Pimping! Avengers: The Oral History

[fictivore.livejournal.com]

Okay, so apparently I’d been missing the (according to me, atleast) THE greatest Avengers thing coming out these days. The Avengers Oral History, is this running feature in the current Avengers and New Avengers books (written by Bendis) which is like chapters of an in-universe official biography of the Avengers, consisting entirely of interview quotes from the Avengers (explicitly given for the context of the book).

And it is brilliant! This feature had been missing in the Avengers *cough*scans*cough* I’d been reading and I’m not following NA right now, so this had completely flown under my radar. And, it has completely restored my faith in Bendis! The characterization is brilliant! Its full of stuff like what exactly our heroes were thinking during so and so event and what were their first impressions of each other (God, some are sooo unflattering!) And Steve and Tony are really brilliant, really present throughout- very obviously the ‘centre’ of the team. (Actually until now, Tony is very much at the centre of the whole thing- the thing which binds the team, surprisingly, even more than Cap, so I’m enjoying it a lot!)

Also very evident is how well all the Avengers know each other... All the interviews are happening in isolation yet the camaraderie and the knowledge is mind-blowing!

And then we have stuff like this-

• Talking about the day they found Captain America in the ice...

Tony: My single greatest memory of that day was examining his vitals and discovering the strongest heartbeat I have ever heard in my life. It was like a big bass drum. It was like it was the sound- like nothing could defeat it. Boom-boom-boom. I imagine this is what the heart of Genghis Khan must have sounded like.

:D (Oh, Tony! Giant man-crush is very obvious!)

• Talking about the whole Rick Jones as Bucky deal...

(Everyone including Steve, Rick, Jan, Hank think the whole thing was very weird)
Tony: The Rick/Bucky thing? No, I didn’t think it was weird. I like Rick. I understood the connection. It was someone he felt connected to.

*pfft* Really? ;d

• Talking about reassembling the team after Cap’s Kooky Quartet was very briefly disbanded...

Steve: You're talking to the man who believes in the Avengers ideal more than any man outside of Tony Stark.... [It was very difficult]... But I turned around and stayed with the team. I made a promise- I made a promise to hold it together until Iron Man and the others came back. I made a promise and I kept to it.

Awww... Steve... So cute... You promised Tony?

• Then there’s a very funny anecdote recounted by Hank, Tony and Steve about the time Tony ‘improved Captain America’s mighty shield’ and Steve didn't say anything because Tony had 'put in so much effort'!

Other interesting bits-

-- A whole 2 chapters about how Clint, Pietro and Wanda came to be Avengers. Completely brilliant characterization of the three and Tony.

-- Namor holds only two surface dwellers in equal regard - Captain America and... Victor von Doom!! Whoa! Seriously... what’s the story with those two (Doom & Namor), any idea?

-- Then, there’s a whole section about what Hydra and J. Jonah Jameson and The Mandarin and Count Nefaria and Dr. Doom have to say about the Avengers. Apart from the hilarious fact that Doom is the only one who doesn’t say anything negative about any Avenger, it seems that in-universe Tony is often centre of conspiracies as a ‘military industrialist monster dictator nightmare’.

-- You know all those early 60’s stories where the Avengers would be beaten and Rick Jones and the Teen Brigade would save the day? Yeah, apparently those really happened only *no-one* but Rick and the Teen Brigade remember them... So Rick keeps saying stuff like, “They don’t remember? I can’t believe they don’t remember!” *hahahaha* :D


I’m also curious about the time frame... There are references (one) to a secret invasion of Skrulls and Clint is alive but so is Jan. And Jan and Hank seem to be really really bitter exes right now. (I read their stuff, and it’s literally like ‘they’ think they’re talking into a vaccuum... As if no one is actually going to hear/read the stuff they’re saying... Wonder what’s with that...)
Anyway, so is this indication of Jan coming back soon? *hopeshopeshopes*

Also, can someone, who has read this feature tell me if the part featured in New Avengers #3 has 7 pages or 8, I'd be really grateful... Does it end with a art-page of The Masters of Evil or is there anything after that as well? 

Comments

[valtyr]

Oh, these sound adorable. D'aww at Tony waxing lyrical over Cap's heartbeat! He's such a fanboy. I do love how Tony is simultaneously a huge fan and a sincere friend to Steve.

Doom and Namor both have a somewhat... ambiguously moral approach, although Namor leans hero while Doom leans strongly villain. They're both monarchs with a high view of honour (defined on their terms), sense of duty and entitlement to their countries, and who fiercely defend their status. They get on as they understand each other, I think. During Dark Reign, Doom offered the Atlanteans asylum in Latveria... I'm not sure how that played out, actually, Doom was simultaneously engaging in shenanigans with Asgard.

[cosmicbiscuit.livejournal.com]

Bendis has had Hank and Jan more or less at each other's throats since he came onto the title to do Disassembled. Austen and McDuffie before him wrote Hank as a douchebag misogynist and Jan as a bitter abuse victim (which wasn't anything at all like the writers before them had characterized them), and he swung the pendulum the other way and made Hank a suffering soul who wanted to make it work and Jan a spiteful shrew (and occasional drunk, which, again, was something that had never happened before to my memory) who was looking for reasons to pick fights. His characterization of those two is a big reason I quit reading the oral history, because I hated it in the comics where Jan was alive and I didn't want more of it shoved on me as canon.

...Sorry, that came off way grouchier than I intended.

[jane-says.livejournal.com]

I'm really loving all of the Avengers Oral History stuff. It appeals to the history buff in me.

If anyone is interested I've compiled the chapters to date from the Avengers and the New Avengers titles including the art pages. It's "missing" chapter 10; as far as I've been able to tell there is no chapter 10 - numbering error or something.

http://www.whatjanesays.com/files/Avengers_Oral_History_-_to_date_Dec_1st.cbr

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

Steve and Tony's mutual fanboying throughout the oral history is super-adorable! Tony, in particular, manages to sneak in a mention of Steve's awesomeness no matter what the conversation is about. There was a great bit in one of the recent chapters where they're being interviewed about Black Panther, and Tony says lots of complimentary things about Panther, and then he's all "Hey, you know who else is awesome? Captain America!" It's just too cute.

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

The bit with Tony rhapsodizing about Steve's heartbeat goes beyond starry-eyed crush and into the edges of creepy borderline-stalker territory. Yet somehow it's still adorable.

I'm desperately torn over whether to acquire current Avengers stuff and read these, because on the one hand, I love it when Bendis writes Steve & Tony because the shippiness is so epic, but on the other hand, I hate it when Bendis writes Hank and Jan because his inexplicable total loathing of Jan makes him write both of them OOC, especially Jan. Poor Jan, guilty of the ultimate sin of being a pre-Disassembled Avenger with boobs (Wanda, Jan, Tigra, the attempted killing-off of Carol... She-Hulk's probably lucky she wasn't on the team line up during Secret Invasion/Dark Reign).

[dieewigenacht.livejournal.com]

Oh Look! I've found the one of the shield!

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l88v1eBXaN1qcfhrxo1_500.jpg