Avengers Disassembled


"Avengers Disassembled" is a 2004 crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics involving Avengers, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Spider-Man and Thor. It sees the beginning of Brian Michael Bendis' Avengers run with the destruction of the existing traditional roster, and exile of several key members of the team. The storyline includes a number of subplots, some of which take place prior to and after the storyline, which depict other changes to the status quo: Iron Man once again closeting his secret identity, Spider-Man developing organic webshooters, and the death of Thor and Asgard in one final Ragnarok.
The main story ran in Avengers #500-503 and a special epilogue and drew considerable controversy due to its overt continuity errors related to its main plot and deaths and vilification of classic Avengers members. These continuity errors and fan backlash would lead to retconning of the events in "Avengers: The Children's Crusade" and "AXIS," as well as the "Marquis of Death" story line from Mark Millar's Fantastic Four run and J. Michael Straczynski's "Amazing Spider-Man" run.
The series would also see to a massive relaunch of the Avengers family of titles with new ongoing series launched for the Thunderbolts, Captain America, and Iron Man as well as the launching of Young Avengers and Thor going on a three-year hiatus.

Plot summary

Avengers

, who had been dead prior to the storyline, arrives at Avengers Mansion. The zombified hero explodes, damaging the mansion. Ant-Man, who approaches his former teammate, is seemingly killed in the blast, but in truth is teleported away by future versions of his daughter, Cassie Lang, and her teammates, the Young Avengers. With Ant-Man presumed dead, Doctor Doom orders Wanda Maximoff to send the Vision to crash into the partially damaged Avengers Mansion, causing more damage.
Elsewhere, the mind-controlled Wanda arrives at the United Nations where she has a conversation with Captain America, who announces that he is ending their fledgling relationship. Furious, Wanda uses her powers to cause Tony Stark to suddenly become drunk and belligerent at an important meeting where the Avengers would have their UN security clearance revoked following the events of Secret War. Attempting to pick a fight with the Latverian ambassador, the Avengers UN charter is revoked as Iron Man leaves Hank Pym in the lurch to respond to the "Code White" from Avengers Mansion.
Leaving the Avengers Quinjet he crashed, Vision warns the Avengers of Doom's plan to destroy the team and then vomits up a series of eggs that spawn Ultron drones that attack the Avengers. With Doom and the mind-controlled Wanda watching from the shadows, She-Hulk is hexed by Wanda and becomes consumed with bloodlust, tearing Vision in half and brutally assaulting Wasp and Captain America.
Ultimately, She-Hulk is subdued by Iron Man and Captain America as Hank Pym joins them and rushes Wasp to the hospital. Returning, Hank reveals to Cap and the team of Iron Man's drunken outburst at the UN and the UN's decision to revoke their charter. As the super-hero community gathers at the mansion, the Avengers do not know that several of the members are constructs created by the possessed Wanda on behalf of Doctor Doom to spy on the Avengers.
As the Avengers fear that Ultron may be behind the attack, Doom orders Wanda to summon an armada of Kree soldiers to attack Manhattan. In the ensuing battle, Hawkeye is killed when his arrows are hit causing their explosives to go off. In his dying moments, Hawkeye takes out a Kree battleship in the blast after taking flight with a commandeered Kree jet pack.
In the wake of Hawkeye's death, Doctor Strange suddenly appears for the first time since the Dark Dimension invasion several months prior. His memories altered due to Baron Mordo's meddling, he immediately suspects Scarlet Witch of being responsible and accuses her of having turned against the Avengers in a fit of madness over the loss of her children, triggered by Wasp's comment about aborting her and Hawkeye's would-be children. Strange, no longer familiar with chaos magic due to Mordo, also assumes that Wanda's ability to launch such a complex scheme indicates that she's a high-level reality warper, and that she must be taken down immediately before she threatens the world in her current mental state.
The Avengers visit Agatha Harkness's home, where the Life Force possessed Wanda has been left alone by Doom to eliminate the Avengers. Summoning an army of constructs, including a version of Rogue and Red Skull and a group of SS troops, the Life Force entity attempts to destroy the Avengers before Doctor Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to put Wanda into a coma. However, by this point, Professor X sends Magneto to retrieve Wanda from the Avengers, much to Captain America's dismay and horror. Reluctantly, he allows Magneto to take his daughter with him after he vows to help her.

Iron Man

After rescuing Force from the corrupt senators who have been trying to kill Tony Stark since he became Secretary of Defense, Iron Man finds himself targeted by an Iron Man impostor who murders his longtime love interest Rumiko Fujikawa. Iron Man eventually defeats his impersonator and bring down the ring of corrupt senators who were behind the murder and Force being blackmailed. Realizing that his loved ones are being targeted by his enemies, Stark gives a press conference where he announces that he is resigning as Secretary of Defense and will no longer actively be Iron Man, in favor of returning to "subordinates" filling the role for him.

