Customer Reviews

Essential Avengers Vol. 1

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As good as the early Fantastic Four issues were, the Avengers took the superteam concept to a whole new level. Here was a team formed for the noblest of goals, thrown together by the machinations of an evil immortal only to turn the tables and begin the legendary association which would have teenagers all over the world shouting "Avengers Assemble!" in their backyards.

"Essential Avengers vol. 1" captures the first 24 issues of the classic series, scripted by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby and Don Heck. If the first appearances of Kang the Conqueror, Immortus, and the Masters of Evil aren't enough for you, pick this collection up for Avengers # 4, the return of Captain America. This alone is enough to mark a substantial return on your investment for this book.

Highly recommended to all comics fans and X-Men fanatics who need a primer in how team books used to be written.

The Avengers were initially an obvious recipe for success - take a number of characters already supporting their own comics and bring them together as a group, an idea as old as the Justice Society of America. So, in the debut issue, we have Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-man and the Wasp joining forces as an unexpected consequence of a plot by Loki against his half-brother, Thor.

However, the ideas changed quickly as the Hulk left and teamed-up with the Sub-mariner to fight his former allies and was replaced by Captain America, a World War 2 hero frozen between then and the 60s. And then again, to suddenly have all the original members depart, leaving Cap with Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, three super-villains seeking to reform, as his teammates.

The stories in this volume represent a fairly diverse bunch, showing both the best and worst aspects of Stan Lee's writing at the time. Interesting team dynamics, where the characters are not always each others' friends, villains with motives beyond the banal, references to events in other titles, secrets and subplots that aren't resolved in a single story all show the hallmarks of a writer seeking to develop a loyal following. At the same time, we have blatant sexism and racism, villains with banal motives and some very hokey dialogue.

The art is OK, the early Jack Kirby issues not his best work, and I've never been fond of Don Heck's art. It seems a little odd to be reading these stories in black and white, although this obviously keeps the price down.

If you want to see how one of the best super-hero team series started out, get this.

The Avengers assemble for the first time in Marvel history, August 22, 2005

Volume 1 of "Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers" represents what I would consider the weakest stories in the history of Marvel's answer to DC's Justice League of America. Collected in this volume are full-color reprints of the first ten issues of "The Avengers," which covers the first two lineups to answer the call, "Avengers Assemble!" These two lineups represent the strongest and weakest Avengers lineups. Originally we have Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp, with the Hulk being replaced by Captain America and Ant-Man deciding being Giant-Man is more interesting. In other words, you basically have all of the first generation of Marvel superheroes who were not the Fantastic Four or Spider-Man.

The initial problem with these stories is simply coming up with somebody for the Avengers to fight who could actually provide a challenge to the lineup. Remember that Marvel did not have the decades long accumulation of supervillains that DC could throw at the JLA. The first three issues offer Loki, the Space Phantom, and Namor the Sub-Mariner as the opponents. After finding and thawing out Captain America in issue #4, the Avengers start going up against multiple enemies in each issue, such a whole bunch of Lava Men (#5), which were followed by Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil (#6), with the Enchantress and Executioner joining the fun (#7). But even then, it is really hard to pretend that these are even contests when you have Thor and Iron Man running around (either one of them should be able to defeat most of these opponents without help). Completing this first volume you have the first appearance of Kang the Conqueror (#8), Baron Zemo's creation Wonder Man (#9), and Immortus (#10). So there was a definite bent towards gods (from Asgard anyway) and god-like mortals for the Avengers to fight.

It was not until the end of issue #16, which you get to in Volume 2 of the Marvel Masterworks collection, when all of the original members leave and Captain America becomes the leader of a new quartet made up of Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch that you have a shift from strength to skill in the group that helped with the storytelling. Stan Lee does the scripting with Jack Kirby doing the pencils for the first eight issues of "The Avengers," and then Don Heck takes over, which I never considered a good thing because he was my least favorite Marvel artist (although to be fair when Wally Wood and John Romita, Sr. did the inking in issues #20-24 they were the best Heck drawn comics ever. There is an improvement in the issues of "The Avengers" over the years, but for me you do not get to the real Avengers until the Vision comes along. Still, everything starts here as the Avengers assemble for the first time.

