So, I am a relatively young comic book reader. I only started reading around, say, 2008. What I have known from the start, however, is that the Avengers is my favorite team in comics. I love everything about it. Unfortunately, I jumped in during Bendis's run, which I am not a fan of, but we aren't going to talk about that. I've always really loved the idea of the old school Avengers, and the way things used to be back during the first volume in the 70's and 80's, even though I haven't read much of it. I've read a lot of articles about the time period and the stories that came out of it, so largely I know what happened, but I want to physically experience it. So I've been collecting Avengers trades for the past few years. Currently I have all five volumes of Kurt Busiek's run, which I absolutely loved. I also have the first Masterworks volume, which collects the first ten issues of the original series, and I have the Korvac Saga, which I also loved. My problem now is, I don't know what to get next- do I go after the big stroylines that everyone says are must reads? Or do I start getting the masterworks collections and keep reading from the beginning to watch it all unfold? I've narrowed down what I want next to three options. The two big storylines I am most anxious to read are the Kree/Skrull War and the Celestial Madonna saga, both of which have been collected in trade and in the Masterwork collections. The other option I was considering was getting Avengers Masterworks volume 6, which is when two of my favorite Avengers, the Black Panther and the Vision, first show up, and it is the first appearance of Ultron.

So, any thoughts and/or advice?

When I first got into comics, one of the first books I got into was New X-Men: Academy X, and to this day it remains one of my favorites and the characters it introduced are some of my favorite X-characters. Sadly, ever since New X-Men ended my favorites have been getting progressively less and less screen time. So I got to thinking, what would be a way of getting these characters the attention they deserve? Here's what I came up with:

What if Prodigy reopened X-Factor Investigations in LA, inviting all his old friends from the Xavier Institute to join him? Don't get me wrong, All New X-Factor is my favorite X-book right now. I'm in no way proposing it should end. I would want the new book to be just called X-Factor, and ANXF and adjectiveless X-Factor can coexist peacefully. One of the trademarks of X-Factor has been its use of secondary X-characters, as well as its use of very odd combinations of characters, and using the Academy X kids accomplishes both of those things. It even makes sense from a character perspective; one of the major themes of Academy X was the kids losing faith in Xavier's ideals. I can really see them wanting to separate themselves from the X-Men but still wanting to help mutantkind.

So what do you think? Would you read it? With cast members like Prodigy, Surge, Anole, a repowered Wind Dancer, Pixie, Hellion, Mercury, Rockslide, Bling, Elixir, maybe Blindfold, Match, or X-23? Yes or no?

Hello viners! A long time ago I posted a blog about how I would restructure the Avengers, and just recently I published a blog about how I would restructure the X-Men. However, since my original post about the Avengers my ideas have changed vastly, so I'm going to go ahead and post my revised and updated version of how I would restructure the Avengers if I was given the opportunity.

The premise is pretty simple. Gigantic catastrophic event, changes the Marvel U forever, the Avengers disband. We go a month with no Avengers titles, then the franchise relaunches with Avengers #1. Set one year after the event that caused their disbanding, the five founding Avengers come together to decide the future of the organization. They decide that the world needs the Avengers more than ever and begin setting up the foundations for a new, global Avengers organization. Wasp is elected chairperson of the new organization due to Iron Man and Cap's ever present ideological differences. The founders then build the main team, with each except Wasp nominating two members who are then voted on. The main Avengers team, which is the base model for all the branches, consists of nine permanent members and three reserves for a twelve person cast. The reserves are there to fill in for the Big Three when they're busy with their solo adventures(which is often), and when the team needs extra firepower(also often). This group is based out of Avengers Tower is the team that deals with all the huge threats to the world/universe, and the main focus of events and what not. The team decided upon is: Captain America(field leader), Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man, Wasp(chairperson), Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Captain Universe, and Sunfire with reserves Justice, Spider Woman, and Monica Rambeau as Spectrum.

