Jim Lemoine
Sep 26, 2003, 04:32 am
<img src="http://pages.sbcglobal.net/harahap/top40as.gif" border=0 align=left alt="Top 40 Avengers Stories"></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 Rage. 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 (#30-#21), click here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21829).
For the third part of this list (#20-#11), click here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22084).
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg224.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg224t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #224"></a>#10: TWO FROM THE HEART
Avengers (vol.1) #224
Written by: Jim Shooter & Alan Zelenetz
Art by: Mark Bright
I've heard a lot of people compare comic books to soap-operas, but it's hard to justify that analogy with a rock-em, sock-em, action-packed battle-epic serial like the mighty Avengers.
However, the closest the franchise has ever come (with the exception of Englehart's Vision & the Scarlet Witch) was Two From The Heart, a truly memorable and slightly tragic tale by Jim Shooter and Alan Zelenetz.
The situation: after a brutal frame-up by the criminal Egghead, Hank Pym (the Avenger known as Yellowjacket) is in jail. His marriage to the Wasp ended in divorce less than a month ago (Marvel time) and Janet Van Dyne, the new leader of the Avengers, is finding comfort in a new level of responsibility and independence. Tony Stark is also single at the time, and it suddenly occurs to him that Jan is the perfect match for him. After all, they're both bubbly and full of energy, they're both avid socialites, they're both businesspeople with strong leadership skills... it was a match made in heaven. Compared to the relatively bland and nerdy Hank Pym, Tony was the perfect man for the Wasp.
After Jan's been on Tony's mind for some time, he arranges to spend an evening with her at a high-society social event. The relationship immediately blossoms into a truly great love affair... despite the fact that Tony never told Jan that he was Iron Man!
So let's recap: the Wasp got a divorce from Yellowjacket less than a month ago. Iron Man quickly begins a relationship with her, but the Wasp doesn't know it's Iron Man (in fact, she's constantly asking Iron Man to deliver messages to Tony!). Fellow Avengers Captain America and Thor do know about Stark's dual identity, though, and they react in different ways. Cap practically begs Tony to leave Jan alone, for decency's sake and to help Hank Pym's mental health. Thor, who never really had much patience for the traitorous, wife-beating Yellowjacket, finds fault only in the fact that Jan doesn't know Iron Man's secret identity.
And through it all, Tony knows that what he's doing is wrong, he knows that he's hurting one of his best friends... but he can't bring himself to stop. Because he knows that out of all the dizzy glamour girls he's dated over the years, Jan is something different. She may well have been his soulmate; Tony couldn't bring himself to give that up.
In the end, Tony's heroic nature wins out and he does reveal to the Wasp that Tony Stark is Iron Man. Just as he feared, she reacts poorly; she's far too uncomfortable dating one of Hank's best friends and partners. The relationship comes to a quick and unceremonious end with both parties more alone than ever.
This issue is brilliant and highly memorable for its spotlight on the dynamics within the core founding Avengers team. The issue realistically portrays Iron Man's playboy nature overcoming his better judgement, a move that accidentally reveals two people who were perhaps a better match than anyone thought. The slightly adversarial but mutually respecting relationship of Iron Man and Captain America is shown perfectly, as is the long-time close friendship of Tony and Thor (Iron Man and Thor were two of the first Marvel heroes to reveal their identities to each other, long before either of them told their real names to Captain America). Cap's concern for Hank and the Wasp are touchingly shown, and Thor's utter disdain for Hank also sees some time in the spotlight.
At its core, Avengers #224 is a character study of Janet Van Dyne and Tony Stark, placing them both in situations that we'd never seen them in before. The best part is possibly Hank's reaction to it all... or perhaps his lack thereof. Although the Jan/Tony relationship's effect on his psyche is the major focus of the issue, we can only guess at what effect it actually had. The only time he's shown is after the relationship is ended, with one of the prison guards throwing the tryst in his face. Hank stands quietly, with a grim and frightening look on his face... and that's how the issue ends.
Two From The Heart is a success on a great many levels... deep characterization, a realistic plot, and big ramifications for the future of the Avengers.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "This is another story I like better in conception than in execution--though I like it more now than I did when it was first published. Dealing with the human frailties that even heroes possess was an admiral goal, but as with the rest of Shooter's second run as scripter, he somehow couldn't avoid making the heroes seem like asses in the process."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/wca18.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/wca18t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="West Coast Avengers (Vol. 2) #18"></a>#9: LOST IN SPACE-TIME
West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-23
Written by: Steve Englehart
Art by: Allen Milgrom
Lost in Space-Time is actually three great stories for the price for one. The main story follows the exploits of the West Coast Avengers as they travel through time, while two side stories follow Mockingbird, held as a captive love slave by a villain, and Hank Pym, as his depression nearly turns him to suicide.
The story begins as the West Coast team faces Dominus, who hurls them back in time using one of Dr. Doom’s time machines. The West Coast team is sent back to the Old West, where they encounter a trio of Western heroes: Two-Gun Kid (with whom the Avengers had a previous affiliation from an earlier jump through time), the Rawhide Kid (before he was turned into a homosexual caricature) and the Phantom Rider. After helping the cowboys with some problems, the Avengers are unable to return home: the time machine only works for traveling back in time. So, in a plan to get home, they decide to travel to ancient Egypt, so they can utilize the time machine of Kang's first identity, Pharaoh Rama-Tut. Just as the Avengers are preparing a test jump back to 1776, Phantom Rider, who has developed a fixation on Mockingbird, snatches her up and rides away as the other Avengers are drawn back further in time.
Meanwhile, in the present, Bonita Juarez (AKA Espirita/Firebird), finds a depressed Hank Pym about to commit suicide. Bonita stops him, and begins the lengthy process of trying to convince him life is worth living. The Bonita/Hank storyline develops slowly, piece by piece, over the remainder of the storyline. Bonita, who was an acquaintance at best before this began, slowly builds Pym’s trust. The manner in which she slowly begins to insert herself into his life, and from that position of trust and friendship to build him up again as a person, is one of the most natural looking examples of relationship building you can find in comics. Too often characters are tossed together, as friends or as lovers, just for the sake of the pairing. Here Steve Englehart takes the time to grow a relationship rather than just creating one, and the result is a truly organic connection between characters.
The strongest part of the story is Mockingbird’s, in the Old West. Using special herbs, Phantom Rider mentally controls Mockingbird, forcing her to love him. Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid try to help Mockingbird, but Phantom Rider won’t give her up without a fight. Once she breaks free of his control, the final battle leaves Phantom Rider hanging from the edge of a cliff. Though having the opportunity to save him, Mockingbird lets him fall to his death. Comic book fans often debate the morality of mind control, whether or not forcing someone to love you in this manner constitutes rape. I’ve always been of the opinion that it does, and Englehart seems to agree: by having Mockingbird let the Phantom Rider fall, Englehart makes it clear that Mockingbird thinks what has been done to her is a deep, personal violation, something so severe that she is willing to forego the role of the forgiving heroine and let a man die over it.
In the main story, the Avengers fight the Spanish in 1776, eventually making their way to Egypt and to Rama-Tut’s past. Naturally a conflict ensues, and the team is defeated. Their plan to get Rama-Tut’s cooperation fails, and their plan to take the time machine by force fails. Their plan to meet up with the Fantastic Four on their original trip back to that time period (a story which originally occurred way back in Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #19) also fails. Eventually they are saved by Khonshu, an Egyptian God who sends a message of their predicament into the present mind of his servant, Moon Knight, who then arranges for the team’s rescue from the time stream.
The main story of Lost in Space-Time is just an excellent superhero adventure, but it’s the two secondary stories that really make this great. Englehart’s script features serious ethical and emotional dilemmas without easy answers, addressed with true, honest character motivations. Writing a story like that, woven into a truly enjoyable adventure story, is something few do as well as Steve Englehart. And he’s at the top of his game here, crafting a tale that functions as well on intellectual and emotional levels as it does on the visceral level of pure enjoyment.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "A really nice, intricate time-travel story, and the storyline that got me reading WCA. This was really the pinnacle point of that spin-off series."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg-an07.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg-an07t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers Annual #7"></a>#8: THE FINAL THREAT
Avengers Annual #7 & Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2
Written by: James Starlin
Art by: James Starlin
This is bigger then an Avengers story. It is a cosmic, "fate of all that is" story, one that holds the finale (almost) to one of the finest sagas in comics history.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of reading Starlin's original Warlock series knows it's a masterpiece, a space epic that acts as a masterful metaphor for faith, religion, and the corruption (and, we can only hope, salvation) of the spirit. It is from this place that we arrive at Avengers Annual #7, where Starlin revisits both Adam Warlock and one of his greatest nemeses, Thanos of Titan. You see by the end of Warlock, Adam Warlock had orchestrated his own future death by draining his own future soul into the soul gem (still with me?). Had no writers felt the need to use the character again, it could well be assumed that Warlock had died off-panel. But Starlin had unfinished business between Warlock and Thanos, business he decided to carry over here and involve the Avengers in.
As Avengers Annual #7 begins, Warlock has gathered the Avengers together to help him fight Thanos, who is once again seeking to rule all of creation and destroy as much of it as he needs to in order to impress his beloved, Death. His tools of choice, as would be the case many times in the future, are the Infinity gems. For a cosmic battle, the conflict is surprisingly straight-forward: not nearly as theological in its implications or as wide in its scope as the various Infinity series that would follow decades later. Instead it merely acts as a compelling battle between Thanos' forces and the Avengers, culminating in the clash between Warlock and Thanos, and Warlock's demise at Thanos' hands.
This presented a bit of an odd conflict, since Warlock technically should have survived long enough to have his essence absorbed by his own past self... and the time travel headaches begin. The confusion this caused would be short-lived, however, as the second half of the story, in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, gets underway. In it, the Thing and Spider-Man bring themselves to Thanos' base to aid the Avengers. Thanos, in one of the more impressive displays of villain power, bests the Avengers as well as Spider-Man and the Thing. But, at the last minute, Spider-Man frees Warlock from the soul gem, where his spirit (the one he stole in the future) resides. This spirit emerges, slaying Thanos and saving the day. It then returns from whence it came, leaving both Thanos and Warlock deceased.
Two questions I'm sure you have at this point. One, undoubtedly, is why does this count as an Avengers story when they're barely involved in the main plot. The second is to question why the characters of Thanos and Warlock were resurrected, to which I can only reply "I don't know".
This is an Avengers story because through the various stages of their involvement, it defines everything the Avengers are. When Warlock needs someone to help him take on Thanos, he comes for the Avengers, the premiere team of heroes in the cosmos. When the Avengers move forward against Thanos’ armada, they are like an army: a unified force composed of powerful individuals, fighting in a pitched battle more like a war story then the standard superhero fare. And when they take on Thanos, they are the champions, the ones who come together to battle a single, formidable threat, one that is too great for any of them to face alone.
The Final Threat is a great story, and belongs on an Avengers list because it displays the full range of the Avengers, of the roles they inhabit and the purposes they serve.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "It was nice because it was big, culminating a series of thread that Starlin had been weaving for years, and because it had consequences, and seemed so permanent at the time. It was also a case of Annuals being something more than an afterthought to the regular book."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg166.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg166t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #166"></a>#7: DAY OF THE GODSLAYER
Avengers (vol.1) #164-166
Written by: Jim Shooter
Art by: John Byrne
Okay, simple Avengers trivia question: "Why were the Avengers formed?"
