Visit the original place where these letters of comment appeared ar the Avengers Message Board

See Ian's parody fan fiction from Baron Zemo's Lair at The Hooded Hood's Homepage of Doom

Go back to the Index

The Greatest Avengers Issues Never Published

My top three picks for other comics that should get "honorary Avengers issue" status are:

1. Captain America #401: There are several issues from the later Gruenwald run that could be nominated, but this Galactic Storm epilogue actually furthers the history of the team, resolves old plotlines, and adds something new to the dynamic. Cap is miserable because of the breakaway Avengers' decision to execute the Supreme Intelligence. He gives a lecture on superhero ethics that hardly anyone attends. He questions whether there is any place in the Avengers for his kind of standards any more. But first Hawkeye and then Iron Man seek him out (in a bar peopled by the weirdest patrons this side of Tatooine) and discuss the thing through. Tony Stark admits that he can't always meet Cap's standards but wishes he could. Steve admits that he's too quick to judge. The relationship between Cap and Iron Man shattered by the Armour Wars and all the rest gets rebuilt. A gem of an issue that should be in every fan's collection.

2. Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2: The conclusion of the Thanos War (the first, the best, the one that set the standard), following on from Avengers Annual #7 and pitting an all-time-great team of Earth Mightiest Heroes plus Spidey, the Thing, Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock and a cast of thousands against Thanos himself. Memorable because Spider-Man loses it for a while and actually flees the battlefield, because the Avengers seem to be up against a foe who will actually destroy them, because Thor and Iron Man most definitely decide that the no-kill policy is suspended, and because it concludes the Jim Starlin strand of cosmic epics (for a decade or more at least).

3. Thor #396: The forces of Seth, evil Egyptian deity, attack Avengers Island whilst the team are crippled in the wake of Dr Druid's takeover circa Avenger #298. Only the Black Knight and Thor are present to stop them, and Dane is suffering from another facet of his Black Blade's blood-curse, this one making him super-sharp but unable to move. At the last moment an almost-familiar figure leaps into the fray - the Captain, better known as Captain America when he's not been shafted by his own government. Thor gets separated from Mjolnir, but Cap picks it up, uses it, and throws it back to the Thunder God - who is as impressed as the rest of us! In retrospect it seems so right that Cap should be able to do this. Who's more "worthy", right? Thor offers to help Cap overthrow the government in Washington to get his identity back.

There were plenty of other candidates, of course. A couple of issues of Iron Man just after #300 might as well have been titled West Coast Avengers, for example. Do any other readers have suggestions for the "honorary Avengers comic" list?

The Greatest Avengers Issues Never Written

In making my choices for "honorary Avengers comic" status I'd like to vote for the following:

1. Avengers/FF One Shot, 1989: This slots between Avengers #302&3 and before FF#327. Up against archvillain Victor von Doom, Reed and Sue Richards must decide once and for all with which team their destiny lies. The fun here lies in seeing Reed in his role both as leader of the FF and as subordinate but brilliant Avenger, and in seeing the differences in the way he and Cap see leadership roles. We also get to understand Sue's motives for both being a superhero and for wanting a life away from danger for her child. This issue also helps us to get to know Gilgamesh. In his quest to comprehend a world very different to any he has ever known we finally begin to like the character. The scene where Cap promises to show him Staten Island is truly tear-jerking.

2. Invaders Annual #3: Providing an epilogue to the "Atlantis Attacks" strand that ran through the other annuals in 1989, this issue features the long-awaited modern-day reunion of Captain America, Namor, and the original Human Torch, with Spitfire on hand for good measure. Whilst Winghead, Subby and the Firebug take on the thirteenth (current) Baron Zemo and his very modern terrorist methods, the Avengers find themselves effectively in a plot from an old All-Winners' Squad issue against the strange robots created by the twelfth Baron Zemo during World War II. My favourite bit is the look on Cap's face as Namor forgets the last forty years and shouts "OK Axis - here we come" in reply to the call of "Avengers Assemble!"

3. Onslaught: Resolution: One wonders how the apparent continuity snafus and dangling sub-plots would have ever been reconciled without this marvellous last chapter. It might as well have been called "Avengers, the Missing Year" because it certainly focuses on the situation of a world without many heroes before it shows us the secrets of their eventual return. Here we have the tale of the Widow's new Avengers team and the horrible end it came to; of Monica Rambeau's struggle to preserve the Avengers legacy from a post-Nick Fury SHIELD she does not fully trust (with the help of Special Agent Freeman who must decide whether his relationship with Monica is more important than his oath to the FBI); and of the lengths that Ultron would go to in ensuring that his foes remained destroyed. Explaining the undoing of the evil Tony and teen Tony storylines, the recovery of Janet van Dyne from bug to Wasp, and all the other strange things about the Crossing and Heroes Reborn run which many fans thought were errors rather than cunningly-placed clues, this single 64-page special brings the entire two year story to a triumphant conclusion and paves the way for Peter David's Heroes return limited series. This is a comic without which no collector's collection is complete.

What's that? These issues were never actually written so I can't vote for them? But they must have been. How can we make sense of what happened otherwise? No, no, they're real I tell you!