From there, the organization branches off into two other distinct teams, with a founding Avenger acting as a liaison. New Avengers, which would focus literally on new Avengers, are based on the West Coast and deal with more immediate threats that the main team can't handle while they're out universe-saving, as well as acting as a sort of proving ground for heroes who want to go to the next level. Giant Man would be their liaison. The team would initially be: Human Torch(co-chairperson), Shadowcat(co-chairperson), Iceman, Hulkling(who would eventually change his codename to Warbird and be elected the team's field leader), Wiccan(also getting a new codename), Hawkeye(Kate), Miss America, Hazmat, and Lightspeed(Julie Power) with Reptil, Karolina Dean, and Prodigy as reserves. The second branch is the Uncanny Avengers, with Thor as their liaison. Like the current series, this one brings together classic members of both the Avengers and the X-Men to help foster mutant-human relations. Their primary mission is to deal with any mutant-related problems/threats. The team would be: Beast(chairperson), Hawkeye(Clint), Polaris, Crystal, Northstar, Smasher, Storm(field leader), Blue Marvel, and Psylocke, with Quicksilver, Nightcrawler, and White Tiger as reserves.

A fourth series, Avengers World, would be launched next. This would be kind of an anthology series, much like the one that just started, featuring pretty much everyone who's ever been an Avenger. The focus would obviously be on characters not starring in any of the other Avengers titles, allowing me to use characters I love but couldn't work into the other three series. I really like the idea of a series about the reality of the Avengers being a global organization made up of a lot more than just three twelve person teams.

So those are my revised ideas about what direction I would take the Avengers in. Sorry for not including very much detail about story lines, but this post was getting kind of long. But please feel free to give me feed back in the comments and share your own ideas! Look out next week for my blog post all about what I would do with the Young Avengers!

Hi guys! It's been a very long time since I've posted. But a while back I made a post about what I would do given the chance to restructure the Avengers(which I have since heavily revised and updated and will presumably post in the near future). Anyway, that post got a good conversation going so I thought I would do it again with the X-Men. Basically, the gist is this is what I would want to do if Marvel asked me to reset the X-Franchise.. The slate is wiped clean and everything starts at #1. Disclaimer: These are my ideas. This is nothing that i'm saying should or will happen, it's just what I would do given the chance. Feel free to leave your opinion and share your ideas, but if you're going to be a jerk about it, please take your negativity elsewhere. So here's what I would do:

The premise of the reboot comes out of an event, during which the following occurs: the return of the real Jean Grey from the White Hot Room, in complete and total control of the Phoenix Force; Angel regaining all his former memories; the return of all the various time-travelling X-Men to their home timelines; and, ultimately, the death of Cyclops. Feeling he has failed Xavier as his successor, Wolverine quits the X-men indefinitely, leaving the team in the hands of Jean, who Logan believes to be the true heir to Professor X's legacy. Jean then sets out to reunite the two factions of X-men, bringing all of Cyclops' students who will come back to Westchester and the renamed Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. It is at this point that all X-titles would end until the franchise starts anew the next month.

We pick up a few months after the end of the preceding event with X-Men #1. Jean is now the headmistress of the Xavier Institute. This would be the flagship title of the new X-Franchise, and it is out of this book that any in-house events would occur, and it would be the staging ground for my eventual take on the X-Men space opera and/or time travel epic. This book would also focus primarily on the X-Men's internal conflicts. It's principal cast would be the original X-Men- Jean, Beast, Angel, and Iceman, and one of the primary story lines would be about the four of them trying to repair what might seem like irreparable damage done to their friendships, and doing their best as the founding X-Men to carry on Charles's legacy. The other principal story lines would feature Havok as he discovers that he has inherited Cyclops's powers since his death, spurring him to search through history and solve the mystery of the Summers bloodline; and we would see Hope return to the Institute, where she would then confront Jean for not reaching out to her and the two would eventually be forced to find out how exactly they are connected.

Following the first arc of X-Men, two sister titles would launch simultaneously, seeing Jean return the active X-men to a blue/gold team dynamic. Both teams would feature a mix of "classic" members and newer ones who were students from the Academy X days. These two titles would be Uncanny X-Men and Astonishing X-Men. One team each would be led by Storm and Nightcrawler. The Uncanny team's primary mission would be to locate and recruit emerging mutants across the globe for the Institute. Along the way, they would get involved in worldwide mutant-related incidents and threats. The first arc would probably deal with the re-emergence of Weapon X as they kidnap many of the young mutants the Uncanny team tries to help. The Astonishing team would follow the "X-Men as super heroes" mold, and it would be the public face of the organization, so it would probably feature the less controversial members of the X-Men. The Astonishing team's primary mission would be to increase public support for the X-Men and mutant kind as a whole by getting back into the super hero game in Manhattan. To be honest I have no idea who I would put onto these teams because I have too many options so please feel free to give suggestions!

