Marvel NOW! The Next Step

[jackolover]

So Marvel NOW? After reading that Avengers World is about bigger than global threats and going out from there, I want to speculate on what just happened here. You would think the MU would settle back down into the relatively mundane Heroic Age that we were used to since the Dark Reign ended, but was the AVX a catalyst for the phenomomen of Marvel NOW!? I ask this because as soon as AVX has ended, whatever traumas the mutants elicited, has pushed the Avengers, in particular, further than just settling into a stable sit and wait mode they were used too. There seems to be a more proactive feel to the franchises all around, and the Earth in particular is more invigorated than it has ever been before.

We have to remember the Avengers were in such a very bad place for such a long time and now that those shackles have been released, I think a new optimism has infected the Avengers so that they want to do more now that they have got their confidence back. They are confident in their world again, and as such, in 2012, (as distinct from 2004), this is an era similar to the eighties when the Avengers are all about rolling along at top speed, and being the premier team or teams, while this "modern" Avengers shows their stuff. This will flow onto the mutants and the FF and anything else that goes on in 2012 and 2013, so we'll see a more vibrant MU, hyped up on meth if you will.

The mutants were this focus right from Avengers Disassembled when Queen mutant, Wanda Maximoff started her anti-mutant thrust in the books, and this sort of had the backlash of Dark Reign, funnily enough. Take that away, with Children's Crudade making Wanda sane, and then restoring the mutants to their former glory with AVX, and all those reasons why the world is so bad have now gone. The poison has been removed if you will.

What do you think so far?

[jackolover]

So what have we learnt from the Scarlet Witch meltdown in Avengers # 500-503?

Never interfere in an Avengers psychosis - if she wants two children, let her have two children, no matter how delusional it seems? The world will be a better place if you do?

Can we say that some super hero issues can't be treated in the normal psychological way? That super heroes have special needs and that should be respected? I just wonder how Steve Rogers views that period in Avengers history and what he comes away with?

[klinton]

Never interfere in an Avengers psychosis - if she wants two children, let her have two children, no matter how delusional it seems? The world will be a better place if you do?

That's just a poor reading of the material. Comprehension failure, much?

I do realize that it's trendy to knock on Wanda, but she was not crazy of her own accord. What drove her mad (in story) was the insistence by everyone else that she had no children, that they weren't real....despite the fact that she (correctly) knew them to be so.

Dr. Strange himself monitered the pregnancy and performed the delivery. If there was something amiss, he would have noticed it.

There are more in story examples of this simple truth (like, say, the fact that the boys are very much alive) than of the notion that she was delusional.

[jackolover]

That's just a poor reading of the material. Comprehension failure, much?

I do realize that it's trendy to knock on Wanda, but she was not crazy of her own accord. What drove her mad (in story) was the insistence by everyone else that she had no children, that they weren't real....despite the fact that she (correctly) knew them to be so.

Dr. Strange himself monitered the pregnancy and performed the delivery. If there was something amiss, he would have noticed it.

There are more in story examples of this simple truth (like, say, the fact that the boys are very much alive) than of the notion that she was delusional.

Maybe you should have more reading comprehension.

I realize she did AD because she was crazy, but it was stated in the books that Agatha Harkness took that memory away. Dr Strange was happy that she had two children, so if he wasn't worried about her psychosis, why were the Avengers? Agatha should have been happy about the two children, and so should the Avengers.

[jackolover]

Secret War was a response to frustration with the standard procedure of the MU; to let changes occur the way they always did. It was a revolution because it changed the focus from the political level, down to the terrorist level , in that you couldn't handle terrorists politically, but you had to deal with them brutally. Terrorists were a challenge that gets in behind all the political structures, so to deal with them, you need a new way.

Fury saw terrorism as something he had to deal with another way. Previously, Fury had to deal with Hydra, AIM, and a variety of offshoots using political means. But after 911 caught everyone off guard, Fury realized people could get into the country via the back door, like Lucia Von Bardas did with the Tinkerer and Tech based villains, being used to make her attack.

