# Avengers Disassembled: Place your bets! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217 "2004-07-09T03:05:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/1 "2004-07-09T03:05:48Z")
Which Avenger(s) is going down? My money is on Jan Van Dyne. But Hank survives. Who wants a piece of the action? ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/2 "2004-07-09T03:17:37Z")
You know, it’s been a long time since I even tried reading an Avengers book (except for the ESSENTIAL… I picked up earlier in the year), but I find it hard to see how anyone can care about this series. Every time they start a new arc, I flip through, trying to see if they’ve come up with something interesting, but man, I always come away especially disappointed. Although I hope Cap gets his ass kicked hard enough that he leaves the Avengers and tries to make his solo book worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/3 "2004-07-09T03:20:06Z")
An Avenger is going to die? Are they clearing roster space for Batroc Ze Leappair or something? ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/4 "2004-07-09T03:36:26Z")
Batroc? Ooh la la! ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/5 "2004-07-09T03:41:55Z")
Batroc? Ooh la la! ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/6 "2004-07-09T04:14:35Z")
Hank. Except for Kurt Busiek, no-one’s ever been able to give him a personality. And even Kurt’s wasn’t very likable. Then they’ll make Jan into a tough, scary, grim-n-gritty character who’ll dress in black with yellow trim. Tsk. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/7 "2004-07-09T16:49:26Z")
Haven’t they killed off Hank at least 12 times already? Well, at least once. Remember when they turned him into an insane wife-beater? Or I am just showing my age? Haven’t read an Avengers in 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/8 "2004-07-09T17:05:06Z")
It’s been so long, I’m not even sure who’s on the Avengers anymore. Plus, is there still a West Coast branch? ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/9 "2004-07-09T17:07:26Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Haven’t they killed off Hank at least 12 times already? Well, at least once. > > Remember when they turned him into an insane wife-beater? Or I am just showing my age? > > Haven’t read an Avengers in 20 years. I don’t recall Hank ever dieing, just retiring, switching identities and kind of being the disgrace of the super-hero set. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/10 "2004-07-09T17:08:28Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > It’s been so long, I’m not even sure who’s on the Avengers anymore. Plus, is there still a West Coast branch? Nope, not for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/11 "2004-07-09T18:30:14Z")
Who’s on the current roster now, anyway? I’m another one who hasn’t read in a while…the last thing I read was Operation Galactic Storm, but my heyday was back in the days of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hank Pym and Wasp, and always rounded out by some random characters- Hawkeye, Falcon, Spider-Man, Hulk, etc. oh, well… ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/12 "2004-07-09T19:52:18Z")
It doesn’t matter which of the Avengers dies. 'Cuz whoever it is, they will simply be “miraculously ressurected” by a new writer a year or two down the road. Iron-Man, Thor, Vision, Wonder Man, Black Knight, the Swordsman - all have been “killed off” - and yet they all came back. And then there was that time that “Korvac the Enemy” laid waste to just about everyone who was ever an Avenger (up until that point in time) in the space of one issue. They all got better. It’s that type of the thing that finally made me give up reading comics lo many years ago - about the time that Jean Grey (one of the few major characters to be definitively killed) turned out to be alive after all. For the record, Hank was among the 23 or so Avengers snuffed by Korvac, only to be brought back to life on the last page. Also, in the first appearance of Yellowjacket, he shows up at Avengers’ Mansion claiming to be an entirely different person, and claiming to have killed Hank off. Of course, it is ultimately revealed that Yellowjacket is indeed Hank Pym in the midst of a fugue state. So that’s two intances in which Hank Pym was supposedly “killed.” Once for real, and once was a hoax. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/13 "2004-07-09T20:40:31Z")
Oh, Hank’s going down, big time. If he lives, he’s just a mess no writer knows what to do with. But if he dies heroically, Jan, Hawkeye and Tony (“Don’t you have a wife to go beat or something?”) will feel really, really guilty. According to an interview on Newsarama, Bendis was surprised by who–and how many–among the Avengers the editors are going to let him kill. The book’s been nigh unreadable since Busiek left. Maybe this is what it needs. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/14 "2004-07-09T21:48:11Z")
Quesada’s new mantra is “Dead means Dead.” For what it’s worth. Also, I my crystal ball tells me that Ant Man II (Scott Lang) will be amongst the first to eat it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/15 "2004-07-09T21:56:10Z")
> [@Hey you!](#): > > Quesada’s new mantra is “Dead means Dead.” For what it’s worth. > > Also, I my crystal ball tells me that Ant Man II (Scott Lang) will be amongst the first to eat it. 😃 “Crystal ball”? Hell, just look at the [preview…](http://www.newsarama.com/pages/Marvel/Avengers_500/Avengers5001.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/16 "2004-07-10T03:03:48Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Remember when they turned him into an insane wife-beater? Or I am just showing my age? In THE ULTIMATES? Like last year? ---
**Author:** ![JDeMobray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@JDeMobray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JDeMobray)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/17 "2004-07-10T03:33:47Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > In THE ULTIMATES? Like last year? I’m hoping here that your post just needs smilies. Otherwise I will feel old, too. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/18 "2004-07-10T03:52:46Z")
And in another thread about the FF movie, someone described Sue Storn as a “soccer mom” type. Does no one remember the 60s! My first Marvel was FF #8. (Or possibly Spiderman #1. Both were in 1962.) The insane, wife-beater plot device was first used I think in the 1970s, although it could have been the early 80s. I don’t even know what the Ultimates are. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Beauty\_Personified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Beauty\_Personified](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beauty_Personified)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/19 "2004-07-12T19:00:45Z")
> [@Hey you!](#): > > … my crystal ball tells me that Ant Man II (Scott Lang) will be amongst the first to eat it. 😃 For some reason, I thought Scott Lang had already died in the pages of _Alias_. Anyhoo… ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217/20 "2004-07-17T21:09:23Z")
Marvel has a [page](http://marvel.com/publishing/stories/whosnext.htm) (slightly tongue-in-cheek) that lets you track the casualties. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avengers-disassembled-place-your-bets/254217.md?page=2)