The final series I have planned right now would be a new volume of New Mutants. This, much like the second volume of the title, would be about new mutants at the Institute. We would see the remnants of Generation Hope and the students from Cyclops's school be joined by a new cast of students, and it would see the return of the squad system. I want this series to be more light-hearted than its predecessor. Characters that would get carried over would probably be Oya, Genesis, maybe Indra, and some of Cylops's students(who I don't know very much about). They would again be mentored by senior X-men, with former students like Armor and Quentin Quire taking up teaching roles with the younger students. I think the main squad of students would be lead by Genesis, but other than him would consist of new characters. I go back and forth on who I want to mentor them. Kitty Pryde seems like a solid choice.

After that the franchise would branch out even more to include X-Force, X-Factor, and the like, but this is what I have for now. So don't be shy(but don't be mean!) and tell me what you think!

I bought volume 1 of Wonder Woman and loved it, and I want to support her series(because apparently any title, no matter how well written, is in danger of getting cancelled if it isn't Bat-or-Superman related), and I wanted to know if issue 20 is a good place to start? Is it the beginning of a new story arc, or should I buy a few back issues to catch up?

Hello all! I am really enjoying what Hickman is doing with Avengers/New Avengers, and I'm happy in general with how the Avengers franchise is being handled right now. But, being me, no matter how much I enjoy a series I can't help but think about how I would do it if I was the one writing; so, I thought i would share with you how I would restructure the Avengers organization if I were in charge, and invite you to do the same. Here's how my structure works:

The Avengers organization has four branches. Each branch starts out with nine core members, with three reserves. The organization is based around the five founders(with Cap, not Hulk), and each ancillary team has a founder on it as an adviser. The four teams are as follows-

The Avengers: based out of Avengers Tower in NYC, I would have a more classic feel to their story. I think it's a time when the classic Avengers, the best of the best, the ones who have the experience in the field and who know what it takes to be one of Earth's Mightiest. The team consists of Captain America as the leader/chairman of the entire organization, Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Carol as Captain Marvel, and Vision, with reserves Black Widow, Hyperion, and Smasher. This team is the big gun of the organization, handling world and potentially universe-ending threats, and serving as galactic ambassadors on Earth's behalf for interstellar conflicts. Later storylines would see a resurrected Jean Grey join the team as Phoenix, Iron Man leave to join the Guardians of the Galaxy and be replaced by Phyla-Vell, who retakes the mantle of Quasar, and a heroic iteration of Kang, calling himself Kang the Liberator, join to help stop an attempted takeover by Kang the Conqueror

The New Avengers: based on the West Coast in the WCA Compound, this team would be literally for "new Avengers"- heroes who either have never been Avengers before but are ready to step up to the plate, or for those who have been inactive for a while to regain their footing. They would be responsible for defending the west coast, and for defending all of America when the main team is away. The team would be lead by Justice, with Wasp serving as the founding adviser, and also consist of Songbird, Human Torch, Iceman, Shadowcat, Wiccan, Chimera(Teddy's new alias- in Heinberg's original draft of Young Avengers, he was supposed to take up that mantle after issue 6, but never did, so I decided to resurrect the idea), and Kate as Hawkeye, with reserve members Firestar, Rage, and Sandman

Uncanny Avengers- I am definitely a fan of this concept. Based out of Avengers Mansion in NYC, this team brings together the best of the best Avengers and X-men in one unit. They deal with mutant-related issues, as well as human-mutant conflicts. The team is made up of X-Men Havok, Storm, Rogue, and Colossus, and Avengers Giant Man, Photon, Wonderman, and Quicksilver, plus Beast, representing both sides, with reserves Nightcrawler, She-Hulk, and Tigra. The team would be lead by either Havok or Beast. Havok because I like the idea of him stepping up and leading the mutant population now that Cyke is cray-cray, or Beast because he has served long tenures with both teams, and he was chosen by Prof. X to take his place with the Iluminati

