Following the bleakness of his New Avengers (1st series), Bendis decided to flip the tone and created a short-lived banner imprint called "the Heroic Age," which was more traditional in storytelling style. Along with a second New Avengers series, which also had a more positive outlook, Bendis simultaneously wrote another title named simply Avengers, the fourth of its name.
The series ended with #35, which was Bendis' last issue. The title (and that of New Avengers) was turned over to Jonathan Hickman, who relaunched both as Avengers (5th series) and New Avengers (3rd series).
