For the past few years I have been one of the more vocal supporters of Avengers the Initiative. A series that came out of the Marvel Civil War. A few weeks ago the series that I love ended. I've decided to go back and read the series from the beginning to see if it how it's held up. I could do this in the Avengers group thread but since it doesn't get a lot of activity I'll just do it on the message board. I'll probably read anywhere from 1 to a few issues and night and hopefully post my thoughts and a brief synopsis fo the issue. Feel free to join in if you have read any of the issues or just want to throw your two cents in.

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  • Draft surely?

    Cloud 9 just wanted to fly around doing her own thing, but had no choice. Well, she could join or be hunted down as a criminal...

    I read up to the end of Civil War, so I'll follow along Jason. Might get some of the later books from the library.
  • It was a choice but a completely unreasonable and unethical choice: train at Camp Hammond or have your powers stripped.
  • Cavalier said:
    It was a choice but a completely unreasonable and unethical choice: train at Camp Hammond or have your powers stripped.

    Or c) go to prison* indefinitely.

    *not just any prison, but one way outside the remit of the law.

    and outside reality as we know it, come to that!
  • Which made those that resisted, refused and rebelled more heroic!
  • Philip Portelli said:
    Which made those that resisted, refused and rebelled more heroic!

    Its always a good general rule to stick it to the man!
  • Mark S. Ogilvie said:
    What of those who capitulated? I've thought that Camp Hammond should have produced more supervillains than superheroes because the entire atmosphere was laced with cynicism.

    I don't think most of the people drafted into the Vietnam conflict became villains
  • Mark, Avengers the Initiative was an interesting series. You would think that being forced to be a hero by the government would make you cyncial and in this series many characters became cynical. But others rose to the occasion and found the inspiration to be heroic.

    I'm happy to see all the responses so far. I'll probably start on this project next week, likely June 1.
  • The main inspiration for Camp Hammond was that these kids needed training. But it was the wrong kind of training. It should have been ethical not miliatary. The disaster at Stamford wasn't due to misuse of powers but a lack of judgement. Not how to use your powers but when to. They weren't being trained to be heroes but as weapons, and expendable weapons at that.

    No one instructed the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Avengers, etc when they first started. They learned as they fought. It that risky? Yes. Were mistakes made? Yes. (Alien cows! Dissing the Hulk! Testing shrinking potions on yourself! Letting your girl make googly eyes at a pointy-eared guy in a Speedo!) The Avengers should have already had a place for new heroes to go. They tried to have an Avenger-in-training thing before.

    The Initiative was a good idea but at the wrong time, led by the wrong people!
  • Mark S. Ogilvie said:
    True, but I don't think it produced a lot of bright eyed idealist either. The kids were taught to kill, they saw the worst of the government, were treated like dirt, constantly under the threat of some sort of power removal... Kid sidekicks were always inspired by heroes to become heroes. Where was the inspiration to be a hero in camp hammond?


    I'd say the inspiration is to come out of the experience with a desire to live a better life and a commitment to ensure that places like that, and the circumstances that lead to their creation, don't happen again.
  • Jason, I have the first 21 issues of Avengers: The Initiative, so I'll be joining in and chiming in up to that point. I did enjoy the series and look forward to this discussion; I dropped it only to switch to trades, which I'm behind in picking up.
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