International Avengers: I'll probably come up with a better name, but this is a team of international heroes dedicated to protecting the Earth as a whole. They would deal with terrorist organizations/dictators, as well as helping the main team with world-ending threats. I'm not sure where they would be stationed... maybe in DC. I'm not sure of I want to go all "watchtower" with it or not... anyway, the team is lead by Black Panther, plus Captain America as the adviser, with Black Knight, Northstar, Darkstar(Russia), Sunfire(Japan), Radioactive Man(China), El Muerto(Mexico), and Arabian Knight(Iraq), with reserve members Lionheart, Ursa Major(Russia), and Silverclaw(South America)

So that'show I would restructure the Avengers if I ever got the chance. I'd love to hear how you guys would do it. There are no guidelines for making your teams, so don't feel the need to use mine as a model, do whatever you want!

Hello everyone! I haven't been reading Avengers Arena because I only have so much money, but everything I've heard about it has either been really good or really bad, which lead me to believe it's good, because good writing is one that elicits a reaction whether it be good or bad. What I'm really interested is the direction Hopeless is taking Hazmat. She was my favorite character in Avengers Academy, and I think it's appropriate that she is one of the last ones standing at the end after Mettle sacrificed himself for her. So here's where I think Hopeless might take the book in the second or third arc:

Based on the newest solicits, we know that at least Hazmat, X-23, Darkhawk, and I think Nico are going to make it to issue seven. There is also speculation that Arcade's Murderworld is really just a virtual reality and that everyone is still alive. So, with that information in mind, I figure by the second or third arc the Arena is over. The arc opens with Hazmat, the focal point for the arc, having a nightmare about the events of Murderworld. She wakes up and, through internal monologue, we learn that the "final four" (Hazmat, X-23, Darkhawk, and Nico), managed to escape Arcade's VR Murderworld. 6 months to a year later, and Hazmat, still inspired by Mettle's sacrifice, has become one of the best and most popular of the newest wave of Avengers recruits. However, there is one thing that has been bothering her all this time: if the four of them managed to survive, where were the others? Taking matters into her own hands, Hazmat brings the four survivors together again for the first time since the Arena, and sets out to lead this new squad of "Avengers" in the search for the missing victims of the Arena. Thoughts?

Hello! I haven't posted in a bit, so I'd thought I might share some ideas with you. I don't know about you guys, but I am SO HAPPY that the Young Avengers are getting their own ongoing again next month. Thank God for Marvel NOW. And to be honest, I'm pretty happy with the cast. I appreciate that Gillen is respecting Heinberg's work by not trying to force Patriot back onto the team. I'm very interested in what he's going to do with the team, and how the inclusion of Noh Varr and Loki will affect the dynamic. Mostly I think it's going to be awesome! But what I'm really looking forward to is when Gillen eventually expands the team to include more members. So, because I'm too impatient to wait for Gillen's run to start, I thought I'd speculate a bit on who he's likely to add/who I would like him to add. Here goes:

1. Shuri, the second Black Panther. The original concept of the YA was that they were all connected somehow to classic Avengers, and you don't get much more classic than BP. Shuri is a proven hero, having taken over as the Black Panther for her brother. She proved herself worthy to the Panther god, and I think she would bring an interesting perspective to the team after everything she went through in Wakanda.

2. Spider-Girl. One of the newer young heroes, relatively speaking. I think we've all accepted the fact that Spider Man is a permanent fixture in the Avengers for the time being, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not only would Anya be a good member because of her connection to the various Spider-people who have been Avengers, I think she would bring a youthfulness that the team could use.

3. X-23. Unfortunately, thanks to Bendis and Hugh Jackman, we can't seem to get the Avengers without Wolverine these days. The only good thing about that is that it makes X-23 eligible for the Young Avengers. I may not like Wolverine, but I really like X-23, and I always thought she fit better here than in Avengers Academy. I know she's stuck in Avengers Arena right now, but if she survives I would like to see her work her over to the YA. I definitely think she would cause some tension, and that's always fun.

