Host Derek Coward returns to answer the seemingly simple question “If you were going to create your own comic universe, what kinds of things would you be sure to do?” but as we know nothing is ever that simple.

Host Derek Coward returns to answer the seemingly simple question “If you were going to create your own comic universe, what kinds of things would you be sure to do?” but as we know nothing is ever that simple.

I was reading Invincible Iron Man #172, which happened during the Demon In A Bottle/Iron Man Rhodey phase, when I came across this bit of Bully Rogers living up to his name.

Bully Rogers

At this time Tony Stark is drinking on a dirty mattress in the poor part of town. The last thing he needs is Steve Rogers (in full costume) walking in and knocking the bottle out of his hand. When faced with a steroid rage bully with an indestructible shield that he uses as a weapon on a regular basis, Tony just wants to be left alone to drink.

Bully Rogers throws his father under the bus.

As pitiful as Tony is at this moment, Rogers turns around and walks out of the room (after spilling the man’s booze). Before he leaves, Rogers casually throws out there that his father was an alcoholic. However, Rogers’ father died when he was a child. So Rogers made it up to make a broken man feel even worse or he took time out to admit his father was a criminal who was an alcoholic during Prohibition. Either way, Steve Rogers proved in that one panel that he was a scumbag on top of being a bully.

This story happened back in 1983, so I have to wonder how long as Steve Rogers been a bully. I will keep reading older comics and each time I come across Bully Rogers, I will be sure to share it.

BTW: The villain Firebrand was also in that Skid Row flophouse without his costume on. When he saw Captain America stroll in there, he assumed the jackass was looking for him, so he suited up and set fire to a bunch of stuff. None of which would have happened if it wasn’t for a Bully on the Stroll.

Host Derek Coward talks about Avengers vs X-Men #12 and why it reignited his dislike for the comic book version of Captain America. This episode contains a lot more potentially offensive language than usual, so please take that into consideration before listening to it.

I have read what I think are all of #1 issues of the newly relaunched Avengers books.

Avengers: I think this will be the one most people will gravitate towards because it has all of the big names like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wolverine. Too bad they are making Wonder Man look like such a dick and the first villain they come across is Kang The Lameass Conqueror (he still makes my top five least favorite characters list).

The Secret Avengers: This is the title that has a lot of critical acclaim but people are talking more about Ed Brubaker than the actual content of the book. I haven’t been much of a Moon Knight fan since his days with the Defenders (actually just the Scorpio storyline that culminated with issue 50), I have never been much of a Valkyrie fan, Beast is my least favorite of the original X-Men and I was a fan of what Abnett and Lanning were doing with Nova in his own title. However, Brubaker writing Black Widow is a HUGE draw.

Avengers Academy: A bunch of new characters along with Hank Pym, Rhodey (who should still be hanging out with The Crew, but oh well) and Tigra. This book should be a trainwreck waiting to happen, but the revelation at the end of the first issue really piqued my interest and I want to see what will happen next.

Avengers Prime: According to David A Price, this is a bi-monthly five issue miniseries. Also known in some circles as tradebait. There is no reason to do anything but wait for the entire story to be finished and collected. There was a great segment where Tony Stark called Steve Rogers on his hypocrisy, but like I said, you can wait to read it in trade.

The New Avengers: I thought I would dislike this one the most. No particular reason, but it just didn’t seem like something I would like. However, I like “getting the team together” type stories. And I really like the make up of the actual team: Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Jessica Jones, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Wolverine, Spider-Man and The Thing (I think it would be a great scene to have the last three sitting around swapping stories about all of the team ups they have had in the past, but I think that would only appeal to a certain type of reader).

While I liked them all to varying degrees, I would say my favorite two are Avengers Academy and The New Avengers. I think that because I am not the world’s biggest Steve Rogers fan it comes as no surprise that I prefer the two books he is not a part of.

One thing I thought was really interesting was the first stories for each team. The intro/training of Avengers Academy is a pretty obvious thing to start out with, but the established teams are all in different types of story: Avengers/time travel, Secret Avengers/sci fi action, Avengers Prime/fantasy adventure, and The New Avengers/mystical threats.

Now that I have read all five of them, I can safely say that I will probably be picking up the titles in trade going forward.

If you have read one or more of the titles, what do you think of them?