would you like to see featured? Should there be the same number of books? Does it make sense to shake things up or should the next writer keep things as is? As I said in the Bendis news thread, if I had to choose someone, I'd choose Hickman to take over for Bendis. I feel that he has shown to have really interesting and creative ideas for character stories. I think he'd be good a splitting his focus between multiple books and keeping them separate and fresh. And if anyone can make the FF interesting, then he must be a phenomenal writer. For characters, I really like the big 3 obviously but would really like to see Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, and Red Hulk continue as members. I would also like to see Spider-Man and Wolverine go... in my opinion, they still don't belong on the team and they've already had a long run as comic relief. As for villains, I'm over Osborn. But I wonder what they're gonna do with Wonder Man and his arc now as well. Thoughts?

Finally getting what i want... Hickman on Avengers.

Now, if we could just get this Bendis X-Men book canceled before it starts

EDIT:
In a semi-related story, Battle Scars is on sale today on the Marvel digital app -- should I check it out?

Originally, I couldn't care less about this story but now, with Nu-Nick Fury taking over and being in all the promos for Marvel NOW! I'm curious about him and the story. Worth my time? Or do I already know everything I need to know (he just found out he was Nick Fury's son and somehow lost an eye to match dad's)?

Edited by Tyler5618 - 25-Jul-2012 at 3:10pm

So does he now lead SHIELD? Do we know why he's in all the Marvel NOW! promos? Is Nick Fury still around? Does Fury know about Nick Jr.?

Grief is correct. Daisy Johnson, Quake, is the Director of SHIELD. Nick Jr. is just an agent of SHIELD at the moment. That could change of course and no doubt will through some contrived way probably. Nick Fury Sr was seen to say that he was going off to enjoy his time out of the spotlight as with the Infinity Formula drained from him he will no longer live for a long long time, and was in the first Winter Soldier arc though I believe that took place pre-Battle Scars.

Yeah Nick Fury was the one that told Nick Jr about how he came to be and who he really was in Battle Scars.

I'm assuming that Nick Jr will be featuring prominently within some series in Marvel NOW or will be taking over as SHIELD director and feature or such.

I think thats understating Maria Hill's character journey, who is the last solely high-ranking SHIELD agent introduced in the last decade. Otherwise Dum-Dum, Sitwell, and Countess have had different arcs...and done more than not die or be LMDs lol.

How did Daisy Johnson become director of SHIELD after Maria Hill?