After an 8 year long run, Brian Michael Bendis will finally step down as the writer of The Avengers and The New Avengers. While many people are probably wondering what Bendis will do for his big finish, I've been wondering who will step up next. I think I have a pretty good too. Please note, while I did mention The New Avengers, my primary focus for this piece will be on the main series.
My choice would have to be not one but 2 writers. Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction. And here's why.
First. let's take a look at Ed Brubaker. He's had a similar career to Bendis. He began by cutting his teeth on crime comics much like Bendis did, and even briefly wrote Daredevil after Bendis left the book. But also like Bendis, as his career continued, he did more superheroish books too, such as The Immortal Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men, Captain America, and Secret Avengers. His strengths kie in telling long epic stories that have lasting effects on his characters, and I'd like to see that in The Avengers. Plus, writing Captain America gives him major points in my book, because Cap is one of the major players in The Avengers. The only downside is that Secret Avengers often focused too much on Steve Rogers, and not enough on the rest of the team, so I hope Brubaker corrects that if he is given The Avengers.
Now let's take a look at Matt Fraction. Matt started out on indie books like Casanova before taking on superhero comics like Uncanny X-Men, The Invincible Iron Man, and along with Brubaker, The Immortal Iron Fist. Like Brubaker, Fraction is good at telling long epics that affect the staus quos of his characters. And just like I give Ed Brubaker extra points for ahving worked on Captain America, Frctions earns extra points for having experince writing imortant marquee Avengers like Iron Man and Thor. Now even with all of these good books under his belt, there is no deneying that Fear Itself was less than stellar. However Fraction did a good job of letting each character shine in that book, and I'm sure that his story telling will be even tighter in a book where he does not have to make things jell with 10 other books.
These 2 guys should be next on The Avengers. How would it work. Well do how Brubaker worked with Greg Rucka on Gotham Central, and have Brubaker and Fraction alternate storylines, and then have them handle other storylines together.