Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The All Avengers Thread

So from my ever-growing, increasingly-legendary Pile o'trades, I recently crossed off Avengers Omnibus Vol. 1, which reprints Avengers (1st series) 1-30. In kind of a bass-ackwards way, this continued my Avengers reading project from last summer which spanned issues 89-196. This time, though, I went back to the beginning and the Silver Age after having first read the bulk of what comprised the Avengers run in the Bronze Age. As with last year's project, I had read very little of the Silver Age run with maybe a stray, poorly-remembered reprint read here and there.

To be honest the early Lee/Kirby issues were a bit of a struggle to get through. I found them mostly colour-by-numbers compared to, say, the great Silver Age Spider-Man run. There was virtually no chemistry between the Avengers themselves, and the stories were mostly dull. This isn't to say it lacked any interest at all. I mean, I got to see the debuts of such classic villains as Kang and the Masters of Evil and the re-introduction of Cap, but it's hard to argue that the stories themselves were equally classic or particularly memorable otherwise.

I think where there was some interest was in the ongoing threat of Zemo, the Enchantress and the Executioner. There was the feel that these were the book's "house" villains for a while and that they were somewhat of a match for our heroes, not easily put down. It was certainly nice to see Zemo's storyline get a definite conclusion eventually and that the other two still lingered a while afterwards.

It seems strange to say this, but I think the book clearly picked up some steam with the arrival of Don Heck as penciller. Odd, because while Kirby is remembered as a towering legend of the industry, Heck is....well, not all that legendary in comparison. But I feel his art immediately popped on Avengers and improved through issue 30, despite his not having a consistent inker from issue to issue. The comparison between Heck's work here and his irregular fill-ins during the later Englehart Avengers era is like night and day. While the Englehart stuff was rushed, messy and drab, Heck's work while he is clearly in his prime and on a regular assignment is attractive and sometimes striking.

I don't want to come off as a Kirby-basher since I'm not on record as his biggest fan. I really don't lay a lot of blame on him for his work on Avengers. He certainly over-extended himself during this era and probably really only put his real love into the FF and Thor books on a fairly consistent basis. And his Avengers work isn't terrible, per se, but some of it was downright distracting, as in the case of the Hulk's changing toe count. I think of his 8 issues (he helps some also in 14-16), issue 7 was my favorite with the other Avengers brawling with a mind-controlled Thor.

But for whatever reason, everything starts picking up some steam with Heck's arrival. Though the team chemistry still isn't scintillating, the plots start picking up and maintaining my interest. 9, Heck's first, starts off with a bang with the original Wonder Man story and how it finally brings a bit of drama and gravitas to what had been a predictable opening formula. And almost immediately, we start to feel some building tension and even get a cliffhanger at the conclusion of the Nefaria story involving the Wasp. And of course we get some final resolution with Zemo in issue 15.

So the quality is on the rise at this point, but I think it kicks into full gear with issue 16 and the first classic line-up overhaul. Whether it was Stan's decision solely or whatever, the book got 1000% better, imo, when Thor, Iron Man, Giant man and the Wasp were written out and Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were brought in. Immediately, there was tension and chemistry in a book that completely lacked that within its cast prior to the change. It just had to have been a risky move on young Marvel's part to take out the book's stars and replace them with relative unknown characters who had also been antagonists in other books.

I loved all the bickering, quips, leadership challenges and even the seeds of Wanda's crush on a living legend. Hell, even Cap was a bit of a hothead and not entirely immune to Hawkeye pushing his buttons. It's all the better knowing how the relationships would evolve over the ensuing decades from that rough start. I especially smiled thinking of when Hawkeye finally gets his chance to lead the west coast team. But suddenly, the relationships were fun to me and kept me turning the pages even as the plots also generally started to draw more interest as well.

I think if I have to pick my favorites of the "new" era between 16-30, it would be the first Swordsman story (19-20) and the epic return of Kang (23-24). The first Swordsman story made me wish Englehart's later characterization of him were maybe a little closer to how he was here. He seemed more formidable. And I really liked how his code of honor wouldn't allow him to slaughter the Avengers with a bomb. I also liked how the Avengers never realized he'd saved them. The Kang story felt like the first real Avengers epic with the long odds the team were facing and the more cosmic feel. Gotta love Kang having to work with his enemies and the tragedy of his beloved Ravonna.