And the answer is, of course, "... the Avengers were born - to fight the foes no single super-hero could withstand!"
At least, so read the Avengers' marketing line for years and years. The problem was... well, to be honest, it wasn't really true. Cap could (and did) handle Zemo by himself, the Vision could (and did) handle Ultron solo, and even Kang could be single-handedly contained by Thor. The threats that the Avengers faced weren't honestly all that much bigger than the threats found in Iron Man or Thor. The only possible exception to this in the first hundred and fifty issues of the regular series' publication was the Kree/Skrull War.
Avengers #165-166 was arguably the first arc where the Avengers really did face a foe that no single super hero could withstand. And unlike most arcs on this Top 40 list, this storyline didn’t rate for its deep character development, imaginative script, or creative plot (although it had a bit of all three)... it's on here because all-out action issues don't get any better than this. And this three-issue arc had more amazing and memorable moments in it that any other three issues of Avengers ever printed.
The "Godslayer" referred to in the title, the most powerful single villain that the Avengers had faced up to this point, was an unlikely subject: Maggia head Count Nefaria. Nefaria was best known for leading groups of super-villains from the background, and had most recently been seen killing Thunderbird in Uncanny X-Men #95. Tired of constantly failing because of his need to rely on other, super-powered individuals, Nefaria came up with a plot to get superpowers himself. And the plan worked beyond his wildest expectations.
You see, there's a reason why so many readers were excited a few years back when Marvel revealed that Nefaria would be the villain of the Avengers/Thunderbolts crossover event. They remembered this story, and just how powerful Nefaria was. He was unharmed by punches from Wonder Man, one of the strongest heroes in the entire Marvel Universe. He caught Captain America's shield, resisted the Scarlet Witch's hex, and humbled even the invincible Iron Man. He picked up a forty-story building, and toppled it atop Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Nefaria was as far above the superheroes in the Avengers, as the Avengers themselves were above the ordinary human. In Avengers #165, readers marveled with disbelief at how easily Count Nefaria, this once-most-laughable villain, utterly destroyed the Avengers.
And through it all, Nefaria cried out for Thor, the one Avenger who wasn't present. Nefaria believed that only Thor was a true match for him... and more importantly, that Thor's hammer might grant him the secret of immortality. But Thor didn't show, so Nefaria simply continued to pummel the rest of the Avengers... until the awesome last page of the issue. In a fantastic Byrne-rendered sequence, the evil Count was surrounded with lightning and thunder... and suddenly, the hammer of Thor hurtled toward him.
But in the next issue, things got even worse, as Nefaria proved a match even for Thor, which was nearly unprecedented in the history of the Avengers. At one point, Thor swung his hammer at Nefaria with all his strength... and Nefaria caught and stopped the hammer with his bare hands! When Yellowjacket sent the Vision into the fray, Nefaria became the first villain to ever resist the Vision's ethereal touch... Nefaria actually hit the Vision while he was immaterial!
In the end, only all of the Avengers, attacking together, were able to defeat the Count. Wonder Man and Iron Man double-teamed him while Wanda worked up her most powerful hex. Thor knocked him into another building, and the Vision provided the finishing blow by falling on Nefaria in his diamond form... from a mile up in the air!
Never had there been such a display of the raw power of the Avengers, nor had the team ever faced a villain as formidable as Nefaria. This was the arc that established the tradition of overpowered foes for this team, and made possible later stories like the Michael saga and the various Immortus, Kang, and Ultron tales. But despite the countless menaces they've faced since that battle with Nefaria, the Avengers have never been mightier than they were on the day the Godslayer struck.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "Some great John Byrne artwork highlights the Avengers' struggle against an overwhelmingly-superior foe. And here, Shooter strikes the right balance between heroism and humanity, particularly in the form of Wonder Man's self-doubt and reluctance to engage in battle."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avgv3-19.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avgv3-19t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 3) #19"></a>#6: ULTRON UNLIMITED
Avengers (vol.3) #19-22
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: George Perez
What separates the good team books from the bad? Sure, there are factors like membership and characterization. Both of these are very important, but remember one thing: these are comic books, and if there is a given as a reader, we are guaranteed remarkable powers and incredible displays of ingenuity and skill. Most importantly, we are promised battles and villains galore. What defines a superhero team is their ability to overcome obstacles. The more dangerous and insurmountable the task, the more we respect the story. That is one thing writer Kurt Busiek really knows how to do. He has shown time and again the innate ability to make an oft-recycled (and, at the time, usually poorly used) arch-villain seem even more formidable and complex than in any of his prior incarnations. He did it with Kang in Avengers Forever, and he repeated the accomplishment with Ultron in Ultron Unlimited.
From the beginning of the story, Busiek (and artist George Perez) set the stage for a grand tale. In the build-up, laboratories and government installations across the country were getting ambushed and robbed of certain materials. The culprits were robots. Those robots, combined with the face on the solicited cover of Avengers #19, left no doubt as to the identity of the mastermind behind it all (although actually, Alkhema was behind the installation attacks, not Ultron, but that isn't that important to the overall plot). In the wake of the robberies, various Avengers were kidnapped: Hank Pym, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and the Vision. Add to that list the vanished-from-prison Grim Reaper. At this point, it seems like the usual attack by villain with hostages taken. Not the case. What put this story over the top was what Ultron did next. His armada went into the country of Slovenia and slaughtered every man, woman, and child. That's right: thousands died brutally, and no one got our alive. The images Perez gave the reader were powerful, and it added to the level of the threat.
Why did Ultron kidnap those specific heroes and villains? To him, they represented his "family." He planned on utilizing millions of permutations of their brain patterns within millions of robots to repopulate the earth, thereby getting rid of the human germ and having a planet full of varied "sentient" type beings. The kicker of the story wasn't Ultron's scheme, though; it was Hank Pym's secret. What I loved is that this was so obvious, but no one thought of it. Way back when he created Ultron I, Pym used his own brain patterns to start it all up. Thus, in a very real way, Ultron was Hank. To Hank, this showed him what he truly was behind his humanity. So Hank Pym's second breakdown all of those years ago was in large part due to this realization. To perfectly tie that up in such a neat package was an incredible stroke of genius by Busiek.
The Avengers, accompanied by the armies of the United Nations, stormed into Slovenia ala Normandy, but were immediately cut down. The Avengers eventually tracked down Ultron, and defeated him after a landmark battle. Then the unexpected occurred. Another Ultron stepped out from the shadows. Then another. Then another. Then like something out of Aliens, the Avengers heard hundreds of others approaching from all around. While the Avengers were literally battling for their life, Justice, who was sidelined due to a broken leg, decided to do whatever he could. He spent days researching and reviewing files to try to find something that could be used to defeat Ultron. In the end, as the last of the Avengers were about to fall, Justice arrived and delivered the secret weapon needed to defeat Ultron. The defeat wasn't the spotlight of the show. It was the pummeling of Ultron by Hank Pym (using Justice's question). All of those years of guilt and frustration were released with each blow. It was a very well scripted and perfectly illustrated series of panels.
There were many other nuggets of brilliance by Busiek and Perez that surfaced in this arc: the usually done up Janet Van Dyne not being quite so pretty, the Vision/Wanda/Simon love triangle, the sheer power of Thor, the continued drop in public opinion for the Avengers, and much much more.
I will repeat again: villains make the heroes in real life and fiction. Busiek truly showed the mastery of his pen as he constructed this piece. Ultron prior to this has become the powerful and indestructible robot that always ended in a subpar story and overly easy resolution. Not anymore. Just like with Kang, Count Nefaria, the Templars, and others, Busiek was constantly executing his faultless formula on how to create the perfect Avengers stories using the true test of a hero: their resolve and conviction under the most excruciating of circumstances.
This entry written by Tan K.
Tom Brevoort: "This one just worked, precisely as we'd intended it to, ramping up the stakes for Earth's Mightiest Heroes and restoring the creepiness and power of Ultron, who'd been badly mistreated for a number of years previous to this. And most pleasing, we came up with a new way to take down Ultron along the way."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg174.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg174t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #174"></a>#5: CAPTIVES OF THE COLLECTOR!
Avengers (vol. 1) #172-174
Written by: Jim Shooter, David Michelinie and Bill Mantlo
Art by: George Perez, Sal Buscema and David Wenzel
This story is actually a piece of the larger body of another story, The Korvac Saga. But these three issues are worthy of individual recognition, as they comprise a great tale in and of themselves. Captives of the Collector, as you may have guessed, is a story about the villainous Collector... one unlike any other Collector story before.
By this point in time Avengers readers were pretty familiar with the Collector and his shtick: a powerful cosmic entity, the Collector is obsessed with collecting things. The Avengers, being the mightiest of Earth's superheroes, represent a unique collecting opportunity, and many times the Collector has done a variety of unspeakable things to try and collect the Avengers themselves. There are only so many ways to go about that, though, and often times one Collector story reads like another.
Three things made this story different. The first is the fact that Jim Shooter's Collector seemed smarter then the previous takes on the character: rather than directly engaging a team he himself acknowledges as worthy opponents, the Collector begins picking off Avengers individually, while they are separated from the larger group. It's a subtle difference, sure, but one that makes sense: why would he keep just attacking them outright? A collector collects, gathering the individual pieces of the collection gradually over time, eventually completing the set. It was more consistent with the idea behind the Collector as a character, and it was just plain good tactics.
The second difference is that, for the first two of these three issues, the Collector isn't the focus of the story. The Avengers are busy with other concerns, other enemies. Though they notice in time that they have associates who are missing, they don't automatically think of the Collector. Shooter is laying the groundwork in those issues, setting up the eventual conflict that results once the culprit has been uncovered.
By Avengers #174, the Collector has been found out, and the Avengers go to free their captive teammates. After fighting for a while and liberating the kidnapped Avengers, the team is aiming to once again put the Collector down. It is here, in the resolution of the story, that the third difference emerges: the Collector, an Elder of the Universe, is killed by another villain, Michael Korvac.
This, of course, acts as setup to tie these three issues back into the larger storyline of The Korvac Saga, which would reach its climax over the next few issues. This marked a sudden and brutal end to the conflict, one which immediately shifted the reader's focus back out onto Korvac and the story he had to tell. This was no small time villain Korvac had dispatched, this was one of the most powerful beings in the universe. It's not often in comics that a writer can snap his fingers and make you suddenly shift from one mindset to another, but Shooter and Mantlo do it perfectly in that last issue.
Captives of the Collector is the definitive Collector story. What's more, it is one of those rare stories that works both as an individual effort and as part of a larger story plan. It earns a spot on this list for having that kind of depth of purpose without being consumed by it.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "Seems like dirty pool to me to list this segment as separate from the larger Korvac Saga--there's really no way to divorce it from the overall epic."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg-gs02.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg-gs02t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Giant-Size Avengers #2"></a>#4: THE CELESTIAL MADONNA
Avengers (vol. 1) #128-135; Giant-Size Avengers #2-4
Written by: Steve Englehart and Roy Thomas
Art by: Sal Buscema, George Tuska, Dave Cockrum and Don Heck
In writing all these entries, I’ve come to realize what makes a great epic. It takes three things: an engaging adventure story with a dynamic villain, a well-defined personal relationship being formed or furthered, and a series of brief outings that function just as well individually as part of the larger whole. These three things are found in nearly every successful epic in comics, and they can be found here. Ordinarily I’d separate these aspects out, focus on them one at a time, but this story weaves them all together so expertly that unraveling them is practically impossible. So who am I to try?
