Avengers (Hardcover)

After a year Stan Lee retooled the Avengers. At the end of issue #16 all of the original members leave and Captain America becomes the leader of the new quartet made up of Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. The radical change is twofold, because not only do the Avengers trade an over abundance of strength for skill (the original group had four membes stronger than the new group combined), but except for Captain America, none of the new Avengers have their own comic books (or time-share comic books in the case of Captain American and "Tales of Suspense"). With the new lineup emphasizing skill the villain can be super-strong (e.g., the Minotaur) or super-skilled (the Swordsman) and it works a lot better.

Jack Kirby does the pencils on the first eight issues of "The Avengers," and then Don Heck takes over (except for #16, done by Dick Ayers). Since I was rather unimpressed by the new lineup and the contest between Pietro and Hawkeye to see who could be the bigger malcontent, having Heck, my least favorite Marvel artist, draw "The Avengers," made it my least favorite Marvel title during this period. To be fair, the three issues inked by Wally Wood are the best Heck drawn comics I have seen, and the one inked by John Romita, Sr. is pretty good as well. There is only one really classic story in these first two-dozen issues, #4 "Captain America Joins...the Avengers," but #23 "Once an Avenger," is the first appearance of Kang, who tends to become important now and then down the road.

I picked up the second and third volumes of "The Essential Avengers" before I picked up this one, but you know how I hate to have a numerical hole in my comic book library. Now if we can just get the second volumes of "Daredevil," "Doctor Strange" and "Thor" out, as well as the first volume of the "Sub-Mariner," I could be a lot happier. But there appears to be no logic to the order of these "Essential" volumes.

However, the ideas changed quickly as the Hulk left and teamed-up with the Sub-mariner to fight his former allies and was replaced by Captain America, a World War 2 hero frozen between then and the 60s. And then again, to suddenly have all the original members depart, leaving Cap with Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, three super-villains seeking to reform, as his teammates.

The stories in this volume represent a fairly diverse bunch, showing both the best and worst aspects of Stan Lee's writing at the time. Interesting team dynamics, where the characters are not always each others' friends, villains with motives beyond the banal, references to events in other titles, secrets and subplots that aren't resolved in a single story all show the hallmarks of a writer seeking to develop a loyal following. At the same time, we have blatant sexism and racism, villains with banal motives and some very hokey dialogue.

The art is OK, the early Jack Kirby issues not his best work, and I've never been fond of Don Heck's art. It seems a little odd to be reading these stories in black and white, although this obviously keeps the price down.

If you want to see how one of the best super-hero team series started out, get this.