Avengers Epic Collection, Vol. 8: Kang War

Avengers Epic Collection

by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema (Illustrator), George Pérez (Penciller)

Throughout his Avengers’ run, Steve Englehart slowly built the mysterious Mantis into one of ’70s Marvel’s most intriguing characters. Here, her tale reaches its cosmic climax in a saga spanning space and time—“The Celestial Madonna!” When Kang the Conqueror arrives, the action begins. Before it’s over, Kang, Rama-Tut and Immortus will have you time-twisted in two. And that’s just for starters! The origin of the Vision is revealed and he and the Scarlet Witch wed. Then, the Avengers put out a call for new members. Beast, Hellcat and Moondragon join, while Captain America, Yellowjacket and the Wasp return. Each will be tested in a second war with Kang and the Squadron Sinister. It’s a classic conflict that teams the Avengers with the Marvel heroes of the Old West!

COLLECTING: Avengers (1963) 129-149, Giant-Size Avengers (1974) 2-4; material from Giant-Size Avengers (1974) 5, Marvel Treasury Edition (1974) 7, FOOM (1973) 12

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Comic Book

504 pages, Paperback

Published August 2, 2022

About the author

See also John Harkness.

Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.

He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).

After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.

And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.

In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.

Reviews

[Sean Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mantis is kind of an odd duck, but the Kang stuff is spectacular, as is the early George Perez work.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book landing between 3 and 3.25 stars. The best parts of this book were issues 129-135 which was the stuff I already read in the Avengers Complete Celestial Madonna Saga. Here we have Kang coming at the Avengers. He is the whole reason I started reading all of these Avengers epic collections now as I wanted to hit all the Kang stories before the Quantumania movie drops. Some good stuff there witnessing all the schemes Kang had going on trying to take out the Avengers as well as his other selves, Immortus and Rama-Tut, or as Hawkeye calls him, Rama-Lama ding dong. 😂 Gotta love old school Hawkeye, who throughout these epics keeps leaving and coming back to the team. Plus in those first 7 issues we get the origin of how the beef between the Skrulls and the Kree started way back when which eventually lead into the modern event, Empyre. That story was also pretty good. After that, we switch gears as Thor puts out on TV that they are having Avengers tryouts, since Hawkeye left, Mantis left to become the Celestial Madonna and Vision/Scarlet Witch are on their honeymoon. Thor’s request for tryouts on national TV reminded me of what the Philadelphia Eagles new coach did when they found Vince Papale during that Invincible movie. Same time frame as when this comic originally came out. But in comes new team members. Hank Pym and Wasp rejoin and Beast come in. We also get the first time Patsy Walker puts in the suit to become Hellcat. The beginnings of these issues, 137-149 started off a little clunky but found their footing as they went on. I like the stuff with the Two Gun Kid and the other Marvel cowboys and the battle with the Squadron Supreme. Another solid entry especially when George Perez comes on to do the art. On to the next.

Oh, almost forgot, Tony Isabella stepped in to write #145 and 146 as they fell behind on the main ongoing arc. These were like side issues that told a two issue story. Ended up being really good about this assassin that was hired for 1 billion dollars to kill the Avengers

[Space Dragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

70s Avengers = Guarantee for goofyness with some substance from time to time. Enjoyable as usual. 😻😹🤓

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that this is one of my favorite Avengers story arcs. I had a few odd issues of the Avengers earlier, but my collection of the title official began with #127 and Giant-Size Avengers #1, so when this collection picks up I was only just getting started, and this sprawling storyline that spanned issues of the regular title and the accompanying Giant-Size was thrilling and kept me spellbound for months. The best portions of this volume have also been reprinted as The Avengers: Celestial Madonna & The Avengers: The Serpent Crown, but this volume also includes the couple of issues between those collections and a pair of filler issues that were inserted in the middle of the Serpent Crown arc, when the creative team couldn’t meet the deadline. To be fair, those two issues are pretty bad and I think I should probably knock the rating down a star for them, but otherwise this is a sterling 5-star collection.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kang has always been one of my favorite villains and this is a great collection of Kang stories, which connects him to Rama-Tut and eventually Immortus. The final ending of this saga had been retconned over time, so it is not as impactful as it once was. Additonally we have the Celestial Madonna storyline, along with the revelation of the Vision's origins, the return of the Squadron Supreme, the death of the Swordsman, and a variant on Nelson Rockefeller who controls the United States via the Serpent Crown. Additionally, Moondragon, The Beast, and Hellcat join the Avengers.

These issues are pure escapism. There are no issues being discussed, no big ideas of educating people. It is pure fun. Like comics should be. Though remember these issues are from 1974 and were written with a target audience of thirteen-year-old boys in mind.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My recollection of these stories were more epic than my rereading of them. Don't get me wrong, but they were good, still... Mantis and Moondragon were as arrogant as Hawkeye is whiny, lol. I mean, honestly, I think the writers worked so hard to make the women tough like the men, they forgot that tough doesn't mean bitchy. Moondragon gets into Thor's head and he becomes more of the butthead he is in the myths, which works, but not in the Avengers.i know that the t e is a line-up change coming (again), so things might look different in the next volume.
Let's be honest. Kang was a one-note character, and he really just went on for hu dress of pages in b the volume rightfully call "Kang War" but seriously, it got as tired as the angel/demon war in the show Supernatural. I mean, multiple seasons of back and forth...gets boring.

Anyway, still worth reading.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, the first big story in this book is top-tier Avengers. All the previous content with Mantis and the Swordsman, as well as the Vision's strange malfunctions, all lead to this point. One of my favourite villains, Kang the Conqueror, makes several attempts to defeat the Avengers in this volume, we get Mantis' origin, Vision's origin, Scarlet Witch gaining more powers, and Swordsman's redemption arc.

Later on, there are some less enjoyable issues, but it's fun to see the Squadron Supreme return, as well as the arrival of some new trainee Avengers, in the form of Beast, Moondragon and Hellcat.

Steve Englehart approaches the end of his run writing for the Avengers with some great storytelling and Sal Buscema & George Pérez provide some very nice artwork to accompany the stories.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another entry in the Kang battle against the Marvel Universe. This one had some historic moments like the wedding of Vision and the Scarlet Witch. The various powerful versions of Kang (Immortus and Rama-Tut) and some good back history on Kang's origins. I thought the parts with the Marvel Old West heroes and the Squadron Supreme were pretty cheesy, but overall it was a fun dive back into old Marvel history. I also love some of the artwork by the legendary George Perez.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

The death of an Avenger, Vision’s origin, and Beast joining the team make this volume well worth the read. Oh, and plenty of Kang the Conqueror too.

[Jerry Landry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Avengers adventures - if you’re an Avengers fan, you should enjoy most of these issues.

[Nolan Crossman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave 4 Stars, but more like a 3.5, I was really excited for this Kang storyline but it just kinda fell flat!