The story centers around Kang, who is on a quest to find the Celestial Madonna, a woman who is supposed to give birth to a very powerful being (I’m downplaying it a bit… her child is supposed to be one of those beings who is crucial to the fate of the cosmos, etc., but the hyperbole isn’t really relevant to the story). Naturally, Kang wants to father that child, so when he discovers one of the lady Avengers is the Madonna, he kidnaps all of them to discover which is the Madonna and force her to conceive his child.
Before we get to that, though, some relationship background: the Vision and the Scarlet Witch love one another, but the peculiarity of a relationship between a mutant witch and an android keeps the relationship halted to a point. Meanwhile Mantis, a relative newcomer to the team, has been pursuing the Vision, much to the Scarlet Witch’s dismay. It’s equally disturbing to the Swordsman, who has been very open about his feelings for Mantis, but is being continually dismissed.
Kang kidnaps Mantis, the Scarlet Witch, and Agatha Harkness (the Scarlet Witch’s magic teacher and a long-time ally of the Fantastic Four), determined to uncover the identity of the Madonna. By the time Mantis is revealed as the Celestial Madonna, Kang learns that he has an alternate version of himself, Rama-Tut, and some very determined Avengers on his case. Kang, knowing he cannot have Mantis, aims to kill her. He shoots at her, but the Swordsman throws himself in the way, and is hit instead. As Kang and Rama-Tut struggle and are hurled into the time stream, the Swordsman dies, convinced he is a failure.
The death of the Swordsman shocked me as a reader not because he died (although he was the first Avenger to die in battle), but because I cared when he did. The Swordsman started as a villain who infiltrated the Avengers to betray them. He was discovered and expelled, and fought the team many times. It wasn’t until years later that he truly reformed and joined the team with heroic intentions… not long before this very story, as a matter of fact. The reservations the Avengers had about his reforming were the same reservations readers had. What’s more, he wasn’t a particularly nice person (obviously) or an overly useful asset (his only power being his skill with a sword), and his advances towards Mantis often seemed more of the lustful variety then a sign of undying love. All in all there was little reason for me to feel for him… but I did. Any doubts we had about his feelings or his intentions were dispelled when he took that shot for Mantis. And as he lay there dying, he was convinced he was a failure, as both an Avenger and a human being. His teammates tried to console him, but he didn’t listen. He died thinking he was a failure, and that made his passing truly moving in a way I didn’t see coming.
But this isn’t the end of the story... in fact, we’re only about halfway through. After the Swordsman is buried, Immortus grabs Kang and Rama-Tut from the timestream and convinces Kang to team up against the Avengers. Kang uses Immortus’ technology to gather together a legion of dead heroes and villains, then betrays and imprisons Immortus. What follows over the next few issues is a second clash with Kang, this time in the form of a back-and-forth between the Avengers and the Legion of the Unliving. Eventually the Avengers free Immortus and Rama-Tut, and together they all defeat Kang. At this point the story begins to take on a greater significance to Avengers history, as Immortus utilizes his time-travel technology to reveal the origins of the Vision and Mantis, among others. The questions of the Vision’s origins had been of particular interest for some time, and finally having concrete answers was something fans were relieved by. (Of course subsequent retcons and retcons of the retcons would make Vision’s origins one of the biggest messes in comics, but I digress.) Immortus also shows them about the Cotati, a race of plant-like aliens who are connected, somehow, to the Celestial Madonna (in case you were wondering why this counts as the same story).
Steve Englehart takes three full issues to properly explore the origins and pasts of the characters he wants to explain, the Vision getting the bulk of the attention. To even devote ONE full issue to a character’s origin is risky sometimes, as these issues can often make for boring reading. But Englehart, unlike too many writers, did the legwork beforehand: he made us care about what those origins were gradually, over time, so that when the revelation occurred we were so anxious for it we could sit and read twelve issues about it. It’s the key trick to making a resolution to a mystery worthwhile: we’ve got to care about the mystery first.
The final issue of the story, Giant-Size Avengers #4, brings everything together for one last hurrah. Mantis has, by now, realized that she loved the Swordsman. The Cotati, wanting Mantis as their Celestial Madonna, have one of their elder members essentially turn into the Swordsman to be with Mantis. Meanwhile, Dormammu kidnaps the Scarlet Witch. After she is saved, the Vision decides that their relationship has been stalled for too long, and he proposes marriage. At issue’s end, Immortus presides over the strangest marriage in history: a double wedding, with one couple consisting of an android and a witch, and the other couple consisting of the Celestial Madonna and a sentient plant in the form of a dead Avenger. Mantis and the Cotati go off into the cosmos to consummate their marriage, and the Vision and the Scarlet Witch begin their life together as husband and wife.
Exhausted? Me too, but in a very satisfying way. That’s what an epic is supposed to do: it’s supposed to tire you out with its scope and its completeness, it’s supposed to take your emotions for a ride and entertain the hell out of you while it does. The Celestial Madonna is everything an epic is supposed to be, and an easy pick for one of the all-time best Avengers stories.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "The quintessential '70s epic, marrying the scope of Lee/Kirby/Thomas with the more head-tripping approaches of its era. Read all in a lump, you can see that Englehart was largely making it all up as he went, but the ride is so enjoyable that you really don't care."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg277.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg277t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #277"></a>#3: AVENGERS: UNDER SIEGE
Avengers (vol. 1) #273-277
Written by: Roger Stern
Art by: John Buscema
Sometimes the only way to know just how great the heroes really are is to watch them get thoroughly beaten, and that's exactly what happens in Avengers: Under Siege. Baron Helmut Zemo, leading the largest and deadliest incarnation of the Masters of Evil to that point, attacks Avengers Mansion itself after lengthy off-panel planning. The result is a literal siege, the Masters of Evil taking over the mansion and holding its inhabitants hostage.
The Avengers, through the first few issues of this story, seem horribly outclassed. A number of heavy-hitters are captured, while others are badly hurt. Hercules sustains the most serious injuries, being beaten into a coma. HERCULES. That's how tough these Masters of Evil were. And they were ruthless as well, with one member, Mr. Hyde, torturing Avengers butler Jarvis with astonishing brutality. The Masters dominated the Avengers and trashed their headquarters, their home. They seemed unstoppable.
Of course they weren't unstoppable, or this would be the last Avengers story ever told. Instead a group of Avengers, led by the team's own resident unstoppable force, Thor, rallied to free their comrades and face the Masters directly. At the end of the battle Zemo lay defeated at Captain America's feet, and the Avengers could begin the lengthy process of rebuilding the mansion, and healing their bodies and souls.
This story is a great, classic superhero story: heroes struggling against villains that seem unstoppable, eventually winning against all odds through teamwork and sheer willpower. What makes this story extra memorable, however, is that the villains brought it to the Avengers in their home... and did it with the kind of success earlier villains had only dreamed of. For four of these five issues, the Masters had the Avengers beaten. It was, for all intents and purposes, over, and the Masters had won. The enormity of that reality is hard to fathom, considering everything the Avengers had previously managed to fight through and survive.
And this story had a serious impact on the title for some time to come. Jarvis would take a long time to heal from his brutal torture at the hands of Mr. Hyde, particularly from the emotional damage done by the event. Hercules lay in a coma for quite a while after his beating, and his condition led to a later storyline with the Avengers battling the Olympian gods over the fallen hero. Many Avengers suffered serious emotional scars from the conflict, whose effect lasted far longer than the physical ones. The conclusion of the story saw Captain America, the Avengers pillar of emotional strength, weeping amidst the ruins of his few remaining possessions from his pre-Avengers days. The sight of Cap, emotionally destroyed, showed just how badly that indestructible aura that surrounded Earth's Mightiest Mortals was damaged.
Avengers: Under Siege is not a particularly complex story, but rather a story that works on all the simple levels. The story is suspenseful because the heroes are in real danger. The villains are truly impressive, something few villain teams managed to accomplish. Though the Avengers are dominated, their weaknesses feel real, rather than a manufactured device to give them a hole to climb out of. The battles are exciting, the personal moments are touching, and the ramifications of the story are real and long lasting. Those are all simple things, but it's surprisingly rare to pull them ALL together in a single story. That is the strength of Avengers: Under Siege, and what makes it both a landmark story and a great read.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "This really raised the stakes dramatically for the team after several years of solid-but-somehow-uninvolving stories. It certainly raised Zemo's stock, and positioned him as a thinking villain, one who'd employ the sort of tactics that every reader who'd read comics for a period of time always knew the villains should use."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg177.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg177t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #177"></a>#2: THE KORVAC SAGA
Avengers (vol. 1) #167-168, 174-177
Written by: Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, and David Michelinie
Art by: George Perez, Dave Wenzel
The question of the corruption of power is probably the core theme of this 1978 Avengers epic. However, where most superhero comics deal with the corruption of the villain, this saga raised extremely intriguing and still unanswered questions about the corruption of the heroes.
The finale of Jim Shooter's first run as Avengers writer, the Korvac saga was meant to be the next big Marvel epic, to fill the shoes left empty since Englehart wrapped up his Celestial Madonna story. The antagonist for the tale was one Michael Korvac, a relatively forgettable antagonist of the future super-team, the Guardians of the Galaxy. The storyline began predictably enough: Korvac, an evildoer of the 31st century, traveled through time back to the present, to change the future. The Guardians of the Galaxy followed him back to stop him, and the Avengers offered to help.
What neither team knew was that Korvac had happened upon immense power in the home of Galactus, and the power had turned him into a godlike being. Now calling himself only by his first name, Michael, he took a human bride and hid himself away in a small suburban home as he prepared a mysterious plot. We the readers were never quite sure what Michael's plot was, but his power was never in doubt; almost immediately upon his landing on modern Earth, Starhawk, the most powerful of the Guardians, discovered Michael and engaged him in battle. Although Starhawk was a being that had been compared in power level to the likes of the Silver Surfer, Michael obliterated him easily, completely disintegrating him. Later, Michael restored Starhawk so that none would note his absence, but he made it impossible for Starhawk to ever detect Michael's presence again.
If you were reading our entry on #5: CAPTIVES OF THE COLLECTER above, you know what happened next: the Avengers were distracted from the Korvac hunt by a fight with the Collector, and at the battle's conclusion, just as the Collector was about to name the ultimate Enemy, the arch-villain was utterly destroyed. The Avengers now had a new target, this mysterious "Enemy," but nobody knew that the Enemy and Korvac were one and the same.
One thing that made this story even more epic was the number of Avengers involved: in his attempt to collect Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Collector had gathered virtually everyone who had then been a member (as well as future member Ms. Marvel!). This story was perhaps the harbinger of Busiek and Perez's massive Avengers reunion in Avengers (Vol. 3) #1, in that everyone who'd ever been an Avenger to that point (with the exceptions of the dead Swordsman, the antisocial Hulk, the ensorcelled Black Knight, and the Celestial Madonna Mantis) was involved... and when several of the Avengers finally managed to track the energy signature of the Enemy to his hideout, all of the Avengers went along. This was doubt purposeful on the part of writer Jim Shooter: having powerhouses like Thor and the original Captain Marvel along for the ride made the series more dramatic and suspenseful. You knew something big was coming.
