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Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers #19
Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers, Vol. 19
Collects Avengers (1963) #189-202, Marvel Premiere #55 and Tales of Astonish (1979) #12.
Who knew the fight of the Avengers' lives would be in the courtroom? Henry Peter Gyrich has his sights set on stripping Earth's Mightiest Heroes of their charter — but when the Grey Gargoyle crashes the hearing, the only motion is to Assemble! Then, the action moves to Pittsburgh before a new nemesis arrives in the form of…the Taskmaster! In his first appearance, the villain who can replicate any hero's actions battles the Avengers, Yellowjacket, the Wasp — and Scott Lang, the all-new Ant-Man! On the way to its milestone 200th issue, the team encounters the towering robot Red Ronin and unites against Ultron in an all-time classic! Also featuring a Wonder Man solo tale, a rare Vision story and an action-packed adventure starring — Jarvis?!
Who knew the fight of the Avengers' lives would be in the courtroom? Henry Peter Gyrich has his sights set on stripping Earth's Mightiest Heroes of their charter — but when the Grey Gargoyle crashes the hearing, the only motion is to Assemble! Then, the action moves to Pittsburgh before a new nemesis arrives in the form of…the Taskmaster! In his first appearance, the villain who can replicate any hero's actions battles the Avengers, Yellowjacket, the Wasp — and Scott Lang, the all-new Ant-Man! On the way to its milestone 200th issue, the team encounters the towering robot Red Ronin and unites against Ultron in an all-time classic! Also featuring a Wonder Man solo tale, a rare Vision story and an action-packed adventure starring — Jarvis?!
330 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 10, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 8, 2020
The 19th Volume of the Avengers Marvel Masterworks collection contains issues #189-202 (which spans from Nov. 1979 - Dec. 1980) as well as material from Marvel Premiere #55 and Tales to Astonish #12. Most of the issues are written by David Michelinie accompanied by various artists from the late 70s era with the majority of it being done by the legendary Avengers artist George Perez. At the start of the collection the team consists of Iron Man, Captain America, Falcon, Beast, Wasp, Vision, and Ms. Marvel (Carol Danners version), but this collection picks up in the middle of the US government sending an agent to interfere with the who can actually be on the team and as such there is a lot of guests showing up and members not being present at all.
Issue #189 picks up after the end of AVENGERS ANNUAL #9 with the team regrouping after Arsenal's attack on the mansion. It's really just a catch-up issue to lead into their Senate hearing in the issues that follow. The two biggest things here are Scarlet Witch saying she wants a leave of absence from the team and Hawkeye battling Deathbird after he has a hissy fit because Falcon gets to stay on the team and he doesn't. Interesting to me in this issue is that Hawkeye seems like he would be an interesting foe for the Avengers to battle and he has enough reason to be one, but they choose just to make him some jerk that we're supposed to cheer on.
The following storyarc is "Heart of Stone" and it's a two issue affair (#190-191). It's about the Avengers working together to battle Gray Gargoyle (a B-tier villain who appeared battled Iron Man, Cap, and Thor in their own respective series years before this) and it's bookended by the Senate hearings led by Henry Gyrich to determine if the US government has any business regulating the Avengers. They are joined by Scarlet Witch (despite her dramatic departure last issue) and Daredevil (sort of, he gets turned to stone very quickly). It's a decent enough action story, glad it was only a couple issues long.
Another two-parter (#192-193) is up next and it finds Iron Man (as Tony Stark) and Wonder Man touring a steel factory that Stark owns in Pittsburgh. While they are there, one of the workers is pushed in a molten hot vat of iron, but he was carrying a piece of uru that he'd found after Thor had repaired Mjolnir there a while before. This turns him in a man made of liquid hot steel and fire who seeks revenge on the people responsible for pushing him in. The Avengers show up to assist their fellow heroes in stopping him. It's a very mediocre affair with some poor dialogue (there's even a lazy tongue-in-cheek reference to Superman for some reason) and bland art. All filler here, nothing really important happens.
The next issue #194 is called "Interlude" and it is a prelude to the two issue arc that follows it. There's a lot to be enjoyed here, it's literally an issue that takes place almost entirely at the mansion and gets us to date on the personal issues within the Avengers. Falcon decides to leave the group after realizing he's not being forced to stay there by the government and Wonder Man rejoins as his acting career is stalled for the moment. There are two interesting vignettes here the first featuring Ms. Marvel and Cap talking about why the Avengers are a group at all and the other is Jocosta (the robot created by Ultron, now "adopted" by the Avengers) and Vision talking about the loneliness of being robots. It also contains a very funny scene where Beast discovers Wonder Man's TV that he booked. This is a good example of how to handle filler, developing the characters and showing the interpersonal relationships on the team, not battling a boring, cookie cutter villain for 1 or 2 issues. The appearance of a mysterious mental patient and the doctors who come to collect him at the end of the issue segue into the next couple issues.
