Wednesday Reading Meme
It's the screaming-about-comics special Wednesday meme edition.
What I Just Finished Reading
Nothing, actually, as I am still trying to finish writing this fic.
What I'm Reading Now
As you may have guessed, today was the END OF HICKMAN'S AVENGERS RUN. I have a lot of feelings. I have been screaming about them on Tumblr.
Obviously I had my hopes up. It's the culmination of a three-year run and, though I have only been reading in real-time for the last year of it, I have enjoyed it highly. It's been a sprawling, epic multiversal saga of bad decisions, no-win scenarios, the death of the universe, and also Tony and Steve having an equally-epic breakup because Tony wiped Steve's mind so he wouldn't remember the part about the impending death of the universe.
I was hoping for a good ending where everything was resolved satisfactorily. I knew that there wouldn't be plot closure on the death of the multiverse thing because we're heading into Secret Wars next, where the remaining inhabitants of the multiverse unite and punch each other in the face, because comics. I was okay with dangling plot threads there. But what I wanted was emotional closure on the Steve/Tony relationship, which has been set up literally from Hickman's Avengers #1 as being pretty much the key character arc. "It started with two men." "One was life. One was death." And so on. And, see, I thought I could get closure on that, because that doesn't seem like something that needs to be part of Secret Wars.
Nope.
Okay, so first off Hickman said we would get a resolution in A44 to the "secret meeting" that Tony alluded to having with Steve. We would get to see it. We would read it and understand why they were at odds. He promised. Tony said it left them both "haunted." Steve has spent the entire run since the mindwipe obsessively focused on Tony, and how he can't trust Tony, and how Tony hurt him, and he dreams that Tony was laughing at him all along and thinking he was stupid. So I figured that what we would get was something like that. Steve and Tony would meet and they would have a bitter sad angry reunion because Steve cannot forgive Tony over the betrayal and Tony cannot apologize and they would reaffirm how they were never ever getting back together. This is where that character arc ought to have been going, right?
So I opened up Avengers 44.
(Actually, that's a lie. I opened up New Avengers 33 first, and that was actually... kind of fun, in a trippy multiverse tour way. Still not an ending, though. But the art was better than Avengers!)
And Avengers 44 begins with the secret meeting. Steve and Tony meet at a diner, and they're actually starting to get along, talk about the good old days -- and the waitress comes to take their order. Tamara. Captain Universe. Who then goes all Captain Universe on them and rages, and tells them -- this is apparently the big secret, the thing Steve could not forgive -- that the universe is dying and Tony knew that from the beginning and he lied by daring to hope that it could be otherwise.
And I just... what.
This makes no sense. None at all.
As a motivating factor for why Steve can no longer trust Tony -- it's not new information. We have known that everything dies since literally the beginning of New Avengers. Steve has known this. Okay, so he forgot it for a while, but he knew that the universe was going to die before Tamara told them. I mean, what did he think the Illuminati were doing?
Also, it makes no sense that he hates Tony for having hope. I mean, what does he want Tony to say? "I'm sorry I lied and pretended that we still had a chance. The last time I thought we were sixty seconds from the Earth dying in an incursion I tried to blow my face off with my own repulsor." He wants Tony to admit he lied, and, sure, he lied, but what is that going to do, exactly? How is knowing that going to help when the last other Earth in the multiverse is headed for them? And what's wrong with hope, exactly? Steve was the one who was like "we can find another way" before the Illuminati mindwiped him! It's not like he's not usually the optimist about these things!
It makes no sense. And there was no resolution! The secret meeting was interrupted!
And then, well, talk about no resolution for the rest of the issue...
Tony destroys the Shi'ar fleet that was going to destroy Earth. No one seems at all bothered or shocked by the vast amounts of death. I guess he's still inverted.
Then over on Ults (hi! remember Ults? the Cabal's there now!), Reed tells SHIELD (well, Fury and Clint) about incursions and they meet the Cabal and the last incursion begins and Ults SHIELD gets themselves armed and they prepare to go destroy that other Earth!
(To be honest, I think Ults SHIELD is severely outclassed by the resources of 616 Earth, as the Cabal tries to tell them. Ults is unprepared for anything approaching the usual 616 threat level -- I mean, Tony disbanded the Ultimates after they fought Galactus because both Steve and Thor died and there was pretty much no one left. And in 616, pfft, Squirrel Girl beat Galactus last week. But, OTOH, 616 Steve and Tony kind of need to be working together here to stop them, and they are punching each other in the face.)