A realistic and light touch that Shooter added at this point was a reminder that at the time, the Avengers' security clearances had been revoked by Henry Gyrich. This meant that the team had no quinjets or other methods of transportation... so Iron Man sadly ordered his team to commandeer a mass transit vehicle. Thus, the Avengers (Thor included!) traveled to their greatest battle of all time on a beat-up public bus.
They arrived at the home of Michael, who effectively prevented any of the Avengers (including the telepathic Moondragon, the cosmically aware Captain Marvel, and the robotic Jocasta) from determining his true identity. They were just about to leave when, in one of the Avengers series' most dramatic moments, Starhawk yelled to his allies, "For minutes you've been talking, probing, pretending to receive responses! But from whom? There's nobody there!" Because, of course, when Michael had restored Starhawk to life, he had made it impossible for Starhawk to ever again detect his presence. Ironically, that very "un-detection" was what exposed him to the Avengers. And surprisingly reluctantly, Michael engaged in combat against them.
Only Moondragon held back from the great battle as the entire combined might of the Avengers and the Guardians waged war against Michael Korvac. During the battle, Michael ranted about how the Avengers had destroyed the hope of a universe, that his plans for dimensional harmony were now doomed... but the superheroes didn't listen. They charged, and they met with brutal failure. Vance Astro and Nikki of the Guardians were slain first, and they were soon followed by Quicksilver and Yellowjacket. One by one, Guardian and Avenger alike fell, with the Black Panther, Captain America, and Wonder Man facing particularly gruesome deaths.
But Moondragon didn't fight.
When only Iron Man, Thor, Starhawk, and the Vision were left standing, Michael Korvac committed suicide. Why? Perhaps he was torn with grief from the grand plans he knew were now dust. Perhaps he was sorry for his role in murdering some of the most noble souls to walk the face of his home planet. But most likely, his suicide was motivated by the perception of betrayal on the part of his wife; at one point in the battle, he reached his hand out to her for help... and she didn't move. In the end she had doubted his vision and nobility, and Michael couldn't go on without her love. His dreams gone, his love betrayed, Michael had no more reason to live. His wife fought on, though, defeating all save Thor, who in the end, she forced to kill her.
But Moondragon hadn't fought. And now at the end, with the Avengers and Guardians dead around them, she spoke to Thor. She told him what her mental powers had discovered: that Michael wasn't evil at all. Michael had evolved into a god, yes, but a benevolent one, and one who had intended to use his powers to free innocents from the yoke of tyranny and the capricious whims of fate. He planned to make the universe a paradise, and he had the power to create utopia... and the Avengers prevented it all.
That's right: in this epic, the Avengers were the villains. And they killed the hero.
Just before he died, Michael Korvac had restored the dead Avengers to life, hoping that even if he couldn't bring paradise to the universe, he could at least heal these great heroes. In a rare moment of kindness and empathy, Moondragon stole the memory of what they had done from all of them, even Thor. From that day forth, none of the Avengers would remember the battle as anything other than a great victory over an evil foe. Only Moondragon would be cursed forever with the knowledge that the Avengers had destroyed the best hope of the universe.
The Korvac Saga was an unbelievably deep and moving epic, as exciting as it was thought-provoking. It raised fascinating questions about the responsibilities of power, and showed the Avengers as they'd never been seen before. The Avengers would never be quite the same after that, and the knowledge of what had truly happened unbalanced Moondragon horribly. Throughout its entirety, this epic wove stories within stories successfully to maintain mystery, awe, and wonder. Korvac was and is the most powerful being the Avengers ever fought... and they only won because the villain was nobler than they themselves were.
Few stories in the graphic medium have ever had the raw impact and high quality of the Korvac Saga, and to this day it's nearly unmatched in the Avengers canon (or even the Marvel canon!). This is Jim Shooter's ultimate Avengers story, and it's one of the best ever written.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "The entirety of this storyline, from #167-177, is probably the finest, most compelling Avengers saga ever told. The only real drawback is the fact that George Perez was only around for the opening chapters--the folks who followed him did solid work, but George would have continued to knock it out of the park."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avf2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avf2t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers Forever #2"></a>#1: AVENGERS FOREVER
Avengers Forever #1-12
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Carlos Pacheco
The ultimate Avengers story in more ways than one, Avengers Forever was a once-in-a-lifetime graphic masterpiece. The Kree-Skrull War created the concept of the Avengers Epic, Englehart's Celestial Madonna refined the formula, Shooter's Michael saga added shades of grey and greater danger than ever, and Operation: Galactic Storm... well... showed us how marketable the epics could be, I suppose. But Avengers Forever took everything that had come before... everything... kept the good, threw out the bad, respected the history, and became the greatest Avengers Epic to ever be written.
To be honest, Avengers Forever is probably the antithesis of everything Marvel Editorial currently stands for. By that, I mean it was planted very deeply in what some comics professionals disparagingly name "continuity," but what other comics fans call instead "history." Avengers Forever honestly wasn't written for the new Avengers fan, nor was it scripted to be most accessible to a neophyte reader. Sure, the uninitiated would be taken in by the beauty of Carlos Pacheco's amazing art and the sheer excitement and drama of Busiek's plot and the fantastic lineup of historical Avengers, but they wouldn't really understand what was going on for the first few issues. To the long-time Avengers fan, though, Avengers Forever was nothing less than a dream come true, the ultimate Avengers arc.
Over the years, different writers had put different spins on the characters and settings of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, many of which were somewhat contradictory. Were Kang and Immortus behind Hank Pym's insanity, as some writers implied, or was it all the fault of Hank himself? Was the Vision really the android Human Torch rebuilt, or was he a completely new creation? How did Kang keep coming back to life after his continual deaths in the pages of Avengers, and why did we so often see him acting out of character? Why did half of the Avengers break off from the main team to murder the Supreme Intelligence during the Kree/Shi'Ar war? Was Kang destined to become Immortus in his future, or would he revert to Rama-Tut? And the biggest question of all for me: was Immortus a bad guy or a good guy, really?
Kurt Busiek has been recognized as perhaps the biggest Avengers fan in the world, and he proved it with Avengers Forever. He read a lot of back issues, did some painstaking but creative research, and found logical explanations for every single one of the above conundrums, and then some. Most writers would be tempted to simply sweep the contradictory and confusing history under the rug to be forgotten, but Busiek had too much respect for those old Avengers stories to allow that to happen. Instead, he brilliantly crafted a tale that explained all of the supposed inconsistencies, solved most of the Avengers' outstanding mysteries (the only question left unanswered was the true identity of Force Works villain Moonraker), and brought it all together in a massive epic that truly defined the team for past, present, and future.
As a matter of fact, it wouldn't be too unrealistic to say that every Avengers story written before it was helping to build up to Avengers Forever, the franchise's Magnum Opus.
But beyond the fantastic history and the much-needed explanations, in and of itself Avengers Forever is one of the best story arcs ever produced by Marvel. The usual problem with huge, epic storylines is that they tend to drag in the middle as writers desperately seek something for the heroes to do before the final climactic showdown. In Avengers Forever, the saga is long because it has to be: every single page is there for a reason, every issue standing as a fantastic storyline in its own right. The characters of the series were delightfully off-beat, realistic, and conflicting: the modern-day Wasp led a team of Avengers pulled from various points in the Avengers' timestream. This extremely unlikely team was composed of (in chronological order) a schizophrenic and completely unstable Yellowjacket; a Hawkeye without any trick arrows or the maturity that future years would bring; an ineffective, unmotivated, clinically depressed Captain America; a Giant-Man whose mental problems were resurfacing; a quiet but mature reformed Songbird; the oh-so-mysterious Captain Marvel of the far, far future; and the crippled Rick Jones. From the hatred that Captain Marvel immediately shows Rick (foreshadowing their future molecularly bonded status) to the awkwardness Giant-Man has in dealing with Yellowjacket (who consistently claims that he killed Hank Pym, and "the dead oughtta stay dead"), Busiek's portrayal of his protagonists is flawless. Each hero is true not only to his or her root character, but also to that hero’s former position in the timestream.
Avengers Forever is packed with unforgettable moments that stand as tangible testaments to the sheer coolness a comic is capable of achieving. Of particular enjoyment to me was watching the gradual evolution of Hawkeye over the course of the series: plucked from a time when he had just lost his Goliath growing powers, Clint Barton starts out a bit less confident and cocky than he's usually seen as. Toward the middle of the series, he's as surprised as anyone when the Wasp asks him to lead a squad of Avengers into the past; after all, he'd never been a leader before at that point, and he had no way of knowing that he would someday go on to lead the West Coast Avengers and the Thunderbolts. Still later, when Hawk's separated from his teammates, we get a great look into his head as he battles Tempus. The archer alone against the time-powered giant, he defiantly fights and wins, yelling, "I got a future, baby! Jannie knows it - she made me a squad leader when we went back to the Old West! Guys like you - you're always lookin' down at Br'er Hawkeye... but I got potential – and I ain't half started usin' it!" Combined with Pacheco's powerful art, the words are full of impact.
And speaking of the art, only George Perez himself has ever portrayed the team as beautifully and majestically as relative newcomer Carlos Pacheco did in this series. Every single panel was literally packed with emotion, from Cap's hopelessness to Yellowjacket's insanity to Songbird's quiet confidence. Pacheco drew the Avengers with the respect and grandeur the team deserves, and his love for his work is evident in his attention to detail. If you stop to carefully examine the backgrounds and scenery of just about any panel in this series, you'll be blown away by just how hard Pacheco worked to make every page perfect. The artist's subtle redesign of Kang is already iconic (and Kang has never, ever looked better), and Pacheco's cover to Avengers Forever #6 is one of the most beautiful and meaningful works of art I've ever seen from Marvel Comics.
More than any other story in their history, Avengers Forever showed Earth's Mightiest Heroes at their truest, their most majestic, their most epic, and their most real. This saga beautifully wrapped up countless dangling plot lines from over 35 years of history while setting the stage for countless more (including Maximum Security, Avengers Infinity, and The Kang Dynasty epic). The story itself was deep and compelling, yet fascinating in its root simplicity. The artwork simply could not have been more detailed or gorgeous. And it still stands as the definitive story of one of the greatest super-villains ever created, Kang the Conqueror.
Avengers Forever is, in our opinion, the greatest Avengers story ever created. Whether you're a lifetime fan of Earth's Mightiest or an Avengers neophyte, you'll never look at the Avengers the same way again after reading this fantastic mini-series.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "I don't know that it's the best Avengers story of all time {Editor's note: Tom edited Avengers Forever and had a lot to do with its creation, so he's probably just being modest}, but it's probably the densest, building on the foundation laid down by Thomas, Englehart, and all the others who'd come before. I'm also quick to point out that it took us 15 months to get all 12 issues to the stands--but despite whatever outcry there was at the time, nobody really remembers it now, and the story is far better in its final form for having had the delays."