Issues #195-196 have a couple firsts for the series in them as the team heads to the secret asylum that the mental patient was taken to from issue #194 and it turns out to be a facility for training supervillain goons and (out of nowhere) a cloning facility as well. We get to see Wasp, Yellowjacket (Hank Pym), and Ant-Man (Scott Lang) working together for the first time as they infiltrate the facility. They are caught however and soon the villain behind all these machinations is revealed and here we get the first appearance of Taskmaster! Issue #196 is the rest of the team showing up to rescue their friends and battle this new threat. Lots of awesome action in this issue, some great artwork as well. A solid two-parter, even with the convoluted story.
#197 is much like the "Interlude" issue (this one is called "Prelude to the War-Devil" actually) from before where it's catching up with the various team members before the next 2 issues arc (#198-199). There's not a lot to really digest here, but like it's other issue it's a nice break from the standard "villain appears, Avengers fight him and win". Someone gets made a new Avenger though and this issue also begins the setup with Scarlet Witch and Ms. Marvel for the legendary issue #200.
In issues #198-199 the "War-Devil" of the previous issues title makes his appearance and it's none other than Red Ronin! What's that? You've never heard of him? Maybe it's because the giant robot only appeared in Marvel's short-lived Godzilla series. He's here for no other purpose than to get beat up by the Avengers. Like the first two-parter in this collection, it's just a really mediocre effort that won't wow you or anything. Seeing how insane #200 gets, it makes me wonder why they didn't just a have a few issues of build up for it rather than waste it with this meaningless villain fight.
The apex of this collection is issue #200 (which I'd previously read in the Ms. Marvel Marvel Masterworks Vol. 2 collection, of which it was also the high point). It's a double-sized issue that has Ms. Marvel giving birth (after only a few days of gestation, as we saw in the previous issues) and basically all hell breaks loose after the baby is born. I don't want to go into details, but it's a wild story, but disappointingly the stunning conclusion of this storyline (from Avengers Annual #10) is not included here. Great stuff here and if you read anything from this collection, read this one.
The next issue (#201) picks up at the end of the previous story and has the Avengers repairing the mansion and then heading off separately to take some time off. The Beast and Wonder Man head to the set of Wondy's kid show, Hank and Janet go home to work on some experiments, Tony heads to Stark International to on an urgent call, and Cap and Hawkeye chill at the mansion to train. This issue is a prelude to the next one as Janet wakes up to find a robot stealing chemicals from her lab and Tony thinks he knows whose behind it. It's a filler issue, as we've seen twice before in this collection already. Not terrible or anything, but man you'd think someone at Marvel would be like "maybe the readers are tired of these nothing filler issues when we could be using the space to tell a bigger story".
The Avengers issues of this collection round out with a banger #202 wherein the team finds themselves facing the mysterious threat that was stealing chemicals: Ultron! He returns with a plan to create an army of robots to take over the world and at his disposal is Tony Stark, under some deep mind hypnosis from the last time they faced off (issues #171, which I read, but do not remember any hypnosis). It's a great battle and one that they could have used the previous issue to help expand the actual battle beyond the few pages it's allotted to here. Awesome issue though, great story.
Following these issues is a nice offering of bonus material including a selection of original sketches from the preceding issues. The big draw here is a solo Wonder Man story (Marvel Premiere #55) that was obviously an attempt to start a solo series for the character. It's a pretty typical Marvel first issue with setting up a new assortment of characters and places for Wonder Man to draw exciting stories from. The second big draw is a short comic pulled from Tales to Astonish #12 (not the original run, but the rebooted version from the late 70s) that features Vision escorting a top government official and encountering a group of terrorists who want to kill him. Neat little story and I love Vision, so more of him is never a bad thing in my book.
A very interesting collection all in all, some really great stories in here (including a very iconic one) and better than the stories though is the artwork by Perez. No one drew Marvel's superteam better than he did and this is actually the last of the issues he would draw for the series (and Marvel really) until it was rebooted in 1998. He would go on to do more iconic work at DC in the Teen Titans and Wonder Woman series. He would be back at Marvel for a bit for the Avengers reboot in 1998. It's sad to see him go though, but luckily his amazing Avengers art is preserved in these Masterworks collection. Recommended for all comic book fans, especially Avengers fans!
