Avengers: Finale #1: Review

Jan 2005
Brian Michael Bendis, ?

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Avengers: Finale #1 Review by (June 19, 2021)
The cover is symbolic of the latest Avengers team because it includes the deceased Ant-Man, Hawkeye and Vision and the missing Scarlet Witch and Thor alongside Captain America, Captain Britain, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Yellowjacket and Wasp. But on that basis Falcon's been omitted.

This issue has a plethora of guest art teams:-
Page 1 has a reused panel by David Finch/Danny Miki/Frank D'Armata
Alex Maleev/D'Armata did the Henry Pym/Jan van Dyne opening
The previously page includes the reused cover from #503 by Finch/Miki/D'Armata
Steve Epting/D'Armata did the gathering
Lee Weeks/Brian Reber Quicksilver's visit and Beast's questions
Michael Gaydos/Reber She-Hulk, Hank&Jan, Falcon and Captain Britain quit
Eric Powell 2-page spread for the Avengers origin
Darick Robinson/Morry Hollowell 2-page spread for the revival of Cap
Mike Mayhew/Andy Trot 2-page spread for the Kree-Skrull War
David Mack 2-page spread for Scarlet Witch/Vision
Gary Frank/D'Armata 2-page spread for the Korvac Saga
Mike Avon Oeming/Pete Pantazis 2-page spread for the death of Thanos
Jim Cheung/Mark Morales/Justin Ponsor 2-page spread for Avengers Under Siege
Steve McNiven/Morales/Hollowell 2-page spread for Ultron Unlimited
George Perez/Mike Perkins/Reber the final toasts and fan gathering

It's an afterthought to mention that Albert Deschesne joins Richard Starkings on the lettering.

Marvel Fandom Wiki suggests that Sam Wilson's personality change in the recent Cap&Falc short series was due to Scarlet Witch's meddling.
But I have seen no claim that Wanda caused or exacerbated the recent difficulties between Hank Pym and Jan van Dyne. Indeed the Marvel Chronology Project puts Av#79-84 where these problems occurred well before the #503 flashback which triggered her madness.

This issue supposedly happened 3 months (Marvel Universe time) after Avengers Disassembled. It will be another long (Marvel Universe) time before Captain America and Iron Man start the New Avengers. In between they will be busy beavers. I'll just give the highlights.

IM will co-star with the Fantastic Four in the FF/IM: Big In Japan mini-series, featuring of course giant monsters.
CA will start his 2005 series with 14 issues introducing Winter Soldier and Aleksander Lukin. By the end Steve Rogers knows that WS is Bucky Barnes, and Lukin knows he's got Red Skull in his head. (IM is in #13.)
CA gets involved in the last 3 issue of New Invaders, which series span out of the pre-Disassembled Avengers issues.
They both get involved in Wolverine (2003)'s Enemy Of The State arc (#20-25) where Logan has been brainwashed by Hydra.
And then the 6-issue arc that introduces the Young Avengers in their own title.
IM has a 6-issue Hypervelocity mini-series which actually feature a Tony Stark AI running the armour while the main man was injured.
And then the 6 issues that began the 2005 IM series with the Extremis story that was the basis for the Iron Man 3 film.
Then they both get caught up in Nick Fury's Secret War with Latveria that got him fired from SHIELD.
The Cap will be in New Avengers #1 and IM will join him in #2.

Henry Pym will also be connected to Enemy Of The State, both directly in Wo#22 and indirectly via flashbacks in the Irredeemable Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady) series. But then he'll be replaced by a Skrull as revealed in Mighty Avengers #15, until he returns with many others in Secret Invasion #8.
Jan van Dyne will be with him in Oxford in MA#15, where she'll break up with his Skrull. She won't be seen after that until accompanying the New Avengers with Skrull-Yellowjacket in House Of M #1.
Edwin Jarvis won't actually be seen again until SecInv#8 because he too will be Skrull-replaced before appearing in New Avengers #3.

Falcon will be with Cap in #12-14 of his new series, and in some Enemy Of The State issues. Then he too will fade into the background until HOM#1.
She-Hulk is currently between series, but she will go her own way including Marvel Team-Up (2005) #11-13 until she latches on to her other old team the FF for the FF: Foes mini-series and 4#21, before it's time for HOM#1.

Warbird continues working for Homeland Security but in her Ms Marvel outfit helping Mach-IV set up a new Thunderbolts team in New TB #4-6. And then with She-Hulk she's in Marvel Team-Up #11-13 where she seems to have changed back to the Ms Marvel name as well. She cameos as MsM in Young Avengers #9 and the it's HOM-time.

Beast goes off to do lots of X-stuff before New Avengers starts, beginning with X-Men Unlimited (2004) #10. Along the way he'll take part in Wolverine's Enemy Of The State arc and a bit of Nick Fury's Secret War. He'll be in Astonishing X-Men (2004) #7-12 (the Dangerous arc introducing Danger, the avatar of the Danger Room AI) immediately before the NAv#1. But he won't show up in that series until #8-10 after a few more X-appearances.

Quicksilver and Wonder Man go straight to HOM.

Captain Britain (Kelsey Leigh) will go home to England and won't appear again until after Brian Braddock has returned to the CB role. She'll be with him as Lionheart in New Excalibur #4-5 and #18-24 which will resolve the problem of not being able to tell her family she's alive.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers: Finale #1 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
It's 3 months after Avengers Disassembled where insane Scarlet Witch caused the deaths of Ant-Man, Hawkeye and Vision, the humiliation of Tony Stark, She-Hulk to go berserk, the destruction of Avengers Mansion and severe injury to Captain Britain and Wasp. Now some Avengers are gathering in the Mansion ruins.

