Previously
This is part 5 in my continuing insane effort to try to read EVERY MARVEL COMIC EVER PUBLISHED. You can see previous posts using the tag "complete-marvel-run". We are tackling the older/longer series first, and going in "MCU Order", and this one is all about the Avengers.
(Note: All volume nos. are based on the Wikipedia listings
Avengers v1
Avengers v1 (1963-1996) - 402 issues + 23 Annuals
Giant-Size Avengers (1974-1975) - 4 issues (#5 was a reprint issue)
Avengers: The Crossing (1995), Avengers: Timeslide (1996) - one-shots
Avengers (1963) #8: I was amused by this panel because one guy votes by saying RIGHTO!
Avengers (1963) #24: Cap's team sneaks into Latveria and belatedly realize who rules the country. They were not very smart.
Avengers (1963) #239: The Avengers guest star with David Letterman
Avengers (1963) #251: I was disturbed to find out Vision had an all-red body under that costume. I mean, it's logical, but still!
Avengers (1963) #275: Spielberg would go on to win an Oscar 9 years after Scott Lang dissed him
Notes:
- Avengers #8: first appearance of Kang the Conqueror. Kang (and his other version Immortus) would be a major recurring antagonist through both Avengers and West Coast Avengers runs
- Avengers #54-55: first appearance of Ultron, though there is very little explanation as to how Hank Pym, a biochemist, was able to create such an advanced AI. Ultron would go on to plague the Avengers many times, including in the West Coast titles. (I think the last Ultron to make his appearance in either series was Ultron-13)
- Kang and Ultron would be the major recurring villains for most of the run. The major MCU Infinity Arc villains Loki and Thanos would actually have very little presence in these volumes. Loki was of course instrumental in the Avengers first coming together in #1, his only other major involvement was during the 1990s "Acts of Vengeance" crossover. Thanos himself never directly appears in the Avengers books (though I think his fleet did.)
- Avengers #89-97: the Kree/Skrull War
- Avengers #197-200: the insane Carol Danvers pregnancy storyline, which was apparently a holdover from her cancelled solo series.
- Avengers #254: "Absolute Vision" - Vision attempts to take over all the world computers
- Avengers #345-347: "Operation Galactic Storm" - the Kree/Shi'ar War
- Avengers #390-395, The Crossing, Timeslide: "The Crossing", the terrible storyline that revealed Tony Stark as a long-time traitor under the employ of Kang the Conqueror and ended with him being replaced by teenage Tony Stark from an alternate timeline
- typical of these long series running from the 60s to the 90s, the earlier issues from the 60s and 70s had mostly straightforward storylines, while from the 80s onwards, things got much more complicated
- both Avengers series featured lots of time travel, space combat, weird aliens, and constantly changing lineups
- Avengers Annual #23 was not available on Marvel Unlimited, I had to find it through other means
West Coast Avengers v1, v2 and Force Works
West Coast Avengers v1 (1984) - Limited series: 4 issues
West Coast Avengers v2 (1985-1994) - 102 issues + 8 annuals
Force Works (1994-1996) - 22 issues
West Coast Avengers (1985) #6: Wonder Man's movie career kicks off when he meets Ahnold
West Coast Avengers (1985) #51: Babies for hands!
Notes:
- the West Coast Avengers were an Avengers spin-off branch established by Hawkeye and Mockingbird and authorized by the Vision while he was Avengers chairman. Like the main book, the lineup was constantly rotating and there was a lot of time travel and Ultron and Kang and also Hawkeye being insecure about his team playing second fiddle to the East-coasters
- about halfway through, the series was retitled to Avengers West Coast
- Avengers West Coast #51-52: the most notorious storyline from this run, where it was revealed that the Scarlet Witch's children weren't real but rather aspects of the demon Mephisto.
- Avengers West Coast #80-82: "Operation Galactic Storm"
- Avengers West Coast #100: Death of Mockingbird
- Avengers West Coast #102: The Avengers West Coast branch is disbanded. Iron Man and the rest of the remaining West Coasters form the team Force Works
- Force Works #1: Death of Wonder Man. They killed him in the first issue!
