Hey Kids, Comics!
After I discovered comic books in 1974 via The Justice League of America I went in search of other, similar examples of wonderment. I knew there were other DC books out there from the in-house ads. I soon came back around to MARVEL, too. AVENGERS #113 was the first Marvel book that I actually remember owning. There were others, for sure, before this: I distinctly remember the Spider-Man vs Mobius issue in SPIDERMAN #101, and I have a vague recollection of reading some CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON story where they face The Grey Gargoyle. But this issue, now....I liked it, and I kept it. Here's Captain America again, with Iron Man, The Vision, Scarlet Witch, the Black Panther, and Thor: six of Marvel's best characters, all in one book. I took an immediate liking to the first five, and tolerated Thor. In this issue they faced off against a racist group of suicide bombers wanting to stop the romance between a mutant and an android. Definitely not the subject matter appearing in JUSTICE LEAGUE, but fun none-the-less. I was hooked.


Unfortunately, after I sent my check off to NY I must have mis-counted "6 to 8 weeks" for my first issue to arrive. I saw one then two then three issues on the stands and did not pick them up, thinking one of them would undoubtedly be waiting for me in my mailbox the next day. This was frustrating, to say the least, and eventually very annoying. FINALLY my subscription started with #135, a story that tied into GIANT SIZED AVENGERS for its conclusion. Given my random experiences with Marvel comics, I had no way of knowing of their fondness for cross-overs and continued stories; and although I knew #125 had continued in CAPTAIN MARVEL I was still not really ready or amused when a month later I got #136 and it had *nothing* to do with #135. In fact, it was a reprint of an AMAZING ADVENTURES story featuring The Beast vs Iron Man. If this was the way Marvel did things, then I was a committed DC man!!
Suffice it to say that the next few issues made me regret my decision to subscribe to THE AVENGERS. The characters I had liked were gone, replaced by nobodies like Yellowjacket, Moondragon, and The Beast. The art by George Tuska was not the same as by John Buscema. After fighting some nobody bad-guy named The Toad they faced a Red Tornado spin-off (haha) named Whirlwind. Was this what I had missed!?!
And then I got AVENGERS #141. Captain America was back. The Vision and Scarlet Witch had returned from their honeymoon (!?) at the end of the previous issue, so now they were back, too. And more
importantly for this story, the artist was some new guy named George Perez. He brought a fantastic and unique style with him to the book that I fell in love with immediately. THIS was The Avengers!! With this debut he became the main AVENGERS artist, off-and-on, for the next five years, until he left Marvel to move to DC and handle....yes...JUSTICE LEAGUE (as well as NEW TEEN TITANS and some mini-series called CRISIS). He ushered in a new era with this story, bringing "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" back to the top of the Mavel chain. I was hooked (again) as the team split up, one group to face the JLA knock-offs The Squadron Sinister and one to go back in time and fight the Marvel version of The Time Lord called Kang.



After George Perez left Marvel and Jim Shooter took over Marvel in a huge way, I dropped all of my Marvel books. By this point She-Hulk, Ms Marvel, a new Captain Marvel, the Sub-Mariner, and Tigra had joined (and quit) the Avengers. When Marvel took The Vision apart (he's an android) and made Scarlet
Witch insane, I quit. Although I was in Japan at the time and didn't follow most of the comics at the time, it looks like most comics in the 90s were not very good. I did try to go back to Marvel in the early 90s with THE WEST COAST AVENGERS but that wasn't very much fun, either. Then or the Avengers was relaunched in 1998 by Kurt Busiek and, yes, George Perez. Also along for the ride were ALL 39 past-and-near Avengers, which made it fun. These two gentlemen obviously loved the Avengers as much as I had, and the care they took in crafting their stories made THE AVENGERS the best book on the stands again. For another four years, this series was awesome.

Now Marvel and The Avengers are back in a dark place. Scarlet Witch went insane again and created her own dimension (aka House of M). Then she died but took several Avengers with her. Spider-Man and Wolverine as well as Power Man and other characters who had never been Avengers before joined up. There was a huge Civil War. Cap and Iron Man fought each other. Cap was killed (but got better). Can you figure out yet that I'm not reading this book (again)?
For now, I'm watching from the sidelines. I am hopeful that "my" Avengers will return, and once more the mightiest heroes on Earth will head into battle with their exciting mantra, "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!"
(click on the above to super-size it; art by George Perez, colors by yours truly)
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