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New Avengers
2007-03-22 14:55:07

Today's Good Comic I Had A Hand In is AVENGERS volume 3 #1 by Kurt Busiek & George Perez.

AVENGERS had been one of four mainstream Marvel Universe titles farmed out to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld in what became known as Heroes Reborn. Jim and Rob basically wiped the slate clean, restarting each book from scratch and updating it in much in the manner of the Ultimate titles. Meanwhile, in the Marvel Universe that remained, these characters were all presumed dead, casualties of a massive battle with Onslaught.

The Heroes Reborn titles met with mixed reviews, and especially the two Liefeld-run series, CAPTAIN AMERICA and AVENGERS, were critically panned. Nevertheless, the books sold extremely well (though not so well that the deal was extended beyond the one year--and Rob was removed from the project about halfway through for not being able to meet the extremely high numbers called for as part of the agreement.) So there was a real pressure for these books to perform when they returned to the Marvel Universe proper.

Ralph Macchio was the person who stumped for George Perez to pencil AVENGERS, Initially, George was approached to both write and illustrate the series, but he felt that he'd been too far out of the loop in terms of keeping up with the assorted Marvel titles. He requested either Mark Waid or Kurt Busiek. Kurt was already onboard with me to take over IRON MAN, so when he was asked to put in a pitch for the series, he brainstormed with me in an unofficial capacity. George had asked for either Ralph or myself to edit the series, so when Kurt got the assignment, because of our creative partnership (having done UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN and THUNDERBOLTS before this), AVENGERS came to my office, and IRON MAN was switched over to Bobbie Chase.

AVENGERS v3 #1 was really about re-establishing the classic hallmarks of the Avengers--about not being afraid to be a classic super hero book (after a decade or so where various people tried to make-over the Avengers into a mirror image of whatever seemed to be popular that week.) On this first issue and the next three, George produced lush full pencils--it had been a number of years since he'd done a sustained run on a monthly book, and he felt he had to prove himself once more. And because this was George, who wanted to draw everybody, we decided to feature every last surviving Avenger in the course of this opening story.

This run of AVENGERS is really what established the series as the top-flight book of the mainstream Marvel Universe. Up till this point, while AVENGERS was always a good-selling book, it wasn't necessarily a top-ten title, and in fact typically sold less than FANTASTIC FOUR and other books. But from this point on, AVENGERS became cemented in people's minds as the heavy hitter title of the line in a way it hadn't quite been before.

Minor stuff: after George had executed the wraparound cover, we learned that Rick Jones would by this point be in a wheelchair, and we'd decided to put Carol Danvers back in the costume she'd worn as Ms. Marvel, which required George to do some minor patch-work on the piece. (He took the opportunity to drop in one or two other characters he'd forgotten about.) I still don't like the way this logo "sits" on the cover, creating that strange triangular dead space at the upper left. Within a few issues, I'd switched to an earlier version of this logo, one in which the size-discrepancy between the large A and the rest of the letters wasn't so pronounced.

The fold-out Avengers roster on the inside cover was assembled by assistant editor Gregg Schigiel. Kurt and I had previously sat down to go over the previous, conflicting rosters that had seen print to make firm decisions about who joined and to what extent, based upon what had appeared in the books. Nevertheless, I'm still occasionally asked about guys like Le Peregrine (Hawkeye pronounced him a reserve Avenger in a SOLO AVENGERS story, but he didn't really have the authority to make such an offer, so Le Peregrine is not an actual Avenger.)

More later.

Tom B

Avengers gone by
Sadly, this was one of my favorite incarnation of the Avengers in the book's 40+ years. I say sadly, because I wish it had lasted lots, lots longer than it did. My favorite Avengers writer, coupled with my favorite Avengers artist! A dream come true. Unfortunately, everything that came with this run - Simon's story, Wanda's development, Justice and Firestar as new blood, all of it seems to have been discarded in favor of the new run claiming to be an Avengers title. Sigh........

Posted by wicked good on 2006-08-16 11:16:58

Well...
To be honest, when New Avengers is clicking, it is an absolutely great read. They have just been slowed down because they have been planning Civil War and couldn't get too much traction to interrupt. I believe that once Civil War dies down, NA is going to take off.

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2006-08-16 14:59:29

avengers
the world's most ultimate super-hero team

Posted by tarhaun on 2006-08-16 17:47:10

The Busiek run ranks up there with Thomas, Englehart, Shooter, and Stern. Volume 3 gave us a way out of the Crossing and that is a great thing. Now if everyone would just remember that Henry Pym is a hero.

Posted by Smakk9 on 2006-08-17 09:27:11

Re: Well....
I couldn't agree more with bigdaddy. While I can see the view from older Avenger fans (ie NA really does have the same feel as the more traditional Avengers books, which was the point), I have to say the first 6 issue arc was, in my ever humble opinion, the very reason I read comics. Great action, story, and character development. Things were looking good and had it continued without the House of M and the subsequent Civil War, it could only get better. The rest of the title was a bit of a let down as it became geared around Marvel events, a cycle I wish Marvel would break out of. I want a solid story with good characters, that's all...NA was that.
I hope once the Civil War is done and over with, we can get back to The Raft outbreak and various other loose threads.

Posted by prufrock4954 on 2006-11-13 00:18:46

My Dream team of avengers
main team
Spiderwoman-captain america-mrs marvel-shehulk-vision-thor

space team
quasar-silver surfer-nova-vulcan-nightcrawler

Posted by RikkiQC on 2006-11-20 11:43:49

this is cool
i like the advengers and the movie so i love this web site

Posted by ent1005 on 2007-01-20 12:21:09

Interesting
I remember those issues and boy did they sell fast on the stands, I was able to get my hands on them and Im a pretty big fan of both those artists. Im questioning if Rob was pulled of the project of heros reborn back then why is he doing the new Onlsaught heros reborn issues now? thats wierd though Im not complaining I really love Liefields work and I hope he sticks around for the long haul.

Posted by terciera on 2007-03-28 09:34:54

WOW
I MISS THE OLD AVENGERS!
BUT THE NEW AVENGERS ARE OKAY TO.MY DADZ GOING CRAZY
ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD AVENGERS.

Posted by USHER1 on 2007-06-13 16:04:47

who is a skrull?
I have to admit there has been some (skrullish) activities going on in the latest new avengers issues! I don't know but my best bet on who a skrull is would have to be tony stark.

Posted by Heroclicker on 2007-07-16 09:56:33

New avengers
Dats the coolest team ever assembeld in the marvel universe.....

Posted by jdao on 2007-08-15 15:26:37

New avengers
One of the coolest teams ever assembeld i like the story line also....

Posted by jdao on 2007-08-15 15:27:57

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