Thor

A mystic force that is the living embodiment of Ragnarok has begun slaying the Asgardian Gods, in rapid succession. Investigating the genocide of his people, Thor discovers that the universe itself is seeking to eliminate the Asgardians for cheating death by surviving countless previous attempts by the universe to fulfill Ragnarok and wipe out the Asgardians. Ultimately Thor allows himself to be destroyed, as all known Asgardians are destroyed.

Captain America and Falcon

Captain America and Falcon are in the midst of an international scandal between a naval intelligence operation and a Drug Cartel with ties to A.I.M when Cap starts having hallucinations; some of them involving encounters with his fellow Avenger Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch. Meanwhile, Falcon is gifted a new enhanced costume from Wakanda and uses it to escape the feds.
Captain America discusses his past, most notably his guilt from the death of Bucky, with Scarlet Witch and she eases his trouble. While they engage in a romance, Cap cites that he can not give her the normal life she desires due to his own emotional issues. His apparent romance with Wanda ceases just prior to the UN meeting to determine if the Avengers will retain their UN Charter. Wanda, oddly tells him she has no recollection of their romance, indicating that Cap hallucinated the whole thing. Cap later believes that due to the events of "Avengers Disassembled", Wanda was responsible for his visions and Falcon's aggressive behavior.

Spectacular Spider-Man

Peter Parker finds himself locked in a desperate battle with Adrianna "Ana" Soria, a mysterious villainess with the ability to control her minions with powerful pheromones. During their first confrontation, a captive Peter is forcefully kissed by the Queen, causing him to mutate into a grotesque human-spider hybrid over the course of many days. As he attempts to return himself to normal, it's ultimately revealed that the Queen's powers are the result of an American military experiment from World War II, and she has returned to seek revenge on the US government for abandoning her after the war.
In his final confrontation with the Queen, Peter stops her from destroying all human life in New York City with a biological bomb. In the course of the battle, he is fully transformed into a monstrous spider, but the transformation has the unintended side-effect of making him pregnant — allowing him to give birth to a perfect replica of his old human self, with all of his memories fully intact. In his new form, Peter possesses the ability to shoot organic webbing from his wrists, eliminating the need for his homemade "web-shooters".

Fantastic Four

While the Avengers face the destruction of their mansion and the invading Kree armada, Wizard and the Frightful Four launch a surprise attack on the Fantastic Four, defeating the heroes and seizing control over the Baxter Building. The Fantastic Four regroup and beat the villains.

Captain America

Following the events of "Disassembled", Captain America is naturally depressed and rekindles a relationship with Diamondback. Meanwhile, the Red Skull conspires with a corrupt SHIELD agent to kill Captain America using Diamondback, but his plan backfires. During these events Steve realizes his love for Rachel.

Aftermath

In the wake of "Avengers Disassembled", two new Avengers series were created. The New Avengers title replaced the Avengers title which ended with issue No. 503 and Avengers Finale. This new title continued with the creative team of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist David Finch. The other title, premiering February 2005, was Young Avengers, which featured teenage heroes, each of whom related in some way to the legacy of the Avengers. This series was written by Allan Heinberg, a writer for The OC, with art by Jim Cheung. The group was revived by its creators in July 2010 with the bimonthly series ' which is a follow-up to Disassembled and House of M.
The Scarlet Witch's storyline continued in the pages of Excalibur, where Magneto and Professor X tried helping her, to no avail. This in turn led into the House of M mini-series and crossover, also written by Bendis.
The event is now considered by Marvel editors as the first part of a long series of events, which includes House of M, Decimation, Planet Hulk, Civil War, ', ', World War Hulk, ', ', Secret Invasion, ', Dark Reign, Messiah War, Utopia, ' and Necrosha. All these grim events lead up to Siege written by Brian Michael Bendis in 2010, which ushers in a new Heroic Age for Marvel, and ' by Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle, which sees the slow rebirth of Earth's Mutant population.
As for the Avengers killed during Disassembled saga, they have all returned to life in separate events. Hawkeye was rematerialized by Wanda during the House of M story. Ant Man was rescued by the time-traveling Young Avengers during The Children's Crusade, as Stature brings him away from the range of Jack of Hearts' explosion. Ant-Man is thus brought to the present along with the Young Avengers. The Vision is successfully rebuilt by Tony Stark after Fear Itself, and Jack of Hearts is restored by a team of scientists of Project Pegasus: during an assault of a pack of zombified clones of Squadron Supreme, a source of zero-point energy aggregates taking the corporeal form of Jack Hart.

List of crossover issues

Although not bannered as a part of the crossover, the events of Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill are a direct sequel to the story in Thor.

Later references to the storyline

''New Avengers Disassembled''

Although not directly connected with the previous storyline, Bendis's 5th arc on New Avengers is titled "New Avengers: Disassembled", a reference to "Avengers: Disassembled". It deals with the events of the Civil War on the Avengers, and how the team's varying opinions have caused them to break apart. The first three issues featured Captain America, Jessica Drew and Luke Cage's opinions on the matter, all who have heavily weighed against the registration. The next two featured the Sentry and Iron Man, both of whom were for registration.

