Customer Reviews

MMW MARVEL MASTERWORKS AVENGERS HC VOL 9

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

 

 

...but there is a reason.

This Masterworks volume only has 9 issues of the Avengers and each issue was 19 pages plus a cover. That's 180 total pages of Avengers. Why so little?

Marvel understandably wanted to keep a major story arc, the Kree/Skrull War, together in one volume, the next Avengers Masterworks. This volume, therefore, had to be short.

How to sweeten that bitter pill? Marvel included Hulk #140 which concludes the storyline started in Avengers #88 even though the the Avengers are not involved. They also included a "Revengers" parody short from Not Brand Echh #5, the cover of the all reprint Avengers Annual #4, and two house ads. Still, a rather thin volume, all in all. Surely a price adjustment would have been in order?

But what is there is top notch stuff. Reproduction is first rate. Stan Lee may have hit the wall by the time the early 1970s came around but Roy Thomas hadn't and his books, the Avengers especially still had a lot of energy and originality. The artwork by the Buscemas was also great. To top it off, science fiction great Harlan Ellison contributed the plot for the aforementioned Avengers/Hulk story with Lovecraftian overtones.

So I give it four stars with only the low page count keeping it from five stars.

This is a run of The Avengers that has a special place in my heart. These comics were out when I was just starting college. I was at that time of life where you really like to think in the abstract a lot and sort of figure things out about life, the universe, and everything. It was also a very political time with the Viet Nam war raging on. I was a young single guy with time on his hands, and these comics really fit the bill.

One thing I love about Marvel comics is the consistent universe in which the stories take place. Any or all of the Marvel super heroes or supporting characters can and will appear in any OTHER comic. This series of stories does not disappoint. The good guys like Daredevil, the Black Knight, the Inhuman Medusa, and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four make their appearance ansd add to the plot and action. The stories are spiced up by a formidable roster of super villains as well - Aries and the Zodiac crime cartel, the Maggia, the multi-dimensional Arkon, the Enchantress, A.I.M, and the Brain-Child menace on an alternative Earth.

Then there are the interesting guest stars like Red Wolf - a bona-fide shamanist style Native American super hero whos fits right in with the Avengers roster. The Hulk weighs in on his usual round of rampage until he has a bitersweet normalization and love with a microscopic maiden. Just as he is settling into a happy ending, Hulk is yanked back to this world where he goes back to "Hulk smash!" mode. There are a plethora of marvel super heroes from the Golden Age brought back as denizens of an alternative Earth that is saved by our Earth's Mightiest Heroes. This is a nod and tip of the hat to the DC multi-univese tales that span decades, leading up to the Crisis on Multiple Earths and its many sequels.

There are many tales that move the soul and touch the heart, but there is an origin story for T'Challa, the Black Panther that tops them all. After a long and gruelling origin story from the Black Panther, we flash back to Avengers headquarters. Thor offers the sage observation that "the metal of the human spirit is forged upon the anvil of sorrow." I remembered that line all my life from the seventies until now. It was a great experience to see it again as I lost the original comic book many years ago.

This is a great series of Avengers tales. If you love Marvel, if you love action and adventure with a heart and meaning, you will love this run of the Avengers comics. Avengers Assemble!!!