Avengerous Tales 2.42 - Avengers #150-#151

To read Avengerous Tales 2.41, go here!

Let’s just hope that the 150^th issue is more exciting than the 100^th.  Well, it certainly can’t be worse than the 200^th! 

So we begin as Wasp and Yellowjacket finally leave the hospital and return the Mansion, where a herd of reporters and civilians stands outside, breathlessly awaiting the Avengers’ decision as to who they will welcome into their ranks.  Jarvis saves them from the people flood and leads them to the meeting room.

You mean Jan is still a selfish a-hole who only thinks about what she wants instead of what’s best for her husband?  Why yes, yes it is like old times.

The other Avengers greet them warmly, and then the meeting is underway.  Thor even remarks that they had to delay the meeting for “personal matters,” which apparently translates to Iron Man wanting to make himself a decent mask.  Glory, glory hallelujah!  This issue is shaping up to be better than the Issue 100 already!  No more Iron Nose!

But there’ll be no more Thor either.

Long story short, Thor feels like he’s stuck with the Avengers this long only because they made him feel manly, but they don’t actually need him so now he’s cutting out.  Moondragon says nothing, but the others, while sad about Thor leaving, respect his decision as Thor appoints Iron Man interim chairman.

And that’s about it for now.  If that seems short, it’s because it was—most of the issue wasn’t really an issue but rather reprints (framed as flashbacks) to Avengers #1 and Avengers #16, which I’ve already reviewed.  Happy 150^th, everybody!!!

Okay, so obviously the story picks up next issue, but this seems like rather poor planning.  Given the momentous stuff that’s about to go down, I think Issue 152 should have been Issue 150.  I guess the interlude issues (145-146) threw everyone off their schedule.

Whatever.  What about the rest of the Avengers?  Cap?  You sticking around?

D’awww.

The Scarlet Witch demands to know whatever happened to baby Clint, who she refers to as “my ‘old buddy’” in an obvious callback to Iron Man’s line two panels ago.  I’m not real sure why she considers Hawkeye a friend, considering how horrible he’s been to her over the years.  Apparently she’s very forgiving.

While this is happening, we cut to a mystery man’s apartment elsewhere in New York.  He’s really upset about something—something about his son—when he hears the news report about how Scarlet Witch may or may not be leaving the Avengers shortly.  This makes him even more upset for reasons we’ll get to eventually.

But for now, back to the Avengers.  Thor explains that Hawkeye is out brokebacking it up with the Two-Gun Kid—and you’d think the presence of a 19^th century cowboy in 20^th century America would warrant a bigger reaction, but I guess they’ve seen weirder things—and Vision and the Scarlet Witch both agree to stay with the team.

Wasp, as we’ve seen, is eager to rejoin and does so even before they directly ask her.  As they speak, some guy on the news is talking about Wasp’s history with the Avengers, and this report is seen by yet another mystery man who is still angry about being spurned by her ages ago.

Given what I recall of the Avengers' history, I have a pretty good guess as to who this light-themed villains is, but I haven't read that far ahead yet so we'll just have to wait and see.  After all, we still haven’t heard whether or not Yellowjacket is rejoining the team, and the answer to that is no.  He says he just wants to be a scientist from now on and leaves the meeting.

We then get another interlude for the news reporter, who tells us about the sundry other Avengers who’ve come and gone.  Two of them, Black Widow and Hercules, are now on a team of Los Angeles-based heroes called the Champions.  Like everyone else in the world, they too are captivated by the coverage of what the new Avengers line-up will be.

Whose bright idea was it to put Iceman on a team with Ghost Rider, a.k.a. the guy with flames for a head?  One wrong move in battle and Iceman’s a puddle in the street.

Back with the Avengers, Jan is her usual loving and understanding self.

And I thought Moondragon was insufferable.  Speaking of Moondragon, she too declines membership, thank goodness.  Beast, on the other hand, is more than willing to join, and Hellcat would have too if Moondragon hadn’t insisted—and I do mean INSISTED—that she needs more training first.  Moondragon of course benevolently offers to train her, but given her mental powers, I’m really wondering if Moondragon didn’t force Hellcat into coming with her.

Now granted, I do agree that Hellcat is still a newbie and still needs a lot of training.  But the Avengers were more than happy to let Rick Jones tag along, and he’d only been given a little physical training by Captain America.  I’m sure the Avengers could have taken her under their wing in a similar way, but thanks to Moondragon being a pushy controlling douchecanoe, we’ll never know.

But never fear, there’s still one more Avenger to be inducted...

While we’re on the subject of pushy controlling douchecanoes...

I really want to believe Hank came to this decision on his own and is rejoining the team because he “can’t get avenging out of [his] blood” like he said.  But given how nasty Jan has been about this whole thing, I can’t help wondering how much of his change of heart came about because he genuinely wants to be an Avenger, and how much was because he was afraid of what Jan would do or say to him if he didn’t give her what she wanted.

So that’s our official roster: Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Beast and Vision.  Yellowjacket and all the others are put on a special reserve status, meaning they’re only called up in times of true need.

Now you’d think that’d be the end of the issue.  Iron Man goes out to the crowd and announces the new roster, they all yell “Avengers Assemble!” and everyone avenges happily ever after.  But what’s this?  A large mysterious crate has been delivered to Avengers Mansion?  What could possibly be inside???

Not a dream!  Not a hoax!  Not an imaginary story!  Tune in to our next Avengerous Tale to see what the blazes is going on here!

As anniversary issues go, this one was... okay?  I mean, important stuff was happening, but like I said, this all felt too red-tapey and bureaucratic to be a real anniversary special.  At least Issue 100 eventually got around to having a big battle royale, even if it took them way too long to build up to it.  Here, all we got is flashbacks and yapping.

To read Avengerous Tales 2.43, go here!

Images from Avengers #150 and Avengers #151