Issue #189 picks up after the end of AVENGERS ANNUAL #9 with the team regrouping after Arsenal's attack on the mansion. It's really just a catch-up issue to lead into their Senate hearing in the issues that follow. The two biggest things here are Scarlet Witch saying she wants a leave of absence from the team and Hawkeye battling Deathbird after he has a hissy fit because Falcon gets to stay on the team and he doesn't. Interesting to me in this issue is that Hawkeye seems like he would be an interesting foe for the Avengers to battle and he has enough reason to be one, but they choose just to make him some jerk that we're supposed to cheer on.
The following storyarc is "Heart of Stone" and it's a two issue affair (#190-191). It's about the Avengers working together to battle Gray Gargoyle (a B-tier villain who appeared battled Iron Man, Cap, and Thor in their own respective series years before this) and it's bookended by the Senate hearings led by Henry Gyrich to determine if the US government has any business regulating the Avengers. They are joined by Scarlet Witch (despite her dramatic departure last issue) and Daredevil (sort of, he gets turned to stone very quickly). It's a decent enough action story, glad it was only a couple issues long.
Another two-parter (#192-193) is up next and it finds Iron Man (as Tony Stark) and Wonder Man touring a steel factory that Stark owns in Pittsburgh. While they are there, one of the workers is pushed in a molten hot vat of iron, but he was carrying a piece of uru that he'd found after Thor had repaired Mjolnir there a while before. This turns him in a man made of liquid hot steel and fire who seeks revenge on the people responsible for pushing him in. The Avengers show up to assist their fellow heroes in stopping him. It's a very mediocre affair with some poor dialogue (there's even a lazy tongue-in-cheek reference to Superman for some reason) and bland art. All filler here, nothing really important happens.
The next issue #194 is called "Interlude" and it is a prelude to the two issue arc that follows it. There's a lot to be enjoyed here, it's literally an issue that takes place almost entirely at the mansion and gets us to date on the personal issues within the Avengers. Falcon decides to leave the group after realizing he's not being forced to stay there by the government and Wonder Man rejoins as his acting career is stalled for the moment. There are two interesting vignettes here the first featuring Ms. Marvel and Cap talking about why the Avengers are a group at all and the other is Jocosta (the robot created by Ultron, now "adopted" by the Avengers) and Vision talking about the loneliness of being robots. It also contains a very funny scene where Beast discovers Wonder Man's TV that he booked. This is a good example of how to handle filler, developing the characters and showing the interpersonal relationships on the team, not battling a boring, cookie cutter villain for 1 or 2 issues. The appearance of a mysterious mental patient and the doctors who come to collect him at the end of the issue segue into the next couple issues.
Issues #195-196 have a couple firsts for the series in them as the team heads to the secret asylum that the mental patient was taken to from issue #194 and it turns out to be a facility for training supervillain goons and (out of nowhere) a cloning facility as well. We get to see Wasp, Yellowjacket (Hank Pym), and Ant-Man (Scott Lang) working together for the first time as they infiltrate the facility. They are caught however and soon the villain behind all these machinations is revealed and here we get the first appearance of Taskmaster! Issue #196 is the rest of the team showing up to rescue their friends and battle this new threat. Lots of awesome action in this issue, some great artwork as well. A solid two-parter, even with the convoluted story.
#197 is much like the "Interlude" issue (this one is called "Prelude to the War-Devil" actually) from before where it's catching up with the various team members before the next 2 issues arc (#198-199). There's not a lot to really digest here, but like it's other issue it's a nice break from the standard "villain appears, Avengers fight him and win". Someone gets made a new Avenger though and this issue also begins the setup with Scarlet Witch and Ms. Marvel for the legendary issue #200.
In issues #198-199 the "War-Devil" of the previous issues title makes his appearance and it's none other than Red Ronin! What's that? You've never heard of him? Maybe it's because the giant robot only appeared in Marvel's short-lived Godzilla series. He's here for no other purpose than to get beat up by the Avengers. Like the first two-parter in this collection, it's just a really mediocre effort that won't wow you or anything. Seeing how insane #200 gets, it makes me wonder why they didn't just a have a few issues of build up for it rather than waste it with this meaningless villain fight.
The apex of this collection is issue #200 (which I'd previously read in the Ms. Marvel Marvel Masterworks Vol. 2 collection, of which it was also the high point). It's a double-sized issue that has Ms. Marvel giving birth (after only a few days of gestation, as we saw in the previous issues) and basically all hell breaks loose after the baby is born. I don't want to go into details, but it's a wild story, but disappointingly the stunning conclusion of this storyline (from Avengers Annual #10) is not included here. Great stuff here and if you read anything from this collection, read this one.