I like how you really feel the new Avengers foursome have developed as a team and have had enough time to be left to do so before the Wasp and Giant Man/Goliath rejoin. It's basically a full year/12 issues, though both returnees play bit parts in the prior issues before returning to the official line-ups. The untested heroes have gone through their interpersonal and heroic trials by fire before having some experience injected back in. You realize that this is true not of the former villains but also of Captain America, whose experience here is quite a change from what he's been doing before his suspended animation.

As an aside, it's a bit of a hoot that the Omnibus includes the letters pages and how they reflect the downside of what a risk Marvel took with the line-up change. I mean, even through issue 30, readers were calling for the originals to be brought back. And then there was the surprising unpopularity of Cap himself. Readers wanting him kicked out seemingly more often than not! Other than his lack of powers being unpopular, readers weren't enamored of what we might now characterize in hindsight as his 'emo' phase. i mean, Cap was a pretty whiny mutha back then! I mean, it makes sense with all he'd lost, but it's certainly interesting to see Cap anything less than the uber-confident leader he would become known to be.

Anyhow, it only gets more interesting as Pym returns and takes over the emo spot with his size-stuckness. More interesting is the return of Swordsman, the original Power Man (later T-Bolt Atlas) and especially the re-intro of the now mind-controlled Black Widow and how she affects Hawkeye. The book ends with a great spotlight for Hawkeye (who still didn't have a real name yet, btw) as Cap memorably allows him to go after the villainous trio alone after Hawkeye felt he'd let the team down previously by not being able to take Natasha down. Hawkeye more than holds his own against bad odds, though he ultimately is saved by the now (apparently) freed-by-love Widow. It's a great spotlight issue for the archer that I feel like he'd earned as we'd watched him evolve. Seeing how his apparently renewed love affair develops the character is something to look forward to in Vol. 2.

If there's any drawback here, it's that the Omnibus doesn't end very tidily. There's a lot up in the air: What's next for Hawkeye and Natasha? What's up with Wanda and Pietro's power-loss subplot? And there's the more precise unresolved cliffhanger with Hank being imperiled by some cult in South America. But by that time the Avengers had evolved into a book where the story is constantly moving and bleeding into the next issues, and that's a big part of its finally achieving its potential, along with the great chemistry, more dynamic plots and the sharp Don Heck art.

Indeed, I was sorely tempted to continue on to Avengers Omnibus Volume 2 and all the delights that I know await me within. But I ultimately decided to savor this one a while and move on to another diversion....for now. But it's nice to know that what started as a chore to go through really evolved into quite the page-turner and one of the better Silver Age Marvels I've had the pleasure to experience, though Spidey remains the gold standard for me.

In general, I find the best What Ifs tend to be the really early ones, when it was a double-sized bi-monthly series.

It feels like some more recent 'What Ifs' are more like 'Take That!'s, and have a defensive tone like, 'If you didn't like how event X went, here's a self-justifying alternative that's crappier, and even more people die and / or are maimed! It totally could have been worse!'

Although there were lots of neat stories, like the '50s Avengers one mentioned above that introduced the team that would later become the Agents of Atlas, or the one were Iron Man attempts to armor up the rest of the Avengers to face the Hulk and Sub-Mariner.

I have "The Last Avengers Story" Peter David wrote with Ariel Olivetti. I find it EXTREMELY hilarious Tommy Maximoff was the spellcaster and Billy was the sociopath.

Glad to hear you enjoyed that one. I had honestly forgotten about it. It's been so many years since the last time I read it, that I guess it just wasn't my thing. PAD is my favorite writer, but I do seem to recall finding Olivetti's art off-putting, so the latter may have been the main reason I didn't keep it. Hmmm...it was reprinted in the Avengers: First to Last trade, which my library does have in its catalog. Maybe I should give it another try. Thanks, Sarky.