- Force Works had a short-lived run and was a casualty of the aforementioned "Crossing" storyline. Frankly, it was a terrible run for Force Works anyway; their missions were overly complex and the art was not to my liking and the series overall was the epitome of the attempted edginess of the 90s era of comics.
- US Agent remains the most annoying and abrasive member of both the Avengers West Coast and Force Works
- Avengers West Coast #83-88 were not available on Marvel Unlimited, I had to find it through other means
Newer Comics
West Coast Avengers v3
West Coast Avengers v3 (2018) - 10 issues
Kelly Thompson's short-lived West Coast Avengers revival comes more than 20 years after the original team disbanded! Kate Bishop / Hawkeye pulls together an ensemble cast to accidentally re-establish a West Coast Avengers branch (Captain America doesn't exactly approve!). This is a fun, light-hearted book that features a cast of newer/younger Marvel heroes, with WCA veteran Clint Barton / Hawkeye being the only actual "classic" Avenger on the crew.
I already read this series when it first came out, but it was fun enough to re-read. Too bad it was cancelled, but I am not sure if this team was ever actually disbanded; I think I need to read the 2022 Hawkeye Kate Bishop limited series to figure that out.
Iron Man 2020 (event)
Iron Man 2020 - 6 issues
2020 Machine Man - 2 issues
2020 Force Works - 3 issues
2020 Rescue - 2 issues
2020 Ironheart - 2 issues
2020 iWolverine - 2 issues
Iron Age - 1 shot
Total: 19 issues
This event was the bookend to Dan Slott's 2018-2020 run on Tony Stark: Iron Man and in hindsight, it might have been better to cover it together with that series, but I already got into this one because it had a Force Works title (not really related to the prior series though!). I had already read part of this event back in 2020, but didn't finish it, it wasn't particularly interesting.
These books cover an AI rebellion set off by Arno Stark taking over his adoped brother Tony's fortune, his companies, and his role as Iron Man. The event ends with Tony Stark being reborn into a reconstructed, fully human body and his brother Arno Stark trapped in a virtual reality.
Progress Bar
Total issues covered in this post: 597. That's a lot!
Total issues covered so far: 2174 + 597 = 2771
Current total (released) according to the reference reading order: 33,892 (+263 from 3 months ago).
Progress: 8.18% (up by 1.78% from the last post)
I am now one year into this "complete marvel run" (the first post was from Aug 2022). I will admit, it is starting to get a bit challenging. Reading through the Avengers books was kind of a slog. A lot of the storylines had the worst traits of comic book crossovers.
I honestly need a better tracker though. The one linked above splits anthology issues into different stories so the counts can be off. Also, I need a better way to keep track of which volumes I've already read and gone through. For now, the count is still pretty small and manageable, but as that percentage goes up it's going to get much harder.
Progress is still not as quick as I'd like, and it can be a bit confusing to keep track of which series I've already read especially as I'm jumping between reading these older series and also reviewing later series and also keeping track of newer releases as best as I can. (And also because I'm not always in the mood to read a bunch of comics!). Still, I do find the activity to be net enjoyable, and it lets me make the most of the Marvel Unlimited subscription.
What's Next
I briefly considered just continuing with the Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man and Thor books, which would have meant proceeding with the Heroes Reborn event next. I started reading actual Avengers books in the mid-aughts (around the time of House of M / Civil War / Secret Invasion ), so all I needed was to cover another decade of Avengers books and after that I should have already read every major Avengers book.
But frankly after reading through three decades worth of Avengers storylines, I could use a break, so decided to look for other paths. If we were to continue with the "MCU order", the next logical series to follow would be Doctor Strange.(Actually Ant-Man comes first in MCU order, but he doesn't have any long-running solo books from that era.) Instead, I decided to go street-level for a change and instead started reading Daredevil v1, which means we are now branching down the Netflix series MCU branch. Daredevil v1 is a reasonably long 380 issues, so that should take another few months, but in the meantime I'll have some interim "side mission" posts covering mostly series that I have already read.