Avengers: Galactic Storm, Vol. 1

Avengers (1963) #345-346

by Bob Harras, Mark Gruenwald, Len Kaminski (Text)

The Kree are one of the Fantastic Four's oldest enemies; the Shi'ar, one of the X-Men's oldest allies. But it's the Avengers who are caught in the middle when the two alien races wage a war to re-write Marvel's map of the universe! As two-legged WMDs land on Earth, the Avengers end up as alien invaders on wartorn worlds of wonder, both as a unit and individually! Featuring the Imperial Guard! Starforce! Deathbird! Thor vs. Gladiator! Super heroes from three galaxies and more clash in the first half of the story that shook the team to its foundations! Collects Captain America #398-399, Avengers West Coast #80-81, Quasar #32-33, Wonder Man #7-8, Avengers #345-346, Iron Man #278 and Thor #445. Book 1 of 2.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Fiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2006

About the author

Robert "Bob" Harras (born January 11, 1959) is an American comics writer and editor, who was editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics from 1995 to 2000 and currently serves as editor-in-chief of DC Comics.

Reviews

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

All'epoca questo cross-over fu criticato da parte di chi aveva fette di salame spesse due dita sugli occhi. Certo il titolo richiama la cronaca dell'epoca, ma la storia fa altro. La storia, che parte dalla vecchia idea di una guerra interstellare, affronta diversi argomenti sempre di attualità, si pone domande e non da risposte nette.
Perché intervenire in faccende altrui? Qual è il comportamento etico da seguire in casi borderline come quello della guerra? Specie quando sembra che non ci riguardi? E quando scopriamo che ci riguarda? Fino a che punto e con quali mezzi è lecito intervenire?
Al di là delle scazzottate e degli scontri, quando scopri che le cose non sono così semplici come sembrano, come fai cambiare idea a chi oramai si odia solamente?

L'unico punto debole del crossover è che, raccogliendo diverse testate (Avengers, Avengers West Coast, Captain Amrica, Thor, Iron-Man, Wonder-Man, Quasar) i disegnatori cambiano e alcuni hanno stili troppo diversi per ottenere un prodotto ben amalgamato.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another glossy comic book borrowed from the city library. This one was tedious; like the Avengers films, it consists mostly of violence and petulant infighting, with Avengers constantly having to remind one another that they’re a team.
The comics have serious gender issues. It’s not just that the all-male creators of the book have inflated Captain America’s muscles to the bursting point while carefully inflating the women’s breasts and giving them revealing outfits. At one point, an alien attacks a group of Avengers, thinking to himself that he should neutralize the strongest ones first; when he attacks the women, the male Avengers are outraged and accuse him of cowardice, but he points out quite rightly that the women have immense powers while the others are “just strongmen or athletes.” I wonder what lessons kids learn from these books.
I did have to admire Marvel Publishing’s sales strategy. This book is printed on glossy paper and its original price was $29.99 – about ten cents per page. It collates only the first half of the Galactic Storm story arc. When originally published in the early 90s, the story was printed in different series but the reader was always informed on the last page where to resume reading: Captain America #398-399, Avengers West Coast #80-81, Quasar #32-33, Wonder Man #7-8, Avengers #345-346, Iron Man #278 and Thor #445. Collectors would have had to follow all these series to enjoy the story arc.
Well, the library doesn’t have volume 2, so I will probably never know how it all turned out.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Growing up, I only had about half of the issues of this massive, cross-over Avengers series, so I enjoyed being able to actually read it from start to finish in this (and the next) volume. This is very much a product of the 90s, with its conflicted heroes on conflict-ridden teams up against daunting odds. There are some great fight scenes, especially since the Avengers are put up against unfamiliar foes and have to think on their feet to (sometimes) win the day. This volume definitely has its flaws, including some inconsistent art and a persistent sense that the heroes could have approached such a dangerous, high-stakes situation more logically and cautiously.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually these kinds of big crossover events are kind of a mess. This one holds up pretty well. This is my third read through since it was initially published as individual issues and it’s still a darn entertaining read.

Captain America #398 - Unsurprisingly, Rick Jones appears to be at the center of what sets into motion a series of spiraling events that are collectively known as Operation: Galactic Storm. This was a response to the actual events of Operation: Desert Storm (1990-1991), a highly controversial military campaign in the Middle East conducted by the US government. In this Marvel version, the Avengers become embroiled in an escalating conflict between two alien empires: the Kree and the Shi’ar, and yes it is very reminiscent of the The Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War.

Avengers West Coast #80 - Captain America calls in for the aid the West Coast Avengers as events continue to escalate. As more of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard show up.