Because, yes, that's what happens. Back on Earth 616 they're trying to build some kind of lifeboat and the incursion is imminent and Steve ditches the Illuminati to find Tony and punch him in the face and scream at him about how he needs to admit that he lied and his anger is basically through the roof and it just doesn't make any sense at all now. So there's punching and screaming ("I don't know you anymore and I don't want to! We're finished!") and Tony admits he lied and would do nothing differently and there's more punching and these are all interspersed with scenes from Avengers #1 and it would all be nice framing if the art weren't SO WRETCHED (it is SO UGLY and also they've given Tony brown eyes, damn them) and "it started with two men and one was life and one was death" and--
The issue ends with Steve and Tony continuing to punch each other in the face as a helicarrier falls toward them from above. THERE IS ONLY SECRET WARS, the last page says.
The end. The end of a three-year run. That's it.
Look, I was hoping for a good ending. I trusted Hickman. He told a good story. There were a lot of great plot threads and it looked like the payoff on everything was going to be amazing. I was also preparing myself for a bad ending. I thought, well, maybe they'll kill Tony and replace him with Ults Tony and I'll be sad. Something like that.
I never considered this option, which is that there would be NO ENDING WHATSOEVER.
This is literally "rocks fall, everyone about to die." There is absolutely no closure here. They just want me to read Secret Wars. And yeah, sure, I'm gonna read Secret Wars because that's apparently what we're calling what should have been the end of Hickmanvengers. This would have been a good issue if IT HADN'T BEEN THE LAST ONE. The Steve/Tony narrative arc is now "Tony betrays Steve, spends thirty issues hiding it from him. Steve hates Tony. Steve hates Tony more. They fight. And... that's it." That's... not an arc. The incursions plot has more resolution than that, because at least they've gotten to the last one.
I know, I know: tune in next week. Buy Secret Wars. Siiiiiigh.
Oh oh! And! In today's Superior Iron Man, which up until today I think I was the only person in fandom actually enjoying, evil Superior Tony basically needs a bunch of innocent human shields so he invites all of SF to his place for a party. Then he wakes up in bed with, like, four people, one of whom is a guy. I really, really did not want Tony the evil bisexual. Really no. I was hoping they wouldn't go there but, uh, I think they might be going there.
A disappointing Wednesday in comicsland.
What I'm Reading Next
Tears and sadness. *shakes fist* MARVEL.
Read this entry on Dreamwidth ||
comments
What I Just Finished Reading
Nothing, actually, as I am still trying to finish writing this fic.
What I'm Reading Now
As you may have guessed, today was the END OF HICKMAN'S AVENGERS RUN. I have a lot of feelings. I have been screaming about them on Tumblr.
Obviously I had my hopes up. It's the culmination of a three-year run and, though I have only been reading in real-time for the last year of it, I have enjoyed it highly. It's been a sprawling, epic multiversal saga of bad decisions, no-win scenarios, the death of the universe, and also Tony and Steve having an equally-epic breakup because Tony wiped Steve's mind so he wouldn't remember the part about the impending death of the universe.
I was hoping for a good ending where everything was resolved satisfactorily. I knew that there wouldn't be plot closure on the death of the multiverse thing because we're heading into Secret Wars next, where the remaining inhabitants of the multiverse unite and punch each other in the face, because comics. I was okay with dangling plot threads there. But what I wanted was emotional closure on the Steve/Tony relationship, which has been set up literally from Hickman's Avengers #1 as being pretty much the key character arc. "It started with two men." "One was life. One was death." And so on. And, see, I thought I could get closure on that, because that doesn't seem like something that needs to be part of Secret Wars.
Nope.
Okay, so first off Hickman said we would get a resolution in A44 to the "secret meeting" that Tony alluded to having with Steve. We would get to see it. We would read it and understand why they were at odds. He promised. Tony said it left them both "haunted." Steve has spent the entire run since the mindwipe obsessively focused on Tony, and how he can't trust Tony, and how Tony hurt him, and he dreams that Tony was laughing at him all along and thinking he was stupid. So I figured that what we would get was something like that. Steve and Tony would meet and they would have a bitter sad angry reunion because Steve cannot forgive Tony over the betrayal and Tony cannot apologize and they would reaffirm how they were never ever getting back together. This is where that character arc ought to have been going, right?
So I opened up Avengers 44.
(Actually, that's a lie. I opened up New Avengers 33 first, and that was actually... kind of fun, in a trippy multiverse tour way. Still not an ending, though. But the art was better than Avengers!)