The next issue (#201) picks up at the end of the previous story and has the Avengers repairing the mansion and then heading off separately to take some time off. The Beast and Wonder Man head to the set of Wondy's kid show, Hank and Janet go home to work on some experiments, Tony heads to Stark International to on an urgent call, and Cap and Hawkeye chill at the mansion to train. This issue is a prelude to the next one as Janet wakes up to find a robot stealing chemicals from her lab and Tony thinks he knows whose behind it. It's a filler issue, as we've seen twice before in this collection already. Not terrible or anything, but man you'd think someone at Marvel would be like "maybe the readers are tired of these nothing filler issues when we could be using the space to tell a bigger story".
The Avengers issues of this collection round out with a banger #202 wherein the team finds themselves facing the mysterious threat that was stealing chemicals: Ultron! He returns with a plan to create an army of robots to take over the world and at his disposal is Tony Stark, under some deep mind hypnosis from the last time they faced off (issues #171, which I read, but do not remember any hypnosis). It's a great battle and one that they could have used the previous issue to help expand the actual battle beyond the few pages it's allotted to here. Awesome issue though, great story.
Following these issues is a nice offering of bonus material including a selection of original sketches from the preceding issues. The big draw here is a solo Wonder Man story (Marvel Premiere #55) that was obviously an attempt to start a solo series for the character. It's a pretty typical Marvel first issue with setting up a new assortment of characters and places for Wonder Man to draw exciting stories from. The second big draw is a short comic pulled from Tales to Astonish #12 (not the original run, but the rebooted version from the late 70s) that features Vision escorting a top government official and encountering a group of terrorists who want to kill him. Neat little story and I love Vision, so more of him is never a bad thing in my book.
A very interesting collection all in all, some really great stories in here (including a very iconic one) and better than the stories though is the artwork by Perez. No one drew Marvel's superteam better than he did and this is actually the last of the issues he would draw for the series (and Marvel really) until it was rebooted in 1998. He would go on to do more iconic work at DC in the Teen Titans and Wonder Woman series. He would be back at Marvel for a bit for the Avengers reboot in 1998. It's sad to see him go though, but luckily his amazing Avengers art is preserved in these Masterworks collection. Recommended for all comic book fans, especially Avengers fans!
January 29, 2022
I read these issues originally when they were new, and I certainly enjoyed them at the time.
Over the years I have come to dislike the treatment of Caeol Danvers, although i do still like most of the other plots.
Interesting villains in this era and the art teams were also excellent.
The character focus was put more on the characters who did have their own titles which is good.
In all, good stuff, with the Ms. Marvel sub-plot not being well-done.
Over the years I have come to dislike the treatment of Caeol Danvers, although i do still like most of the other plots.
Interesting villains in this era and the art teams were also excellent.
The character focus was put more on the characters who did have their own titles which is good.
In all, good stuff, with the Ms. Marvel sub-plot not being well-done.
October 28, 2024
Good storytelling, fun villains, and lots of time dedicated to the characters. Good stuff.
November 28, 2023
Y seguimos con los Vengadores de Michelinie, y yo sigo con la sensación de que no terminan de despegar, por mucho George Pérez que le metan a la serie, y eso que esto merece la pena solo por disfrutar de él. En este tomo, vamos a tener las repercusiones de la saga anterior, con el enfrentamiento en Wundagore entre los Vengadores y Chthon por el alma de la Bruja Escarlata. En su viaje de vuelta a Estados Unidos, y con Wanda queriendo dejar los Vengadores para tomarse un respiro (lo que supone un nuevo drama para Henry Peter Gyrich, que continúa queriendo controlar a los Vengadores), se van a enfrentar en Rusia a los Elementos, un grupo de soldados mutados (más o menos) creados por accidente en un laboratorio soviético, y de vuelta a casa, tendrán que hacer frente, a problemas domésticos, como los intentos de Gyrich por controlar a los Vengadores, y a un enfrentamiento con la Gárgola Gris, que supondrá el fin de las limitaciones de Gyrich y la vuelta a las alineaciones fluidas (que realmente no habían parado). Después, con la ayuda del Hombre Hormiga (Scott Lang), tendrán que vérselas con el Supervisor, el villano que entrena a matones para los supervillanos y capaz de copiar cualquier movimiento que vea realizar (me gusta mucho este enfrentamiento, porque es otro de esos cómics que tenía de pequeño), en una saga que les llevará al número 200, número que debería ser una celebración y es un disparate, por no decir que es el cómic más vergonzoso de la historia. Con Michelinie, Pérez, Shooter y Bob Layton al alimón, ninguno fue capaz de avisar de que estaban escribiendo una barrabasada, una historia centrada en un embarazo "rápido y misterioso" de Miss Marvel, que da a luz a un niño, Marcus Inmortus, que crece muy deprisa y que confiesa ser su propio padre, y que al final de la historia, se lleva a Miss Marvel y a todo el mundo le parece bien, sin darle muchas vueltas a que la historia que nos cuentan es una violación en toda regla, y sacando de trama al personaje de Miss Marvel. Un horror que va a dejar paso a una pequeña historia protagonizada por Jarvis, y a un nuevo enfrentamiento que dura apenas dos números con Ultrón y que a pesar de partir de una premisa interesante (la traición de Iron Man, condicionado por Ultrón), no termina de despegar antes de concluir.
