Jim Lemoine
Sep 19, 2003, 05:14 pm
<img src="http://pages.sbcglobal.net/harahap/top40as.gif" border=0 align=left alt="Top 10 X-Covers"></a>The Top Forty Avengers Stories of All Time
Assembled and Edited by Jim Lemoine
And there came a day... a day unlike any other. On the day the Avengers were formed, Marvel created a means by which to bring their greatest heroes together to fight the most powerful foes of all. The Avengers roster has been filled with Marvel's best, their up-and-coming stars, and some truly surprising picks (everyone from Thor to Hawkeye to Darkhawk to aging actress Moira Brandon!). Avengers is a book about the heroic ideal in action; it's a book about team dynamics among the elite; it's a book about the problems and worries metahumans have to deal with on a daily basis.
There's something special about a team with members as awe-inspiring as Captain America, as powerful as Thor, as cocky as Hawkeye, as deep as the Vision, and as unpredictable as Tigra. There's something really fun about reading a team that features the Wasp working with Firestar, or the Scarlet Witch helping out Darkhawk. And there's something awesome about a team that fights villains like Kang, Ultron, and Count Nefaria... all of whom have been known to slap around no less than Thor himself.
Like any comic series, Avengers is capable of some mediocre storylines... but when Avengers is good, it's simply unbelievable. Marvel's premier team has found itself in situations unlike any other superhero team, from court-martialing one of their own members for wife-beating, to hanging out with David Letterman, to being mind-controlled and raped (yes, raped) by one of their teammates.
So read on, friends, as each week we present ten of the forty best Avengers stories ever created. See what these stories were about, how they impacted the team, and what exactly it was that made them so great. We've even asked long-time Avengers editor Tom Brevoort to join us and dish out a few words on what kind of impact the stories had for him.
So read on, and heed the call - for now, the Avengers Assemble!
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For the first part of this list (#40-#31), click here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21575).
For the second part of this list (#40-#31), click here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21829).
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/data/media/46/avengv3-49.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/46/avengv3-49.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 3) #49"></a>#20: THE KANG DYNASTY
Avengers (vol. 3) #41-55
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Alan Davis, Manuel Garcia, Kieron Dwyer, Brent Anderson, Ivan Reis, and Patrick Zircher
This story has EVERYTHING. And in the spirit of these anniversary features, I’m gonna give you ten reasons, in no particular order, why this story is worthy of a place amongst the Avengers best.
1) One of the biggest Avengers rosters we’ve ever seen. Let’s be honest: fans of team books like few things as much as a truly great epic where we get to see a ton of past and present team members gather together to face some gargantuan threat. I counted twenty-five Avengers during the course of this arc, and not a single one felt wasted (well, except that Darkhawk cameo). Watching all those characters, and seeing them all actually having something to do, is something no true fan can pass up.
2) One of the Avengers' greatest foes, Kang, in one of his most impressive appearances. We’ve seen Kang try to take over the world before, but not like this. Never has any villain had such a huge, well-armed force at their disposal. Add to that the assistance Kang gets from manipulating the likes of Attuma and the Master, and you’ve got as serious a threat as any villain has ever posed.
3) Second tier characters in meaningful roles. The Master of the World, a fairly minor villain, plays a substantive role in the story. At one point the likes of the Presence, the Atlanteans and the Deviants rise to defend the Earth against Kang’s forces. Their inclusion shows that writer Kurt Busiek has a true fan’s appreciation of the depth of characters in the Marvel world, and the will to use them to enrich his stories. Subtle touches that make the story feel more complete.
4) Marcus Immortus/the Scarlet Centurion. The father-son element between Kang and Marcus gives added depth to the actions of both throughout this story, and particularly at its conclusion. Busiek, through the device of Marcus, truly makes Kang feel like a conqueror, a character who seeks to write his name across history and establish a legacy to last forever. It is a facet of the character that has never been so well touched upon, and really makes Kang a richer, fuller character because of it.
5) Subplots galore. Remember I mentioned how the characters all had things to do? Well not only do they all have things to do, they all have things to say. And that’s rare. Firebird and Thor discuss the difficulties in being an immortal with mortal friends. Wonder Man and the Scarlet Witch come to terms with their relationship, referring to one another as “old friends”. Warbird deals with her uncertainty over her feelings for Marcus, and still more uncertainty when she kills the Master. And the secrets of Triathlon and the Triune Understanding are revealed. Everyone is working over something, and not in the self-important, angst-ridden way it often happens in comics. These characters know their lives, their world, may be ending, and they are forced to cut through the B.S. and face many of their demons right now.
6) Six artists, no shortcomings. Six different pencilers contribute to this arc, but there’s still a wonderful flow and continuity from issue to issue. It’s a credit to the entire stable of artists that they manage to produce something that embraces all their styles without becoming disjointed, or looking sloppy or rushed. It’s hard to do that sometimes with TWO artists, let alone half a dozen.
7) ‘Nuff said. The Avengers ‘nuff said silent issue (Avengers [Vol. 3] #49) is one of the best that event produced. A giant simulacrum of Kang walks down from outer space and drops some high tech weapon on Washington D.C., killing everyone in the city. The leaders, having been evacuated already, end the issue by signing terms of surrender! What makes this issue work so well as a silent issue is the fact that the events pictured are so powerful I can’t imagine what words would have been placed there. The entire point of the event (lost on many writers) was to present a story that could be told without words, NOT just a story with the dialogue omitted. This issue “reads” perfectly without words, showing that Busiek and penciler Kieron Dwyer knew exactly how to handle this gimmick for maximum effect.
8) Single-issue power. The above issue is one example of many single-issues within the larger story that are great in and of themselves. Avengers (Vol. 3) #42 shows Kang’s attempt at the beginning of the story to talk the Earth into submission by showing them the bleak futures he could protect them from. It’s a wonderfully handled issue, especially with Alan Davis’ rendering of the broken futures. #47 has Marcus secretly betraying his father by saving Warbird’s life, and their discussion of their “relationship” contains some fabulous dialogue. #51 has the Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man imprisoned in one of Kang’s P.O.W. camps, and deals mostly with their coming to terms with one another, and with a new role they must play for a while as heroes without powers. And another great single effort is Kang’s finale, #54, where Kang ponders his son and his legacy, and is defeated… in more ways than one.
9) Scope. The Kang Dynasty is an epic, no question, but it is really composed of several smaller stories strung together under a common thread. Clashes with enemies like Attuma, the Scarlet Centurion and the Presence ultimately segue into Kang’s war on the Earth, which gradually takes over until it becomes the primary focus. The gradual build-up makes the epic aspects more easily digestible without abbreviating them in a shorter number of issues.
10) A fitting finale. Kurt Busiek made the Avengers great again. After stagnating for a while towards the end of Volume 1, and the atrocity that was Volume 2, Busiek made the Avengers great again in a relatively short time. Other titles from the Heroes Return era took much longer to really get themselves back to greatness (if they’ve gotten there yet). Busiek basically saved the franchise, and I can’t imagine a better farewell for a writer.
The Kang Dynasty is easily one of the Avengers greatest stories, one I have no doubt will still be garnering praise when the franchise’s eightieth anniversary rolls around.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "Fans kept clamoring in the wake of Avengers Forever for us to do a great big epic in the regular Avengers title. And as soon as we got into it, all we heard from people was that it was going on too long. So there's no pleasing everybody."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg057.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg057t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #57"></a>#19: BEHOLD... THE VISION!
Avengers (vol. 1) #57-58
Written by: Roy Thomas
Art by: John Buscema
Do I even need to explain why this story is included in this prestigious list? This story's most unforgettable panel, as penciled by the great John Buscema, is enough proof of the beauty of Even An Android Can Cry. Featuring the first appearance of the Vision, Roy Thomas and John Buscema created a memorable addition to the roster of Earth's Mightiest. And in the process, we also get to glimpse the potential of arguably the most enduring creative team this book has ever seen.
A brief overview: Ultron is back, and he's determined to torment the living hell out of the Avengers. His new weapon: a powerful android of his own creation - the Vision. Unlike Ultron, however, his "son" does not possess his hatred for the human race. And as the Vision gets more and more in touch with his "humanity", loyalties change and the son betrays his father. In the end, a new Assembler is born.
Roy Thomas was the heir apparent to Stan Lee. Taking over most of Lee's creations in the late 60’s, Thomas' writing seamlessly continued Stan's melodramatic narrative style, but adding enough character to make his scripts sound in tone that's distinctly his. One thing that both writers have in common was their tendency to include philosophical overtones in their dialogue. And if Lee found his philosophical sounding board in the Silver Surfer, Thomas found his in the form of the Vision. And man, Thomas surely had a good time waxing philosophically in this debut of his amazing creation.
One of the more memorable sequences in this two-parter was a lone page which I personally see as a high point in the Thomas-Buscema partnership. This page shows a boy playing with Ultron's head in a city dump while Thomas quotes a poem from Percy Bysshe Shelley. The irony in the fusion between Buscema's playful art and Thomas' use of the Shelley poem showed an extraordinary marriage of words and pictures - a feat that showed an extraordinary mastery of playing with the storytelling potential of the comic book medium. Up to now, I'm still amazed whenever I see that page. Thomas and Buscema were really in synch in that sequence.
Ever since the death of John Buscema, the panel portraying the Vision shedding a tear has taken on a special meaning for me. Buscema has long made it known that he's never really found fulfillment in doing superhero work. But it has always been said that if there's one superhero book that he would cherish, it would most likely be the Avengers. With one emotion-filled panel, Buscema delivered a picture "for the ages". "A picture paints a thousand words," some would say. I definitely could not agree more.
This entry written by Erwin Rafael
Tom Brevoort: "This is really the moment when Roy made Avengers his, rather than just following up on what Stan had done earlier. In the Vision, he gave the book its breakout star, and the character around whom the series would turn for a good long while."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/data/media/46/avengv3-01.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/46/avengv3-01.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 3) #1"></a>#18: ONCE AN AVENGER...
Avengers (vol. 3) #1-3
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: George Perez
The Avengers were in a very…interesting…time. A year gone, they and so many of the Earth’s heroes had sacrificed themselves in order to take down Onslaught and save, essentially, the universe. But thanks to the powerful wishes of Franklin Richards, all of the Earth’s heroes had been resurrected on another world, with no memory of their former lives. This was Heroes Reborn, and here you can find Avengers Volume 2. For a year, the heroes went about their altered lives before they were made aware of what had happened and managed to bring themselves back to their normal Earth. This was Heroes Return, and so would have to begin Avengers Volume 3. But with the transitory Heroes Reborn out of the way, and to much of fandom blissfully so, there comes the problem of just how to begin this great new phase in the saga of Marvel’s greatest super-team, the Avengers. And the clear answer for any Avengers fan is to have an Epic.