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We hope you've enjoyed as much as we have this trip back through some of the greatest stories ever written! 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 Rage. 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 (#30-#21), click here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21829).
For the third part of this list (#20-#11), click here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22084).
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg224.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg224t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #224"></a>#10: TWO FROM THE HEART
Avengers (vol.1) #224
Written by: Jim Shooter & Alan Zelenetz
Art by: Mark Bright
I've heard a lot of people compare comic books to soap-operas, but it's hard to justify that analogy with a rock-em, sock-em, action-packed battle-epic serial like the mighty Avengers.
However, the closest the franchise has ever come (with the exception of Englehart's Vision & the Scarlet Witch) was Two From The Heart, a truly memorable and slightly tragic tale by Jim Shooter and Alan Zelenetz.
The situation: after a brutal frame-up by the criminal Egghead, Hank Pym (the Avenger known as Yellowjacket) is in jail. His marriage to the Wasp ended in divorce less than a month ago (Marvel time) and Janet Van Dyne, the new leader of the Avengers, is finding comfort in a new level of responsibility and independence. Tony Stark is also single at the time, and it suddenly occurs to him that Jan is the perfect match for him. After all, they're both bubbly and full of energy, they're both avid socialites, they're both businesspeople with strong leadership skills... it was a match made in heaven. Compared to the relatively bland and nerdy Hank Pym, Tony was the perfect man for the Wasp.
After Jan's been on Tony's mind for some time, he arranges to spend an evening with her at a high-society social event. The relationship immediately blossoms into a truly great love affair... despite the fact that Tony never told Jan that he was Iron Man!
So let's recap: the Wasp got a divorce from Yellowjacket less than a month ago. Iron Man quickly begins a relationship with her, but the Wasp doesn't know it's Iron Man (in fact, she's constantly asking Iron Man to deliver messages to Tony!). Fellow Avengers Captain America and Thor do know about Stark's dual identity, though, and they react in different ways. Cap practically begs Tony to leave Jan alone, for decency's sake and to help Hank Pym's mental health. Thor, who never really had much patience for the traitorous, wife-beating Yellowjacket, finds fault only in the fact that Jan doesn't know Iron Man's secret identity.
And through it all, Tony knows that what he's doing is wrong, he knows that he's hurting one of his best friends... but he can't bring himself to stop. Because he knows that out of all the dizzy glamour girls he's dated over the years, Jan is something different. She may well have been his soulmate; Tony couldn't bring himself to give that up.
In the end, Tony's heroic nature wins out and he does reveal to the Wasp that Tony Stark is Iron Man. Just as he feared, she reacts poorly; she's far too uncomfortable dating one of Hank's best friends and partners. The relationship comes to a quick and unceremonious end with both parties more alone than ever.
This issue is brilliant and highly memorable for its spotlight on the dynamics within the core founding Avengers team. The issue realistically portrays Iron Man's playboy nature overcoming his better judgement, a move that accidentally reveals two people who were perhaps a better match than anyone thought. The slightly adversarial but mutually respecting relationship of Iron Man and Captain America is shown perfectly, as is the long-time close friendship of Tony and Thor (Iron Man and Thor were two of the first Marvel heroes to reveal their identities to each other, long before either of them told their real names to Captain America). Cap's concern for Hank and the Wasp are touchingly shown, and Thor's utter disdain for Hank also sees some time in the spotlight.
At its core, Avengers #224 is a character study of Janet Van Dyne and Tony Stark, placing them both in situations that we'd never seen them in before. The best part is possibly Hank's reaction to it all... or perhaps his lack thereof. Although the Jan/Tony relationship's effect on his psyche is the major focus of the issue, we can only guess at what effect it actually had. The only time he's shown is after the relationship is ended, with one of the prison guards throwing the tryst in his face. Hank stands quietly, with a grim and frightening look on his face... and that's how the issue ends.
Two From The Heart is a success on a great many levels... deep characterization, a realistic plot, and big ramifications for the future of the Avengers.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "This is another story I like better in conception than in execution--though I like it more now than I did when it was first published. Dealing with the human frailties that even heroes possess was an admiral goal, but as with the rest of Shooter's second run as scripter, he somehow couldn't avoid making the heroes seem like asses in the process."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/wca18.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/wca18t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="West Coast Avengers (Vol. 2) #18"></a>#9: LOST IN SPACE-TIME
West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-23
Written by: Steve Englehart
Art by: Allen Milgrom
Lost in Space-Time is actually three great stories for the price for one. The main story follows the exploits of the West Coast Avengers as they travel through time, while two side stories follow Mockingbird, held as a captive love slave by a villain, and Hank Pym, as his depression nearly turns him to suicide.
The story begins as the West Coast team faces Dominus, who hurls them back in time using one of Dr. Doom’s time machines. The West Coast team is sent back to the Old West, where they encounter a trio of Western heroes: Two-Gun Kid (with whom the Avengers had a previous affiliation from an earlier jump through time), the Rawhide Kid (before he was turned into a homosexual caricature) and the Phantom Rider. After helping the cowboys with some problems, the Avengers are unable to return home: the time machine only works for traveling back in time. So, in a plan to get home, they decide to travel to ancient Egypt, so they can utilize the time machine of Kang's first identity, Pharaoh Rama-Tut. Just as the Avengers are preparing a test jump back to 1776, Phantom Rider, who has developed a fixation on Mockingbird, snatches her up and rides away as the other Avengers are drawn back further in time.
Meanwhile, in the present, Bonita Juarez (AKA Espirita/Firebird), finds a depressed Hank Pym about to commit suicide. Bonita stops him, and begins the lengthy process of trying to convince him life is worth living. The Bonita/Hank storyline develops slowly, piece by piece, over the remainder of the storyline. Bonita, who was an acquaintance at best before this began, slowly builds Pym’s trust. The manner in which she slowly begins to insert herself into his life, and from that position of trust and friendship to build him up again as a person, is one of the most natural looking examples of relationship building you can find in comics. Too often characters are tossed together, as friends or as lovers, just for the sake of the pairing. Here Steve Englehart takes the time to grow a relationship rather than just creating one, and the result is a truly organic connection between characters.
The strongest part of the story is Mockingbird’s, in the Old West. Using special herbs, Phantom Rider mentally controls Mockingbird, forcing her to love him. Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid try to help Mockingbird, but Phantom Rider won’t give her up without a fight. Once she breaks free of his control, the final battle leaves Phantom Rider hanging from the edge of a cliff. Though having the opportunity to save him, Mockingbird lets him fall to his death. Comic book fans often debate the morality of mind control, whether or not forcing someone to love you in this manner constitutes rape. I’ve always been of the opinion that it does, and Englehart seems to agree: by having Mockingbird let the Phantom Rider fall, Englehart makes it clear that Mockingbird thinks what has been done to her is a deep, personal violation, something so severe that she is willing to forego the role of the forgiving heroine and let a man die over it.
In the main story, the Avengers fight the Spanish in 1776, eventually making their way to Egypt and to Rama-Tut’s past. Naturally a conflict ensues, and the team is defeated. Their plan to get Rama-Tut’s cooperation fails, and their plan to take the time machine by force fails. Their plan to meet up with the Fantastic Four on their original trip back to that time period (a story which originally occurred way back in Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #19) also fails. Eventually they are saved by Khonshu, an Egyptian God who sends a message of their predicament into the present mind of his servant, Moon Knight, who then arranges for the team’s rescue from the time stream.
The main story of Lost in Space-Time is just an excellent superhero adventure, but it’s the two secondary stories that really make this great. Englehart’s script features serious ethical and emotional dilemmas without easy answers, addressed with true, honest character motivations. Writing a story like that, woven into a truly enjoyable adventure story, is something few do as well as Steve Englehart. And he’s at the top of his game here, crafting a tale that functions as well on intellectual and emotional levels as it does on the visceral level of pure enjoyment.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "A really nice, intricate time-travel story, and the storyline that got me reading WCA. This was really the pinnacle point of that spin-off series."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg-an07.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg-an07t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers Annual #7"></a>#8: THE FINAL THREAT
Avengers Annual #7 & Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2
Written by: James Starlin
Art by: James Starlin
This is bigger then an Avengers story. It is a cosmic, "fate of all that is" story, one that holds the finale (almost) to one of the finest sagas in comics history.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of reading Starlin's original Warlock series knows it's a masterpiece, a space epic that acts as a masterful metaphor for faith, religion, and the corruption (and, we can only hope, salvation) of the spirit. It is from this place that we arrive at Avengers Annual #7, where Starlin revisits both Adam Warlock and one of his greatest nemeses, Thanos of Titan. You see by the end of Warlock, Adam Warlock had orchestrated his own future death by draining his own future soul into the soul gem (still with me?). Had no writers felt the need to use the character again, it could well be assumed that Warlock had died off-panel. But Starlin had unfinished business between Warlock and Thanos, business he decided to carry over here and involve the Avengers in.
As Avengers Annual #7 begins, Warlock has gathered the Avengers together to help him fight Thanos, who is once again seeking to rule all of creation and destroy as much of it as he needs to in order to impress his beloved, Death. His tools of choice, as would be the case many times in the future, are the Infinity gems. For a cosmic battle, the conflict is surprisingly straight-forward: not nearly as theological in its implications or as wide in its scope as the various Infinity series that would follow decades later. Instead it merely acts as a compelling battle between Thanos' forces and the Avengers, culminating in the clash between Warlock and Thanos, and Warlock's demise at Thanos' hands.
This presented a bit of an odd conflict, since Warlock technically should have survived long enough to have his essence absorbed by his own past self... and the time travel headaches begin. The confusion this caused would be short-lived, however, as the second half of the story, in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, gets underway. In it, the Thing and Spider-Man bring themselves to Thanos' base to aid the Avengers. Thanos, in one of the more impressive displays of villain power, bests the Avengers as well as Spider-Man and the Thing. But, at the last minute, Spider-Man frees Warlock from the soul gem, where his spirit (the one he stole in the future) resides. This spirit emerges, slaying Thanos and saving the day. It then returns from whence it came, leaving both Thanos and Warlock deceased.
Two questions I'm sure you have at this point. One, undoubtedly, is why does this count as an Avengers story when they're barely involved in the main plot. The second is to question why the characters of Thanos and Warlock were resurrected, to which I can only reply "I don't know".
This is an Avengers story because through the various stages of their involvement, it defines everything the Avengers are. When Warlock needs someone to help him take on Thanos, he comes for the Avengers, the premiere team of heroes in the cosmos. When the Avengers move forward against Thanos’ armada, they are like an army: a unified force composed of powerful individuals, fighting in a pitched battle more like a war story then the standard superhero fare. And when they take on Thanos, they are the champions, the ones who come together to battle a single, formidable threat, one that is too great for any of them to face alone.
The Final Threat is a great story, and belongs on an Avengers list because it displays the full range of the Avengers, of the roles they inhabit and the purposes they serve.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "It was nice because it was big, culminating a series of thread that Starlin had been weaving for years, and because it had consequences, and seemed so permanent at the time. It was also a case of Annuals being something more than an afterthought to the regular book."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg166.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg166t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #166"></a>#7: DAY OF THE GODSLAYER
Avengers (vol.1) #164-166
Written by: Jim Shooter
Art by: John Byrne
Okay, simple Avengers trivia question: "Why were the Avengers formed?"
