New Avengers #26 *Spoilers*

[Brian M.]

So we get Hawkeye basically waking up in NYC. He remembers it all, HoM, all of it. He goes to the Avengers mansion and arrows up his uniform to the wall.

He then proceeds to Dr. Stranges house. Strange tells him he can't find Wanda, its as if her magic has disappeared. Hawkeye goes on the rant that he needs to find her, needs to know why. Strange says try Wundgore Mt.

He ends up there and saves this woman's life from some guys. She's a single mother you see w/ two kids. Hawkeye faints and she takes him to her house. Through a quick discussion she asks him his name. He tells her Clint Burton. She replies that her name is Wanda Maximoff.

Hawkeye seems stunned, she didn't recognize him at all. She doesn't remember who she is, what she did or even what she did to him. He asks her if she here's what's going on in the news and she says she doesn't really keep up w/ the media.

So Hawkeye goes into a little exposition about how a friend told him to come here looking for someone and even if he found that someone he probably wouldn't get the answers he was looking for. Wanda tells him that he found her and he can be her hero.

Que to them making out then getting naked and doing it. Hawkeye gets up in the morning and leaves.
-----------------------------

Now I gave this a once over in my car outside the comic shop so hopefully I got it all correct but that's the gist of it.

We don't know yet if Wanda has her powers or not. She doesn't remember I don't think or if she does she's acting like she doesn't. Bendis was kinda vague on it all. The sex didn't really feel forced you kinda gotta read the issue I think, I don't believe I did a very good job conveying the emotion behind it all. All in all not a bad issue.

[anthony!]

Pretty good little story.

It begins with the end of House of M, after the world has returned to normal, from Clint's perspective. He visits Dr. Strange, who confirms for him that he is indeed alive in every sense. Despite Strange's urging that he contact the Avengers, Clint decides to search for Wanda Maximoff. Stephen has been unable to find Wanda either because she is no longer using her powers, no longer has them, or she might have killed herself. The good doctor doubts he will find either Wanda or any closure.

Clint searches at Wundagore mountain. After saving a mysterious woman from a town thief, she's revealed to be Wanda. Clint, either from the shock of seeing Wanda or the mountain air, faints and wakes up at Wanda's home. She knows her own name, but seems to have consciously forgotten everything else- I suppose giving herself something of a memory wipe. She currently believes her family to be gone, and lives with her "Aunt Agatha" (whom we never see). She doesn't remember her past with the Avengers, and doesn't really pay all that much attention to current events in the MU.

After a bit of a mushy-muddy conversation about letting go of abstract feelings, Wanda and Clint end up bumping uglies. I suppose thats in character for Clint (and Wanda, now)- but it was a bit predictable. The next morning (or five minutes later, who knows) Clint leaves behind a sleeping Wanda. He recalls her mention of "Aunt Agatha", who is supposed to be sleeping in the next room. He moves to open the door to see this Agatha person ( I safely would assume is a ressurrected or imaginary Agatha Harkness). Clint stops short of opening the door. Either realizing that its time to move on, or being creeped out that he just slept with a crazy, he leaves.

The end.

All in all a pretty good issue. VERY nice Maleev art. There's no sense that Clint (as Hawkeye or whatever) will rejoin the Avengers, but considering he's being reintroduced in the pages of New Avengers it would make sense that he eventually join the team. Maybe as a new Ronin? Hmmm....

[drinkblatzbeer]

liked it...and loved the art..

[Magneto Rocks]

So much for explaining what he's been doing this whole time and where he is during CW...

[Cayman]

Cool issue, and absolutely gorgeous to look at. It's a little frustrating that it'll probably be some time before it's actually continued though.

[Dark Traveller]

So is this a flashback?

[Haunt]

this would have been so much better as a silent issue.

[jmc247]

There's such a thing as character assassination. Then there's character beating with a sack full of doorknobs. Such is the fate of Wanda Maximoff.

There's two ramifications of this story that I want to discuss. The first is what's been done to Wanda. As my good friend Mr. Horse would say, "No, sir, I don't like it." I admit, I'm biased; "my" Wanda is the one from Kurt Busiek's run on Avengers, the strong, capable deputy leader who was driven to understand her powers in order to better understand herself, who wasn't afraid to call Captain America on letting his responsibilities slide, who was faced with numerous challenges and met them all head-on, who was very much the emotional center of the team.