A dire warning from Thor assembles the Avengers. All of them. Almost every hero who ever served as an Avenger is contacted and brought in to face a threat more dire than any that has come before, and the halls of Avengers mansion swell with heroes. Some respect the call but cannot help the team---Spider-Man and Moon Knight---while others are left feeling helpless in the midst of the turmoil---Jarvis and Rick Jones. This story lacks for no one. But by utilizing a combination of Scarlet Witch’s mysterious magical powers, her own evil magic, and Norse artifacts stolen from Asgard, Morgan Le Fay is able to defeat all of these Avengers and rule the world. Worse, her rule of the world is guaranteed by the Elite Guard, comprised of brainwashed Avengers. All of them. The greatest force ever assembled on this Earth has now become the most terrible. The Heroes have Returned.
Wanda’s plight is central to the story, and even amidst the throng of Avengers deserves special mention. Chained beneath Morgan’s castle, Wanda rails against this new world order and tries to use her powers to summon some sort of help from her friends, but she finds no answer. But turning inward, she finds a greater power, and brings it forth---only to find something completely different. In her desperation, she throws open her arms and summons the spirit of the late Simon Williams, Wonder Man. While dying, Simon had tried to find something to anchor him to the living world, and had found Wanda. All this time, he had in some way lived on through the strength of her will, and now was given form again in order to save her. It was in large part Wanda who brought a stop to Morgan’s plans, but that is not the most important thing she did---here, she crafted something that truly deserved being called a Hero Reborn.
But as we are introduced to this new world, ruled by Morgan, things begin to change. Captain America, dubbed Yeoman America, hears Wanda’s pleas and… wakes up. He remembers Morgan’s domination of the world, and he realizes what has happened to all of them. The dream of the Avengers was so strong within him that it overcame the mystical reprogramming done by Morgan---as the symbol of the dream, Captain America was the first to be awoken by its strength. But the truly visionary choice by Busiek comes in choosing his freed line-up, as only those who truly embrace the idea of the Avengers stand a chance of resisting Morgan. Thor had already begun to shake off the dream on his own, and returns from Asgard to join Captain America, who had unto himself gathered the truest Avengers.
He went to Hawkeye first, realizing that there was something fundamental about Hawkeye’s heroism that would give him a chance, and so he forced Hawkeye to remember the team, and Clint…woke up, followed by Wasp and Photon. But when this little band approached Iron Man, the plan fell through; Tony Stark and Iron Man both felt so right in this time and station that he was someone immune to the dream of the Avengers, and he was almost their downfall. There were many great things to take away from Once an Avenger, but I remember this more than anything else about the story. When things reached that moment of do-or-die, Iron Man failed the test, and Iron Man failed the Avengers. All the other members of Captain America’s band were more a part of the Avengers than Iron Man could hope to be, and that says enormous things about the character. Quasar was awakened by the Captain’s plea, and so was Justice, who despite never having been an official Avenger still embraced the dream more absolutely than almost anyone. But Iron Man was ultimately found wanting. It was a brilliant turn, and beautifully done.
What makes this story so absolutely, truly great is that it defines exactly what the Avengers mean, as a book, as a team, and as a concept. When beginning the series anew, Busiek went back to the original reason the Avengers were existed; they were a gathering of the mightiest heroes to face the mightiest threats, and their battles were always meant to be absolutely grand, with all the meaning that word ever had. After many long years, Kurt Busiek gave us back our Avengers.
This entry written by Dave Harris
Tom Brevoort: "It's George--a mature George--drawing all of the Avengers again. What could be better?"
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/lasta2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/lasta2t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Last Avengers Story #2"></a>#17: THE LAST AVENGERS STORY
Last Avengers Story #1-2
Written by: Peter David
Art by: Ariel Olivetti
Last Avengers Story is a startlingly powerful glimpse of yet another possible alternate future for Earth's Mightiest Mortals. It chronicles the terrible destruction that befalls the Avengers, killing or otherwise damaging many of them, and leading to the formation of a new team. When Ultron surfaces and slaughters the newbies, he challenges his "father", Hank Pym, to gather together the surviving Avengers for one last battle for the fate of humanity.
As if Ultron weren't enough trouble, this Ultron is working for Kang. Having traveled one hundred years into the future, Kang discovered a book that chronicles the downfall and deaths of the Avengers. Kang decides to use this book as a blueprint with which to win his final confrontation with the Avengers. But Kang goes "off script" as it were, which causes Ultron (who planted the book in the future, long story) to turn on him. But we'll get back to that in a minute.
The primary point of the story is not the plot leading up to the battle, but the series of painful fates writer Peter David establishes for the Avengers. Most of these are told to us in past tense, as events chronicled in the book and leading up to the confrontation Kang now plans. Though some of the dead Avengers perished in battle (Thor, Thing and Hercules die in a battle for Asgard and Olympus), most of the Avengers' grisly fates are examples the team destroying itself. The Hulk goes mad and kills Tigra and Wonder Man, the ensuing blast of ionic energy killing him as well. Quicksilver and the Vision get into a conflict in which Quicksilver runs at super-speed towards a diamond hard Vision... just as the Scarlet Witch gets between them. Wanda is crushed to death, and Pietro kills himself in his grief. And the survivors are no better off: the Vision abandoned humanity entirely after Wanda's death, Hawkeye was blinded, and Captain America was elected president and then nearly assassinated, kept alive by machines.
By the time Pym has to gather a team to fight Kang and Ultron, he doesn't have much to pick from. His team is comprised of himself, the Wasp (his wife), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Cannonball, and the offspring of various Avengers including She-Hulk, Hercules and the Vision. Eventually the blind Hawkeye, his wife Mockingbird, and the reclusive Vision join the fray as well. In the end Kang's deviation from the futuristic book causes the villains' defeat. Both Kang and Ultron die, as do the Vision, Pym, and most of the second-generation Avengers.
What makes this story so great is the sheer brutality of it all. Doomed futures are nothing new, nor original. But this is different: the future itself is not doomed, just the Avengers. Their lives have spiraled into chaos and self-destruction, literally killing each other. The unflinching savagery of the situations makes them especially potent. Wanda's death is particularly chilling, Kang cuts one of the new Avengers' legs off, and the Hulk's tearing Tigra in half gives a painfully clear depiction of what a being with the Hulk's strength would truly be capable of.
Last Avengers Story works well because its focus is on how dangerous the Avengers are to themselves. Even the pain and destruction caused by Ultron is, in a way, the Avengers self-destructing: Ultron was Pym's creation after all. Many stories, particularly alternate future stories, deal with how the stress and dangers of being heroes can destroy those heroes. What takes Last Avengers Story to the next level is the fact that it makes that destruction literal and physical, giving us a bloody taste of what all those other stories only hint at. There's a power to that that makes this more than just another alternate future story.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "This is another one I liked better in theory than in practice. I enjoyed the tale well enough when Peter had serialized it in his CBG column, but I found the eventual painted project difficult to look at and difficult to wade through."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/vision-sw3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/vision-sw3t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Vision & The Scarlet Witch (Vol. 2) #3"></a>#16: THE VISION AND THE SCARLET WITCH
Vison & The Scarlet Witch (vol. 1) #1-12
Written by: Steve Englehart
Art by: Richard Howell
Superheroes becoming involved and getting married is nothing new. But when one of them is an android and the other is a witch, the conventional trappings of superhero romance go right out the window. This twelve issue limited series follows the unlikely couple of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch as they face their most difficult challenges yet: things like getting a house and becoming parents.
Before you action-junkies groan about the prospect of twelve-issue without a battle, let me put your mind at ease: superheroes don't get to retire, or take time off. The bad guys are always nearby, and any halfway decent hero can't go a week without accidentally bumping into somebody's plot to enslave the human race. It's no different here, which is why the series is so entertaining: the Vision and the Scarlet Witch are trying to live their lives, to find themselves and to develop identities away from the Avengers. But as they are growing and learning about themselves and each other, they keep finding themselves getting tangled up with this villain or that. It's the best of both worlds, as the standard superhero fare is woven into the spaces between the couples quest for a better, simpler life.
The first two issues are largely the usual superhero story. Wanda rescues the Vision from being studied by the government, and then they become entangled in the machinations of Ultron and the Grim Reaper (costing the latter villain his life). But by issue #3, things begin to slow down, and the couple's thoughts turn to the subject of children. How can an android father children? It seems like an impossibility, something that will be denied them, acting as another reminder that they are not normal folks.
Of course the fact that they aren't normal folks means they don't have to play by normal rules. After nearly being sacrificed by the Salem Seven (I told you they couldn't keep the villains away), Wanda's body is surging with mystical energy. Focusing her powers inward, trying to make the improbable occur, Wanda manages to do the one improbable thing she wanted most to happen: she conceives a child. The scene where Wanda magically feels that she has become pregnant, and where she shares that information with the Vision, is as touching a scene as you are likely to find in comics. It isn't just the wonderful surprise of an out of this world situation, it's the common joy that comes from knowing you are going to be parents. Steve Englehart's dialogue truly captures the giddy joy of the conversation, and the looks Richard Howell places on the happy parents' faces are absolutely perfect.
The next issue Wanda goes to the doctor (which doctor? Why Dr. Strange, of course!) to confirm what she has already sensed: she is pregnant. The couple takes the time to move into their new suburban home... only to be met with a hostile crowd of neighbors who don't want a mutant and an android in the neighborhood. The situation is disarmed, of course, and the happy couple concludes another issue in wedded bliss.
The cycle of fighting drama mixed with personal downtime is something Englehart does well to maintain throughout the series. It's a delicate balance: having too much action overwhelms the quiet scenes, having too little action runs the risk of making the stories seem sappy and overly sweet. Englehart finds that balance, however, and maintains it beautifully throughout the series.
The cycle begins again with issue #5, another high action issue, with a now visibly pregnant Wanda fighting a demon king on Halloween. By issue #6, Thanksgiving, we slow down for yet another powerful character driven piece. Wanda and the Vision have a number of guests over for Thanksgiving dinner... including Wanda's father, Magneto. [NOTE: Magneto was reformed at this point in time, and everyone had just recently discovered that he was Wanda and Pietro's father.] The tension between Magnus and his children works beautifully here, because unlike the usual emotional showdowns in the midst of loud battle scenes, the tension here exists over Thanksgiving dinner. It's a situation everyone can appreciate, the awkwardness of trying to be civil over a meal when your instinct is to fight. The tension here is done very well, and Englehart makes us feel it in all the right places: when Vision takes Magnus' coat as the other guests give icy stares; when Magnus tries to give his granddaughter a present and she cries; and when Wanda finally tells Magneto that if he wants her forgiveness and her respect he'll have to earn it. The tension is even felt when the inevitable battle begins, and the assailant is... the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?