En fin... seguimos en busca de tiempos mejores...
En fin... seguimos en busca de tiempos mejores...
October 28, 2023
This is an interesting run of Avengers issues.
Quite a few of them could be considered "filler," but personally I only consider Hawkeye's tussle with Deathbird in #189 and the team's jaunt to Pittsburgh in issues #192 and #193 to fall into that category. The rest are at least fun.
As for issues #190 and #191, well I think Grey Gargoyle is a fun villain. His stone power is dangerous, but he definitely belongs with the goofy silver age bad guys. The fact that the issues with him in them are bookended by the trial with Henry Peter Gyrich just makes them all the more enjoyable.
Issues #198 and #199 with Red Ronin are also fun. Are you supposed to take a giant tokusatsu-inspired red robot seriously? Sometimes it's good when it isn't back-to-back top-tier villains all the time.
I particularly enjoyed issues #194, #197 and #201, because they show the team when they aren't fighting. They're just enjoying their downtime and we get considerably more characterisation because of this. I welcome more "calm before the storm" issues like these.
Issues #195 and #196 are also great, featuring the first appearance of Taskmaster. The infiltration mission featuring Yellowjacket and the new (at the time) Ant-Man, Scott Lang, was surprisingly suspenseful.
This brings me to the highlights. Issues #200 and #202. The former is a crazy, divisive, time-warp of a story centred around Ms. Marvel and the latter signals the return of Ultron yet again to torment the team. I can't help but love Ultron.
As for the art, most of it is done by John Byrne and George Perez, so no complaints from me. They're two of my favourite Avengers artists. It's not their best work though. The other issues not drawn by them are decent enough, but nothing outstanding.
Quite a few of them could be considered "filler," but personally I only consider Hawkeye's tussle with Deathbird in #189 and the team's jaunt to Pittsburgh in issues #192 and #193 to fall into that category. The rest are at least fun.
As for issues #190 and #191, well I think Grey Gargoyle is a fun villain. His stone power is dangerous, but he definitely belongs with the goofy silver age bad guys. The fact that the issues with him in them are bookended by the trial with Henry Peter Gyrich just makes them all the more enjoyable.
Issues #198 and #199 with Red Ronin are also fun. Are you supposed to take a giant tokusatsu-inspired red robot seriously? Sometimes it's good when it isn't back-to-back top-tier villains all the time.
I particularly enjoyed issues #194, #197 and #201, because they show the team when they aren't fighting. They're just enjoying their downtime and we get considerably more characterisation because of this. I welcome more "calm before the storm" issues like these.
Issues #195 and #196 are also great, featuring the first appearance of Taskmaster. The infiltration mission featuring Yellowjacket and the new (at the time) Ant-Man, Scott Lang, was surprisingly suspenseful.
This brings me to the highlights. Issues #200 and #202. The former is a crazy, divisive, time-warp of a story centred around Ms. Marvel and the latter signals the return of Ultron yet again to torment the team. I can't help but love Ultron.
As for the art, most of it is done by John Byrne and George Perez, so no complaints from me. They're two of my favourite Avengers artists. It's not their best work though. The other issues not drawn by them are decent enough, but nothing outstanding.
December 31, 2023
This period was extremely variable as it was, but the tombstone was #200 in which we get shown that Carol Danvers was raped by Immortus’ son as a way of escaping Limbo (he recreated himself) and, uh…anyway, this was pretty much mandated editorially because Jim Shooter wanted Carol gone for sone reason. It took *years* to rehabilitate the character.
February 22, 2023
I always liked George Perez, but his art here is not top-notch.
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