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If you're someone who reads what I have to say regularly then by now I'm sure you've picked up that I really enjoy the various titles that Geoff Johns writes. He has just finished his run on The Avengers, but not before giving us a great storyline that the title was desperately in need of. That storyline was "Red Zone." If you're waiting for the trade, or to borrow the issues from someone, and hate spoilers then you definitely don't want to read past this first paragraph now. If you've read it, or don't care about spoilers, then please go on.
What made this storyline great? Multiple things. Overall the plot was solid, Johns worked very well with a large selection of characters, there were connections to titles outside of The Avengers without hurting the story, and a "surprise" villain that caught many people off guard it seems. Well, that's a nice overview to start with, but let's get down to the specifics now.
The Characters
Geoff Johns is no stranger to working with a large cast of characters. He has been doing it in the pages of JSA for quite a while. Now, he didn't get as in-depth with these characters' personalities as he does with JSA, but many of these characters have their own titles that they can personally evolve in. Those who he thought needed a "setup" for this storyline he took care of quickly and without impact to the story.
For someone who pretty much just jumped in to tell a story Johns worked with the foundations of the characters very well. Well, most of the characters. Johns' handling of the Black Panther was a little off for me, but then again I am very fond of the last portrayal of the Panther as handled by Christopher Priest. Johns did an excellent job of using the character as Priest had left him, but I thought a large of amount of the Panther's dialogue wasn't up to par.
The Story
Now, at the start the Red Zone plot seemed pretty basic, especially with our current world and political situations in the U.S. The basic idea that was thrown out to start with was that the U.S. had developed a flesh-eating bacterium secretly and had unintentionally released it on our own soil, which created the ever spreading Red Zone. To make it even worse, the base was hidden at Mount Rushmore. Oh, the shame of being involved in the bio-terrorism that we're accusing others of. Pretty simple, right? Wrong.
The next step in the evolution of the story is to find out "whodunit?" Of course, since this is something that has come of our government we're bound to find out that they're doing a "do as I say, not as I do" routine. This is easily believable when dealing with our current political situations domestically and internationally. However, the U.S. is not the horrible monster we're lead to believe. The entire incident leads to the hands of the Secretary of Defense (of the Marvel Universe), Dell Rusk. So, the next step is simple. Find Rusk and deal with him. The only problem is that there is more to Rusk than anyone knew.
The Surprise
Since the character of Dell Rusk wasn't being pushed into the reader's face it was easy for many (myself included) to be surprised when Rusk was revealed to be none other than the Red Skull. With the civilian lives that were being lost in the Red Zone, and the bad luck that the Avengers seemed to getting hit with from all sides, the last thing I was thinking about was "who is Dell Rusk." It was easy to accept him as a lying, deceptive, member of our government. I mean, who's going to question that such a person exists? Better yet, is anyone really shocked? I doubt it. So, it was easy to move on past the point of revelation that "Rusk" was responsible without looking beyond the obvious.
Another surprise, for me, in the storyline was the beginning of Henry Gyrich's walk down the path of redemption. For years Gyrich has represented all that is wrong with the government of the U.S. in the Marvel Universe. He's been a liar, a patsy, a tool (in more ways than one), and a constant thorn in the side of any character or group that has to interact with the U.S. government. Now, I don't know how long Gyrich will walk this path, but I certainly would like to see it played out in the pages of The Avengers by future writers. Personally I think he's been bad for too long, but in the least I figure it should be interesting how many "revelations" he gives up regarding the government's plans and actions involving the super-powered community.
The Coup De Graces
Yes, that is plural and not a typo. For me there were four major finishing strokes to the Red Zone storyline. Gyrich's redemption may be considered one by some, but unless it's permanent I don't accept it as one. As I said earlier, we have a lot of time to see how it carries out.
The first stroke was the takedown of the Red Skull. I'm not talking about the good guys taking down the bad guy, I'm talking about the actual physical takedown. Johns put a little extra punch (no pun intended) to it by having the Black Panther being the one to do it. Not only was Panther putting all his personal issues with the team behind him in the fight, he was doing it without his technology. The Black Panther took the Red Skull on in a straight old fashioned fight, and with bare knuckles. To me, this was the way it had to be. If you didn't already know, the Red Skull has a cloned body of Captain America (the last time I checked) so the fight was definitely going to be work for each of them. The bare knuckles were a must because the Skull had to be touched (physically) by a person who represented one of the major fears in his lifeĀ
a black person. With a little outside help from the Falcon the Panther wins the fight by breaking the Skull's jaw. Let me tell you, when your jaw is broken, and you're missing a large amount of tissue from your face, things get SEVERELY broken.
The second stroke was Panther and Tony Stark finally putting their differences behind them. Ever since the Panther revealed that he had joined the Avengers in order to spy on them, Tony and he have been butting heads, and things got pretty ugly in the pages of Black Panther's last series. Now, hopefully two of the greatest minds (for "regular" humans) on the Earth can work together again for the benefit of their team, and in turn the world.
The third stroke was Captain America making it abundantly clear to good old Dubya (President Bush for those of you confused) that he had the expectations that labs such as the one responsible for the creation of the Red Zone would shortly be disabled, if they already weren't. While the President said they would, I believe that Cap wasn't completely convinced. For me, this is a must because I sincerely hope that Cap will continue to evolve as a representative for the people of the U.S., and not just our government. After all, it was the regular operations of the U.S. government that the Red Skull was able to use and exploit.
The final, and fourth, stroke was Warbird moving into a position with the U.S. Army. Warbird is a decent character, and while I really don't care about her too much I do have to say that even as a background character she's been poorly used. Johns found a good way for her to go out on a positive note. She's been a soldier and she'll always be a soldier. At least now she'll receive a little more recognition for what she does (but I'm guessing we'll never see it).
While I am sad to see Geoff Johns leave the helm of The Avengers I am glad that he has taken the time to breath some new life into the team and plant the seeds for what could be good future stories. Next up at bat as a regular writer for The Avengers is Chuck Austen. It will be a bit until he's sitting at the helm, but he is on the way, and if there is anyone who I have faith in right now to follow up Johns, its its Austen. If he doesn't, I'll be sure to let you know.
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