Everyone probably has a Simpsons reference or two that they love but are convinced no one else gets, and one of mine is from "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", when the pro baseball players demoted to the minors gleefully split pre-game after passing their urine tests. For some reason (presumably, defective brain wiring) I was associating that with today's book; like if you fail a piss test or blow off the anti-sexual harassment training, you have to serve time on the Great Lakes Avengers #1, "Same Old, Same Old Great Lakes Avengers" Written by Zac Gorman, art by Will Robson, color art by Tamra Bonvillain. There were a few covers to this one from 2016, but the one with them in a diner may have influenced me recently!
This is the 'getting the band back together' issue: I hadn't read their 2005 mini-series, which featured the second appearance of Squirrel Girl. She went on to bigger and better things--she's having dinner with the current Avengers and misses the GLA's call--and these guys, well...Still, this opens with another character I wouldn't have expected: Connie Ferrari, lawyer and former love interest to Captain America from Dan Jurgens's run. It's implied she is still kicking herself for not landing that fish; but today she's got a job to do. After various ups-and-downs for both Tony Stark and the Avengers, through sheer luck, Dr. Val Ventura, a.k.a. Flatman, is now the legal owner of the Avengers name because he applied for a trademark way back when. (Probably back in Byrne's Avengers West Coast; Flatman has to ask "Who was president then?") Ferrari is authorized to offer the proverbial dump truck full of cash, but Flatman holds out for briefcase number two: permanent reinstatement of the Great Lakes Avengers!
That might be the easy part, since now Flatman has to convince his old teammates--the ones that survived, at any rate--to get back on board. Big Bertha's breakup with Mr. Immortal is complicating things, and Doorman has been resurrected as "an angel of death" "not doing a great job." While Mr. I is so far a no-show, since he's apparently buried himself, the rest head for their new headquarters in Detroit. Which seems to already have super-villains in the neighborhood...
I don't know that this was selling like hot cakes, but it ran into Secret Empire, an Avengers event with negative fun, and had to go with issue #7. Still, this probably works in small doses, anyway.
I bought this series back when it came out, thought it was OK, but didn't love the art. I really thought it just got canceled for low sales. Also, I did not realize Connie Ferrari was previously existing character.
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