Why they kept going to #102 is beyond me. They should have just done a big issue #100 send0ff.
For this final story they brought in relative newcomers to Marvel Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, and we actually got a good comic out of it–it’s a prelude to the replacement series, Force Works, which will be an Abnett and Lanning production.
It’s an “all talk” issue, with the members debating whether to shut down the West Coast branch. And of course, when superheroes talk, they punch each other.
After Bobbi’s death, Captain America comes to the West Coast to yell at them for being so incompetent as to let her die. He’s really being an officious dick here. He forces them to vote on whether to stay together.
When they finally vote, Wasp, USAgent, Sersi, and Spider-Woman vote against disbanding. Scarlet Witch storms off, refusing to rejoin the main Avengers team as a “reservist,” and turns in her Avengers ID. Spider-Woman follows suit. Iron Man casts the tiebreaking, deciding vote.
But he’s got a secret reason. Iron Man chases Bobbi and Jan out and foreshadows that he’ll be rebooting the team on his own terms…
And, for the final panel, Wonder Man learns that the team was disbanded in his absence, and we get the explicit advertisement for the next book:
Dude, that’s messed up. He votes to disband this group just so he can start his own?
In an epilogue, Wonder Man returns to the Avengers West compound, and Iron Man tells them that the team’s been disbanded.
The letter page is devoted to explaining that this comic ended for the same reasons the heroes ended it in the issue itself: Marvel Editorial couldn’t handle two competing team books.
Very interesting. I really liked this issue—and it makes me hopeful that maybe Force Works won’t suck?