Why The New Avengers didn't work, and why the Split will.
Let me take you back, my friends, to almost twenty years ago, when Comics were fresh, new, and strange. This was a time of new and bold creations form such wonderful writers as Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman. One of them in particular was the Blockbuster Mini-Series, Watchmen.
Seemingly, the premise of Watchmen was not just to tell a story; it was, as later described, a Humane act in comic. Alan Moore, the writer, was showing us that Superheroes are still only human. They eat, sleep, grow old, die, get hurt, fall in love, have sex, etc, etc.
At on certain Point in the past, the various characters of Watchmen are assembled by a happy-go-lucky veteran Hero, named Captain Metropolis. He proposes the building of a new team; 'The Crime-Busters'.
The general response is bad. A Nick Fury-like character, the Comedian, states that it's because Metropolis is merely getting old and wishing to continue playing Cowboys and Indians, while many other individuals leave, dissatisfied with the offer. In discussing it, Rorschach - arguably the most emotionally powerful character in the entire series - states that having a group would be 'like a publicity Exercise Somehow...it's too Big and Unwieldy.'
Here, then, is where we get to the gist of my Rave. The New Avengers were, basically, a Publicity act. Say what you like about how they got together, how great the list of members was, how the team really worked for a bit of time - it just wasn't going to happen.
Because, here's the thing - there was no connection. Whenever a successful team is built up in Comics, they have to have something, something big, that connects them altogether. Look at the other teams.
X-men - all Mutants.
Exiles - All reality Hoppers.
Fantastic Four - all transmutated by Cosmic Rays.
And then you look at the New Avengers. The New Avengers were connected only for an instance, by their first mission. Other than that, all of them were different, had only two-part connections. Spidey was connected to Spider-woman by Powers, to Tony Stark by employment...but everyone else were just friends.
So, getting onto my second half - why the new teams will work. It is VERY likely that Next year, we will have a totally new Scenario - the Avengers split in two. 'The Mighty Avengers', already predicted for February 2007, will chronicle the new Saga of all the Pro-Registrations, (e.g, Iron Man, Ares, Ms. Marvel), while another series would conceivably be entitled 'Secret Avengers', about the Anti-Registrations working underground. This, this will work, because there is an extremly strong connection between the Members of 'Mighty Avengers', and 'Secret Avengers'; they're held together by the sides that they belong to.
And so, this is why we say Godbye to Luke Cage, Ronin, Sentry - and hello to Storm, Invisible Woman, and the well-beloved Spiderman in the dawn of the Secret Avengers.
Avengers Assemble!