Avengers #30

History

The six-issue arc that concludes with #30 was announced in early 2012 via a Marvel press call featuring Bendis and Simonson, with executive editor Tom Brevoort overseeing editorial. Bendis, a long-time admirer of Simonson, described the pairing as one of his most exciting collaborations at Marvel, noting that Simonson had once encouraged him early in his career. Bendis wrote full scripts but gave Simonson latitude to 'do it however you want,' resulting in a stylistically assertive visual approach that critics noted was tonally distinct from Bendis's dialogue-driven scripts. The arc ran across the closing months of Bendis's Avengers tenure, which ended in late 2012 after roughly eight consecutive years on the franchise.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published November 2012 (cover date), part of Avengers vol. 4 (2010–2012), the series launched under the 'Heroic Age' banner by Brian Michael Bendis.
• Written by Brian Michael Bendis; penciled by Walter Simonson; inked by Scott Hanna; colored by Jason Keith; lettered by Cory Petit.
• The issue's tagline, 'Love in the ruins,' signals its focus: Hawkeye (Clint Barton) and Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) fend off a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility assault by Mister Negative and his Inner Demons while debating the future of their relationship.
• The attack is later revealed to have been engineered by Madame Hydra, who tipped off the heroes to eliminate a rival — a classic Bendis-era espionage subplot woven into an event tie-in.
• Issue #30 is the final chapter of Walt Simonson's uninterrupted six-issue penciling run on the title (Avengers #25–30), his most sustained return to Marvel's main Avengers book in decades.
• This issue functions as an Avengers vs. X-Men tie-in, set during the Phoenix Five period of that 2012 crossover event; the title's AvX tie-ins were deliberately kept character-focused, with Bendis publicly stating the arc was 'from the Avengers' point of view' and designed to wrap up ongoing character arcs.
• Collected in Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 4 (hardcover ISBN 978-0785160793 / paperback ISBN 978-0785160809) and also in Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection Vol. 3.
• The issue also appears in the Avengers vs. X-Men Omnibus, which bundles the full 2012 event with all satellite tie-in issues from the Avengers and X-Men family of titles.

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