The "essential" collections by Marvel Comics give the chance to younger generations to see how the Marvel superhero-with-everyday-problems comics that made the silver age of comics come about in the early 1960's. If you're looking for muscles that would give century old tree-trunks a run for their money, don't buy this book. Don't buy this book, either, if you're looking for non-stop fight scenes and full-page panels from end to end. The Essential Avengers reprints in black and white the first couple of dozen stories by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Don Heck of a series egged into creation by DC's team comics of the late fifties and early sixties. They are simple stories, seemingly one or two-dimensional in the light of the eighties and nineties work by people like Alan Moore and Frank Miller, but they are vital, well-balanced stories that have aged, yes (for example, they're sexist by today's standards - why is the Wasp always left out when the original Avengers are mentioned?), but the stories do show us how it all started. There would be no Miller and his ilk if there had been no Kirby, whose work here round about the time when he was co-creating the Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Thor and so many others is dynamic and alive. Heck's work is not up to Jack Kirby's, but is artistically competent and shows the artist's ability at visual story-telling. A good buy for comic nostalgia buffs.

From start to finish this is the ultimate Avengers package. Some of the greatest Avengers stories ever told. Form the return of Captain America to the joining of Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch. These are where the Avengers started. Kurt Busiek today's writer of the Avengers wishes he could recreate the magic that Stan Lee created in this book. A must have for any true Avengers fan.

The Avengers debuted at the same time as the original X-Men and until the New X-men came along, they were Marvel's Superteam Supreme. The earliest stories feature powerhouses Thor, Iron Man and Hulk, along with Giant/ant Man and the Wasp. After a few issues the Hulk left and was replaced by Captain America in a classic must read story. The early team fought time spanning menaces like Kang and Immortus, villainous conglomerates like the Masters of Evil, and Wonder Man. (Although Zemo never seemed very menacing, an ex-Nazi with a hood permanently glued to his head by accident?) After a dozen or so issues, this team was replaced by Cap, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye. Can you say "power shortage"? And we're treated to a team that had a hard time defeating a fat robot and the Swordsman. SO they find themselves thoroughly outmatched when they meet Kang in the last 2 stories in this collection. But that was the charm of the Avengers. Their roster changed every dozen or so issues. While the Justice League would add a member here and there, you never saw anybody leave the roster. Imagine a JLA where Superman or Batman decided to call it quits for a few years. This is where we see the genius of Stan Lee. After forming a superteam of awesome strength, he allowed a change to bring in a team of also rans. Watch as Cap molds his group into a team that has to use wits instead of brute strength to stop their foes. At the time, it was a major change in team books. And as always, watch for the dated female characterizations, especially of the Wasp, who spends most of her time mooning over Thor and fantasizing what Iron Man looks like under the armor.

This book is one of the great Avengers books. From the return/first silver age appearance of Captain America to the adventures of the Kooky Quartet, from the first battles with Kang and Immortus, and Wonder Man this is a must have for any Avengers, or comic book fan.

I enjoy the Silver Age of comics. And with the first 24 chapters it is comics when they were well written.

My main dissapointment with them is that in the begining the Avenger would start a fight and Thor would have to save their butts. When these stories first came out it was pretty much Thor carrying the group.

When the original team dismanted and the new guys came in, except Capt. America that is, the group each had a chance to save the day some how. Which made for a more interesting storyline.

It has been said that this was Marvel's answer to the Justice League. It was much more than that. We got to see the new version of Captain America. The Sub-Mariner even comes back from his World War II roots.

We get to see much more of the weakness and failures of the most powerful super team of the 60's and 70's. To me it was like the Fantastic Four with more super powered problems. We get to see the personal glimses of their lives when they were not super beings. Cap had to deal with what it was like to be out of touch with the world while he was frozen. Iron Man had a bad heart because of the shrapnel he got back in the war.

While I don't like the black and white format it is the most affordable format. Until Marvel releases the first 500 issues on CD ROM like they will with Spider-Man this is the most economical way to see them.

As great as this graphic novel was by itself, I know of one helluva great companion piece in the form of a book entitled "The Adventures of Darkeye: Cyber Hunter" whose odd manner of having log-entries over chapters seems almost like the script for a graphic novel, even though it is in the science fiction/high-tech and cyberpunk genre along with books like "Cryptonomicon", "Snow Crash", "Prey", and "Altered Carbon". Very fast-paced and visual as well as being very exciting due to its action-packed pages.