Worth A RE-Read? Avengers Disassembled

Twas the night before Avengers: Age of Ultron and all through my house, not a Marvel blu-ray was spinning.....but hey, it's still early.  In less than 24 hours director Joss Whedon's sequel to the 2012 blockbuster will hit cinemas around the country.  Whenever a comic book film is about to be released I hop on Amazon because that means comics related to that subject are on sale.  With several Avengers books to choose from I decided to purchase the digital copy of Avengers Disassembled.

The storyline started in issue #500 of The Avengers and was promoted as "the worst day in Avengers history."  And it definitely lived up to it's name.  The Avenger's mansion gets blown up, She-Hulk goes berserk, Tony Stark acts like a jackass in front of the UN, Ultron attacks, the Kree Empire decides to invade, and several key Avengers don't make it out alive.  If you haven't read this one in the decade it's been out then SPOILER ALERT the Avengers were being duped by one of their own; the Scarlet Witch.  Played by Elizabeth Olsen in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Magneto's daughter goes a little crazy and uses her reality-bending Hex powers to make all these villains attack her friends.    

This was probably the first Avengers plot I really got into.  This book sets into motion things that effect the Marvel universe for quite some time.  Disassembled kick-started other great story lines like New Avengers: Breakout, House of M, Civil War, and Avengers vs. X-Men.  It would take the Scarlet Witch years to redeem herself in the eyes of her teammates, and to this day some still don't trust her.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis was a fairly new name to comics at the time, but this book leaped Avengers over X-Men to become the #1 team title at Marvel.  That is until Bendis started writing X-Men in 2012.  In this book, Wanda uses her Hex powers to make herself pregnant because it's the only way for her to have children, given that her husband is an android.  It's so messed up I have no idea how Bendis thought of it.  Also adding his terrific art was David Finch, who gets to draw almost anyone in the Marvel U who's ever been an Avenger by the end of the book; plus some Fantastic Four.  It must have been a comic artist's wet dream. And I say all this as a guy who was rooting for the X-Men in Avengers vs. X-Men. 

If you have watched all the Marvel movies that have come out since X-Men hit it big in 2000 then you should know most of the characters, and would have no problem just picking up this book.  Though I guess it would be best to wait till after you see Avengers: Age of Ultron to get a better sense of who the Scarlet Witch is.  And just to get your facts straight, she's a mutant, not an Inhuman.  You'll get that reference in a few years; trust me.

WORTH A RE-READ?  Oh Yes!