Customer Reviews

Essential Avengers, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials)

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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I always thought marvel essentials were a great way to burn time and enjoy old silver age comics, well this does it for me, because this was a really great read. I'm a Thor fan, and he was the only super-hero I really got to know, so I got this to see him in actin and get to know some great hereos. Captian America, Iron Man and Giant-Man are all great characters. These comics were written all by Stan Lee, and he does a wonderful job with them and it seems everyone is in character.

The comics themselves are very impressive. Except the injured Wasp issue which was totally uneccessary and really just seemed like a filler issue. Some of the villains are a bit random and dissapointing. But it held my attention the entire time. The B&W pages made me appreciate Jack Kirby's artwork even more, and the price I payed for was more than worth it. I finally got to read for myself how the Avengers became a team, and how Captain America was brought back.

For this price, any fan of classic silver age comics and appreciate and love great heroes like Captain America, Thor or Iron Man should read this, even if you're not a big fan this has tons of nostalgia and historical importance in the marvel universe.

It's a great time to be an Avengers fan, isn't it? And these stories are amazing. They seem to have some haters, but all I can figure is they think 50 years ago we already had Millers and Moores, much less Bendis's and Loebs and Millars!

Not so! This is risque characterization and action that is a joy to behold. A lot of folks knock Stan and say Kirby was god. Maybe he was, but Stan delivers without Kirby. These issues alone should dispel any of the "Stan was a thief, Kirby did it all" creeps that are so abundant these days.

The action is mindblowing. And I mean it, true believers! There is so much more content in every issue than we have today in ANYTHING in print. You will blow through Walking Dead, New Avengers, GI Joe, whatever your bag is, in about 8 minutes today. These early Stan issues are packed with content.

The battles are just all hell breaks loose '60s action. Stan understood, unlike today in the post Wolverine/post Bat-God times we live in, that in a fight, EVERYTHING goes wrong. Every battle has the feel that anything can happen, anyone can win, anyone can lose, anyone could die. It's striking stuff.

Bad reviewers are Kirby-centric types that don't want to acknowledge the joy of reading late '60s comics when STAN LEE changed everything. Kirby was a genius. But that's no reason to ever knock Stan.

For people that don't want to see how Cap and Hawkeye become bros for life and see these two archetypes learn who they are in a new, scary world, it might not be for you. But I don't cherry pick my stories. I read them. Stan delivers. And guess what? So does Don Heck.

This collection is somewhat hard to review. On the one hand it is fascinating to read the very first adventures of the Avengers and watch the mythos of a great comic book series being created from the ground up. On the other hand, the stories here are awfully dated and often crudely done too. This is The Avengers: The Beta Version and it would be a while before it evolved into the franchise it would later become.

The premise is pretty simple: Earth's mightiest heroes band together to confront its greatest threats. In this case that is initially Iron Man, Thor, the Ant-Man, the Wasp and the Hulk. Basically Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were aping DC's then-very successful Justice League of America. The problem was Marvel at the time was still in the process of creating its universe and didn't have a very deep bench of heroes to stock a super-team with. That's how the Hulk ended up as a founding member: he was available on account of his comic having been cancelled months before. Lee and Kirby then realized he didn't fit in and so wrote him out in the second issue. By the third issue he is a villian.

Indeed, the early issues have a rushed, ad-hoc vibe. Lee and Kirby were throwing out whatever ideas they could come up with and seeing what stuck. By the fourth issue with the revival of Captain America it begins to come into focus but it is still not there yet. While villians like Kang are memorable, Lee's scripts are very old-fashioned and Kirby's art is not on the level of the classic work he would do in Fantastic Four and Thor a few years later. Halfway through Don Heck takes over and his journeyman pencils are simultaneously more polished and less exciting than Kirby's. (They do however make the transition to the B&W Essentials format better than Kirby's.) Comics fans will want to note that inker Wally Wood does some work here too.

Two-thirds of the way through this collection, Lee shakes up the team line-up, making it Cap, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. One the one hand, it is a classic example of Lee's willingess to take chances and go in new directions. On the other hand, it doesn't really work, as it just isn't that compelling of a group.

Comic fans will probably want to pick up this collection just for its historical importance. Just remember that importance doesn't necessarily equal greatness.

I read and enjoy a lot of silver age books, but I did not enjoy this one much at all. The early adventures are pretty good, with Hulk and the rediscovery of Captain America. Jack Kirby's art is around his peak quality. But Lee's scripts get old quick. Wasp plays the 60s stereotypical silly girlie girl in most tales (like having to powder her nose, or thinking nearly every other male character is handsome); a lot of the lamer villains are repeated (Kang and the Enchantress being featured in many of the stories), and there's a lot of plain old angst from Cap, Hawkeye and Quicksilver. It all becomes a bit tedious after about issue 15. In my opinion, the major roster changes didn't help the direction of the book at all.

Additionally, this isn't Don Heck's best work. I'm not sure if he had any good work to be honest; most panels are uninspired, and only improve in some of his later issues thanks to Kirby doing the layouts. In my opinion, most silver age books have great storytelling and this book is almost devoid of it after issue 10. Unless you're an absolute Avengers nut, I'd avoid this book and look for collections from the George Perez art run of the 70s. Better art, more character depth, and more interesting team line-ups.