Writers: Stan Lee/Dwayne McDuffie
Artists: Jack Kirby/Michael Avon Oeming/Kevin Maguire
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
In 1986, Marvel launched called Classic X-Men (Later renamed X-Men Classic). This reprinted the stories of the all-new X-Men from Giant Size X-Men #1 onward. To make up the difference in page count between a mid-seventies Marvel book with ads and a mid-eighties one without, back-up stories were added. These were designed to complement and expand upon the main stories, sometimes directly and sometimes more as character studies. In the early issues, many of these were drawn by John Bolton, and written by some of Marvel’s best and brightest at the time, such as Chris Claremont and Ann Nocenti. (Some of the better stories have been collected in TPB as X-Men Vignettes #1 and #2, and they’re well worth a look if you find them at a con - as are the original issues of Classic X-Men). For a young X-fan this sort of thing was a goldmine - a cheap and easy way to read the classic stories of the past that affected the characters today.
As the editorial at the back of this book shows, this idea was popular with some of the behind-the-scenes types at Marvel today, and as the Avengers are currently front and centre and out from under the X-Men’s shadow, it seems logical to make this book about them. So now we have Avengers Classic, reprinting the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Avengers stories from the beginning, with back-up stories by Dwayne McDuffie and Michael Avon Oeming. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
It isn’t.
What went wrong? Well, for a start, they’re reprinting the original Avengers stories from the beginning. Classic X-Men was reprinting stories from a decade before, and after a very brief time they were reprinting stories by the writer of the current title, who was also the guy writing most of the back-ups. The main story in Avengers Classic #1 is from 43 years ago. If you’ve not got it in a Masterwork or an Essential, chances are you’re probably not that interested. I’m not going to review the main story, except to say that it doesn’t seem likely to appeal to the average recent convert to comics, and if you’ve been reading them for long enough then you’ve probably read it anyway. This is the main problem with attempting something like this now – for a title like this, the story is already so easily available that it doesn’t seem worth releasing it again in this format.
While the main back-up story by McDuffie and Oeming is entertaining in parts, overall it doesn’t really amount to much and is rather forgettable. The most interesting thing about it is probably Oeming’s new painted art style – and while it has the same slightly retro touch to it as his usual style, overall it isn’t actually as good. There are some oddly formed figures and faces, and while he reveals himself to be as good a colourist as a penciller, the two don’t quite seem to work together.
This issue also features a second back-up story, this time by Stan Lee and Kevin Maguire, purporting to tell the real origin of the Avengers. If you read the “Stan Lee Meets” one-shots from last year, this is in roughly the same vein – a self-deprecating Stan meets with the heroes and they discuss their treatment at his hands in the comic book. It’s inconsequential fun, a few smiles but not much else.
Overall, it’s hard to recommend much about this issue beyond the wonderful Art Adams cover. If you want to read the story, pick up the first Avengers Masterwork or the first Essential Avengers collection – or even the Avengers DVD-rom with over 500 issues on it. If you want to read well crafted stories designed to fit in-between the first few issues of the Avengers, pick up the collection of Joe Casey’s Earth’s Mightiest Heroes miniseries. Otherwise, it’s not really worth bothering unfortunately.
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Russell Hillman was born in London but now lives in Coventry. His hobbies include precious little. He doesn’t get out much, but thinks reading a lot of comics makes up for it. He’s wrong.