All-New, Rebranded Avengers #40 – ‘Jokers to the Right’

Posted on by phil.wrede
A group of civilians protest the Avengers in the parking lot across from the Avengers tower. Their leader, the woman that called HYDRA to come attack the food truck vendors in the park, holds a sign that reads, “Aveng-ares? More like, Aveng-aren’ts!!” The title of the comic strip, “All-New, Rebranded Avengers Presents… ‘Jokers to the Right’,” is visible at the bottom of the image.
Domino, Rage, and the Black Widow stand outside of the tower, watching the protestors.
The lead protestor’s husband steps back, at her order, while Domino contacts the Falcon and the Vision, who are keeping watch on the activity from above.
The flying Avengers report that they don’t see any new activity, as a HYDRA agent steps forward to join the protestors.
Miles Morales taps Rage to get his attention, and asks if they need any help managing the protest. Rage tells Miles to get home to his mom, and stay away from this craziness.
Mayor Gruenwald (named for late Marvel Comics writer/editor Mark Gruenwald) and his military advisor, Major Steinberg (named for comics publisher/Marvel staffer “Fabulous Flo” Steinberg) walk up to the crowd, inquiring what exactly the protestors are demanding of the Avengers.
The protestors demonstrate a significant misunderstanding of superhero code names when they say they want the surrender and prosecution of the traitorous Avenger, “Warren Machine,” somehow thinking that, “War Machine,” is just a nickname.
The Mayor and Domino taunt one another from across the street.
Hoping to defuse the tense situation, Captain America steps out of Avengers Tower, not even wearing his mask!
The credits for the comic strip, citing the Unsplash users whose photographs were the background art, the ownership of Marvel by Disney, the creation of Marvel characters by actual human beings, and the figure photography/script/lettering by me, Phil Wrede.

If there’s anything we’ve learned from the last several years, it’s that unchecked online radicalization has the unfortunate tendency to leak into the real world. The internet: it’s not just an imaginary place, anymore (not that it ever was before)! Not even the Avengers are safe from the people who went down all the worst rabbit holes in 2020 and 2021.

I’ve tried to at least begin to tie some stray plot threads together, in this strip, with the Mayor encountering HYDRA agents and the anti-Avengers protestors while they’re all out in the world together, establishing Miles’ personal history with somebody other than J. Jonah Jameson, and reemphasizing Cap’s willingness to step on (and over) his friends’ toes when he’s convinced himself he’s the one who knows the right thing to do.

3 thoughts on “All-New, Rebranded Avengers #40 – ‘Jokers to the Right’”

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