Essential Avengers - Volume 5 [Paperback]

Two summers ago, I had an absolutely wonderful time reading the Essential Avengers 4. Not only was the book the largest Essential at the time (at 640 big pages!), but it had utterly stellar tales like the duel with Kang and the Grandmaster, the introduction of Zodiac, the origin of the Black Panther, and (you probably knew I was getting to this) the Kree-Skrull War, a mix of relationship-forging drama, political commentary, and wall-to-wall action that has perhaps never been surpassed in the annals of the sequential art medium. After putting it down and breathing a few sighs of satisfaction, one of my first thoughts was that there would be little reason to hurry in printing a fifth volume. Heck, Marvel could just stop the Essential Avengers program right then and there, because you just couldn't ask for a more appropriate conclusion than the old K-SW.

Shows how much I know.

It looks like the release of the Ultimate Avengers animated movie as well as the alleged twenty-four volume order for new Essentials this year conspired to put the Essential Avengers 5 on my shelf. So that's why I'm here today to roll out the welcome wagon for Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Our favorite men and women in spandex are brought together and torn apart by several factors between #'s 98 and 119. First up, Earth and Olympus fall under siege by Ares (the God of War, not the ram-headed guy from Zodiac) and it takes the combined forces of every single person who was ever called an Avenger to stop him (accounted in issue #100, naturally). The tumultuous love affair between the android Vision and the Scarlet Witch begins here, and Vizh is quickly tempted to end it by an attractive offer of normalcy made by his brother, the Grim Reaper (I mean he's not really his brother, he's ... all you Marvelites know what I mean, right?). Even without the Vision's compliance, the Reaper is still poised to slay the Avengers with some help from his new partner, the Space Phantom (whose personal motto might be "If the Tinkerer can return after a 100+ issue hiatus, so can I). In the midst of this battle, Captain America stumbles across a bizarre mystery that stems from his "death" back in issue #113 of his own mag (which is a great excuse to dust of your copy of Essential CA 2). Oh, I suppose I should also mention that the incomparable Avengers-Defenders War is here as well (As I articulated in my Essential Defenders review, `nuff said!). Finally, our heroes are once again threatened to be sealed in plastic cases and placed on the mantle of the Collector (he just can't settle for comics and action figures like the rest of us).

This book obviously speaks to Avengers fans first, but fellow X-fans can gleam a lot of enjoyment out of here as well. At this point in Marvel history, the Uncanny X-Men series was in the cooler. Thus, when the Sentinels return and launch their latest haywire we-must-protect-the-human-race-by-destroying-it plan, it's up to the Avengers to mount the offense. Our assemblers also face a skirmish with the Savage Land Mutates, the results of one of Magneto's stranger pet projects, and then after that (you'll never guess) ol' Mags himself rears his head. Mr. Lehnsherr takes the X-Men, Wanda, Cap, and Iron Man prisoner (I always assumed a fight between Magneto and Iron Man would end very quickly) and it's up to the rest of the team, along with a timely assist from Daredevil and the Black Widow, to affect a rescue. I could imagine that, if the Marvel brass had any less faith in their floundering X-Men franchise, this story would have been their best opportunity to have written off Xavier and his kids for good. Finally, while reading the story of the suicide-bombing bigots who were out to destroy the unnatural Vision-Scarlet Witch union, I must say I found it rather amusing that they bore no malice towards Wanda because she was "still a person". I guess the most horribly prejudiced demagogues of the world would have to wait until Claremont arrived before they realized that they hated mutants too.

There are certainly some impressive plateaus in this collection, but also some very, very deep pits. First up, celebrated sci-fi author Harlan Ellison, who gave us one of the Hulk's best stories ever in the last Avengers volume, drops a serious bomb here with a yarn about how the Watcher, Mr. Non-Interference, gives some random accountant ungodly powers and sends him to kill five innocent people ultimately for no reason. Oh well, even Ray Bradbury had that abysmal Twilight Zone episode about the robot nanny. Then some nine-foot tall billionaire shows up with a sinister scheme to send the state of California plunging into the Pacific just so this sunken ship that he wants to salvage will end up in international waters (Couldn't he have just dispatched a sub while the Coast Guard wasn't looking? Or would we not have had a story that month if he did?). Another new villain is the Lion God, who's a, um ... god of lions? His second appearance results in the Swordsman and Mantis joining the team, which is good, but their we're-allies-of-the-Lion-God-no-wait-now-we're-not storyline is, to put it mildly, bewildering. By the way, in one issue, a small band of inbred Neanderthals (who have, in their possession, rocks, gas, a horse-sized insect, and a big dark cave in which to hide) manage to bring the whole team to their knees (Oh lordy, lordy, lordy). Lastly, Hawkeye finally leaves his Goliath phase (Yay!) only to start wearing a Renaissance Festival-esque outfit complete with headband (Boo!).

I was lingering on the negative side for a while, but for all its faults, I feel that the good parts outweigh the bad. It's worth noting that the creative force behind the series changed at this time from Roy Thomas to then-newcomer Steve Englehart. Steve gave us a great number of memorable stories, although it took him a little while to find his footing. Overall, the early X-Men revival efforts and the Avengers-Defenders War (not to mention the sheer difficulty in following up the Kree-Skrull War) push this book into the upper echelons of Essentials in my opinion. So, if you're interested in seeing Thor, Iron Man, Vision, Hawkeye, the Black Panther, and the Scarlet Witch (largely without her brother as a chaperone) in action, then give Volume #5 a gander.