We open with Henry Pym and Janet van Dyne in civvies approaching the building past broken statues of fallen heroes. Apparently Tony Stark is going to leave it like this as a memorial to those who died in Disassembled.

Butler Edwin Jarvis is there, wiping dust and debris off a table in absent-minded habit. The other surviving members are there. Most are also in dark ordinary clothing - Kelsey Leigh, Jennifer Walters and Sam Wilson. But Captain America is in uniform and Iron Man is armoured but with his helmet off. Carol Danvers has attended with her Homeland Security outfit under her jacket, and her Warbird eye-mask. Ex-Avenger guest Wonder Man is in uniform and Beast is just Beast.

Henry McCoy is reminiscing about how Clint Barton would automatically disagree with anything Cap said. Jan apologises to Carol for not returning her calls - she's been away recovering from her injuries. She also asks Jennifer Walters why she's not here as She-Hulk, and Jen says it because of how she ripped Vision apart as Shulk. Hank Pym assures her that the synthezoid was wrecked before she laid hands on him, and everyone knows that Scarlet Witch was controlling her.

Tony reminds them that (as of IM#89) the world now believes that someone else has taken over the Iron Man role. He can't ask them to lie for him but he hopes they won't deliberately contradict the idea. However he's actually called them together for a different announcement. The damage to his reputation during Disassembled has had a drastic effect on his financial situation. He and the Maria Stark Foundation no longer have the cash to repair the Mansion, or to continue funding the team. He's cleared out all dangerous tech and sensitive documents, and the City will declare the Mansion a public landmark.

Carol declares that she hates Wanda Maximoff for what she did and will never forgive her. She says that all the people in the room have suffered in their lives including herself, but she didn't go on a rampage with her powers. Jan says that Wanda would have forgiven *her* if she had. Carol protests that she wouldn't ...

... but just then Wanda's brother Pietro zooms in to contradict her. He claims to have been communing with himself in an isolated cabin in Greenland and has only just learned what happened. Simon Williams objects that he was with them (#502) but Quicksilver denies it - it must have been 1 of Wanda's illusions. He tells them that their father Magneto has taken her to another country where Charles Xavier is trying to heal her. But even if he succeeds Pietro believes the guilt will scar her forever. He apologizes for her, but then he breaks down and rushes away.

Warbird wanted him to tell them where Scarlet Witch is, but Wasp doesn't think it would do them any good. Falcon asks about Thor. No-one's seen him and Jarvis wonders if Ms Maximoff could have affected Asgard. (We know Ragnarok was nothing to do with her.) Sam points out she brought the Kree army here, but Hank Pym suggests they were as imaginary as Quicksilver was. Hank McCoy thinks Wanda's actions were somewhat arbitrary and wonders how much control she had. How long had she been building up her effects? (Eg the Disassembled story in the CA&Falcon series.) Did she have a plan, and how far would she have gone if Dr Strange hadn't stopped her?

Carol asks if this means the Avengers are over. (She's already out and in Homeland Security.) Jennifer says she's quitting because of what she did as She-Hulk, and she walks out. Henry Pym says he's accepted a Fellowship at Oxford in a month's time, and he and Janet have got over the resurgence of their partnership problems before Disassembled. Jan says Hank supported her through her recovery, and they're seeing how it goes. Sam Wilson says he's got some personal stuff to deal with and he might give up being Falcon altogether. Kelsey Leigh thanks them for taking her in when she became the new Captain Britain, but now she's heading back to England - and she too leaves.

Warbird asks hopefully if anyone thinks the Avengers did *anything* right. Cue a sequence of double-page spreads depicting iconic moments in Avengers history. Pym asks Tony what he thinks their best moment was, and the answer is the founding of the team (Av#1 of course). That's why he started paying for them. He hands over to Jan who votes for finding Cap in suspended animation (#4). Hank Pym volunteers the Kree-Skrull War (#89-97) even though he himself only played minor roles in a few issues. Simon Williams apologises if its in bad taste now but he votes for the marriage of Scarlet Witch and Vision (Giant-Size Av#4) (even though he himself was 'dead' when he appeared in the run-up to it). Beast *was* with all the others for the Korvac Saga (#167-177 with a gap for #169.) Carol wasn't around for the end of Thanos' 1st life (Av Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One An#2) but her inspiration Captain Marvel was. Jarvis rather masochistically chooses the time when the Masters Of Evil invaded the Mansion and tortured him (Avengers Under Siege Av#270-277). Falcon also picks an event he wasn't involved in when Giant-Man defeated his creation Ultron (at last we've reached the 1998 series with Ultron Unlimited in #0 and #19-22).

Those still here are having a quick meal off the table Jarvis cleaned earlier. Steve Rogers comments that he's been part of the Avengers (with a few small gaps) since they woke him in #4, and he never thought that it could end (I think he may have forgotten a few *very* low points). He raises a glass in memory of Clint Barton and Scott Lang. Others add their own toasts to other dead Avengers - Vision, Mar-Vell, Jack Of Hearts, Swordsman, Mockingbird, Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara), Dr Druid, Whizzer, Two-Gun Kid, Gilgamesh, Marrina and Thunderstrike. Carol Danvers toasts everyone here, and even adds Wanda.

Then Iron Man puts on his helmet and Warbird shucks off her jacket. And they all go out front to be greeted by a candlelight vigil of assembled fans. And they are humbled by the support. (But the team's still finished ... for now.)



?
Neal Adams (Cover Penciler)
Neal Adams (Cover Inker)
Laura Martin (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Richard Starkings.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Beast
Beast

(Hank McCoy)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Falcon
Falcon

(Sam Wilson)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
She-Hulk
She-Hulk

(Jennifer Walters)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)

Plus: Captain Britain (Kelsey Leigh), Henry Pym, Warbird (Carol Danvers).

> Avengers: Finale: Book info and issue index

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