Personally, I am not a fan of Elektra, and therefore I wasn't overly excited about the most recent MA issue either...but I don't think it was unreasonable for Bendis to give Elektra's fans the benefit of seeing how this deadly warrior got taken out and replaced by the Skrulls. After all, back in NA Bendis revealed that Elektra had been taken out and replaced off-panel for some unspecified period of time. If it had been Wonder Man that had happened to, you know we'd want Bendis to come back and fill in the blanks<<
I’m not saying that showing when Elektra was replaced is unreasonable, but I am saying it doesn’t need to span the entire issue on every single page. I’m buying Avengers, not Electra and her Amazing Ninja Friends. Bendis has almost no concept of streamlining a storyline and he bogs us down with every single piece of minutia ancillary to the storyline and all of these flashback issues prove that. I mean for what he wasted 22 pages on anyone else could have done it in half that or less and interspersed actual current events and continue the storyline, current subplots and what have you forward instead of showing us how everything Bendis has done since the first issue and beforehand revolves around the Skrull Invasion conspiracy.
>>I can certainly understand people's frustration with the flashback issues, but I do think it is important for Bendis to be filling in blanks and showing us the back story. Otherwise you'd have fans yelling and screaming about the continuity holes, and "how long was this character a Skrull", "how did so-and-so get replaced", etc. When you have a story event that involves revealing that characters have been replaced for months or years, you have to go back and fill in those blanks, otherwise readers end up feeling confused or cheated (or both).<<
Right and again I agree with you, but my point is Bendis could do it in a much better way rather than jamming up three issues for each individual who was personally replaced by a Skrull and it’s the height of absurdity to showcase a non-Avenger for a full issue of an Avengers title and all in flash backs. You’re right, filling in the blanks is important but there are many established methods of doing it in less time and without forcing it upon readers month after month.
Okay a prime example of this is the first Thunderbolts run. When things were going on in the regular series they would either have an Annual or a One-Shot that went alongside the continuity of the regular series that filled in the blanks on things that couldn’t or shouldn’t have been jammed into the current storylines since it would have interrupted the flow of the current books.
We saw how the T-bolts were initially gathered together after the first 10 issues or so of the regular series in their first and only annual and it filled in a lot of blanks. They also did a single issue that was part of the Marvel Flashback event which fed into current continuity and filled in many blanks as well. The best part about them was if somebody didn’t like it, it was a one-time event and the next issue picked up right back with the current storylines. We weren’t bashed over the head repeatedly with flash back after flash back after flash back with every single solitary detail of what happened to whom and why.
Sometimes you need to leave some mystery for the time being to keep people interested, build suspense and to keep things going in a timely manner. Not every detail needs to come out right now all at once in one giant flashback issue.
>>Besides, with the exception of the Elektra issue, all of the flashback issues thus far have contained Avengers characters and Avengers-relevant story material (Pym, Sentry, Spider-Woman, Ares' son, etc). And the Avengers current-day stories are still playing out in the main SECRET INVASION book, so I think its okay that the tie-in issues are showing us something else (otherwise we'd end up with some of the redundant tie-ins the WONDER MAN book got in "Infinity War", where half the book was the exact same material you saw in the main INFINITY WAR issue, just drawn by a different artist and with one or two extra scenes tossed in) <<
Right, they did have Avengers in them but again what I’m saying is that Bendis is not telling these things at a decent or interesting pace at this point. I’m all for character development and seeing how things happened but everything is just dragged out to the point of craziness.
Seriously did we need to see every single waking moment Pym had with the Skrull who seduced him? No. Do we have to see every single thing the Skrull did as Pym when we already saw him do it in previous issues thinking it was Pym? No. Do we have to see that same meeting between the Skrull agents over and over again from everyone else’s perspective? Nope! There is a recap page on the first page of every book and everything you read in it seems to repeat in the book itself ad-nausea. To me these flash-backs have become just as redundant as the Infinity War stuff from Wonder Man but I will say this, at least Wonder Man was in the three Wonder Man issues. They didn’t showcase Ghost Rider for a full issue and leave Wondy out of his own book.
>>That said, I didn't care about the Elektra issue either. Personally, I'd much prefer an issue showing when/how Mockingbird was replaced--hopefully flashing back to the WCA days, with some appearances by Hawkeye and Wondy! <<
Now you’re talking! But one thing bothers me though. Remember in Thunderbolts when Hawkeye mistakenly rescued Hellcat from Mephisto’s hell thinking it was Mockingbird? In the end we saw Mockingbird standing atop some rocks watching Hawkeye leave thinking he had her. If it wasn’t really Bobbi and it was a Skrull, wouldn’t it have done anything possible to leave that realm? Why sacrifice itself for Hellcat or bother helping one of the Avengers, one of its race’s sworn enemies, leave unmolested?
--Previous Message--
:
: I’m at the point now where I’m totally and
: completely disgusted with the Avengers
: comics and this whole Skrull Invasion in
: general. On top of the 70s Beast getting
: revealed to be a Skrull, Mighty Avengers was
: once again turned into a goddamn flash back
: issue so now we can see how the Elektra
: Skrull got in power. WHO GIVES A FLYING
: S#!T?!?!?
:
: Elektra fans.
:
: Personally, I am not a fan of Elektra, and
: therefore I wasn't overly excited about the
: most recent MA issue either...but I don't
: think it was unreasonable for Bendis to give
: Elektra's fans the benefit of seeing how
: this deadly warrior got taken out and
: replaced by the Skrulls. After all, back in
: NA Bendis revealed that Elektra had been
: taken out and replaced off-panel for some
: unspecified period of time. If it had been
: Wonder Man that had happened to, you know
: we'd be wanting Bendis to come back and fill
: in the blanks.
:
: I can certainly understand people's
: frustration with the flashback issues, but I
: do think it is important for Bendis to be
: filling in blanks and showing us the
: backstory. Otherwise you'd have fans
: yelling and screaming about the continuity
: holes, and "how long was this character
: a Skrull", "how did so-and-so get
: replaced", etc. When you have a story
: event that involves revealing that
: characters have been replaced for months or
: years, you have to go back and fill in those
: blanks, otherwise readers end up feeling
: confused or cheated (or both).
:
: Besides, with the exception of the Elektra
: issue, all of the flashback issues thus far
: have contained Avengers characters and
: Avengers-relevant story material (Pym,
: Sentry, Spider-Woman, Ares' son, etc). And
: the Avengers current-day stories are still
: playing out in the main SECRET INVASION
: book, so I think its okay that the tie-in
: issues are showing us something else
: (otherwise we'd end up with some of the
: redundant tie-ins the WONDER MAN book got in
: "Infinity War", where half the
: book was the exact same material you saw in
: the main INFINITY WAR issue, just drawn by a
: different artist and with one or two extra
: scenes tossed in)
:
: That said, I didn't care about the Elektra
: issue either. Personally, I'd much prefer
: an issue showing when/how Mockingbird was
: replaced--hopefully flashing back to the WCA
: days, with some appearances by Hawkeye and
: Wondy!
:
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