Brian Michael Bendis is leaving the Avengers franchise after so many years at the helm.
Being an X-Men fan in the past, I fell in love with Bendis' New Avengers (and Disassembled, which was necessary for the scribe to restart the franchise on a clean slate back then).
Wolverine, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, The Sentry, Jessica Jones, Ronin as members of the then-New Avengers? Very cool.
However, as much as I despise Bendis' decompression style of storytelling, I collected New Avengers monthly. I had also jumped on board for his House of M and Secret Invasion, even Secret War and The Illuminati. And Mighty Avengers too.
But I was so disappointed with Secret Invasion that I decided to stop supporting New Avengers post-Secret Invasion even though I was intrigued by his Dark Avengers idea (but to me, Warren Ellis' Thunderbolts was/is the Dark Avengers. Go read it if you haven't done so). Nevertheless, I purchased the Dark Avengers Omnibus when it came out. Yes, I loved it. Not as good as Ellis' highly recommended Thunderbolts run but at least both were illustrated by fan favorite artist, Mike Deodato Jr. Got Siege as it's only four issues.
Anyway, I did not spend my hard earned Ringgit on Heroic Age Avengers. Bought and read the Point One issue, and I'm looking forward to the Ultron War storyline (actually, it's more for Bryan Hitch's art but I'm sure and hope that Bendis will try to end things with a Big Bang).
He's launching Avengers Assembled with art by Mark Bagley. It's targeted at fans of the Avengers film series and will feature characters such as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye and familiar ones from the movies.
There'll be an Avengers vs X-Men 12-part bi-weekly series starting in April, co-written by Marvel's Architect writers -- Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction -- and drawn by big name artists Frank Cho, John Romita, Jr., Olivier Coipel and Adam Kubert.
I'm not sure if I'm going to be on board. The House of Ideas seem to be running out of good, solid ideas. And they seem to be pitching comics to Hollywood. Gone are the days when you could read and enjoy stories without having to endure the death of an iconic character, only to have him or her re-appear again some months later (the "deaths" of Thor, Bucky Barnes and Johnny Storm in Fear Itself and Fantastic Four are some recent examples of bad gimmicks employed by the House of Bankrupted Ideas).
ben you sure house of idea hardcore fan....for me still stick to the ultimates series...mainstream only for hulk...have you read new DC?