Quasar #32 - Attempting to stop the theft of the Nega Bands from the tomb of Captain Mar-Vell by Captain Atlas and Dr. Minerva while simultaneously trying to safeguard the lives of the scientists aboard Starcore 1, Quasar gets brought into the craziness.

Wonder Man #7 - It’s Wonder Man vs. Captain Atlas who is now wearing Captain Mar-Vell’s nega bands. And that means he keeps switching places with Rick Jones, so Wonder Man can’t actually land a bunch. Hilarious and delightedly fun.

Avengers #345 - Quasar, Thor(or his inexperienced replacement), The Vision and Sersi (of the Eternals) are off to reduce the Starcore scientists and then the big meeting of East, West and reservist Avengers and the official beginning of Operation: Galactic Storm.

Iron Man #278 - Tensions escalate quickly as Iron Man tries to do his usual solo act, with mixed results.

Thor #445 - This new Thor’s inexperience is laid bare as he confronts his own insecurities and then tackles Gladiator of the Imperial Guard single handedly.

Captain America #399 - The team has been captured and while Sersi’s brilliant plan at subterfuge allows their escape, Iron Man balks at her manipulations. This results in Iron Man and Goliath (formerly Hawkeye) striking off on their own, leaving Cap and his remaining team in a bad situation.

Avengers West Coast #81 - Meanwhile the Avengers on Earth are confronted with a n unexpected raid to free their prisoners. This is pretty much a disaster because most of these Avengers have never worked with one another.

Quasar #33 - Quasar gets called in again to track down the escaping Dr. Minerva and Captain Atlas, but nothing seems to be as it appears.

Wonder Man #8 - Deep in the Sh’ar Empire the Avengers try diplomacy, but again Thor’s inexperience instigates a disaster, and Wonder Man refuses to let a weapon of mass destruction get put into play.

Avengers #346 - Captain America, Black Knight, Crystal, Hercules & Sersi find themselves face to face with the newly formed Kree Starforce and then are confronted by the assignation of the rulers of the Kree Empire at the hands of Deathbird, sister to the Empress of the Shi’ar. Can the situation get any more dire?

[Doug Rusley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Operation: Galactic Storm has a special place in my nostalgia catalogue, as it's a story that was beginning right about the time I started reading comics seriously as a kid. Looking back on it now it stands up as a better-than-average event-crossover, especially given its complexity and length.

Galactic Storm ran through 7 different Avengers-related titles (two team-books and five solo titles). This first volume collects the first 12 issues of the 19-issue saga (Vol. 2 collects the other seven, plus a few supplemental issues.) The overall story shows an intergalactic war brewing between the militaristic Kree and the Shi'Ar empires, with the Avengers attempting to intervene to prevent the earth's sun from being adversely affected. Reading it now I was impressed with how naturally the story flowed from one book into the next without losing track of itself. Having read many crossover books in my day, both good and bad, this is pretty notable. The story kicks off when Rick Jones, the forgotten Avengers sidekick who's now hanging with the Hulk, has a premonition about a cataclysmic event on the Kree homeworld of Hala, prompting him to contact his old pal Captain America just in case. From there things flow quite swimmingly through the titles of Captain America, then Avengers West Coast, then Quasar, and then Wonder Man (at which point Rick Jones happily gets to go home.)

Then in the main Avengers title, Cap assembles the reserves and splits them into three teams: one to go to Kree space, the other to Shi'Ar space, and one to hold down the fort on earth. The second leg continues from there with Iron Man and Thor's titles, and then back around to Cap again. Cleverly, one space team features Cap and Iron Man, and the other includes Thor and Wonder Man, so the writers can easily cut back and forth between the different teams as the story ramps up.

This story also got some mileage out of using old characters and teams in new ways. The Kree normally fight with the Skrulls and the Avengers (this story is really a sequel of sorts to the classic Avengers story of the Kree-Skrull war); now to bring in the Shi'Ar and pit them against both made for a nice new mix, and helps make the Marvel Universe that much more epic.

As sometimes happens, when a crossover like this is collected together, there is page time devoted to b-plots that don't really amount to much and don't get resolved within the crossover. Quasar's girlfriend may have latent super-powers, but we won't get to see where that goes. The Vision was recently destroyed and rebuilt, losing most of his memories and emotional connections in the process, and Wonder Man seems pretty broken up about it, but he'll just have to deal with it later in his own book too.

