The Hypocritical Avengers

by Andy Duncan

This is my first Blog posting for Sid's blog, as he mentioned he wanted some new blood. Actually now I think about it, I'm hoping he meant to make the Blog fresh, and he didn't want me to knock off a blood bank…

I've been racking my brains for the last month or so, trying to think what I can make it about - what is hip, cool and all around a good topic. I found one.
The idea came to me after reading Bendis' Mighty Avengers issue #1. A very funny book, I thought. Though one thing stuck in my craw. The one thing almost EVERY Avenger ever has said is "Avengers don't kill." And in Stark's new Superhero-centric America, surely this will have been hammered into every registered hero.

So what happens in the first issue of the latest Avengers project? The Avengers kill.

I'm not just talking about Ares. The Wasp even kills one of the Mole creatures by flying through it's temples at high speed. So whilst all this killing is happening, what's going through Stark's mind? Surely not "New team of Avengers here, going to keep up the code hammered out by me, the Pym's, Thor and Banner all those years ago.", right? But that's what he wanted the team to do! Ms Marvel being in charge or not - he wanted the Mighty Avengers to uphold the morals and things that the original team did.

But it's not just the Mighty Avengers. How many teams and single heroes have decided they wouldn't kill? Wolverine happens to be on two teams that have a no-killing policy - though one of those teams seems to have killed Jean Grey more than once.
When the Hand ninja's disolve, what's happening to them? Oh, they must be dying. At the hands of the New Avengers - again more than once - loads of the Hand were disolved.
Spider-man himself went and killed Morlun. Sure he was half-posessed at the time, but is that really an excuse?

They have had other killers on Avenger's itterations, too. Ares is the latest, Wolverine was the last - they've had Moon Knight... All have blood on their hands, and still break the 'golden' Avengers rule.

It's not just Marvel. Sure, most of DC's kill-happy "I don't kill." characters were Pre-Crisis On Infinite Earths versions, but it's still something to think on.

I hope this has been thought provoking, and not just ranting and raving. I'd hate to get off to a bad start. Those are my thoughts on the subject, now let's hear yours in the comments