4. Power Man. A character introduced in Shadowland, but who really hasn't been seen since Fear Itself. His connections to both Luke Cage and Iron Fist, his powers, and his personality would all make him an interesting addition. He already showed that he doesn't have any respect for Luke or Danny, so I'd love to see how he would interact with Noh-Varr. Plus he's a powerhouse. And besides that, he's an interesting character who deserves to go somewhere, and I think this would be a good place for him.

5. Phobos, son of the Mighty Avengers powerhouse Ares. I love both Alexander and his dad, and I think it's a shame they're both dead. Alexander was a great addition to Secret Warriors, and I think he'd be a good addition to Young Avengers as well. And sure, the YA already has Loki, but they have different powers; and besides, the real Avengers had Thor and Hercules as members as the same time, so why can't the Young Avengers have two gods?

6. Kevin Masterson, the second Thunderstrike. Since Wiccan left the Asgardian identity behind and learned more about his magic abilities, he has turned from the Young Avenger's Thor into the Young Avenger's Scarlet Witch, leaving a hole for a new "Thor". I've seen a lot of people suggesting Thor Girl, but because his father Eric was an Avenger, even being Thor for a time, based on the Young Avenger's concept, I think Kevin has a better claim to the team. Also, like X-23, I think Kevin would do better here than he was doing as a background character in Avengers Academy. Plus, his attitude problems would definitely cause some tension in the team, especially if you put him in the same room with Power Man.

So, that's who I'd like to see Gillen bring in on his Young Avengers run. Obviously he probably won't add that many new characters anytime soon, and some of them he probably can't use. But hopefully this is the start of a long run for the Young Avengers, and eventually, we can get to see all these characters come and go. So what do you guys think? Anybody I didn't mention that you'd like to see get brought in?

I have some thoughts I would like to share about the direction Marvel has chosen to take Cyclops in recently. Cyclops was once one of my favorite X-men. To my younger self, Cyclops was the epitome of leadership. He was someone that I aspired to be like. Unfortunately, ever since Messiah Complex, Marvel has been progressively turning Cyclops into more and more of a complete and utter douche bag He was supposed to be the heir to Professor Xavier's legacy, but now it seems as though he has become more of Magneto's protege, and it disappoints me. I find it deplorable that Cyclops isn't still in prison. Possessed by the Phoenix Force or not, he did some messed up stuff during AvX. He murdered Professor Xavier, one of the foremost leaders of the mutant race, in cold blood. What kind of message does it send that he's already out of prison? Yes, I know comic book readers are mostly adults, but younger kids do read these books and they do look to superheroes as a moral compass and I think it sends the complete wrong message to them that Cyclops isn't being punished for his actions. Most of you probably know this, but during the original Phoenix/Dark Phoenix saga, the original ending of the story involved Jean being permanently depowered and going home with the X-Men. Upon seeing this, and upon learning that Jean destroys an inhabited star system, Jim Shooter, who was on the editorial staff, found the ending unacceptable from a storytelling standpoint and from a moral standpoint. He and X-Men writer Chris Claremont had a heated debate over the story and the repercussions of Jean's actions, which lead to them agreeing to break an in-house rule at Marvel that said main characters were not to be killed off permanently. So the ending to the story was changed so that Jean committed suicide due to her actions, and she was supposed to be dead permanently. Obviously this did not stick, only because up and coming writer Kurt Busiek thought of a way to bring Jean back while also absolving her of the atrocities she committed as the Phoenix. Should we not hold Cyclops to the same standard? Clearly he shouldn't have to commit suicide, as he only killed one man, not an entire galaxy. But why is it acceptable now for him to not be imprisoned, when thirty years ago, when the Phoenix was first introduced, it was not acceptable for Jean to even be alive after what she had done? Does it have to do more with the characters involved, the circumstances, or maybe even the gender of the "villain"? Or is it simply an unfortunate result of the desensitizing of the American people? It doesn't really even make sense from a storytelling standpoint. With the five original X-men coming to the present day in New X-Men, there will be an active Cyclops out there anyway, so is it really so unreasonable to expect Cyclops to suffer the consequences of his actions?

So today I was reading through all the released issues of Earth 2, and a thought occurred to me. Just out of curiosity, am I the only one that thinks Earth 2 Wonder Woman got a much better costume than the main earth WW did?