Previous Post Hey folks..... For years I've heard that the Avengers, weren't the Avengers of old....that these Bendis Avengers were an All Star team...but without the heart of the past. I will agree with that to a point....but I've enjoyed the progression of the Avengers with Bendis. It's nice to have Spidey on the team. Luke Cage has surprised me with how much I like him. Wolverine is admitted extraneous, and stretched thin timewise....but I don't mind. I do enjoy the classic runs of the past. Shooter/Perez, Stern/Buscema, Busiek/Perez,Davis,Dwyer.....but I'm glad for Bendis bring the Avengers to the forefront of the Marvel Universe. Like it or not, Bendis saved the Avengers from being a 2nd tier title for some time to come at least. My favorite storyline was the Hood's saga. Thought that was very interesting. I am however tired of Osborn and his Hammer friends. Looking forward to the future!

I think you can look at Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes to see how the book should be written. The Avengers should be a team, not an abstract concept that it seems to be now. Who are The Avengers? Who qualifies? Even though I become a reader during the New Avengers time, I wish that I would have come in sooner. I would love to be getting shorter story arcs, with larger over-arching subplots being intertwined in between. I think Spider-man and Avengers Academy are currently being written fantastically. One author, multiple artists , in order to get the book out more than once a month. It has gotten to the point to where big events are ruining the flow of the book. Instead of the Avengers being about character interactions, and treating the team as a family, the book is just a showcase of whatever villian they want to use, when they even have a villian. Lets look at the first 26 issues of this run.

1-6 = ultron. totally forgettable story with no character moments or even a memorable final battle with the villian.

7-12 = hood/infinity gems. too many characters and nobody got any focus or attention that they deserved. this story had a lot of potential, and couldve changed some status quo around, but instead, the hood goes back to jail, the gems go back to being hidden, and cap takes black bolts place in the illuminati.

13-17 = fear itself. bunch of single issues stories, which can be great if entertaining, but these were not. Perhaps if they had not been shoe-horned into the event, then maybe they could have been good, but with the whole talking heads gimmick, and the unclear continuity, these issues felt incredibly boring.

18-23 = osborn round 9. I liked this story, and this actually seemed like a story where many different subplots came together and there was a satisfying conclusion. The problem is that all these sub-plots were happening in New Avengers, so for those of us who only read the main title didn't have those to build off on. I would actually consider this the best arc of the current run.

24-present = phoenix. once again the main title is forced to deal with these big events. These are some of the worst issues Ive ever read for the avengers. Not only is book about a completely different team, who has its own book, this book completely ignores everything going on in the teams main title. Even if this lack of continuity wasnt there, this story feels rushed and sloppy, and ill-thought out. It seemes like Bendis wanted something to happen in the end, and didnt really care how he got there