Actually it's the Toad, using alien technology to make simulacrums of the original Brotherhood. Watching Magneto, Quicksilver and the Vision team up to fight them is a sight to behold, but what makes it so great is the fact that Magneto forbids the Vision or Quicksilver to tell Wanda what has happened: he doesn't want to worry her, nor does he want her to think he is trying to use heroism to mend their relationship. He takes her words to heart: if he wants her respect, he'll have to really earn it.
If I hadn't already rambled on as long as I have, I'd focus on each issue and the greatness therein: Vision's revelation that he is as real as any other man, despite his origins; Crystal, having an affair with Wanda and Vision's neighbor, and the damage done to all concerned when it comes to light; the Toad, coming to "rescue" his love, Wanda, only to be repulsed by the sight of her while pregnant. And, of course, the moment the entire series led to: Wanda giving birth... to twins!
This would be a shoe-in top ten story if it weren't for all the damage that has been done to this story in the years since. Vision and Wanda split up, and their children were reduced to magically induced figments of Wanda's imagination. Magneto returned to his old villainous ways, Pietro and Crystal continued to relive their cycle of estrangement and reconciliation, and the Vision lost much of his humanity.
Few characters have been as ill-served over the years as Wanda and the Vision, but this series shows them at their best. This is them in the happiest of times... and the best of stories.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "I found the year-long structure of this one to be a bit uneven, with some really good moments and some not-so-good ones. In the end, of course, all of this stuff would end up being undone."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg160.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg160t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #160"></a>#15: ... THE TRIAL!
Avengers (Vol. 1) #160
Written by: Jim Shooter
Art by: George Perez
I am cursed to live in a place where soap operas dominate my normal television life. Virtually three-fourths of the TV shows here are soap operas, and I guess you could say that I have had my full of them. But I do know a good soap when I see one, and The Trial has all the elements of a memorable soap opera episode. This is Jim Shooter trying to win a daytime Emmy, ably assisted by then up-and-coming artist, George Perez.
A brief overview: Captain America and company were away on a mission. Left in the mansion were a handful of Avengers - the Black Panther, Beast, Scarlet Witch, the Vision, and lastly, the newly resurrected Wonder Man. It was during this time that the Grim Reaper - Wonder Man's brother - chose to strike. The Reaper's mission - to hold a trial to know who the real Simon Williams is - Wonder Man or the Vision.
A love triangle. Internal family disputes. Growing friendships. And LOTS of drama. This is daytime soap posing as an Avengers standalone issue. Shooter must have been having fun while writing this melodramatic story, and the good thing is he managed to keep a jaded soap opera hater like me interested and entertained while reading the story.
Shooter's writing is not perfect, mind you, since I do still wish that he had toned down on some of the soap elements. For example, how convenient is it to have all the important figures in Wonder Man's life under one roof when the Grim Reaper attacked? The coincidence is killing me. And why the hell would such a powerhouse Avengers lineup even bother to listen politely while Grim Reaper holds a trial? Yet another leap in logic.
Ah, but where would the fun be in a soap opera if it actually makes perfect sense? The key to enjoying soap is suspending disbelief and letting the drama sweep you, and once I did that with The Trial, that's how I found the magic in this story. This story brought a lot of depth to Wonder Man's character, adding to his "tragic Superman" persona. And while Simon Williams is not exactly everyone's favorite character, I believe that most readers would feel genuinely sorry for him after reading this story. Simon meeting his criminal brother and reliving the memory of a forgettable past life was bad enough already. But hearing that the woman he loves was really in love with another was the final straw. It's a good thing that Simon has newly-found friend Hank McCoy at his side.
This story features some early work from George Perez. While his work here is still miles away from his present work (heck, it's even miles away from his Teen Titans work!), it's still a beauty to look at. One can already see a potential talent which could rival the work of the definitive Avengers artist, John Buscema.
The Trial is one short dramatic chapter in Avengers history, and it's an entertaining one at that. Beyond its entertainment value, however, The Trial also serves as a reminder of what makes the Avengers different from the stories of other "pantheon" groups like the JLA. The Avengers is not just a sprawling epic of powerful forces of good versus the malevolent forces of evil. It's also a grand soap opera, littered with stories full of drama and of heart.
This entry written by Erwin Rafael
Tom Brevoort: "This is the issue where George really pulled it all together in terms of his art style, and he's backed up by a great Shooter story and script."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg009.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg009t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #9"></a>#14: THE COMING OF WONDER MAN
Avengers (vol. 1) #9
Written by: Stan Lee
Art by: Don Heck
As so often happens, it is a Zemo who launches one of the most successful attempts to destroy the Avengers. And it would have worked, to be sure, if not for one man, one Wonder Man, finding his own nobility. Zemo’s latest plan is to create a new super-being and use him to infiltrate the Avengers, eventually destroying them from within. Simon Williams, who turned to embezzlement when put out of business by Tony Stark, was given unimaginable power so that he and Zemo’s Masters of Evil, together, could seek revenge against Stark and the Avengers. The catch---the process which created Wonder Man would also destroy him within a week, and only Zemo held the antidote…Wonder Man was ultimately powerless. Trickery earned him a place on the Avengers, and trickery had the Avengers desperately trying to find him their own cure; finally, trickery led them all into a trap. But at the moment Zemo would have killed them all, Wonder Man realized that this was worth no price, and turned on Zemo, saving the Avengers and sacrificing himself.
The dichotomy in this issue is truly fascinating. To the Avengers, Wonder Man begins as nothing but a hero. He helps them repel the Masters of Evil and joins as a friend and teammate. To the readers, he is a simple villain. He began as a criminal and moved on to being the worst kind of spy, with no redeeming qualities. This character is remarkably complex in his portrayal, despite having only entered the scene in this very issue; while the heroes can only see him as a hero, we can only see him as an irredeemable sneak. But, you see, Zemo and Simon played both of us a little bit. He wasn’t the basest villain, nor was he the golden God. He was something in between, and that makes all the difference. Capable of acts of evil, but also acts of kindness. This isn’t necessarily what we see as either hero or villain. Instead, this is what we see as human. Simon Willaims, everything else aside, was a normal man brought into the schemes and adventures of giants---no matter how powerful he became, he was first and foremost a man.
In one story, we are given the combination of betrayal and redemption, both with dire prices. Wonder Man, gifted with powers enough to rival those of the Avengers, first uses his power to defeat them. But as he finally realizes what he has done, he ultimately decides to put the lives of heroes ahead of his own, and he uses his powers for good. In those final pages, he establishes himself as exactly what an Avenger should be---a hero and a friend, powerful yet vulnerable. Human. Noble.
“Perhaps---every man---dreams of doing one noble thing---in his life! Now I can die---knowing that I didn’t live---in vain!” God bless.
This entry written by Dave Harris
Tom Brevoort: "A little classic that perfectly captures the essence of early Marvel. This is easily the most heartfelt of the early issues of the title."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg213.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg213t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #213"></a>#13: COURT-MARTIAL
Avengers (Vol. 1) #213
Written by: Jim Shooter
Art by: Bob Hall
Avengers #213 is probably my single favorite graphic stand-alone story ever written. In this one issue, writer Jim Shooter gave us all the different incarnations of Hank Pym: the hero, the lover, the psychotic, the wanna-be. He painted a realistic but disturbing picture of one of the Avengers' greatest icons, and then tore him down to disgrace and divorce. Over the course of one well-paced issue, we witnessed the long-foreshadowed fall of the founding Avenger known as Yellowjacket. And things would never be the same.
It had all started two issues earlier when a new team lineup emerged for the Avengers: the founding five members (Iron Man, Thor, Yellowjacket, the Wasp, and Captain America) plus Tigra, the team's obligatory rookie. Surrounded again by powerhouses and legends, the insecure Hank began another mental breakdown, one that made him desperately want to prove himself. In his first battle back with the team, he nearly killed a supposed enemy who had stopped fighting, shocking his teammates. Cap, fearing the consequences of great power used rashly, found it necessary to bring formal charges against Yellowjacket... and that's where the story of Court-Martial began.
In the midst of his breakdown, perhaps again being controlled by his schizophrenic and abrasive Yellowjacket identity, Hank Pym was a jerk. Despite his constant rude comments to the Avengers and some horrible cruelty to his wife the Wasp, everybody continued to support him. Jan herself tried to be the perfect wife for him, throwing herself at him constantly and wrapping her entire identity in her love for him. Hank took that love and threw it back in her face... and he misinterpreted his teammates' support as jealousy and hostility. The funny thing is, if Hank had acted in a sane manner during his trial, if he'd left well enough alone, the court-martial would have easily ended with him being declared innocent. Instead, Pym's fragile psyche broke completely under the pressure, and he paid the price.
Hank built a robot much like Ultron to break into his trial and beat the Avengers senseless. His plan was simple: the robot (made of adamantium) had one weak spot, and only Hank himself knew where it was. So after the Avengers were defeated, Yellowjacket could save the day and accept the admiration and apologies of his teammates. He locked himself away in his lab for days preparing his plan, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Janet Pym. When she searched his lab and learned of his plan, Hank savagely beat her, leaving her with a black eye, and threatening her should she tell the Avengers anything.
The court-martial itself went poorly, with Captain America sadly presenting his accusation and Hank responding by ludicrously accusing Cap of jealousy and of "consorting" with Avengers enemies. When the Avengers couldn't bear to look at their insane teammate any longer, Thor noticed the Wasp's black eye (the look on his face was perfect)... and Hank realized his cause was lost. The robot attacked, but it incapacitated Hank before he could hit the weak spot. Only the Wasp herself was able to stop the robot, since she'd overhead Hank ranting about the weak spot in his lab. His duplicity revealed and his wife-beating exposed, Henry Pym left Avengers Mansion in shame.
Due to marketing concerns, it's very rare that you see a canonical story of the fall of the hero. After all, if Spider-Man beat his wife in the comics, it's hard to make a movie about his heroism. In this issue, Shooter wrote an unthinkable script, utterly destroying one of the founding pillars of Marvel Comics. Hank Pym had been around since the beginning, even starring in his own series during the formative years of Marvel. And now... his own heroism had pushed him to the brink. It was shocking, it was disappointing... but you could honestly see it coming, if you'd bothered to look. And it made for a truly different and enjoyable reading experience.