And the answer is, of course, "... the Avengers were born - to fight the foes no single super-hero could withstand!"
At least, so read the Avengers' marketing line for years and years. The problem was... well, to be honest, it wasn't really true. Cap could (and did) handle Zemo by himself, the Vision could (and did) handle Ultron solo, and even Kang could be single-handedly contained by Thor. The threats that the Avengers faced weren't honestly all that much bigger than the threats found in Iron Man or Thor. The only possible exception to this in the first hundred and fifty issues of the regular series' publication was the Kree/Skrull War.
Avengers #165-166 was arguably the first arc where the Avengers really did face a foe that no single super hero could withstand. And unlike most arcs on this Top 40 list, this storyline didn’t rate for its deep character development, imaginative script, or creative plot (although it had a bit of all three)... it's on here because all-out action issues don't get any better than this. And this three-issue arc had more amazing and memorable moments in it that any other three issues of Avengers ever printed.
The "Godslayer" referred to in the title, the most powerful single villain that the Avengers had faced up to this point, was an unlikely subject: Maggia head Count Nefaria. Nefaria was best known for leading groups of super-villains from the background, and had most recently been seen killing Thunderbird in Uncanny X-Men #95. Tired of constantly failing because of his need to rely on other, super-powered individuals, Nefaria came up with a plot to get superpowers himself. And the plan worked beyond his wildest expectations.
You see, there's a reason why so many readers were excited a few years back when Marvel revealed that Nefaria would be the villain of the Avengers/Thunderbolts crossover event. They remembered this story, and just how powerful Nefaria was. He was unharmed by punches from Wonder Man, one of the strongest heroes in the entire Marvel Universe. He caught Captain America's shield, resisted the Scarlet Witch's hex, and humbled even the invincible Iron Man. He picked up a forty-story building, and toppled it atop Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Nefaria was as far above the superheroes in the Avengers, as the Avengers themselves were above the ordinary human. In Avengers #165, readers marveled with disbelief at how easily Count Nefaria, this once-most-laughable villain, utterly destroyed the Avengers.
And through it all, Nefaria cried out for Thor, the one Avenger who wasn't present. Nefaria believed that only Thor was a true match for him... and more importantly, that Thor's hammer might grant him the secret of immortality. But Thor didn't show, so Nefaria simply continued to pummel the rest of the Avengers... until the awesome last page of the issue. In a fantastic Byrne-rendered sequence, the evil Count was surrounded with lightning and thunder... and suddenly, the hammer of Thor hurtled toward him.
But in the next issue, things got even worse, as Nefaria proved a match even for Thor, which was nearly unprecedented in the history of the Avengers. At one point, Thor swung his hammer at Nefaria with all his strength... and Nefaria caught and stopped the hammer with his bare hands! When Yellowjacket sent the Vision into the fray, Nefaria became the first villain to ever resist the Vision's ethereal touch... Nefaria actually hit the Vision while he was immaterial!
In the end, only all of the Avengers, attacking together, were able to defeat the Count. Wonder Man and Iron Man double-teamed him while Wanda worked up her most powerful hex. Thor knocked him into another building, and the Vision provided the finishing blow by falling on Nefaria in his diamond form... from a mile up in the air!
Never had there been such a display of the raw power of the Avengers, nor had the team ever faced a villain as formidable as Nefaria. This was the arc that established the tradition of overpowered foes for this team, and made possible later stories like the Michael saga and the various Immortus, Kang, and Ultron tales. But despite the countless menaces they've faced since that battle with Nefaria, the Avengers have never been mightier than they were on the day the Godslayer struck.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "Some great John Byrne artwork highlights the Avengers' struggle against an overwhelmingly-superior foe. And here, Shooter strikes the right balance between heroism and humanity, particularly in the form of Wonder Man's self-doubt and reluctance to engage in battle."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avgv3-19.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avgv3-19t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 3) #19"></a>#6: ULTRON UNLIMITED
Avengers (vol.3) #19-22
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: George Perez
What separates the good team books from the bad? Sure, there are factors like membership and characterization. Both of these are very important, but remember one thing: these are comic books, and if there is a given as a reader, we are guaranteed remarkable powers and incredible displays of ingenuity and skill. Most importantly, we are promised battles and villains galore. What defines a superhero team is their ability to overcome obstacles. The more dangerous and insurmountable the task, the more we respect the story. That is one thing writer Kurt Busiek really knows how to do. He has shown time and again the innate ability to make an oft-recycled (and, at the time, usually poorly used) arch-villain seem even more formidable and complex than in any of his prior incarnations. He did it with Kang in Avengers Forever, and he repeated the accomplishment with Ultron in Ultron Unlimited.
From the beginning of the story, Busiek (and artist George Perez) set the stage for a grand tale. In the build-up, laboratories and government installations across the country were getting ambushed and robbed of certain materials. The culprits were robots. Those robots, combined with the face on the solicited cover of Avengers #19, left no doubt as to the identity of the mastermind behind it all (although actually, Alkhema was behind the installation attacks, not Ultron, but that isn't that important to the overall plot). In the wake of the robberies, various Avengers were kidnapped: Hank Pym, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and the Vision. Add to that list the vanished-from-prison Grim Reaper. At this point, it seems like the usual attack by villain with hostages taken. Not the case. What put this story over the top was what Ultron did next. His armada went into the country of Slovenia and slaughtered every man, woman, and child. That's right: thousands died brutally, and no one got our alive. The images Perez gave the reader were powerful, and it added to the level of the threat.
Why did Ultron kidnap those specific heroes and villains? To him, they represented his "family." He planned on utilizing millions of permutations of their brain patterns within millions of robots to repopulate the earth, thereby getting rid of the human germ and having a planet full of varied "sentient" type beings. The kicker of the story wasn't Ultron's scheme, though; it was Hank Pym's secret. What I loved is that this was so obvious, but no one thought of it. Way back when he created Ultron I, Pym used his own brain patterns to start it all up. Thus, in a very real way, Ultron was Hank. To Hank, this showed him what he truly was behind his humanity. So Hank Pym's second breakdown all of those years ago was in large part due to this realization. To perfectly tie that up in such a neat package was an incredible stroke of genius by Busiek.
The Avengers, accompanied by the armies of the United Nations, stormed into Slovenia ala Normandy, but were immediately cut down. The Avengers eventually tracked down Ultron, and defeated him after a landmark battle. Then the unexpected occurred. Another Ultron stepped out from the shadows. Then another. Then another. Then like something out of Aliens, the Avengers heard hundreds of others approaching from all around. While the Avengers were literally battling for their life, Justice, who was sidelined due to a broken leg, decided to do whatever he could. He spent days researching and reviewing files to try to find something that could be used to defeat Ultron. In the end, as the last of the Avengers were about to fall, Justice arrived and delivered the secret weapon needed to defeat Ultron. The defeat wasn't the spotlight of the show. It was the pummeling of Ultron by Hank Pym (using Justice's question). All of those years of guilt and frustration were released with each blow. It was a very well scripted and perfectly illustrated series of panels.
There were many other nuggets of brilliance by Busiek and Perez that surfaced in this arc: the usually done up Janet Van Dyne not being quite so pretty, the Vision/Wanda/Simon love triangle, the sheer power of Thor, the continued drop in public opinion for the Avengers, and much much more.
I will repeat again: villains make the heroes in real life and fiction. Busiek truly showed the mastery of his pen as he constructed this piece. Ultron prior to this has become the powerful and indestructible robot that always ended in a subpar story and overly easy resolution. Not anymore. Just like with Kang, Count Nefaria, the Templars, and others, Busiek was constantly executing his faultless formula on how to create the perfect Avengers stories using the true test of a hero: their resolve and conviction under the most excruciating of circumstances.
This entry written by Tan K.
Tom Brevoort: "This one just worked, precisely as we'd intended it to, ramping up the stakes for Earth's Mightiest Heroes and restoring the creepiness and power of Ultron, who'd been badly mistreated for a number of years previous to this. And most pleasing, we came up with a new way to take down Ultron along the way."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg174.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg174t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #174"></a>#5: CAPTIVES OF THE COLLECTOR!
Avengers (vol. 1) #172-174
Written by: Jim Shooter, David Michelinie and Bill Mantlo
Art by: George Perez, Sal Buscema and David Wenzel
This story is actually a piece of the larger body of another story, The Korvac Saga. But these three issues are worthy of individual recognition, as they comprise a great tale in and of themselves. Captives of the Collector, as you may have guessed, is a story about the villainous Collector... one unlike any other Collector story before.
By this point in time Avengers readers were pretty familiar with the Collector and his shtick: a powerful cosmic entity, the Collector is obsessed with collecting things. The Avengers, being the mightiest of Earth's superheroes, represent a unique collecting opportunity, and many times the Collector has done a variety of unspeakable things to try and collect the Avengers themselves. There are only so many ways to go about that, though, and often times one Collector story reads like another.
Three things made this story different. The first is the fact that Jim Shooter's Collector seemed smarter then the previous takes on the character: rather than directly engaging a team he himself acknowledges as worthy opponents, the Collector begins picking off Avengers individually, while they are separated from the larger group. It's a subtle difference, sure, but one that makes sense: why would he keep just attacking them outright? A collector collects, gathering the individual pieces of the collection gradually over time, eventually completing the set. It was more consistent with the idea behind the Collector as a character, and it was just plain good tactics.
The second difference is that, for the first two of these three issues, the Collector isn't the focus of the story. The Avengers are busy with other concerns, other enemies. Though they notice in time that they have associates who are missing, they don't automatically think of the Collector. Shooter is laying the groundwork in those issues, setting up the eventual conflict that results once the culprit has been uncovered.
By Avengers #174, the Collector has been found out, and the Avengers go to free their captive teammates. After fighting for a while and liberating the kidnapped Avengers, the team is aiming to once again put the Collector down. It is here, in the resolution of the story, that the third difference emerges: the Collector, an Elder of the Universe, is killed by another villain, Michael Korvac.
This, of course, acts as setup to tie these three issues back into the larger storyline of The Korvac Saga, which would reach its climax over the next few issues. This marked a sudden and brutal end to the conflict, one which immediately shifted the reader's focus back out onto Korvac and the story he had to tell. This was no small time villain Korvac had dispatched, this was one of the most powerful beings in the universe. It's not often in comics that a writer can snap his fingers and make you suddenly shift from one mindset to another, but Shooter and Mantlo do it perfectly in that last issue.
Captives of the Collector is the definitive Collector story. What's more, it is one of those rare stories that works both as an individual effort and as part of a larger story plan. It earns a spot on this list for having that kind of depth of purpose without being consumed by it.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "Seems like dirty pool to me to list this segment as separate from the larger Korvac Saga--there's really no way to divorce it from the overall epic."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg-gs02.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg-gs02t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Giant-Size Avengers #2"></a>#4: THE CELESTIAL MADONNA
Avengers (vol. 1) #128-135; Giant-Size Avengers #2-4
Written by: Steve Englehart and Roy Thomas
Art by: Sal Buscema, George Tuska, Dave Cockrum and Don Heck
In writing all these entries, I’ve come to realize what makes a great epic. It takes three things: an engaging adventure story with a dynamic villain, a well-defined personal relationship being formed or furthered, and a series of brief outings that function just as well individually as part of the larger whole. These three things are found in nearly every successful epic in comics, and they can be found here. Ordinarily I’d separate these aspects out, focus on them one at a time, but this story weaves them all together so expertly that unraveling them is practically impossible. So who am I to try?