And Avengers 44 begins with the secret meeting. Steve and Tony meet at a diner, and they're actually starting to get along, talk about the good old days -- and the waitress comes to take their order. Tamara. Captain Universe. Who then goes all Captain Universe on them and rages, and tells them -- this is apparently the big secret, the thing Steve could not forgive -- that the universe is dying and Tony knew that from the beginning and he lied by daring to hope that it could be otherwise.
And I just... what.
This makes no sense. None at all.
As a motivating factor for why Steve can no longer trust Tony -- it's not new information. We have known that everything dies since literally the beginning of New Avengers. Steve has known this. Okay, so he forgot it for a while, but he knew that the universe was going to die before Tamara told them. I mean, what did he think the Illuminati were doing?
Also, it makes no sense that he hates Tony for having hope. I mean, what does he want Tony to say? "I'm sorry I lied and pretended that we still had a chance. The last time I thought we were sixty seconds from the Earth dying in an incursion I tried to blow my face off with my own repulsor." He wants Tony to admit he lied, and, sure, he lied, but what is that going to do, exactly? How is knowing that going to help when the last other Earth in the multiverse is headed for them? And what's wrong with hope, exactly? Steve was the one who was like "we can find another way" before the Illuminati mindwiped him! It's not like he's not usually the optimist about these things!
It makes no sense. And there was no resolution! The secret meeting was interrupted!
And then, well, talk about no resolution for the rest of the issue...
Tony destroys the Shi'ar fleet that was going to destroy Earth. No one seems at all bothered or shocked by the vast amounts of death. I guess he's still inverted.
Then over on Ults (hi! remember Ults? the Cabal's there now!), Reed tells SHIELD (well, Fury and Clint) about incursions and they meet the Cabal and the last incursion begins and Ults SHIELD gets themselves armed and they prepare to go destroy that other Earth!
(To be honest, I think Ults SHIELD is severely outclassed by the resources of 616 Earth, as the Cabal tries to tell them. Ults is unprepared for anything approaching the usual 616 threat level -- I mean, Tony disbanded the Ultimates after they fought Galactus because both Steve and Thor died and there was pretty much no one left. And in 616, pfft, Squirrel Girl beat Galactus last week. But, OTOH, 616 Steve and Tony kind of need to be working together here to stop them, and they are punching each other in the face.)
Because, yes, that's what happens. Back on Earth 616 they're trying to build some kind of lifeboat and the incursion is imminent and Steve ditches the Illuminati to find Tony and punch him in the face and scream at him about how he needs to admit that he lied and his anger is basically through the roof and it just doesn't make any sense at all now. So there's punching and screaming ("I don't know you anymore and I don't want to! We're finished!") and Tony admits he lied and would do nothing differently and there's more punching and these are all interspersed with scenes from Avengers #1 and it would all be nice framing if the art weren't SO WRETCHED (it is SO UGLY and also they've given Tony brown eyes, damn them) and "it started with two men and one was life and one was death" and--
The issue ends with Steve and Tony continuing to punch each other in the face as a helicarrier falls toward them from above. THERE IS ONLY SECRET WARS, the last page says.
The end. The end of a three-year run. That's it.
Look, I was hoping for a good ending. I trusted Hickman. He told a good story. There were a lot of great plot threads and it looked like the payoff on everything was going to be amazing. I was also preparing myself for a bad ending. I thought, well, maybe they'll kill Tony and replace him with Ults Tony and I'll be sad. Something like that.
I never considered this option, which is that there would be NO ENDING WHATSOEVER.
This is literally "rocks fall, everyone about to die." There is absolutely no closure here. They just want me to read Secret Wars. And yeah, sure, I'm gonna read Secret Wars because that's apparently what we're calling what should have been the end of Hickmanvengers. This would have been a good issue if IT HADN'T BEEN THE LAST ONE. The Steve/Tony narrative arc is now "Tony betrays Steve, spends thirty issues hiding it from him. Steve hates Tony. Steve hates Tony more. They fight. And... that's it." That's... not an arc. The incursions plot has more resolution than that, because at least they've gotten to the last one.
I know, I know: tune in next week. Buy Secret Wars. Siiiiiigh.
Oh oh! And! In today's Superior Iron Man, which up until today I think I was the only person in fandom actually enjoying, evil Superior Tony basically needs a bunch of innocent human shields so he invites all of SF to his place for a party. Then he wakes up in bed with, like, four people, one of whom is a guy. I really, really did not want Tony the evil bisexual. Really no. I was hoping they wouldn't go there but, uh, I think they might be going there.
A disappointing Wednesday in comicsland.
What I'm Reading Next
Tears and sadness. *shakes fist* MARVEL.
Read this entry on Dreamwidth ||
comments