Secret War was a template for not using the hammer like before, but using the arrow. If anything, SHIELD was the hammer still today, but what was needed was an unsanctioned body that infiltrated terrorists the same way they infiltrated America. That precipitated a struggle, because change was difficult. After Secret War, where Fury was seen as a traitor, the government looked for other traitors as well, and their eye fell on the super heroes, because they looked like terrorists, because buildings fell down and caused infrastructure damage.

The struggle was like the late 1960's marches of the civil rights movement. The super heroes were these inalienable rights that the government suddenly saw as illegal, and broke up their freedom to operate, hoping to pull them under their umbrella, and keep them quiet. As history has shown, the struggle ran it's course, and now those civil rights have been won.

But the Secret War was the beginning of the change. Before Secret War, the super heroes were unaffiliated, and though the UN recognized the Avengers as authorized, they still had autonomy as far as leadership structure and decision making. After that period of change, the government now has a very proactive role with the Avengers as far as consultancy, and there are 4 teams now, and one is anti terrorist, like Fury always wanted.

Avengers
NA
SA
Avengers Assemble

It's interesting that the TBolts will soon see a return to non-consultative super Heroing, where government is not associated with the super heroes activities. It is worth noting that to now operate in that way, is to attract a more independent and self contained group of individuals, who don't depend on societies support. Not many can deal with that, while the government is still bent towards consultitative association.

[klinton]

Maybe you should have more reading comprehension.

I realize she did AD because she was crazy, but it was stated in the books that Agatha Harkness took that memory away. Dr Strange was happy that she had two children, so if he wasn't worried about her psychosis, why were the Avengers? Agatha should have been happy about the two children, and so should the Avengers.

The children were taken by Mephisto. Agatha did what she did because Wanda was already under so much stress, with all that had gone on with Vision and then Immortus in recent weeks. The loss of her children was too much.

She came to terms with it all later, but this was ignored.

The in story reason for Wanda's breakdown was Janet's revealing to Wanda that she had tried to rais two children.

They were no mere hallucination on her part though. Again, proven by the fact that they are walking around now.

[jackolover]

The children were taken by Mephisto. Agatha did what she did because Wanda was already under so much stress, with all that had gone on with Vision and then Immortus in recent weeks. The loss of her children was too much.

She came to terms with it all later, but this was ignored.

The in story reason for Wanda's breakdown was Janet's revealing to Wanda that she had tried to rais two children.

They were no mere hallucination on her part though. Again, proven by the fact that they are walking around now.

Okay, maybe psychosis is a little too sensitive for you. Maybe that Wanda felt it necessary to 'make' two children in the first place was something that the Avengers should have left alone, and Agatha Harkness not try to suppress the fact she had them? It seems that for some reason Agatha thought it more humane to make Wanda lose that memory of her children, whereas in hindsight maybe she shouldn't?

Oh and by the way,if Wanda's children are so real, where are those two little 8 year olds from AD? Shouldn't they still be around if they are so real?

[Omega Alpha]

Speaking of that, who exactly had the idea that Wanda should have children, and what was the intended goal? It's hard to believe no one saw it would turn out to be a mess.

[jackolover]

Speaking of that, who exactly had the idea that Wanda should have children, and what was the intended goal? It's hard to believe no one saw it would turn out to be a mess.

after Agatha Harkness died, Wanda became infused with magic powers that made her pregnant with twins, whom she named Thomas and William. Wanda and Vision decided to retire as Avengers in order to raise their children.

This is a quote I found at comicvine. It seems it was nobodies idea, just that the magic made her pregnant? You have to speculate why would getting magic get her pregnant, and think, maybe the Chaos Magic was pretty strong, and it took her deepest desires and made them come true? If that was the case, then Wanda was intrinsically connected to the idea of having children and the inevitability of it. Inevitable because she was a witch and witches can make unlikely things happen.