Marvel Masterworks, Volume 004: The Avengers Volume 1 [#1-10] (1988)

Introducing Zemo and his Master's of Evil was my favorite in the bunch, though the later stories with them got a bit old. Still fun though. The story with Kang was also devine.

The characters were all white, which I didn't care for. Also the women weren't all that well portrayed either. But it was the sixties and not everyone was that evolved back then. Though from my understanding - I'm new to the comic world - that this changes considerably year after year. The only female worth a damn was Enchantress, and even she had to have an element of romantic thoughts. But anyways. The stories were well-written for the time, in that they over explained (yes I know kids were the key audience but most kids can pick up on context in a story) and were dated. But despite their flaws and the clean endings I had a ton of fun. ( )

Everything starts somewhere, and this is the beginning for what would eventually be an entertainment Goliath, overtaking the movie world for most of the 2010s. But to go back to the beginning is to read some pretty rough work. Stan Lee may have been responsible for creating these characters, but you would be hard pressed to view these stories as anything more than journeyman. Lee, later, would come up with some better plots in Spider-Man and other comics, and only gets close here in providing something different in the issue where Baron Zemo creates Wonder Man, who has a change of heart even though he knows by doing so he is killing himself.

The artwork is also fairly rough. I never cared for Jack Kirby, although I recognize that he was a giant in the field. I always felt his characters blocky and stiff, posed rather than actually fluid, although his costume and background designs were interesting.

So, recommended? Not really, unless you want to see where it all began. ( )

The early Avengers comics are not the best of them, but I still really enjoy them. ( )

A collection of the first 10 issues of the Avengers comic book from 1963. As I'm not well-versed in the American comic book universe (I grew up mainly with Franco-Belgian comics), I picked this one up to get to see what the origins looked like. The collection is quite entertaining and I liked that we get a nice balance of character traits in the team (compared to their individual comic books). I am amused/irritated that The Wasp cannot see a man without commenting on his attractiveness and I'm also nonplussed as to why they all believe the baddies when they claim that the others in the team is betraying them; shouldn't they trust each other over a villain, no matter what? Highly recommended if you like Golden Era comics, but perhaps a little too dated for others. ( )

Some of Lee and Kirby's very best work. ( )