That Wanda is emphatically not this Wanda. As Bendis would have us believe, that Wanda never really existed, but was just a projection to hide the real Wanda, who was obsessed with her dead children, couldn't control her powers, killed Agatha Harkness and animated her corpse to cover it up, and talks like a third-rate version of Buffy from Drusilla. In essence, Wanda has gone, with little rationale, from heroine to waif. 20 years of development wiped out because, well, it doesn't fit. The combination of lack of respect for others' work and apparent contempt for the character does not sit well with me at all.

Adding insult to injury, there's pretty much no way to salvage Wanda from this. Bendis has definitely outdone himself in terms of impact and permanence for this storyline; the way he's crafted the narrative, there's no undoing any of it, and no way to heal the damage done to Wanda's psyche. Scarlet Witch is done, and I can't help but feel a sense of loss.

http://talestomildlyastonish.blogspo...-your-own.html

This review of Avengers Disassembled/House of M I read last year was right on the money. Scarlet Witch has been destoryed and the writers aren't going to bring her back. Instead of trying to rehabilitate her character the writers are going to start the character over from scratch without memories and without her powers, basically as a empty shell of what she was.

[Sparda]

Good story to read as well. I'm still urging to see on who are gonna be the new members of New Avengers after civil war.

[Chris Thomas]

not a flashback btw

one question I have was --did he actually open the door and see something aweful. then realize that this situation is pretty messed up. the panel of his eyes/face after the panel with his hand on the doorknob implies to me that he is shocked/horrified by something (i.e. starttled) rather than 'contemplative' about what could be behind the door. (maybe tony stark, steve rogers and the vision were hiding in the closet.)

I guess we will never really know. or will we.

great issue. fascinating art.

[Haunt]

well here's hoping that there are a pack of wild dogs in the closet just waiting to eat that amnesic witch. this is what ant-man died for; a story about Clint Barton trying to resolve his issues by shagging his killer? know why she can't remember anything? Bendis can't explain his own story.

[Pyro]

The art was lovely but the story was short and unfulfilling I was kind of hoping for more than a shag with an amnesiac Wanda. It seemed to me that at the end, Clint burned his hand on the doorknob and that it somehow means that Wanda still has her powers. I could be way off but it wasn't too clear what happened there.

[Ventura]

I have not read this issue yet, but basically those who have are reporting that Wanda and Clint sleep together, even though he is aware that she does not remember him, her costumed identity, their past association, the Avengers, or anything she's done. I know she seems to be the initiator (based on the preview panels), but I'm a little surprised Clint would let this happen, given their friendship and his awareness of her mental state. (At least, I'm assuming he is aware). Well, I'll withhold moral judgment until I actually read it.

So after all these years, Clint gets to satisy his Wanda lust, only she doesn't know who he really is. I guess this could be considered a poignant or ironic dramatic development. Then he just leaves?...does he think she's happier as is, by herself, oblivious of her former life as an Avenger (as in HOM #8, when she's shown at the local market).

But as some others have said, it implies that tptb are trying to sweep the old Wanda under the carpet. I was hoping for some recognition or awareness of what she's done, but I guess that will come later. Probably much later.

Anyway, thanks for the synopses, everyone...can't wait to actually read this!! Based on the previews, the art is gorgeous, and their scenes together look hot.

[jmc247]

But as some others have said, it implies that tptb are trying to sweep the old Wanda under the carpet. I was hoping for some recognition or awareness of what she's done, but I guess that will come later. Probably much later.

The writers are probably going down the Joseph route of fixing the character by building it from the ground up and creating a new character that Bendis and company like. Maybe, five or more years from now old Scarlet Witch fans will bitch loud enough to force the writers to change her back and bring back her memory and old personality. Magneto had a big advantage in popularity and history that forced the writers to bring back Magneto and get rid of Joseph.

[Sean Whitmore]

So much for explaining what he's been doing this whole time and where he is during CW...

Of course it explains where he's been this whole time. He woke up after House of M, went to Strange, went to Genosha, then went to Wundagore. You think he did that all in a week?

As for explaining where he is during CW, no it didn't, but I didn't know it was supposed to.


SEAN