4.5 stars (because that annual was such a treat!)After searching around for a great Avengers series to read after the first 2 Marvel Masterworks volumes of the 1963 run, Busiek was exactly what I needed. He mastered the delicate art of how to do an Avengers team book without the 3 cardinal sins: Misogyny, Lack of Representation and Choosing Plot over Character Development. This book has everything: great use of female characters, actual stakes, character moments for just about every character an...

In his best moments, Busiek really brings the Avengers into the real world. Unfortunately, in this volume, he's still caught up doing the same old thing. Remembering that this book was written near the end of the '90s, my absolute least favorite time for comics, I can give him some leeway--it's clear that he's trying to drag the avengers out of that time without doing anything so different as to alienate readers. The nice moments, as always, are not the comic book ones, but the personal ones. An...

The idea of Heroes Reborn was ambitious but it also failed, I think. Heroes Return heralded a great era of 'back to basics' with all four titles but with great storytellers. Busiek and Perez started a momentous run that is timeless. 20 years later still gives me good goosebumps. Morgan Le Fay is up to her shenanigans again and it's up the Avengers, almost all of them, to stop her. She creates an alternate reality where the Avengers are her slaves and are ruthless, they are the Queen's Vengeance....

Avengers Assemble, Vol. 1 is where the modern re-birth of the Avengers franchise took off, setting the stage for the massive success in the 16 years to follow.Once all the Heroes had been Reborn and then Returned, the Avengers still weren’t active. An alternate reality fight with Morgan LeFay assembled everyone ever an Avenger and teased Wonder Man’s resurrection. A new line-up debuted: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hawkeye and Warbird, with New Warriors Justice and Fir...

Still one of my favorite Avengers runs ever, after the lame early-to-mid-90s writer Kurt Busiek took all the history of Marvel's greatest team and wrote one of the most iconic takes of all time. Plus, the incredible detailed and heartful art by the classic George Perez!For any filmgoer newbies out there who are wondering what Avengers comics to pick up, I'd say to start with Avengers Assemble vol. 1. True, it may be a bit intimidating to see how how continuity there really is with these characte...

I'm a big Kurt Busiek fan, but I didn't think this first volume of his Avengers run had much of his magic. It's very much a "getting the band back together" kickoff after the shenanigans of the Onslaught saga, and it seems stuck in pretty rigid 90s storytelling. It is fun to see nearly all the Avengers in one room. But the personal drama isn't handled very subtly. We're constantly hit with the fact that Ms. Marvel is drinking too much, Hawkeye is having a hard time dealing with a subordinate pos...

The post-Heroes Return Avengers books by Kurk Busiek were certainly interesting ones and a comiXology sale helped me get the change to read through them more fully this time around. This first volume of the title is a pretty hefty one that kicks off with the mystery of the changes to the Scarlet Witch's powers - something which would ultimately have more far-reaching effects when it comes to the Marvel Universe as a whole. This is the book where her powers really grew into something unique with

This was so good! I love the way the entire volume unfolds like with the coming of the team and a medieval Avengers story vs Morgan Le Fey and then the team forming and fighting her, coming to present day and new members taking on Squadron Supreme and some pretty good tensions in the team with Carol and then Wonder Man and also the way Busiek rights the doubts and team camaraderie is awesome plus then facing off against Moses Magnum was cool too and inclusion of new members and Grim Reaper just

There are some elements of cheesiness, and a '70s/'80s throwback style, that are occasionally stumbling blocks for the Busiek/Perez (and later Busiek/Davis and Busiek/other artists) new millennial run of Avengers.However, as someone whose definitive Avengers was the Roger Stern/John Buscema era, who still thinks Mark Gruenwald wrote the definitive Captain America, who would hold up the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition as one of the best comics Marvel ever published? Well,

This is an excellent assemblage (didja see what I did there?) of Busiek's first year of his Avengers run, 1998. The title had gone into something of a downward spiral in the mid-to-late 1990s, as had the M.U. in toto, and this is a fine reboot. The team faces off with an interesting parade of villains, though the strength of the storyline is always the interaction of the characters. Iron Man, Thor, and Cap are the big three, along with Wanda (The Scarlet With), The Vision (more or less; he spend...