As I said, this is probably my favorite single comic issue ever created. Every page is packed with compelling plot and amazing characterization. There's no supervillain battle; it's just a character study revealing the dirty truth about Hank Pym, and showcasing Earth's Mightiest in one of their more trying moments. It calls to mind modern classics like Watchmen and Squadron Supreme... and comic book storytelling doesn't get much better than that.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "I'm of two minds on this one. I understand what Shooter was going for in concept, but I just didn't buy into Hank Pym's actions at all--didn't believe the character would naturally behave the way he was behaving. I think the idea of the story is really interesting, but the choice of subject is off-base--and has damaged that character forever (as seen in the parallel story in Ultimates)."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg373.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg373t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 3) #373"></a>#12: THE LAST GATHERING
Avengers (vol.1) #372-375
Written by: Bob Harras
Art by: Steven Epting
The Last Gathering has the makings of a traditional "Avengers against all odds, fate of the world in the balance" kind of story. The team faces off against a powerful opponent, the Proctor, and his team of alternate reality Avengers, the Gatherers. The final battle is a dramatic one, complete with revelations about Proctor's identity (he is an alternate reality Black Knight), the descent of an Avenger (Sersi) into madness and self-destruction, and the death of the major villain. There are even complicated love triangles, misunderstandings between the super-folks and the authorities, and a ton of property damage.
So what else is new?
What makes this story a cut above the rest is that it doesn't rise or fall on the chaos of the situation, but on the relationships between the characters. It's a complicated arrangement, one that had been building for dozens of issues, but the basics are as follows: the Black Knight has a thing for both Sersi and Crystal, two lady Avengers who never met a man they didn't like. Unfortunately Crystal is a married woman, and her estranged husband, Quicksilver, is none too happy about the interest she is showing in another man. This complication, however, seems mild when compared to the complication that arises when Proctor arrives on the scene. Proctor is an alternate reality version of the Black Knight who fell in love with an alternate reality version of Sersi. But she rejected him, turning him bitter. He eventually went insane, gained some very formidable powers, and killed his world's version of Sersi with the cursed ebony blade. Since then he has traveled from reality to reality, killing Sersi in every world he comes to. And now he's come for her in this reality.
The Proctor and his Gatherers had already clashed with the Avengers several times prior to this story, which would be their final confrontation. Proctor had been manipulating Sersi for a few dozen issues now, manipulating the people and things around her, trying to drive her mad. The end result is that, by the time The Last Gathering begins, Sersi is pretty well unhinged. She turns her substantial powers on everything around her, causing plenty of wanton destruction, and making it very hard for her fellow Avengers to support her.
There are three main relationships that drive the story: the relationship between the Black Knight and Sersi, the relationship between Proctor and Sersi, and the relationship between the third wheels of this relationship, Crystal and Quicksilver.
Neither Sersi nor the Black Knight are characters known for their fidelity. Black Knight, under Bob Harras' pen, became something of a playboy, flirting freely with all the ladies. Sersi was a party girl, always had been, and was never one to settle on a single guy. Bringing two unlikely characters together and having them truly fall for one another isn't anything new, but the way Bob Harras brings it all together here is superb. The other problems that surround these two, particularly as regards Crystal and the obsessive Proctor, prevents the budding relationship between Dane (the Black Knight) and Sersi from seeming contrived or overly saccharine. Neither character is really mellowing, not actively, nor are they tearing themselves apart over their feelings. These two were just a pair of flirty people who flirted their way into genuinely caring about one another. It's so natural and easy a transition that it comes right up on us, and the sacrifices the two are willing to make for one another surprise us while still making perfect sense.
Proctor's relationship with Sersi is one of dark obsession, which Harras handles very well. Throughout his appearances, Proctor manages to be a truly spooky figure in the way he coolly manipulates people and situations to drive Sersi insane. It isn't enough to destroy Sersi physically: he wants to destroy her mentally, to dominate her, and then to crush her the way his world's Sersi crushed him. The way Proctor makes Sersi seem so weak, so fragile is particularly startling when you consider the fact that Sersi, as an Eternal, is one of the most powerful of all the Avengers. Yet as this story approaches its conclusion Sersi is helpless against him, her spirit and her mind broken under his abuse.
Besides being spooky, there is something more than a little sexual about the Proctor's pursuit of Sersi's destruction. Everything he says and does is right on that edge between wanting to kill Sersi and wanting to possess her. I would liken it to classic vampire movies, where the dark yet alluring vampire half scares, half seduces the women to their doom. A similar situation is set up here, and it works to great effect.
What gives the story added depth is the subplot involving the relationship between Crystal and Quicksilver. I'll be honest: I don't really like either of these characters, particularly Crystal, nor do I pretend to understand what readers (and writers) find interesting about their travesty of a marriage. But Harras manages to do something with it here by playing Quicksilver against type. Pietro is still aloof and hard-hearted, but there are cracks in the façade. He is genuinely concerned about losing Crystal, and the more he tries to hide it the more it shows. In a particularly powerful moment, when Sersi is missing and the Avengers are at a loss for what to do about her insanity and the destruction it is causing, Pietro picks this horribly inconvenient time to ask Dane to stay away from his wife. He doesn't command Dane to stay away, nor does he make a threat. Pietro is asking Dane to step aside, asking him, man to man, to give him a chance to fix his marriage. It is a touchingly real moment by a character who rarely allows even a speck of his true feelings to show.
If this story has any shortcomings, it would be in what has come since. The issue of Pietro and Crystal's marriage has never been resolved. Dane and Sersi came together, eventually traveling to another reality together, but they went their separate ways upon returning to Earth, and neither character has really been in the spotlight since. This story has the appearance of the perfect beginning and ending saga, tying up old plots and beginning new ones, but in many ways this was the last blast for these characters, as none of them have enjoyed this level of prominence since.
The Last Gathering does a great job tying in all the classic elements of a perfectly realized finale. This is the way long-term plots are supposed to be resolved, with a perfect blend of style and substance, mingling together into an experience that can move both characters and readers forward to somewhere new.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "It suffered a bit from the sorts of excesses that many X-Men sagas suffered from--seat-of-the-pants plotting, fuzzy motivations, previous clues not adding up quite right--but in the end, this was probably the best Avengers story in close to 100 issues, and the capper on a really nice run by Bob Harras and Steve Epting."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg016.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg016t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #16"></a>#11: THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH
Avengers (vol. 1) #16
Written by: Stan Lee
Art by: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
It may be impossible for a modern comic reader to truly understand what a huge event Avengers #16 was. The Old Order Changeth marked a number of firsts... not just for Avengers, but for Marvel Comics as a whole! It was the first time Captain America was a permanent team leader, the first time the action/battle sequences were secondary to more passive story elements in a Marvel superhero comic, and the first time a team roster completely changed. Avengers #16 was the issue that made stories like Giant-Size X-Men #1, X-Force #117, and Avengers (Vol. 3) #4 possible; without it, a super-team roster change would be preposterous and unheard of.
Yes, this issue really was that big a deal. And the fans were shocked! Sure, they'd been warned in Avengers #15 that a lineup change was in the works for the next issue, but Stan Lee didn't so much as hint as to how far he planned to go. In Avengers #16, no less than Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, and the Wasp left the team... leaving only the relative neophyte Captain America an Avenger and placing him in charge of three villains! Hawkeye, an Iron Man villain from Tales of Suspense, joined X-Men villains Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in a new, less popular, and severely less powerful team. And, as I said earlier, the fans were shocked.
A lot of disappointed fans wrote into All About The Avengers (the original title of the book's letter column), and I thought it might be fun to see how they welcomed Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Witch:
"Avengers #16 almost made me crawl up in a small corner of my room and cry... as a team {the new Avengers} they'd trip over each other... Cap is the only one who would know what he was doing!"
"What are you? Out of your tree or something? It is bad enough that Iron Man and Giant-Man are replaced by truly seedy second-rate characters... I'm distraught at the crass, senseless manipulation of my favorite superheroes. Make the Avengers once again the greatest, most powerful, noblest...!"
And my personal favorite, "Boo! Hiss! You said in Avengers #15 that the Avengers' lineup would change in the next issue. I expected and hoped that you would choose from the roster of Spider-Man, Daredevil, Sub-Mariner... But, brother, did Stan goof it this time! ...Unless Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch are replaced by Namor, Spidey, and Daredevil, my next letter will be worse!"
Yup, Stan took a big risk creating the team that would come to be known as "Cap's Kooky Quartet"... and although inital reaction was mixed, in time the move would pay off in spades. Stan traded the big-names (Thor, Iron Man, and Giant-Man) for what were then a bunch of second-rate villains that few readers actually cared about. He combined them brilliantly with the recently restored living legend, Captain America, and a brand new team of Avengers was born... and a tradition of radical roster revamping was begun. Not to mention that it was in the pages of Avengers that the great modern legends of Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch were truly created.
It was a script as brave and groundbreaking as it was unthinkable. A superhero story that focused on the characters, as opposed to action-packed fight sequences, was extremely rare at the time (and, arguably, had never before been written at Marvel). And it could easily be argued (and it was) that Stan's desire to create conflict within a freer team of lesser-known characters wasn't enough to offset the cost of losing Thor or Iron Man. But this was a Stan Lee far removed from his original comics work, one who knew how to take a risk and make it pay off. He was just starting to kick things into high gear in... well... just about all of the other titles he wrote, creating more multi-issue storylines and deeper characterizations. But nowhere was Stan's evolution as a writer more evident than in Avengers #16, where he changed the series from a simple team-up book to an ongoing exploration of superhero relationships... and, of course, fighting the foes no single hero could stand against.
The Old Order Changeth represents Stan Lee at his peak: deep, moving, surprising, ground-breaking, unpredictable. In many ways, this issue was the true Avengers #1, setting the pace and standard for the thirty-eight years that would follow.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "So many years later, people really forget what an absolutely radical thing it was to take all of the popular characters out of Avengers and replace them with a squad of ex-villains. But the other thing it did was allow Avengers to read more like a Marvel book, with an emphasis on interpersonal relationships, in-fighting and conflict."
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Be sure to check back next week for our final installment, #10-1! For more special articles, features, and columns celebrating the 40th anniversaries of the Avengers and X-Men, click here! (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21464)
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ComiX-Fan would like to thank Van Plexico, Chris Luna, and all the fine folks at Avengers Assemble (a darn fine Avengers site, which can be found at www.avengersassemble.us/ (http://www.avengersassemble.us/)) for their cover image assistance!
