Today, we look at the oddity of the Avengers deciding to just break up because a bunch of their members seemingly died in the Onslaught crossover.
This is "How Can I Explain?", which is a feature spotlighting inexplicable comic book plots.
THE TRAGEDY OF ONSLAUGHT
Now, don't get me wrong, I totally get that the Onslaught event was a very bad thing for the Avengers.
Onslaught was the manifestation of Professor Xavier's psychic abilities tainted by having Magneto's personality mixed with the Professor's (after Xavier wiped Magneto's mind out during the "Fatal Attractions" crossover). Magneto's personality amped up all the worst parts of Xavier's personality and the end result was a psychic being with its own personality - the malevolent being known as Onslaught. It encased itself in a special armor so it could hold physical form and then it started kicking some ass.
The final battle took place in Central Park in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1 (by Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, Adam Kubert, Joe Bennett, Dan Green, Art Thibert, Tim Townsend and Jesse Delperdang), where the X-Men are getting destroyed by Onslaught when suddenly, the other prominent superheroes of the Marvel Universe show up to help out...
That, by the way, is in and of itself a mistake, as the mutated version of Wasp didn't shrink.
So in the ensuing big fight, the Hulk is able to crack Onslaught's armor and then the villain's psychic energy was leaking out there, which was dangerous, as now there was no way of physically harming him. However, the heroes discovered that if humans entered the psychic energy, they could absorb some of his power (mutants couldn't do it because he would just take over their bodies as a host, which is what he was planning to do with the kidnapped X-Man. Scarlet Witch being able to go in due to her hex), so the heroes all sacrificed themselves to suck away his power, even though it seemingly killed them doing so.
Once he was "anchored" by the humans, the mutants then destroyed the energy, but, again, in the process it seemed like the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Crystal, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Namor, Doctor Doom, Giant-Man, Wasp and Falcon were all killed.
Of course, in actuality, Franklin Richards used his powers to create an alternate Earth where the "dead" heroes were all transported to (along with other versions of characters who did NOT make the journey) and that was Heroes Reborn, a deal where former Marvel creators Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were each given control of two of the now-canceled series (Fantastic Four and Iron Man for Lee and Captain America and the Avengers for Liefeld) to do new versions of the characters in a brand-new continuity.
So that is why there could no longer be an Avengers team in the Marvel Universe, since there was still an Avengers book, just in another reality. That's the OUTSIDE reason, though. One of the things about "How Can I Explain?" is that we acknowledge that there is often a good OUTSIDE reason why an inexplicable plot point exists. So here, for instance, it is perfectly reasonable that Marvel couldn't have an Avengers team because of the Heroes Reborn deal. So I get that.
That said...in the universe, it's just inexplicable, despite an annual a few years later that tried to explain it!
WHAT HAVE THE AVENGERS DONE IN THE PAST?
The most famous example of the Avengers starting fresh with a weird roster was when the original team of Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man and Wasp wanted to take a break, so while Captain America was on a mission with Rick Jones (and Thor was in Asgard), they all quit and hired three new members, all reformed supervillains, so the Avengers were suddenly just a foursome of Captain America and three former super-crooks, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
During this period, there were a number of times that the roster dipped even BELOW four members, as in Avengers #51, the team was just Hawkeye, Goliath (formerly known as Giant-Man) and the Wasp. And later, in Avengers #61-62, the team was just Hawkeye, Vision and Black Panther. So obviously, small rosters aren't the end of the world for the Avengers.
Later on, when Doctor Druid (being manipulated by a being calling herself Nebula) broke the Avengers apart, there literally were NO MEMBERS of the Avengers for an issue, until The Captain returned to the team and threw together a true "break in case of emergency" roster of himself, Thor, Gilgamesh and Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman.
So despite so many heroes "dying" in Onslaught, the Avengers shouldn't have broken up, especially since their team leader, Black Widow, didn't actually die in the battle!
But what actually happened?
THE AVENGERS BREAK UP
In Avengers Annual 1999 (by John Francis Moore and Leonardo Manco, with then-Avengers writer Kurt Busiek coming up with the story), set after the Avengers reformed following their return from that other Earth, we see in flashbacks what happened to the Avengers following Onslaught.
The team was made up of Black Widow, Quicksilver and Hercules (which, again, is no smaller than some lineups over the years). Black Widow tries to recruit her former Champions teammates Iceman and Archangel, but they're with the X-Men. Former Avenger, the Beast, also remains with the X-Men. She tries to recruit Scott Lang, Ant-Man, but he turns her down. She-Hulk says yes, but can't commit right away. Moondragon and War Machine both turn her down (well, War Machine was willing to do so, but he got rid of his armor right after this).
Quicksilver then quits the team in a huff over the anti-mutant hysteria in the wake of Onslaught (which, fair enough, that dude quits a lot), so it is just Black Widow and Hercules left...
but then Black Widow finds out that the government plans on canceling all of the Avengers' contracts due to a clause that allows them to do if there are no founding members on the Avengers. It's obviously not something they ever would have normally done, but because of the very public deaths of so many Avengers, they decided to implement the clause. Widow had been offered an undercover operation from SHIELD and she finally decided to just close up shop...
It's a fine effort by Moore, but I don't think it works, not when so many other former Avengers were still active out there, like Monica Rambeau, Quasar, Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), USAgent, Tigra, Living Lightning, Starfox and Sersi, and that's only counting former active Avengers! Surely there would be other superheroes who would be thrilled to join the Avengers.
Monica Rambeau and Quasar, though, are the ones who stand out the most, as I suspect that their absences in the Annual were due to the fact that there really is no way that they ever would say, "No" to the Black Widow under these circumstances.
Again, do I blame Moore for the story? Of course not, as he was just doing his best with what he had to deal with it, but it just didn't work.
If anyone else can think of a good inexplicable comic book plot, write me at brianc@cbr.com!