After the horror of Rob Liefeld being in charge of the Avengers for a year in Heroes Reborn, the Avengers have returned to the main 616 universe. For the first time in about 15 years, the Avengers was finally good again. Yes, there were some foibles with the Morgan Le Fey storyline that kicks the book off. Busiek knows his Marvel history inside and out and loves to return old villains that haven't been seen in the Avengers for a long time. After the team gets settled, the book picks up speed. I

I really enjoyed this slice of late 90s Avengers. Busiek gets right to business by constructing an interesting lineup, gives a lot of characters subplots that usually get explored in a way I found satisfying, and throws a lot at them from the get go. And of course who could forget TRULY CLASSIC moments like the introductions of famed heroes like Triathlon and Silverhawk? Or how Ms Marvel changes her name to Warbird and throws a never-ending shit fit? Yeah, Busiek’s Avengers is somewhat weird, bu...

I'm going to use this volume as a proxy for Busiak's entire run on Avengers (including Avengers Forever and Avengers Two). There are some maxims of comic books that this run illustrates pretty well: 1) Creative Teams Probably Need Be Rotated Every 70-80 issues: that's how long Gaiman ran on Sandman, Robinson ran on Starman, it's when Clairmont lost control of his previously tightly plotted X-Men, longer than Simonson's run on Thor... There's a point at which the writer has to being things to a c...

With a few more years, I can see more of the flaws in this work -- of these the mostly uninspired villains stand out (Busiek includes his "pitch" memo for the series, and suggests that the team dynamics are a lot more important than the bad guys; that's true, but the bad guys are also what the good guys have to rise up to).Still, Busiek gives the Silver Age a 1990s polish, in a good way. Cap is unapologetically inspirational. Warbird struggles with alcoholism. The Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Wond...

Some of you probably knew up front (if you thought about it at all) that I'd like this book as it takes a pretty big screw up for me not to like the Avengers...especially if Cap's the one in charge. I've noted before that I grew up collecting Silver Age comics and that I slide nostalgically back to my youth when I read these. Same here. Good book, good art, lots of action lots of heroes (if the Avengers has a draw back it's the huge roster of past and temporary members). Still that's not a big d...

A most excellent adventure but primarily character driven, which is what I really, really love. Plus, this line up has lots of characters that I really care about, including Firestar. The best part, though, is the Scarlet Witch, her increasing mystical power, and her relationship with Wonder Man. The only downside, if one could call it that, is Busiek pulls a great deal on the rich history of The Avengers, making references to the past that sometimes require an Internet search, but that's really...

Considering I began my comic addiction around '96, the year these issues (Avengers, Vol 3: #1-11) debuted, it goes without saying that this particular volume was a nostalgic trip into late-90s continuity. Unfortunately, it is also mired in late-90s cheese. I mean, c'mon, an Avenger named Triathlon? Not to mention, characters are still using catchphrases and shortened abbreviations for codenames. With all that being said, I really couldn't get into the first two issues. It took me months to read

A solid start to a legendary run of Avengers comics. Busiek immediately demonstrates his talent for character, as well as his deep appreciation for Marvel's history. Perez's art is beautiful as always. However, much of this first run of stories, while certainly good and entertaining, feels oddly small, like an appetizer rather than the main course. More attention seems to be spent on team dynamics and drama... which, again, is good and entertaining... but there's a sense that the series is falli...

It started great, but ended up being boring. Earth's mightiest superheroes should have at least mildly entertaining story arcs. I expected much better from Busiek!The first three issues, where every past member of the Avengers fights against Morgan Le Fay (of all things!) was kind of great. I even enjoyed witnessing the formation of the new team and Carol Danvers' trouble with alcohol. But a love triangle between The Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Wonder Man? And the whole plot depends on it? Ugh, p...

I love Busiek, but this story left me flat. If you like this sort of 1970s comic book story. A superhero soap opera full of narration and stiff dialouge where everyone is always fighting a world-crushing evil and angsting to themselves in thought balloons, then this book is for you. But I don't like those sorts of things. Hence the two stars.