Assembled and Edited by Jim Lemoine
And there came a day... a day unlike any other. On the day the Avengers were formed, Marvel created a means by which to bring their greatest heroes together to fight the most powerful foes of all. The Avengers roster has been filled with Marvel's best, their up-and-coming stars, and some truly surprising picks (everyone from Thor to Hawkeye to Darkhawk to aging actress Moira Brandon!). Avengers is a book about the heroic ideal in action; it's a book about team dynamics among the elite; it's a book about the problems and worries metahumans have to deal with on a daily basis.
There's something special about a team with members as awe-inspiring as Captain America, as powerful as Thor, as cocky as Hawkeye, as deep as the Vision, and as unpredictable as Tigra. There's something really fun about reading a team that features the Wasp working with Firestar, or the Scarlet Witch helping out Darkhawk. And there's something awesome about a team that fights villains like Kang, Ultron, and Count Nefaria... all of whom have been known to slap around no less than Thor himself.
Like any comic series, Avengers is capable of some mediocre storylines... but when Avengers is good, it's simply unbelievable. Marvel's premier team has found itself in situations unlike any other superhero team, from court-martialing one of their own members for wife-beating, to hanging out with David Letterman, to being mind-controlled and raped (yes, raped) by one of their teammates.
So read on, friends, as each week we present ten of the forty best Avengers stories ever created. See what these stories were about, how they impacted the team, and what exactly it was that made them so great. We've even asked long-time Avengers editor Tom Brevoort to join us and dish out a few words on what kind of impact the stories had for him.
So read on, and heed the call - for now, the Avengers Assemble!
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For the first part of this list (#40-#31), click here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21575).
For the second part of this list (#40-#31), click here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21829).
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/data/media/46/avengv3-49.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/46/avengv3-49.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 3) #49"></a>#20: THE KANG DYNASTY
Avengers (vol. 3) #41-55
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Alan Davis, Manuel Garcia, Kieron Dwyer, Brent Anderson, Ivan Reis, and Patrick Zircher
This story has EVERYTHING. And in the spirit of these anniversary features, I’m gonna give you ten reasons, in no particular order, why this story is worthy of a place amongst the Avengers best.
1) One of the biggest Avengers rosters we’ve ever seen. Let’s be honest: fans of team books like few things as much as a truly great epic where we get to see a ton of past and present team members gather together to face some gargantuan threat. I counted twenty-five Avengers during the course of this arc, and not a single one felt wasted (well, except that Darkhawk cameo). Watching all those characters, and seeing them all actually having something to do, is something no true fan can pass up.
2) One of the Avengers' greatest foes, Kang, in one of his most impressive appearances. We’ve seen Kang try to take over the world before, but not like this. Never has any villain had such a huge, well-armed force at their disposal. Add to that the assistance Kang gets from manipulating the likes of Attuma and the Master, and you’ve got as serious a threat as any villain has ever posed.
3) Second tier characters in meaningful roles. The Master of the World, a fairly minor villain, plays a substantive role in the story. At one point the likes of the Presence, the Atlanteans and the Deviants rise to defend the Earth against Kang’s forces. Their inclusion shows that writer Kurt Busiek has a true fan’s appreciation of the depth of characters in the Marvel world, and the will to use them to enrich his stories. Subtle touches that make the story feel more complete.
4) Marcus Immortus/the Scarlet Centurion. The father-son element between Kang and Marcus gives added depth to the actions of both throughout this story, and particularly at its conclusion. Busiek, through the device of Marcus, truly makes Kang feel like a conqueror, a character who seeks to write his name across history and establish a legacy to last forever. It is a facet of the character that has never been so well touched upon, and really makes Kang a richer, fuller character because of it.
5) Subplots galore. Remember I mentioned how the characters all had things to do? Well not only do they all have things to do, they all have things to say. And that’s rare. Firebird and Thor discuss the difficulties in being an immortal with mortal friends. Wonder Man and the Scarlet Witch come to terms with their relationship, referring to one another as “old friends”. Warbird deals with her uncertainty over her feelings for Marcus, and still more uncertainty when she kills the Master. And the secrets of Triathlon and the Triune Understanding are revealed. Everyone is working over something, and not in the self-important, angst-ridden way it often happens in comics. These characters know their lives, their world, may be ending, and they are forced to cut through the B.S. and face many of their demons right now.
6) Six artists, no shortcomings. Six different pencilers contribute to this arc, but there’s still a wonderful flow and continuity from issue to issue. It’s a credit to the entire stable of artists that they manage to produce something that embraces all their styles without becoming disjointed, or looking sloppy or rushed. It’s hard to do that sometimes with TWO artists, let alone half a dozen.
7) ‘Nuff said. The Avengers ‘nuff said silent issue (Avengers [Vol. 3] #49) is one of the best that event produced. A giant simulacrum of Kang walks down from outer space and drops some high tech weapon on Washington D.C., killing everyone in the city. The leaders, having been evacuated already, end the issue by signing terms of surrender! What makes this issue work so well as a silent issue is the fact that the events pictured are so powerful I can’t imagine what words would have been placed there. The entire point of the event (lost on many writers) was to present a story that could be told without words, NOT just a story with the dialogue omitted. This issue “reads” perfectly without words, showing that Busiek and penciler Kieron Dwyer knew exactly how to handle this gimmick for maximum effect.
8) Single-issue power. The above issue is one example of many single-issues within the larger story that are great in and of themselves. Avengers (Vol. 3) #42 shows Kang’s attempt at the beginning of the story to talk the Earth into submission by showing them the bleak futures he could protect them from. It’s a wonderfully handled issue, especially with Alan Davis’ rendering of the broken futures. #47 has Marcus secretly betraying his father by saving Warbird’s life, and their discussion of their “relationship” contains some fabulous dialogue. #51 has the Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man imprisoned in one of Kang’s P.O.W. camps, and deals mostly with their coming to terms with one another, and with a new role they must play for a while as heroes without powers. And another great single effort is Kang’s finale, #54, where Kang ponders his son and his legacy, and is defeated… in more ways than one.
9) Scope. The Kang Dynasty is an epic, no question, but it is really composed of several smaller stories strung together under a common thread. Clashes with enemies like Attuma, the Scarlet Centurion and the Presence ultimately segue into Kang’s war on the Earth, which gradually takes over until it becomes the primary focus. The gradual build-up makes the epic aspects more easily digestible without abbreviating them in a shorter number of issues.
10) A fitting finale. Kurt Busiek made the Avengers great again. After stagnating for a while towards the end of Volume 1, and the atrocity that was Volume 2, Busiek made the Avengers great again in a relatively short time. Other titles from the Heroes Return era took much longer to really get themselves back to greatness (if they’ve gotten there yet). Busiek basically saved the franchise, and I can’t imagine a better farewell for a writer.
The Kang Dynasty is easily one of the Avengers greatest stories, one I have no doubt will still be garnering praise when the franchise’s eightieth anniversary rolls around.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "Fans kept clamoring in the wake of Avengers Forever for us to do a great big epic in the regular Avengers title. And as soon as we got into it, all we heard from people was that it was going on too long. So there's no pleasing everybody."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg057.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg057t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #57"></a>#19: BEHOLD... THE VISION!
Avengers (vol. 1) #57-58
Written by: Roy Thomas
Art by: John Buscema
Do I even need to explain why this story is included in this prestigious list? This story's most unforgettable panel, as penciled by the great John Buscema, is enough proof of the beauty of Even An Android Can Cry. Featuring the first appearance of the Vision, Roy Thomas and John Buscema created a memorable addition to the roster of Earth's Mightiest. And in the process, we also get to glimpse the potential of arguably the most enduring creative team this book has ever seen.
A brief overview: Ultron is back, and he's determined to torment the living hell out of the Avengers. His new weapon: a powerful android of his own creation - the Vision. Unlike Ultron, however, his "son" does not possess his hatred for the human race. And as the Vision gets more and more in touch with his "humanity", loyalties change and the son betrays his father. In the end, a new Assembler is born.
Roy Thomas was the heir apparent to Stan Lee. Taking over most of Lee's creations in the late 60’s, Thomas' writing seamlessly continued Stan's melodramatic narrative style, but adding enough character to make his scripts sound in tone that's distinctly his. One thing that both writers have in common was their tendency to include philosophical overtones in their dialogue. And if Lee found his philosophical sounding board in the Silver Surfer, Thomas found his in the form of the Vision. And man, Thomas surely had a good time waxing philosophically in this debut of his amazing creation.
One of the more memorable sequences in this two-parter was a lone page which I personally see as a high point in the Thomas-Buscema partnership. This page shows a boy playing with Ultron's head in a city dump while Thomas quotes a poem from Percy Bysshe Shelley. The irony in the fusion between Buscema's playful art and Thomas' use of the Shelley poem showed an extraordinary marriage of words and pictures - a feat that showed an extraordinary mastery of playing with the storytelling potential of the comic book medium. Up to now, I'm still amazed whenever I see that page. Thomas and Buscema were really in synch in that sequence.
Ever since the death of John Buscema, the panel portraying the Vision shedding a tear has taken on a special meaning for me. Buscema has long made it known that he's never really found fulfillment in doing superhero work. But it has always been said that if there's one superhero book that he would cherish, it would most likely be the Avengers. With one emotion-filled panel, Buscema delivered a picture "for the ages". "A picture paints a thousand words," some would say. I definitely could not agree more.
This entry written by Erwin Rafael
Tom Brevoort: "This is really the moment when Roy made Avengers his, rather than just following up on what Stan had done earlier. In the Vision, he gave the book its breakout star, and the character around whom the series would turn for a good long while."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/data/media/46/avengv3-01.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/46/avengv3-01.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 3) #1"></a>#18: ONCE AN AVENGER...
Avengers (vol. 3) #1-3
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: George Perez
The Avengers were in a very…interesting…time. A year gone, they and so many of the Earth’s heroes had sacrificed themselves in order to take down Onslaught and save, essentially, the universe. But thanks to the powerful wishes of Franklin Richards, all of the Earth’s heroes had been resurrected on another world, with no memory of their former lives. This was Heroes Reborn, and here you can find Avengers Volume 2. For a year, the heroes went about their altered lives before they were made aware of what had happened and managed to bring themselves back to their normal Earth. This was Heroes Return, and so would have to begin Avengers Volume 3. But with the transitory Heroes Reborn out of the way, and to much of fandom blissfully so, there comes the problem of just how to begin this great new phase in the saga of Marvel’s greatest super-team, the Avengers. And the clear answer for any Avengers fan is to have an Epic.