Nonetheless, Operation: Galactic Storm goes in the 'win' column of Marvel crossover stories, and serves as a decent look back at what this kind of thing looks like when it works well.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first of two TPB volumes collecting the 19 parts crossover series from the early 90s. This first volume collects the first twelve chapters from Captain America # 398-399, Avengers West Coast # 80-81, Quasar # 32-33, Wonder Man # 7-8, Avengers # 345-346, Iron Man # 278 och Thor # 445.

The plot concerns an intergalactic war between the Kree and Shi'ar empires... with Earth stuck in the middle. So the Avengers become involved in order to prevent the sun to be destroyed by the warring parties. Assembling Avengers from both coasts as well as the reservists, the Avengers are divided into three teams: one en route to the Kree home world consisting of Captain America, Hercules, Sersi, Crystal, the Black Knight, Goliath and Iron Man; one en route to the Shi'ar empire consisting of Captain Marvel (the female, black version), the Vision, Wonder Man, Living Lightning, Scarlet Witch, Starfox and Thor; and finally one left on earth to hold down the fort, consisting of She-Hulk, Falcon, Mockingbird, Spider-Woman, Hank Pym, the Wasp, Gilgamesh and USAgent. And then there is Quasar who is left to guard the star portals through which the two space bound teams travel.

I read the comics when they originally came out, many years ago, and remembered liking them then, so I picked up the two TPBs a while back. Having just finished the first one and started on the second, I can truly say that I am not disappointed so far. It is good superhero action in a nutshell, and perhaps one of the last truly working crossover pieces, before Marvel was struck by a perpetual case of event fever.

[Christopher Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this again in its individual issues, not the collected tpb, but it's essentially the same. 20 years later, this story still stands as one of the great crossovers, possibly among the best ever. Though it has a patina of timeliness about Operation: Desert Storm, it's much more than that - it's about the disintegration between who is good/right and who is bad/wrong, and (like Bono sings of so much lately) in war one shouldn't become "the monster" in order to defeat "the monster." Despite its massive scale, it paces better than most crossovers, even shorter ones. It was impressively planned out and divided, giving the creatives teams freedom to write their continuing issues in the structure of a cohesive story. The different narrative emphases on the three teams (Kree, Shi'ar, Earth) are given great treatment (of course the home front team gets less "screen time," but they are still a palpable component of the story). Debilitated by in-fighting, the Avengers must convince the Kree and Shi'ar to stop their war, since the stargates they are using to get to each other's territories are causing the Earth's sun to flare, potentially to go nova. Along the way, the Avengers discover Skrull treachery, secret machinations by both Kree and Shi'ar, and make difficult decisions all the while trying to hold the moral high ground (some of them). The first half is enjoyable even in its buildup, since the emphasis is more often on character moments than story, though there is plenty of that as well. It's a great story worth reading even if one is not an "Avengers" fan.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This major Marvel storyline took place just AFTER I stopped buying and reading comics as a kid. I remember when Quasar first came out, and the Avengers about issue 330-some, so I was probably about 2 yrs before this. So therefore it was nice for me to see what had happened in the storyline(s). Overall, you can see here, even then the friction between Captain America and Iron Man, so looking back, it's even more foundation for Civil War much later. Also it was fun to see just the plethora of different characters who appear in this book, but the nice part is, not all of them were major characters at all (Crystal, Gilgamesh, Spider Woman, Mockingbird, USAgent, Wonder Man [though he DID have his own title at the time, so he used to be bigger]). On the other hand, with so many characters, some are given nearly no role whatsoever (Scarlet Witch, Black Knight, USAgent, Living Lightning, etc.). However, that's not a surprise. Overall, its a fun read, and I'm looking forward to getting Part 2 in order to conclude it. Good book, crossover, and fun. (However, I'm not a huge fan of the Eric Masterson Thor who appears here, and Iron Man's armour looks ridiculous).

[Andrew Kunka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never read a lot of Marvel comics in the 90s, and I avoided these massive crossovers. However, I was surprised how well this story held up. This crossover doesn't feel padded like more contemporary ones do. Here, the Avengers are divided into three separate teams, and each team has a clear goal. Overall, it's good fun.

I do wish that Marvel would provide some kind of introductory material that would help explain some of the continuity from this era, though. For example, I'm not familiar with the Eric Masterson-era Thor, so his "voice" threw me off at first. And Iron Man seems to have been badly injured before this story began, but we don't get much explanation of what happened. Also, the Wonder Man and Quasar chapters feature pages of subplots that were ongoing in those series.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Kree and the Shair empires are going to war and Earth is stuck right in the middle.
A nice sprawling space epic, that had a tendency to stumble around, but was for the most part a nice, light bit of space opera.

One of the less annoying crossovers marvel did in the 90's.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Joe Sergi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series really shows its age.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grand machinations.

[Gary Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 197