The story centers around Kang, who is on a quest to find the Celestial Madonna, a woman who is supposed to give birth to a very powerful being (I’m downplaying it a bit… her child is supposed to be one of those beings who is crucial to the fate of the cosmos, etc., but the hyperbole isn’t really relevant to the story). Naturally, Kang wants to father that child, so when he discovers one of the lady Avengers is the Madonna, he kidnaps all of them to discover which is the Madonna and force her to conceive his child.
Before we get to that, though, some relationship background: the Vision and the Scarlet Witch love one another, but the peculiarity of a relationship between a mutant witch and an android keeps the relationship halted to a point. Meanwhile Mantis, a relative newcomer to the team, has been pursuing the Vision, much to the Scarlet Witch’s dismay. It’s equally disturbing to the Swordsman, who has been very open about his feelings for Mantis, but is being continually dismissed.
Kang kidnaps Mantis, the Scarlet Witch, and Agatha Harkness (the Scarlet Witch’s magic teacher and a long-time ally of the Fantastic Four), determined to uncover the identity of the Madonna. By the time Mantis is revealed as the Celestial Madonna, Kang learns that he has an alternate version of himself, Rama-Tut, and some very determined Avengers on his case. Kang, knowing he cannot have Mantis, aims to kill her. He shoots at her, but the Swordsman throws himself in the way, and is hit instead. As Kang and Rama-Tut struggle and are hurled into the time stream, the Swordsman dies, convinced he is a failure.
The death of the Swordsman shocked me as a reader not because he died (although he was the first Avenger to die in battle), but because I cared when he did. The Swordsman started as a villain who infiltrated the Avengers to betray them. He was discovered and expelled, and fought the team many times. It wasn’t until years later that he truly reformed and joined the team with heroic intentions… not long before this very story, as a matter of fact. The reservations the Avengers had about his reforming were the same reservations readers had. What’s more, he wasn’t a particularly nice person (obviously) or an overly useful asset (his only power being his skill with a sword), and his advances towards Mantis often seemed more of the lustful variety then a sign of undying love. All in all there was little reason for me to feel for him… but I did. Any doubts we had about his feelings or his intentions were dispelled when he took that shot for Mantis. And as he lay there dying, he was convinced he was a failure, as both an Avenger and a human being. His teammates tried to console him, but he didn’t listen. He died thinking he was a failure, and that made his passing truly moving in a way I didn’t see coming.
But this isn’t the end of the story... in fact, we’re only about halfway through. After the Swordsman is buried, Immortus grabs Kang and Rama-Tut from the timestream and convinces Kang to team up against the Avengers. Kang uses Immortus’ technology to gather together a legion of dead heroes and villains, then betrays and imprisons Immortus. What follows over the next few issues is a second clash with Kang, this time in the form of a back-and-forth between the Avengers and the Legion of the Unliving. Eventually the Avengers free Immortus and Rama-Tut, and together they all defeat Kang. At this point the story begins to take on a greater significance to Avengers history, as Immortus utilizes his time-travel technology to reveal the origins of the Vision and Mantis, among others. The questions of the Vision’s origins had been of particular interest for some time, and finally having concrete answers was something fans were relieved by. (Of course subsequent retcons and retcons of the retcons would make Vision’s origins one of the biggest messes in comics, but I digress.) Immortus also shows them about the Cotati, a race of plant-like aliens who are connected, somehow, to the Celestial Madonna (in case you were wondering why this counts as the same story).
Steve Englehart takes three full issues to properly explore the origins and pasts of the characters he wants to explain, the Vision getting the bulk of the attention. To even devote ONE full issue to a character’s origin is risky sometimes, as these issues can often make for boring reading. But Englehart, unlike too many writers, did the legwork beforehand: he made us care about what those origins were gradually, over time, so that when the revelation occurred we were so anxious for it we could sit and read twelve issues about it. It’s the key trick to making a resolution to a mystery worthwhile: we’ve got to care about the mystery first.
The final issue of the story, Giant-Size Avengers #4, brings everything together for one last hurrah. Mantis has, by now, realized that she loved the Swordsman. The Cotati, wanting Mantis as their Celestial Madonna, have one of their elder members essentially turn into the Swordsman to be with Mantis. Meanwhile, Dormammu kidnaps the Scarlet Witch. After she is saved, the Vision decides that their relationship has been stalled for too long, and he proposes marriage. At issue’s end, Immortus presides over the strangest marriage in history: a double wedding, with one couple consisting of an android and a witch, and the other couple consisting of the Celestial Madonna and a sentient plant in the form of a dead Avenger. Mantis and the Cotati go off into the cosmos to consummate their marriage, and the Vision and the Scarlet Witch begin their life together as husband and wife.
Exhausted? Me too, but in a very satisfying way. That’s what an epic is supposed to do: it’s supposed to tire you out with its scope and its completeness, it’s supposed to take your emotions for a ride and entertain the hell out of you while it does. The Celestial Madonna is everything an epic is supposed to be, and an easy pick for one of the all-time best Avengers stories.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "The quintessential '70s epic, marrying the scope of Lee/Kirby/Thomas with the more head-tripping approaches of its era. Read all in a lump, you can see that Englehart was largely making it all up as he went, but the ride is so enjoyable that you really don't care."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg277.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg277t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #277"></a>#3: AVENGERS: UNDER SIEGE
Avengers (vol. 1) #273-277
Written by: Roger Stern
Art by: John Buscema
Sometimes the only way to know just how great the heroes really are is to watch them get thoroughly beaten, and that's exactly what happens in Avengers: Under Siege. Baron Helmut Zemo, leading the largest and deadliest incarnation of the Masters of Evil to that point, attacks Avengers Mansion itself after lengthy off-panel planning. The result is a literal siege, the Masters of Evil taking over the mansion and holding its inhabitants hostage.
The Avengers, through the first few issues of this story, seem horribly outclassed. A number of heavy-hitters are captured, while others are badly hurt. Hercules sustains the most serious injuries, being beaten into a coma. HERCULES. That's how tough these Masters of Evil were. And they were ruthless as well, with one member, Mr. Hyde, torturing Avengers butler Jarvis with astonishing brutality. The Masters dominated the Avengers and trashed their headquarters, their home. They seemed unstoppable.
Of course they weren't unstoppable, or this would be the last Avengers story ever told. Instead a group of Avengers, led by the team's own resident unstoppable force, Thor, rallied to free their comrades and face the Masters directly. At the end of the battle Zemo lay defeated at Captain America's feet, and the Avengers could begin the lengthy process of rebuilding the mansion, and healing their bodies and souls.
This story is a great, classic superhero story: heroes struggling against villains that seem unstoppable, eventually winning against all odds through teamwork and sheer willpower. What makes this story extra memorable, however, is that the villains brought it to the Avengers in their home... and did it with the kind of success earlier villains had only dreamed of. For four of these five issues, the Masters had the Avengers beaten. It was, for all intents and purposes, over, and the Masters had won. The enormity of that reality is hard to fathom, considering everything the Avengers had previously managed to fight through and survive.
And this story had a serious impact on the title for some time to come. Jarvis would take a long time to heal from his brutal torture at the hands of Mr. Hyde, particularly from the emotional damage done by the event. Hercules lay in a coma for quite a while after his beating, and his condition led to a later storyline with the Avengers battling the Olympian gods over the fallen hero. Many Avengers suffered serious emotional scars from the conflict, whose effect lasted far longer than the physical ones. The conclusion of the story saw Captain America, the Avengers pillar of emotional strength, weeping amidst the ruins of his few remaining possessions from his pre-Avengers days. The sight of Cap, emotionally destroyed, showed just how badly that indestructible aura that surrounded Earth's Mightiest Mortals was damaged.
Avengers: Under Siege is not a particularly complex story, but rather a story that works on all the simple levels. The story is suspenseful because the heroes are in real danger. The villains are truly impressive, something few villain teams managed to accomplish. Though the Avengers are dominated, their weaknesses feel real, rather than a manufactured device to give them a hole to climb out of. The battles are exciting, the personal moments are touching, and the ramifications of the story are real and long lasting. Those are all simple things, but it's surprisingly rare to pull them ALL together in a single story. That is the strength of Avengers: Under Siege, and what makes it both a landmark story and a great read.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
Tom Brevoort: "This really raised the stakes dramatically for the team after several years of solid-but-somehow-uninvolving stories. It certainly raised Zemo's stock, and positioned him as a thinking villain, one who'd employ the sort of tactics that every reader who'd read comics for a period of time always knew the villains should use."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg177.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avg177t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers (Vol. 1) #177"></a>#2: THE KORVAC SAGA
Avengers (vol. 1) #167-168, 174-177
Written by: Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, and David Michelinie
Art by: George Perez, Dave Wenzel
The question of the corruption of power is probably the core theme of this 1978 Avengers epic. However, where most superhero comics deal with the corruption of the villain, this saga raised extremely intriguing and still unanswered questions about the corruption of the heroes.
The finale of Jim Shooter's first run as Avengers writer, the Korvac saga was meant to be the next big Marvel epic, to fill the shoes left empty since Englehart wrapped up his Celestial Madonna story. The antagonist for the tale was one Michael Korvac, a relatively forgettable antagonist of the future super-team, the Guardians of the Galaxy. The storyline began predictably enough: Korvac, an evildoer of the 31st century, traveled through time back to the present, to change the future. The Guardians of the Galaxy followed him back to stop him, and the Avengers offered to help.
What neither team knew was that Korvac had happened upon immense power in the home of Galactus, and the power had turned him into a godlike being. Now calling himself only by his first name, Michael, he took a human bride and hid himself away in a small suburban home as he prepared a mysterious plot. We the readers were never quite sure what Michael's plot was, but his power was never in doubt; almost immediately upon his landing on modern Earth, Starhawk, the most powerful of the Guardians, discovered Michael and engaged him in battle. Although Starhawk was a being that had been compared in power level to the likes of the Silver Surfer, Michael obliterated him easily, completely disintegrating him. Later, Michael restored Starhawk so that none would note his absence, but he made it impossible for Starhawk to ever detect Michael's presence again.
If you were reading our entry on #5: CAPTIVES OF THE COLLECTER above, you know what happened next: the Avengers were distracted from the Korvac hunt by a fight with the Collector, and at the battle's conclusion, just as the Collector was about to name the ultimate Enemy, the arch-villain was utterly destroyed. The Avengers now had a new target, this mysterious "Enemy," but nobody knew that the Enemy and Korvac were one and the same.
One thing that made this story even more epic was the number of Avengers involved: in his attempt to collect Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Collector had gathered virtually everyone who had then been a member (as well as future member Ms. Marvel!). This story was perhaps the harbinger of Busiek and Perez's massive Avengers reunion in Avengers (Vol. 3) #1, in that everyone who'd ever been an Avenger to that point (with the exceptions of the dead Swordsman, the antisocial Hulk, the ensorcelled Black Knight, and the Celestial Madonna Mantis) was involved... and when several of the Avengers finally managed to track the energy signature of the Enemy to his hideout, all of the Avengers went along. This was doubt purposeful on the part of writer Jim Shooter: having powerhouses like Thor and the original Captain Marvel along for the ride made the series more dramatic and suspenseful. You knew something big was coming.