A dire warning from Thor assembles the Avengers. All of them. Almost every hero who ever served as an Avenger is contacted and brought in to face a threat more dire than any that has come before, and the halls of Avengers mansion swell with heroes. Some respect the call but cannot help the team---Spider-Man and Moon Knight---while others are left feeling helpless in the midst of the turmoil---Jarvis and Rick Jones. This story lacks for no one. But by utilizing a combination of Scarlet Witch’s mysterious magical powers, her own evil magic, and Norse artifacts stolen from Asgard, Morgan Le Fay is able to defeat all of these Avengers and rule the world. Worse, her rule of the world is guaranteed by the Elite Guard, comprised of brainwashed Avengers. All of them. The greatest force ever assembled on this Earth has now become the most terrible. The Heroes have Returned.
Wanda’s plight is central to the story, and even amidst the throng of Avengers deserves special mention. Chained beneath Morgan’s castle, Wanda rails against this new world order and tries to use her powers to summon some sort of help from her friends, but she finds no answer. But turning inward, she finds a greater power, and brings it forth---only to find something completely different. In her desperation, she throws open her arms and summons the spirit of the late Simon Williams, Wonder Man. While dying, Simon had tried to find something to anchor him to the living world, and had found Wanda. All this time, he had in some way lived on through the strength of her will, and now was given form again in order to save her. It was in large part Wanda who brought a stop to Morgan’s plans, but that is not the most important thing she did---here, she crafted something that truly deserved being called a Hero Reborn.
But as we are introduced to this new world, ruled by Morgan, things begin to change. Captain America, dubbed Yeoman America, hears Wanda’s pleas and… wakes up. He remembers Morgan’s domination of the world, and he realizes what has happened to all of them. The dream of the Avengers was so strong within him that it overcame the mystical reprogramming done by Morgan---as the symbol of the dream, Captain America was the first to be awoken by its strength. But the truly visionary choice by Busiek comes in choosing his freed line-up, as only those who truly embrace the idea of the Avengers stand a chance of resisting Morgan. Thor had already begun to shake off the dream on his own, and returns from Asgard to join Captain America, who had unto himself gathered the truest Avengers.
He went to Hawkeye first, realizing that there was something fundamental about Hawkeye’s heroism that would give him a chance, and so he forced Hawkeye to remember the team, and Clint…woke up, followed by Wasp and Photon. But when this little band approached Iron Man, the plan fell through; Tony Stark and Iron Man both felt so right in this time and station that he was someone immune to the dream of the Avengers, and he was almost their downfall. There were many great things to take away from Once an Avenger, but I remember this more than anything else about the story. When things reached that moment of do-or-die, Iron Man failed the test, and Iron Man failed the Avengers. All the other members of Captain America’s band were more a part of the Avengers than Iron Man could hope to be, and that says enormous things about the character. Quasar was awakened by the Captain’s plea, and so was Justice, who despite never having been an official Avenger still embraced the dream more absolutely than almost anyone. But Iron Man was ultimately found wanting. It was a brilliant turn, and beautifully done.
What makes this story so absolutely, truly great is that it defines exactly what the Avengers mean, as a book, as a team, and as a concept. When beginning the series anew, Busiek went back to the original reason the Avengers were existed; they were a gathering of the mightiest heroes to face the mightiest threats, and their battles were always meant to be absolutely grand, with all the meaning that word ever had. After many long years, Kurt Busiek gave us back our Avengers.
This entry written by Dave Harris
Tom Brevoort: "It's George--a mature George--drawing all of the Avengers again. What could be better?"
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/lasta2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/lasta2t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Last Avengers Story #2"></a>#17: THE LAST AVENGERS STORY
Last Avengers Story #1-2
Written by: Peter David
Art by: Ariel Olivetti
Last Avengers Story is a startlingly powerful glimpse of yet another possible alternate future for Earth's Mightiest Mortals. It chronicles the terrible destruction that befalls the Avengers, killing or otherwise damaging many of them, and leading to the formation of a new team. When Ultron surfaces and slaughters the newbies, he challenges his "father", Hank Pym, to gather together the surviving Avengers for one last battle for the fate of humanity.
As if Ultron weren't enough trouble, this Ultron is working for Kang. Having traveled one hundred years into the future, Kang discovered a book that chronicles the downfall and deaths of the Avengers. Kang decides to use this book as a blueprint with which to win his final confrontation with the Avengers. But Kang goes "off script" as it were, which causes Ultron (who planted the book in the future, long story) to turn on him. But we'll get back to that in a minute.
The primary point of the story is not the plot leading up to the battle, but the series of painful fates writer Peter David establishes for the Avengers. Most of these are told to us in past tense, as events chronicled in the book and leading up to the confrontation Kang now plans. Though some of the dead Avengers perished in battle (Thor, Thing and Hercules die in a battle for Asgard and Olympus), most of the Avengers' grisly fates are examples the team destroying itself. The Hulk goes mad and kills Tigra and Wonder Man, the ensuing blast of ionic energy killing him as well. Quicksilver and the Vision get into a conflict in which Quicksilver runs at super-speed towards a diamond hard Vision... just as the Scarlet Witch gets between them. Wanda is crushed to death, and Pietro kills himself in his grief. And the survivors are no better off: the Vision abandoned humanity entirely after Wanda's death, Hawkeye was blinded, and Captain America was elected president and then nearly assassinated, kept alive by machines.
By the time Pym has to gather a team to fight Kang and Ultron, he doesn't have much to pick from. His team is comprised of himself, the Wasp (his wife), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Cannonball, and the offspring of various Avengers including She-Hulk, Hercules and the Vision. Eventually the blind Hawkeye, his wife Mockingbird, and the reclusive Vision join the fray as well. In the end Kang's deviation from the futuristic book causes the villains' defeat. Both Kang and Ultron die, as do the Vision, Pym, and most of the second-generation Avengers.
What makes this story so great is the sheer brutality of it all. Doomed futures are nothing new, nor original. But this is different: the future itself is not doomed, just the Avengers. Their lives have spiraled into chaos and self-destruction, literally killing each other. The unflinching savagery of the situations makes them especially potent. Wanda's death is particularly chilling, Kang cuts one of the new Avengers' legs off, and the Hulk's tearing Tigra in half gives a painfully clear depiction of what a being with the Hulk's strength would truly be capable of.
Last Avengers Story works well because its focus is on how dangerous the Avengers are to themselves. Even the pain and destruction caused by Ultron is, in a way, the Avengers self-destructing: Ultron was Pym's creation after all. Many stories, particularly alternate future stories, deal with how the stress and dangers of being heroes can destroy those heroes. What takes Last Avengers Story to the next level is the fact that it makes that destruction literal and physical, giving us a bloody taste of what all those other stories only hint at. There's a power to that that makes this more than just another alternate future story.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "This is another one I liked better in theory than in practice. I enjoyed the tale well enough when Peter had serialized it in his CBG column, but I found the eventual painted project difficult to look at and difficult to wade through."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/vision-sw3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/vision-sw3t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Vision & The Scarlet Witch (Vol. 2) #3"></a>#16: THE VISION AND THE SCARLET WITCH
Vison & The Scarlet Witch (vol. 1) #1-12
Written by: Steve Englehart
Art by: Richard Howell
Superheroes becoming involved and getting married is nothing new. But when one of them is an android and the other is a witch, the conventional trappings of superhero romance go right out the window. This twelve issue limited series follows the unlikely couple of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch as they face their most difficult challenges yet: things like getting a house and becoming parents.
Before you action-junkies groan about the prospect of twelve-issue without a battle, let me put your mind at ease: superheroes don't get to retire, or take time off. The bad guys are always nearby, and any halfway decent hero can't go a week without accidentally bumping into somebody's plot to enslave the human race. It's no different here, which is why the series is so entertaining: the Vision and the Scarlet Witch are trying to live their lives, to find themselves and to develop identities away from the Avengers. But as they are growing and learning about themselves and each other, they keep finding themselves getting tangled up with this villain or that. It's the best of both worlds, as the standard superhero fare is woven into the spaces between the couples quest for a better, simpler life.
The first two issues are largely the usual superhero story. Wanda rescues the Vision from being studied by the government, and then they become entangled in the machinations of Ultron and the Grim Reaper (costing the latter villain his life). But by issue #3, things begin to slow down, and the couple's thoughts turn to the subject of children. How can an android father children? It seems like an impossibility, something that will be denied them, acting as another reminder that they are not normal folks.
Of course the fact that they aren't normal folks means they don't have to play by normal rules. After nearly being sacrificed by the Salem Seven (I told you they couldn't keep the villains away), Wanda's body is surging with mystical energy. Focusing her powers inward, trying to make the improbable occur, Wanda manages to do the one improbable thing she wanted most to happen: she conceives a child. The scene where Wanda magically feels that she has become pregnant, and where she shares that information with the Vision, is as touching a scene as you are likely to find in comics. It isn't just the wonderful surprise of an out of this world situation, it's the common joy that comes from knowing you are going to be parents. Steve Englehart's dialogue truly captures the giddy joy of the conversation, and the looks Richard Howell places on the happy parents' faces are absolutely perfect.
The next issue Wanda goes to the doctor (which doctor? Why Dr. Strange, of course!) to confirm what she has already sensed: she is pregnant. The couple takes the time to move into their new suburban home... only to be met with a hostile crowd of neighbors who don't want a mutant and an android in the neighborhood. The situation is disarmed, of course, and the happy couple concludes another issue in wedded bliss.
The cycle of fighting drama mixed with personal downtime is something Englehart does well to maintain throughout the series. It's a delicate balance: having too much action overwhelms the quiet scenes, having too little action runs the risk of making the stories seem sappy and overly sweet. Englehart finds that balance, however, and maintains it beautifully throughout the series.
The cycle begins again with issue #5, another high action issue, with a now visibly pregnant Wanda fighting a demon king on Halloween. By issue #6, Thanksgiving, we slow down for yet another powerful character driven piece. Wanda and the Vision have a number of guests over for Thanksgiving dinner... including Wanda's father, Magneto. [NOTE: Magneto was reformed at this point in time, and everyone had just recently discovered that he was Wanda and Pietro's father.] The tension between Magnus and his children works beautifully here, because unlike the usual emotional showdowns in the midst of loud battle scenes, the tension here exists over Thanksgiving dinner. It's a situation everyone can appreciate, the awkwardness of trying to be civil over a meal when your instinct is to fight. The tension here is done very well, and Englehart makes us feel it in all the right places: when Vision takes Magnus' coat as the other guests give icy stares; when Magnus tries to give his granddaughter a present and she cries; and when Wanda finally tells Magneto that if he wants her forgiveness and her respect he'll have to earn it. The tension is even felt when the inevitable battle begins, and the assailant is... the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?
