The mighty Avengers face the coming of Wonder Man! Destined to become one of the most provocative, exciting, talked-about new characters of all! Wait till you see him! Sensationally written by Stan Lee and superbly illustrated by Don Heck!
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
AVENGERS #1-10, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #103 (The Avengers' First Arc) *Note: A nifty READING ORDER has been provided at the end of this review
Essentially, this series serves as a transition point between storylines; Here, Stan Lee brings together EXISTING character arcs from 5 separate comic books and wraps them all up nicely... while also setting up NEW character arcs for 5 separate comic books. Thus, effectively transitioning all the characters from one point to another, it works as a truly character driven narrative.
What's really interesting is what occurs around issue 4 of the storyline... which even non-readers almost universally know already, but I won't dare spoil it. It involves something of a huge achievement for comic book history, and a milestone moment in the careers of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. It's a story that returns to the root of both their careers, providing a touching full-circle storyline for the character in question affected by what happens. Through this character, it also introduces the ongoing story-arc for these first 10 issues...
...Which is the introduction of "The Masters of Evil!" Essentially, they are the anti-Avengers; if the Avengers are the major heroes from the 5 separate comic books, the Masters of Evil are the major villains from each of the 5 separate comic books. Stan Lee actually took a major villain from each Superheroes storyline, and brought them together here. It provides an interesting philosophical contrast between the two teams, the battle between the heroes and villains providing a nice metaphor of the battle between good and evil.
In fact, that's essentially the thematic purpose of this comic book in general; a meta-commentary on superheroes and super-villains, using them to explore the deeper philosophical notions of good and evil, especially when the heroes are as morally grey as the villains are. Highly recommended.
Tema utamanya adalah munculnya tokoh dengan sifat, seperti yang dikatakan Iron Man di akhir cerita, "campuran yang aneh antara kebaikan dan kejahatan". Tokoh itu adalah Wonder Man, tokoh buatan Zemo yang tadinya disusupkan ke dalam Avengers untuk melemahkan Avengers "dari dalam".
This was actually a lot of fun. Although it was predictable, I blame that on other media's doing this kind of plot already many many times. But this felt different for the Marvel comics of this era