A realistic and light touch that Shooter added at this point was a reminder that at the time, the Avengers' security clearances had been revoked by Henry Gyrich. This meant that the team had no quinjets or other methods of transportation... so Iron Man sadly ordered his team to commandeer a mass transit vehicle. Thus, the Avengers (Thor included!) traveled to their greatest battle of all time on a beat-up public bus.
They arrived at the home of Michael, who effectively prevented any of the Avengers (including the telepathic Moondragon, the cosmically aware Captain Marvel, and the robotic Jocasta) from determining his true identity. They were just about to leave when, in one of the Avengers series' most dramatic moments, Starhawk yelled to his allies, "For minutes you've been talking, probing, pretending to receive responses! But from whom? There's nobody there!" Because, of course, when Michael had restored Starhawk to life, he had made it impossible for Starhawk to ever again detect his presence. Ironically, that very "un-detection" was what exposed him to the Avengers. And surprisingly reluctantly, Michael engaged in combat against them.
Only Moondragon held back from the great battle as the entire combined might of the Avengers and the Guardians waged war against Michael Korvac. During the battle, Michael ranted about how the Avengers had destroyed the hope of a universe, that his plans for dimensional harmony were now doomed... but the superheroes didn't listen. They charged, and they met with brutal failure. Vance Astro and Nikki of the Guardians were slain first, and they were soon followed by Quicksilver and Yellowjacket. One by one, Guardian and Avenger alike fell, with the Black Panther, Captain America, and Wonder Man facing particularly gruesome deaths.
But Moondragon didn't fight.
When only Iron Man, Thor, Starhawk, and the Vision were left standing, Michael Korvac committed suicide. Why? Perhaps he was torn with grief from the grand plans he knew were now dust. Perhaps he was sorry for his role in murdering some of the most noble souls to walk the face of his home planet. But most likely, his suicide was motivated by the perception of betrayal on the part of his wife; at one point in the battle, he reached his hand out to her for help... and she didn't move. In the end she had doubted his vision and nobility, and Michael couldn't go on without her love. His dreams gone, his love betrayed, Michael had no more reason to live. His wife fought on, though, defeating all save Thor, who in the end, she forced to kill her.
But Moondragon hadn't fought. And now at the end, with the Avengers and Guardians dead around them, she spoke to Thor. She told him what her mental powers had discovered: that Michael wasn't evil at all. Michael had evolved into a god, yes, but a benevolent one, and one who had intended to use his powers to free innocents from the yoke of tyranny and the capricious whims of fate. He planned to make the universe a paradise, and he had the power to create utopia... and the Avengers prevented it all.
That's right: in this epic, the Avengers were the villains. And they killed the hero.
Just before he died, Michael Korvac had restored the dead Avengers to life, hoping that even if he couldn't bring paradise to the universe, he could at least heal these great heroes. In a rare moment of kindness and empathy, Moondragon stole the memory of what they had done from all of them, even Thor. From that day forth, none of the Avengers would remember the battle as anything other than a great victory over an evil foe. Only Moondragon would be cursed forever with the knowledge that the Avengers had destroyed the best hope of the universe.
The Korvac Saga was an unbelievably deep and moving epic, as exciting as it was thought-provoking. It raised fascinating questions about the responsibilities of power, and showed the Avengers as they'd never been seen before. The Avengers would never be quite the same after that, and the knowledge of what had truly happened unbalanced Moondragon horribly. Throughout its entirety, this epic wove stories within stories successfully to maintain mystery, awe, and wonder. Korvac was and is the most powerful being the Avengers ever fought... and they only won because the villain was nobler than they themselves were.
Few stories in the graphic medium have ever had the raw impact and high quality of the Korvac Saga, and to this day it's nearly unmatched in the Avengers canon (or even the Marvel canon!). This is Jim Shooter's ultimate Avengers story, and it's one of the best ever written.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "The entirety of this storyline, from #167-177, is probably the finest, most compelling Avengers saga ever told. The only real drawback is the fact that George Perez was only around for the opening chapters--the folks who followed him did solid work, but George would have continued to knock it out of the park."
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avf2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/acovers/avf2t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Avengers Forever #2"></a>#1: AVENGERS FOREVER
Avengers Forever #1-12
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Carlos Pacheco
The ultimate Avengers story in more ways than one, Avengers Forever was a once-in-a-lifetime graphic masterpiece. The Kree-Skrull War created the concept of the Avengers Epic, Englehart's Celestial Madonna refined the formula, Shooter's Michael saga added shades of grey and greater danger than ever, and Operation: Galactic Storm... well... showed us how marketable the epics could be, I suppose. But Avengers Forever took everything that had come before... everything... kept the good, threw out the bad, respected the history, and became the greatest Avengers Epic to ever be written.
To be honest, Avengers Forever is probably the antithesis of everything Marvel Editorial currently stands for. By that, I mean it was planted very deeply in what some comics professionals disparagingly name "continuity," but what other comics fans call instead "history." Avengers Forever honestly wasn't written for the new Avengers fan, nor was it scripted to be most accessible to a neophyte reader. Sure, the uninitiated would be taken in by the beauty of Carlos Pacheco's amazing art and the sheer excitement and drama of Busiek's plot and the fantastic lineup of historical Avengers, but they wouldn't really understand what was going on for the first few issues. To the long-time Avengers fan, though, Avengers Forever was nothing less than a dream come true, the ultimate Avengers arc.
Over the years, different writers had put different spins on the characters and settings of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, many of which were somewhat contradictory. Were Kang and Immortus behind Hank Pym's insanity, as some writers implied, or was it all the fault of Hank himself? Was the Vision really the android Human Torch rebuilt, or was he a completely new creation? How did Kang keep coming back to life after his continual deaths in the pages of Avengers, and why did we so often see him acting out of character? Why did half of the Avengers break off from the main team to murder the Supreme Intelligence during the Kree/Shi'Ar war? Was Kang destined to become Immortus in his future, or would he revert to Rama-Tut? And the biggest question of all for me: was Immortus a bad guy or a good guy, really?
Kurt Busiek has been recognized as perhaps the biggest Avengers fan in the world, and he proved it with Avengers Forever. He read a lot of back issues, did some painstaking but creative research, and found logical explanations for every single one of the above conundrums, and then some. Most writers would be tempted to simply sweep the contradictory and confusing history under the rug to be forgotten, but Busiek had too much respect for those old Avengers stories to allow that to happen. Instead, he brilliantly crafted a tale that explained all of the supposed inconsistencies, solved most of the Avengers' outstanding mysteries (the only question left unanswered was the true identity of Force Works villain Moonraker), and brought it all together in a massive epic that truly defined the team for past, present, and future.
As a matter of fact, it wouldn't be too unrealistic to say that every Avengers story written before it was helping to build up to Avengers Forever, the franchise's Magnum Opus.
But beyond the fantastic history and the much-needed explanations, in and of itself Avengers Forever is one of the best story arcs ever produced by Marvel. The usual problem with huge, epic storylines is that they tend to drag in the middle as writers desperately seek something for the heroes to do before the final climactic showdown. In Avengers Forever, the saga is long because it has to be: every single page is there for a reason, every issue standing as a fantastic storyline in its own right. The characters of the series were delightfully off-beat, realistic, and conflicting: the modern-day Wasp led a team of Avengers pulled from various points in the Avengers' timestream. This extremely unlikely team was composed of (in chronological order) a schizophrenic and completely unstable Yellowjacket; a Hawkeye without any trick arrows or the maturity that future years would bring; an ineffective, unmotivated, clinically depressed Captain America; a Giant-Man whose mental problems were resurfacing; a quiet but mature reformed Songbird; the oh-so-mysterious Captain Marvel of the far, far future; and the crippled Rick Jones. From the hatred that Captain Marvel immediately shows Rick (foreshadowing their future molecularly bonded status) to the awkwardness Giant-Man has in dealing with Yellowjacket (who consistently claims that he killed Hank Pym, and "the dead oughtta stay dead"), Busiek's portrayal of his protagonists is flawless. Each hero is true not only to his or her root character, but also to that hero’s former position in the timestream.
Avengers Forever is packed with unforgettable moments that stand as tangible testaments to the sheer coolness a comic is capable of achieving. Of particular enjoyment to me was watching the gradual evolution of Hawkeye over the course of the series: plucked from a time when he had just lost his Goliath growing powers, Clint Barton starts out a bit less confident and cocky than he's usually seen as. Toward the middle of the series, he's as surprised as anyone when the Wasp asks him to lead a squad of Avengers into the past; after all, he'd never been a leader before at that point, and he had no way of knowing that he would someday go on to lead the West Coast Avengers and the Thunderbolts. Still later, when Hawk's separated from his teammates, we get a great look into his head as he battles Tempus. The archer alone against the time-powered giant, he defiantly fights and wins, yelling, "I got a future, baby! Jannie knows it - she made me a squad leader when we went back to the Old West! Guys like you - you're always lookin' down at Br'er Hawkeye... but I got potential – and I ain't half started usin' it!" Combined with Pacheco's powerful art, the words are full of impact.
And speaking of the art, only George Perez himself has ever portrayed the team as beautifully and majestically as relative newcomer Carlos Pacheco did in this series. Every single panel was literally packed with emotion, from Cap's hopelessness to Yellowjacket's insanity to Songbird's quiet confidence. Pacheco drew the Avengers with the respect and grandeur the team deserves, and his love for his work is evident in his attention to detail. If you stop to carefully examine the backgrounds and scenery of just about any panel in this series, you'll be blown away by just how hard Pacheco worked to make every page perfect. The artist's subtle redesign of Kang is already iconic (and Kang has never, ever looked better), and Pacheco's cover to Avengers Forever #6 is one of the most beautiful and meaningful works of art I've ever seen from Marvel Comics.
More than any other story in their history, Avengers Forever showed Earth's Mightiest Heroes at their truest, their most majestic, their most epic, and their most real. This saga beautifully wrapped up countless dangling plot lines from over 35 years of history while setting the stage for countless more (including Maximum Security, Avengers Infinity, and The Kang Dynasty epic). The story itself was deep and compelling, yet fascinating in its root simplicity. The artwork simply could not have been more detailed or gorgeous. And it still stands as the definitive story of one of the greatest super-villains ever created, Kang the Conqueror.
Avengers Forever is, in our opinion, the greatest Avengers story ever created. Whether you're a lifetime fan of Earth's Mightiest or an Avengers neophyte, you'll never look at the Avengers the same way again after reading this fantastic mini-series.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
Tom Brevoort: "I don't know that it's the best Avengers story of all time {Editor's note: Tom edited Avengers Forever and had a lot to do with its creation, so he's probably just being modest}, but it's probably the densest, building on the foundation laid down by Thomas, Englehart, and all the others who'd come before. I'm also quick to point out that it took us 15 months to get all 12 issues to the stands--but despite whatever outcry there was at the time, nobody really remembers it now, and the story is far better in its final form for having had the delays."
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We hope you've enjoyed as much as we have this trip back through some of the greatest stories ever written! 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!