Actually it's the Toad, using alien technology to make simulacrums of the original Brotherhood. Watching Magneto, Quicksilver and the Vision team up to fight them is a sight to behold, but what makes it so great is the fact that Magneto forbids the Vision or Quicksilver to tell Wanda what has happened: he doesn't want to worry her, nor does he want her to think he is trying to use heroism to mend their relationship. He takes her words to heart: if he wants her respect, he'll have to really earn it.
If I hadn't already rambled on as long as I have, I'd focus on each issue and the greatness therein: Vision's revelation that he is as real as any other man, despite his origins; Crystal, having an affair with Wanda and Vision's neighbor, and the damage done to all concerned when it comes to light; the Toad, coming to "rescue" his love, Wanda, only to be repulsed by the sight of her while pregnant. And, of course, the moment the entire series led to: Wanda giving birth... to twins!
This would be a shoe-in top ten story if it weren't for all the damage that has been done to this story in the years since. Vision and Wanda split up, and their children were reduced to magically induced figments of Wanda's imagination. Magneto returned to his old villainous ways, Pietro and Crystal continued to relive their cycle of estrangement and reconciliation, and the Vision lost much of his humanity.
Few characters have been as ill-served over the years as Wanda and the Vision, but this series shows them at their best. This is them in the happiest of times... and the best of stories.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "I found the year-long structure of this one to be a bit uneven, with some really good moments and some not-so-good ones. In the end, of course, all of this stuff would end up being undone."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg160.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg160t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #160"></a>#15: ... THE TRIAL!
Avengers (Vol. 1) #160
Written by: Jim Shooter
Art by: George Perez
I am cursed to live in a place where soap operas dominate my normal television life. Virtually three-fourths of the TV shows here are soap operas, and I guess you could say that I have had my full of them. But I do know a good soap when I see one, and The Trial has all the elements of a memorable soap opera episode. This is Jim Shooter trying to win a daytime Emmy, ably assisted by then up-and-coming artist, George Perez.
A brief overview: Captain America and company were away on a mission. Left in the mansion were a handful of Avengers - the Black Panther, Beast, Scarlet Witch, the Vision, and lastly, the newly resurrected Wonder Man. It was during this time that the Grim Reaper - Wonder Man's brother - chose to strike. The Reaper's mission - to hold a trial to know who the real Simon Williams is - Wonder Man or the Vision.
A love triangle. Internal family disputes. Growing friendships. And LOTS of drama. This is daytime soap posing as an Avengers standalone issue. Shooter must have been having fun while writing this melodramatic story, and the good thing is he managed to keep a jaded soap opera hater like me interested and entertained while reading the story.
Shooter's writing is not perfect, mind you, since I do still wish that he had toned down on some of the soap elements. For example, how convenient is it to have all the important figures in Wonder Man's life under one roof when the Grim Reaper attacked? The coincidence is killing me. And why the hell would such a powerhouse Avengers lineup even bother to listen politely while Grim Reaper holds a trial? Yet another leap in logic.
Ah, but where would the fun be in a soap opera if it actually makes perfect sense? The key to enjoying soap is suspending disbelief and letting the drama sweep you, and once I did that with The Trial, that's how I found the magic in this story. This story brought a lot of depth to Wonder Man's character, adding to his "tragic Superman" persona. And while Simon Williams is not exactly everyone's favorite character, I believe that most readers would feel genuinely sorry for him after reading this story. Simon meeting his criminal brother and reliving the memory of a forgettable past life was bad enough already. But hearing that the woman he loves was really in love with another was the final straw. It's a good thing that Simon has newly-found friend Hank McCoy at his side.
This story features some early work from George Perez. While his work here is still miles away from his present work (heck, it's even miles away from his Teen Titans work!), it's still a beauty to look at. One can already see a potential talent which could rival the work of the definitive Avengers artist, John Buscema.
The Trial is one short dramatic chapter in Avengers history, and it's an entertaining one at that. Beyond its entertainment value, however, The Trial also serves as a reminder of what makes the Avengers different from the stories of other "pantheon" groups like the JLA. The Avengers is not just a sprawling epic of powerful forces of good versus the malevolent forces of evil. It's also a grand soap opera, littered with stories full of drama and of heart.
This entry written by Erwin Rafael
Tom Brevoort: "This is the issue where George really pulled it all together in terms of his art style, and he's backed up by a great Shooter story and script."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg009.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg009t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #9"></a>#14: THE COMING OF WONDER MAN
Avengers (vol. 1) #9
Written by: Stan Lee
Art by: Don Heck
As so often happens, it is a Zemo who launches one of the most successful attempts to destroy the Avengers. And it would have worked, to be sure, if not for one man, one Wonder Man, finding his own nobility. Zemo’s latest plan is to create a new super-being and use him to infiltrate the Avengers, eventually destroying them from within. Simon Williams, who turned to embezzlement when put out of business by Tony Stark, was given unimaginable power so that he and Zemo’s Masters of Evil, together, could seek revenge against Stark and the Avengers. The catch---the process which created Wonder Man would also destroy him within a week, and only Zemo held the antidote…Wonder Man was ultimately powerless. Trickery earned him a place on the Avengers, and trickery had the Avengers desperately trying to find him their own cure; finally, trickery led them all into a trap. But at the moment Zemo would have killed them all, Wonder Man realized that this was worth no price, and turned on Zemo, saving the Avengers and sacrificing himself.
The dichotomy in this issue is truly fascinating. To the Avengers, Wonder Man begins as nothing but a hero. He helps them repel the Masters of Evil and joins as a friend and teammate. To the readers, he is a simple villain. He began as a criminal and moved on to being the worst kind of spy, with no redeeming qualities. This character is remarkably complex in his portrayal, despite having only entered the scene in this very issue; while the heroes can only see him as a hero, we can only see him as an irredeemable sneak. But, you see, Zemo and Simon played both of us a little bit. He wasn’t the basest villain, nor was he the golden God. He was something in between, and that makes all the difference. Capable of acts of evil, but also acts of kindness. This isn’t necessarily what we see as either hero or villain. Instead, this is what we see as human. Simon Willaims, everything else aside, was a normal man brought into the schemes and adventures of giants---no matter how powerful he became, he was first and foremost a man.
In one story, we are given the combination of betrayal and redemption, both with dire prices. Wonder Man, gifted with powers enough to rival those of the Avengers, first uses his power to defeat them. But as he finally realizes what he has done, he ultimately decides to put the lives of heroes ahead of his own, and he uses his powers for good. In those final pages, he establishes himself as exactly what an Avenger should be---a hero and a friend, powerful yet vulnerable. Human. Noble.
“Perhaps---every man---dreams of doing one noble thing---in his life! Now I can die---knowing that I didn’t live---in vain!” God bless.
This entry written by Dave Harris
Tom Brevoort: "A little classic that perfectly captures the essence of early Marvel. This is easily the most heartfelt of the early issues of the title."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg213.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg213t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #213"></a>#13: COURT-MARTIAL
Avengers (Vol. 1) #213
Written by: Jim Shooter
Art by: Bob Hall
Avengers #213 is probably my single favorite graphic stand-alone story ever written. In this one issue, writer Jim Shooter gave us all the different incarnations of Hank Pym: the hero, the lover, the psychotic, the wanna-be. He painted a realistic but disturbing picture of one of the Avengers' greatest icons, and then tore him down to disgrace and divorce. Over the course of one well-paced issue, we witnessed the long-foreshadowed fall of the founding Avenger known as Yellowjacket. And things would never be the same.
It had all started two issues earlier when a new team lineup emerged for the Avengers: the founding five members (Iron Man, Thor, Yellowjacket, the Wasp, and Captain America) plus Tigra, the team's obligatory rookie. Surrounded again by powerhouses and legends, the insecure Hank began another mental breakdown, one that made him desperately want to prove himself. In his first battle back with the team, he nearly killed a supposed enemy who had stopped fighting, shocking his teammates. Cap, fearing the consequences of great power used rashly, found it necessary to bring formal charges against Yellowjacket... and that's where the story of Court-Martial began.
In the midst of his breakdown, perhaps again being controlled by his schizophrenic and abrasive Yellowjacket identity, Hank Pym was a jerk. Despite his constant rude comments to the Avengers and some horrible cruelty to his wife the Wasp, everybody continued to support him. Jan herself tried to be the perfect wife for him, throwing herself at him constantly and wrapping her entire identity in her love for him. Hank took that love and threw it back in her face... and he misinterpreted his teammates' support as jealousy and hostility. The funny thing is, if Hank had acted in a sane manner during his trial, if he'd left well enough alone, the court-martial would have easily ended with him being declared innocent. Instead, Pym's fragile psyche broke completely under the pressure, and he paid the price.
Hank built a robot much like Ultron to break into his trial and beat the Avengers senseless. His plan was simple: the robot (made of adamantium) had one weak spot, and only Hank himself knew where it was. So after the Avengers were defeated, Yellowjacket could save the day and accept the admiration and apologies of his teammates. He locked himself away in his lab for days preparing his plan, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Janet Pym. When she searched his lab and learned of his plan, Hank savagely beat her, leaving her with a black eye, and threatening her should she tell the Avengers anything.
The court-martial itself went poorly, with Captain America sadly presenting his accusation and Hank responding by ludicrously accusing Cap of jealousy and of "consorting" with Avengers enemies. When the Avengers couldn't bear to look at their insane teammate any longer, Thor noticed the Wasp's black eye (the look on his face was perfect)... and Hank realized his cause was lost. The robot attacked, but it incapacitated Hank before he could hit the weak spot. Only the Wasp herself was able to stop the robot, since she'd overhead Hank ranting about the weak spot in his lab. His duplicity revealed and his wife-beating exposed, Henry Pym left Avengers Mansion in shame.
Due to marketing concerns, it's very rare that you see a canonical story of the fall of the hero. After all, if Spider-Man beat his wife in the comics, it's hard to make a movie about his heroism. In this issue, Shooter wrote an unthinkable script, utterly destroying one of the founding pillars of Marvel Comics. Hank Pym had been around since the beginning, even starring in his own series during the formative years of Marvel. And now... his own heroism had pushed him to the brink. It was shocking, it was disappointing... but you could honestly see it coming, if you'd bothered to look. And it made for a truly different and enjoyable reading experience.
As I said, this is probably my favorite single comic issue ever created. Every page is packed with compelling plot and amazing characterization. There's no supervillain battle; it's just a character study revealing the dirty truth about Hank Pym, and showcasing Earth's Mightiest in one of their more trying moments. It calls to mind modern classics like Watchmen and Squadron Supreme... and comic book storytelling doesn't get much better than that.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "I'm of two minds on this one. I understand what Shooter was going for in concept, but I just didn't buy into Hank Pym's actions at all--didn't believe the character would naturally behave the way he was behaving. I think the idea of the story is really interesting, but the choice of subject is off-base--and has damaged that character forever (as seen in the parallel story in Ultimates)."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg373.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg373t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 3) #373"></a>#12: THE LAST GATHERING
Avengers (vol.1) #372-375
Written by: Bob Harras
Art by: Steven Epting
The Last Gathering has the makings of a traditional "Avengers against all odds, fate of the world in the balance" kind of story. The team faces off against a powerful opponent, the Proctor, and his team of alternate reality Avengers, the Gatherers. The final battle is a dramatic one, complete with revelations about Proctor's identity (he is an alternate reality Black Knight), the descent of an Avenger (Sersi) into madness and self-destruction, and the death of the major villain. There are even complicated love triangles, misunderstandings between the super-folks and the authorities, and a ton of property damage.
So what else is new?
What makes this story a cut above the rest is that it doesn't rise or fall on the chaos of the situation, but on the relationships between the characters. It's a complicated arrangement, one that had been building for dozens of issues, but the basics are as follows: the Black Knight has a thing for both Sersi and Crystal, two lady Avengers who never met a man they didn't like. Unfortunately Crystal is a married woman, and her estranged husband, Quicksilver, is none too happy about the interest she is showing in another man. This complication, however, seems mild when compared to the complication that arises when Proctor arrives on the scene. Proctor is an alternate reality version of the Black Knight who fell in love with an alternate reality version of Sersi. But she rejected him, turning him bitter. He eventually went insane, gained some very formidable powers, and killed his world's version of Sersi with the cursed ebony blade. Since then he has traveled from reality to reality, killing Sersi in every world he comes to. And now he's come for her in this reality.
The Proctor and his Gatherers had already clashed with the Avengers several times prior to this story, which would be their final confrontation. Proctor had been manipulating Sersi for a few dozen issues now, manipulating the people and things around her, trying to drive her mad. The end result is that, by the time The Last Gathering begins, Sersi is pretty well unhinged. She turns her substantial powers on everything around her, causing plenty of wanton destruction, and making it very hard for her fellow Avengers to support her.
There are three main relationships that drive the story: the relationship between the Black Knight and Sersi, the relationship between Proctor and Sersi, and the relationship between the third wheels of this relationship, Crystal and Quicksilver.
Neither Sersi nor the Black Knight are characters known for their fidelity. Black Knight, under Bob Harras' pen, became something of a playboy, flirting freely with all the ladies. Sersi was a party girl, always had been, and was never one to settle on a single guy. Bringing two unlikely characters together and having them truly fall for one another isn't anything new, but the way Bob Harras brings it all together here is superb. The other problems that surround these two, particularly as regards Crystal and the obsessive Proctor, prevents the budding relationship between Dane (the Black Knight) and Sersi from seeming contrived or overly saccharine. Neither character is really mellowing, not actively, nor are they tearing themselves apart over their feelings. These two were just a pair of flirty people who flirted their way into genuinely caring about one another. It's so natural and easy a transition that it comes right up on us, and the sacrifices the two are willing to make for one another surprise us while still making perfect sense.
Proctor's relationship with Sersi is one of dark obsession, which Harras handles very well. Throughout his appearances, Proctor manages to be a truly spooky figure in the way he coolly manipulates people and situations to drive Sersi insane. It isn't enough to destroy Sersi physically: he wants to destroy her mentally, to dominate her, and then to crush her the way his world's Sersi crushed him. The way Proctor makes Sersi seem so weak, so fragile is particularly startling when you consider the fact that Sersi, as an Eternal, is one of the most powerful of all the Avengers. Yet as this story approaches its conclusion Sersi is helpless against him, her spirit and her mind broken under his abuse.
Besides being spooky, there is something more than a little sexual about the Proctor's pursuit of Sersi's destruction. Everything he says and does is right on that edge between wanting to kill Sersi and wanting to possess her. I would liken it to classic vampire movies, where the dark yet alluring vampire half scares, half seduces the women to their doom. A similar situation is set up here, and it works to great effect.
What gives the story added depth is the subplot involving the relationship between Crystal and Quicksilver. I'll be honest: I don't really like either of these characters, particularly Crystal, nor do I pretend to understand what readers (and writers) find interesting about their travesty of a marriage. But Harras manages to do something with it here by playing Quicksilver against type. Pietro is still aloof and hard-hearted, but there are cracks in the façade. He is genuinely concerned about losing Crystal, and the more he tries to hide it the more it shows. In a particularly powerful moment, when Sersi is missing and the Avengers are at a loss for what to do about her insanity and the destruction it is causing, Pietro picks this horribly inconvenient time to ask Dane to stay away from his wife. He doesn't command Dane to stay away, nor does he make a threat. Pietro is asking Dane to step aside, asking him, man to man, to give him a chance to fix his marriage. It is a touchingly real moment by a character who rarely allows even a speck of his true feelings to show.
If this story has any shortcomings, it would be in what has come since. The issue of Pietro and Crystal's marriage has never been resolved. Dane and Sersi came together, eventually traveling to another reality together, but they went their separate ways upon returning to Earth, and neither character has really been in the spotlight since. This story has the appearance of the perfect beginning and ending saga, tying up old plots and beginning new ones, but in many ways this was the last blast for these characters, as none of them have enjoyed this level of prominence since.
The Last Gathering does a great job tying in all the classic elements of a perfectly realized finale. This is the way long-term plots are supposed to be resolved, with a perfect blend of style and substance, mingling together into an experience that can move both characters and readers forward to somewhere new.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "It suffered a bit from the sorts of excesses that many X-Men sagas suffered from--seat-of-the-pants plotting, fuzzy motivations, previous clues not adding up quite right--but in the end, this was probably the best Avengers story in close to 100 issues, and the capper on a really nice run by Bob Harras and Steve Epting."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg016.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg016t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #16"></a>#11: THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH
Avengers (vol. 1) #16
Written by: Stan Lee
Art by: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
It may be impossible for a modern comic reader to truly understand what a huge event Avengers #16 was. The Old Order Changeth marked a number of firsts... not just for Avengers, but for Marvel Comics as a whole! It was the first time Captain America was a permanent team leader, the first time the action/battle sequences were secondary to more passive story elements in a Marvel superhero comic, and the first time a team roster completely changed. Avengers #16 was the issue that made stories like Giant-Size X-Men #1, X-Force #117, and Avengers (Vol. 3) #4 possible; without it, a super-team roster change would be preposterous and unheard of.
Yes, this issue really was that big a deal. And the fans were shocked! Sure, they'd been warned in Avengers #15 that a lineup change was in the works for the next issue, but Stan Lee didn't so much as hint as to how far he planned to go. In Avengers #16, no less than Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, and the Wasp left the team... leaving only the relative neophyte Captain America an Avenger and placing him in charge of three villains! Hawkeye, an Iron Man villain from Tales of Suspense, joined X-Men villains Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in a new, less popular, and severely less powerful team. And, as I said earlier, the fans were shocked.
A lot of disappointed fans wrote into All About The Avengers (the original title of the book's letter column), and I thought it might be fun to see how they welcomed Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Witch:
"Avengers #16 almost made me crawl up in a small corner of my room and cry... as a team {the new Avengers} they'd trip over each other... Cap is the only one who would know what he was doing!"
"What are you? Out of your tree or something? It is bad enough that Iron Man and Giant-Man are replaced by truly seedy second-rate characters... I'm distraught at the crass, senseless manipulation of my favorite superheroes. Make the Avengers once again the greatest, most powerful, noblest...!"
And my personal favorite, "Boo! Hiss! You said in Avengers #15 that the Avengers' lineup would change in the next issue. I expected and hoped that you would choose from the roster of Spider-Man, Daredevil, Sub-Mariner... But, brother, did Stan goof it this time! ...Unless Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch are replaced by Namor, Spidey, and Daredevil, my next letter will be worse!"
Yup, Stan took a big risk creating the team that would come to be known as "Cap's Kooky Quartet"... and although inital reaction was mixed, in time the move would pay off in spades. Stan traded the big-names (Thor, Iron Man, and Giant-Man) for what were then a bunch of second-rate villains that few readers actually cared about. He combined them brilliantly with the recently restored living legend, Captain America, and a brand new team of Avengers was born... and a tradition of radical roster revamping was begun. Not to mention that it was in the pages of Avengers that the great modern legends of Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch were truly created.
It was a script as brave and groundbreaking as it was unthinkable. A superhero story that focused on the characters, as opposed to action-packed fight sequences, was extremely rare at the time (and, arguably, had never before been written at Marvel). And it could easily be argued (and it was) that Stan's desire to create conflict within a freer team of lesser-known characters wasn't enough to offset the cost of losing Thor or Iron Man. But this was a Stan Lee far removed from his original comics work, one who knew how to take a risk and make it pay off. He was just starting to kick things into high gear in... well... just about all of the other titles he wrote, creating more multi-issue storylines and deeper characterizations. But nowhere was Stan's evolution as a writer more evident than in Avengers #16, where he changed the series from a simple team-up book to an ongoing exploration of superhero relationships... and, of course, fighting the foes no single hero could stand against.
The Old Order Changeth represents Stan Lee at his peak: deep, moving, surprising, ground-breaking, unpredictable. In many ways, this issue was the true Avengers #1, setting the pace and standard for the thirty-eight years that would follow.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "So many years later, people really forget what an absolutely radical thing it was to take all of the popular characters out of Avengers and replace them with a squad of ex-villains. But the other thing it did was allow Avengers to read more like a Marvel book, with an emphasis on interpersonal relationships, in-fighting and conflict."
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Be sure to check back next week for our final installment, #10-1! For more special articles, features, and columns celebrating the 40th anniversaries of the Avengers and X-Men, click here! (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21464)
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ComiX-Fan would like to thank Van Plexico, Chris Luna, and all the fine folks at Avengers Assemble (a darn fine Avengers site, which can be found at www.avengersassemble.us/ (http://www.avengersassemble.us/)) for their cover image assistance!