[Final Note: I just remembered this great early scene in which a mugger exclaims that he doesn't mind if his intended victim screams for help because "nobody's gonna come". Hey, buddy! You're in Manhattan! In the Marvel Universe! If you try to jaywalk, there'll be a line forming behind you of supers ready to pummel you into the ground. Do you ever wonder why more criminals don't relocate to a more under-represented city like Seattle or St. Louis? It would seem like a good career move to me.]

There are some big names that show up as writers and artists in the issues collected in "Essential Avengers, Volume 5," but they do not show up for long. Just like the roster for Marvel's premier superhero team, the lineup for writing and drawing this comic book changed a lot. An original story by Harlan Ellison (1964's "Five Dooms to Save Tomorrow") is adapted in #101, while Roy Thomas finished as writer of the book with issue #104 and then Steve Englehart took over. Barry Windsor-Smith draws the first three issues here, even doing some of the inking (along with Joe Sinnott and Syd Shores) for #100 and then we get Rich Buckler (#101-04, 106), John Buscema (#105), George Tuska (#106-07), Jim Starlin (#107), Don Heck (#108-112), and Bob Brown (#113-19).

The Avengers line-up at the start of this collection consists of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and the Vision, with Rick Jones hanging around because he is sharing space with Captain Marvel. By the end Hercules, the Black Panther, Hawkeye, and the Swordsman and his paramour Mantis show up for duty as well, although everybody who has ever been an Avenger shows up for #100 as the Avengers assemble and invade Olympus because Ares the god of war has been causing trouble on Earth. The Ellison story has to do with killing innocents whose descendants will destroy the world, before we move on to more traditional super villain tales. As the Avengers hit 100 issues it is the Vision who is the key member of the group and he has to deal with his brother, the Grim Reaper before alone (#102) and in tandem with the Space Phantom (#106-08), while the romantic relationship between the Vision and Wanda continues its stormy way.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues focusing on Hawkeye, who comes back, quits (#109) and joins the Defenders. I never cottoned to Hawkeye (and never was enamored of the Green Arrow either) and even in retrospect he is, at best, a light proto-type version of Wolverine (think about it). There are also several issues dealing with evil mutants and other characters from "The X-Men." First the Sentinels show up (#102-04), followed by Lorelei (#105), and then Magneto (#110-11). Of course, Wanda and Pietro were original members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, so there is that history to justify it all and it does make for something different (the problem with a super group is that it is so hard to come up with a group of villains for them to fight, so you have to go with one supervillain, such as Magneto, who is arguably stronger than any one hero, which makes you wonder what happens when Cap, Iron Man, Thor, etc., has to deal with somebody one-on-one).

Collected in this volume are "Avengers" #98-119, "Daredevil" #99, and "Defenders" #8-11, so there are some cross-overs that involve not only Daredevil, who is teamed up with the Black Widow at that point, and the newest (at that time) Marvel super group. This clash was interesting because what happened was members of each group met in mini-battles: the Vision and the Scarlet Witch vs. the Silver Surfer; Iron Man vs. Hawkeye; the Black Panther and Mantis vs. Dr. Strange; Swordsman vs. the Valkerie; Captain America vs. Sub-Mariner; and in the last but not least position, Thor vs. Hulk (which is when the two groups finally get together to go after the evil tag-team of Loki and Dormammu. The problem with "The Avengers" is that the comic book never really seemed to jell, and it was always one step forward and one step back. If Buckler had stayed as the artist for most of these issues I could round up, but Don Heck was probably my least favorite Marvel artist during that time and I look at any title he was drawing as being second tier at best.

What is the greatest superhero team of all time? It's debatable, but certainly it comes down to an elite few: The Justice League is the best team in the DC Universe, but Marvel has a number of groups to choose from. If it's a matter of brains, I would go with the Fantastic Four, but for sheer muscle, I would go with Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers. The Avengers are the Marvel equivalent of the Justice League, featuring the all-stars who aren't already affiliated with other teams.

Volume 5 of the Essential Avengers series covers issues 98 to 119 (with one Daredevil and four Defenders to make sure certain stories are complete). The core lineup in this period include most of the big names in the group: Hawkeye, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch. The only "classic" Avengers who are missing are the Wasp and her husband (Ant Man/Yellowjacket/Giant Man/Goliath). Also appearing are the Black Panther, Black Knight, Hulk, Swordsman and Mantis.

Since these are the elite heroes, they rarely battle third-rate villains. In these issues, they face such heavyweights as Ares, the Grim Reaper, Magneto, Dormammu, Loki and the Collector. In between battles, the principal story arcs involve the three members who don't have their own magazines. For the Vision and Scarlet Witch, they are finally admitting their love for each other, with all the problems an android/human relationship entail. For Hawkeye - who has his own designs on Wanda rebuffed - this leads to alienation from the team and a brief membership with the Defenders.

While most of the stories are pretty good, some are a bit on the weak side. Surprisingly, this also includes a single-issue story by Harlan Ellison, who is normally one of the best short story writers around. But even if the quality is occasionally erratic, overall this is another fun volume that once again evokes a somewhat simpler era of comic book tales.

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