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Over the years, there have been multiple factors in the success of Avengers comics. Some of these factors have been more important than others and have helped make the Avengers stories into some of the best on the market.
These 10 moments in Marvel’s Avengers comic run have truly raised the stature to create one of the best team comics ever.
10) Roy Thomas’s Tenure on The Avengers
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Avengers, but there’s a reason that fans don’t talk a lot about the Lee/Kirby years. Their Avengers stories weren’t bad, but they weren’t amazing. In fact, it wouldn’t be until Lee’s protege, Roy Thomas, took over writing Avengers with issue 35 (until issue 104) that fans would get their perfect Avengers.
This 69-issue run truly made the Avengers into the legends they are today. Thomas gave the Avengers one of their best rosters and defined what it meant to be an Avenger. Thomas understood how to balance superhero spectacle with adroit character work to create some of the best Avengers stories ever. Nearly everything you love about the Avengers came from Roy Thomas.
9) The Marvel Event Cycle
Marvel has created some of the best event comics ever. The ‘Marvel event cycle’ (big annual crossover events) began with 2004’s Secret War and has run pretty much uninterrupted ever since. The Marvel event cycle is simple — a story is built up in a flagship title that leads to an event comic, which plants seeds for the next event in a flagship title.
If one team has benefited more from the event cycle than any other, it’s the Avengers. Most of the best Marvel events of the last 20 years have their genesis in the Avengers titles, and for years, Avengers/New Avengers/Mighty Avengers/Dark Avengers were the books you had to read to understand Marvel events. This put more eyes on the Avengers books and made them more popular than ever.
8) Dark Avengers
“Dark Reign” changed the Marvel Universe after years of Avengers dominance. Dark Avengers starred a team of villains, led by the former Green Goblin Norman Osborn, doing their best to save the world, deal with being good guys, and fight against the various forces arrayed against them.
The book was able to take the Avengers formula that writer Brian Michael Bendis had established (more on him later) and tweaked it, its character-focused storytelling digging into characters that rarely got the spotlight. The series only ran for 18 issues and one annual, but it’s one of the best Avengers series of all time.
7) Roger Stern’s ’80s Run
Roger Stern is one of Marvel’s greatest creators of the ’80s, and his time writing Avengers was amazing. Stern first wrote the book in issues #189-190 and #201, and would start a long run on the book with issue #227, staying on board the book until issue #287. This 60-issue run was able to inject modern storytelling tropes into the Avengers, and gave readers one of the best Avengers stories ever with “Under Siege”.
Stern’s Avengers was mostly drawn by John Buscema, and his adroit art made the stories that much better, bringing great art to the amazing writing. Stern’s run on the Avengers is one of the best Marvel runs of the ’80s, and entirely changed the way that fans looked at the Avengers.
6) Cap’s Kooky Quartet
For the first 15 issues of Avengers, readers were treated to a team that starred all of Marvel’s solo superstars. However, the old order would change with Avengers #16, as the team got its first roster shake-up. However, this was early ’60s Marvel, so there weren’t all that many heroes to choose from. That’s why Cap’s Kooky Quartet was born.
Captain America recruited three villains — Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver — and began the mighty Marvel tradition of bringing villains onto hero teams. Cap’s Kooky Quartet changed the Avengers forever; not only did it change the dynamic of the team, but it also introduced three members who would become integral to the Avengers in the years to come.
5) Captain America Joining the Avengers
There’s one character that everyone thinks of when they think of the Avengers, and that’s Captain America. Captain America wasn’t a founding Avenger; he didn’t join the team until Avengers (Vol. 1) #4, found by Namor frozen in a block of ice that was picked up by the Avengers. Cap was thawed out and joined the team; since then, he has become the Avengers’ greatest leader.
Captain America gave the Avengers that one member the team couldn’t do without, and he’s become the heart and soul of the group. There’s a reason why all the best Avengers comics have Captain America in them; he’s the most important member of the team and has been since he joined.