''Avengers: The Initiative Disassembled''

Like the 5th arc of Bendis's New Avengers, the storyline of also references Avengers: Disassembled, complete with a banner reminiscent of the original. Issue No. 21, the first in the Dark Reign event, centers on the aftermath of the failed Skrull invasion, and the revelation that the shape-shifting aliens had infiltrated and corrupted the Fifty-State Initiative and Camp Hammond, where the registered heroes were trained. Most disturbingly, Camp Hammond and the were largely under the supervision of the legendary Avenger Henry Pym, but Pym had in fact been replaced by a Skrull years earlier. This is an opportunity for "top cop" Norman Osborn, the newly appointed director of H.A.M.M.E.R. to radically redefine how the Initiative will fit into the new order—to his own advantage. Thus, the whole structure of Avengers: The Initiative is disassembled.

''Avengers/New Avengers: End Times''

Bendis's last Avengers and New Avengers storylines used a red smashed Avengers symbol and a black text box with white text in same font as the Disassembled logo on the front covers of each issue of those stories.

''Ultimates Disassembled''

The 6th story arc of the 4th series of The Ultimate Comics series The Ultimates used the Disassembled name complete with the black box white text logo.

Other versions

''What If?''

On November 1, 2006, Marvel released a "What If?" special showing a different outcome to the storyline. In this alternate reality, the Beast, sensing something wrong, investigates afterward. He and Warbird go to see Dr. Strange who claims to have no knowledge of what occurred. Strange uses his abilities to see the event, claiming that is not really him. They deduce that Wanda used her magics to make everyone believe Strange had defeated her and Magneto then took her away. The Beast eventually figures out that Captain America, his mind suffering long-term damage from his years in ice, had pushed Wanda to do this, using the deaths to power her. They remake Genosha into a mutant paradise and Magneto fights to defend his daughter from the Avengers and the X-Men, who all end up dead as the Scarlet Witch's spell is interrupted by Rogue. In the end, Wanda and Cap allow themselves to be taken to oblivion to stop any more harm being done. Only Rogue, Ms. Marvel, Beast, Falcon, Cyclops, Iron Man and Doctor Strange are left – they were the ones who were directly confronting Cap and Wanda – and a guilt-ridden Beast, learning from Uatu that Cap would have recovered from his illness and abandoned his manipulative relationship with the Witch as he became leader of a new team of Avengers if Beast had done nothing, realizes that he should have left everything alone.

Earth-5012

In an alternate world, the Avengers were never disassembled, but were subsequently captured by an alien race called the Trellions when the Vision detected the arrival of their agent Titannus, a brainwashed Skrull super-soldier, accompanying him on a mission to rescue his dying lover only to learn that he had been brainwashed with a fake story to lure the Avengers into a trap. The Wasp was quickly killed, Hank Pym - apparently another Hulk in this reality - was announced missing in action, and Captain America was executed to break their spirit, the reserve Avengers taking five years to rescue them and another five to beat back the Trellions sufficiently to stop them trying to re-conquer Earth. At some point, Reed Richards apparently attempted to conquer the world, Iron Man taking on a Doctor-Doom-like apparel to oppose him, killing the Human Torch before Richards sent him to Earth-616 prior to Titannus's arrival on that Earth. This Iron Man has since become the villain Iron Maniac, being kept in stasis in a Helicarrier, while the Titannus of Earth-616 was defeated by a team assembled by Doctor Strange when he detected Titannus's arrival only after Titannus had destroyed most of Tokyo in a rampage, his violent approach leaving the heroes less inclined to trust him than they had been in this world.

Parodies

''Great Lakes Avengers: Misassembled''

The GLA miniseries, GLA: Misassembled, written by Dan Slott and pencilled by Paul Pelletier, provided a tongue-in-cheek reference to Avengers Disassembled. In a move which satirized the comic book deaths in that book, it was announced that a character would die in each GLA issue. Dinah Soar, the newcomer Grasshopper, the squirrel Monkey Joe, and Doorman are all killed, and Mr. Immortal commits suicide. However, Doorman was resurrected almost immediately acquiring the powers of Deathurge, Monkey Joe was replaced with an identical squirrel called Tippy Toe and Mr. Immortal stayed dead for only a few seconds. Three other Grasshoppers appeared in later issues of GLA, and were all killed in the space of few pages, continuing the parody.

Bongo Comics Free-For-All

A Bongo Comics Free-For-All has Comic Book Guy reading, Archie Disassembled. The following quotes:
Big Ethel kills Moose to get Jughead's attention? Oh, Brian Michael Bendis, you've done it again.

''Cable & Deadpool'' #12

: "Dude, anyone wearing a harness rig has a failsafe release to prevent it from catching on fire and forcing you to fly into Kree spaceships and blow up. I mean, duh, who doesn't know that?"

Collected editions

The stories have been collected into a number of volumes: