Dishin' and Gossipin' with the Gals Wednesday!

It's no secret that Yours Truly loved the 80's. I loved the Jersey Girl hair, the neon colors, and songs you could actually sing along with. But the comics really took a dive.

I'm going to continue to pick on the Avengers, because it's just so easy and I'm just so lazy. Let's take a look at the roster circa Avengers v1 #240:


Normally, I'm all about the B-listers. Give me a team with the Falcon, the Beast, the Jack of Hearts and Banshee, and I'll buy 5 copies a month. But to do a team of B-listers right, you have to (a) develop them into interesting characters in their own right, and (b) come up with decent storylines. And, while it's almost cliche for a blogger to show DC love and slam on Marvel, this is something DC did very well. Giffen's Justice League International, Ostrander's Suicide Squad (and later Gail Simone's Secret Six)..... heck, even the JSA is made up of characters who don't have their own solo titles. All of these books are awesome in their own right, and did so (by and large) without any characters that a non-comic reader had ever heard of. Marvel has had bright moments in this respect , like with the New Defenders and the Champions, but it seems like Marvel just doesn't know what to do with a book that doesn't have Wolverine. And that's the problem with having a golden goose like Wolverine: It's too tempting to get lazy.

Anyway, this line-up is not only looking like they should be selling Avon and Tupperware (4 of the 5 team members are female, not including the guest appearances of Spider-Woman and Tigra) rather than fighting crime, but they aren't even eye candy. Check out how the Wasp is looking:


Green and purple are two colors you will never see a person wearing together in real life, for good reason. And what's with that hair?

To be fair, the She-Hulk is always kinda cool:


Booger check!

And Captain Marvel is easily impressed:


I suppose when your powers are as lame as the good captain's, this sort of trick is quite amazing. I find it hard to believe that Thor would be just as dazzled.

So, I plow through these perfectly awful stories, waiting for the title to rise again. Two issues later, the only thing noteworthy?:


Yup. Another booger check.

See you tomorrow!