Avengers Volume 5: Once An Invader Tpb (Avengers)

Rating:
Summary: Austen's reign of terror is over!!!!!
Review: After the horrific "Lionheart of Avalon", Chuck Austen's wretched run on Avengers comes to a sudden end with this four-part storyline which launches the "New Invaders" comic for Marvel. The TPB also is a rather schizophrenic read to say the least; the book is suprisingly readable when it focuses on the New Invaders (led by former Avenger USAgent) who lead a coup detate against a Middle Eastern country in the name of "spreading democracy" in the region. But when Chuck Austen focuses on the Avengers, the book grinds to an utter and complete stop as Austen has Yellowjacket find his best friend Hawkeye seducing and ultimately having sex with Hank's ex-wife. This sordid affair is made even more difficult to tolerate when taken with the fact that Hawkeye and Yellowjacket are longtime best friends, a friendship Austen opted to declare long-dead without any explaination in the previous volume do to him having a personal hatred for Hank Pym, a hero who's history has been forever tainted, beyond the point of redemption in the eyes of Austen, do to a previous storyline from the 1980s which had Hank suffer a nervous breakdown. While insane, Hank physically struck his then wife the Wasp in the face with his fist. While Hank spent numerous years redeeming himself (with the help of Hawkeye, who stood by his best friend even as everyone else turned against him), Austen overturns this closely bonded friendship which has become one of the cornerstones of the Avengers franchise for no good reason whatsoever and to add insult to injury has Hawkeye sleep with Hank's ex-wife, complete with Hank walking in on them just as they finish having sex.

That being said, the book might be of interest to those wanting to see the formation of the New Invaders but for Avengers fans, you can add this book along with Avengers Dissassembled and Lionheart of Avalon in the garbage as Avengers stories that should never of been allowed to be published....