Gathering doom! The mysterious Gatherers have big plans for the Vision, while the other Avengers have their hands full with one of their own - the powerful sorceress Sersi! Captain America returns - but things have changed in his absence, and the Black Knight won't take kindly to being bossed around! The Dane/Sersi/Crystal love triangle gets ever more complicated as the Avengers fi nally meet their shadowy nemesis: Proctor of the Gatherers! Deathcry enters the world of the Avengers, and Hank Pym becomes Giant-Man once more! But who is the Bloodwraith? Plus, U.S.Agent, War Machine and Thunderstrike form a new "big three" in a time-travel tussle with Terminatrix - and Cap, Iron Man and Thor aren't far behind them! All that, and Deadpool too! COLLECTING: VOL. 24: AVENGERS (1963) 360-366, ANNUAL 22, STRIKEFILE, ANNIVERSARY MAGAZINE; AVENGERS: THE TERMINATRIX OBJECTIVE 1-4
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.
A dreadful low point in Avengers history, ‘this volume centers around the boring character Black knight. He looks like a young Mel Gibson, carries a light saber, and somehow is juggling the relationships of three different women (two of them married, but only one to him). We are treated to forgettable new villains like blood oath, or maybe it was blood scream, I really don’t remember, as well as the ongoing threat from proctor. Auto fill wanted to type proctologist, which would be a much more frightening villain. The last half of this volume is just a shit show. There are multiple stories involving the anacronaugts, (I mean I’d rather be reading more about blood cry or whoever) then we are spoiled with a treasure of character bios. If you wanted to know more about the purple lady Wolverine then this is your place. So one star for the one female avenger the black knight did not defile with his affection.
This collection of 1990s Avengers stories...aren't terrible. Yeah, Black Widow and Captain America are on the team and on the periphery of the action and the rest are hardly household names except for Vision. However, the stories themselves are not bad at all, though non particularly memorable. After the Avengers main story material, we get into a story involving Kang, a woman who has taken his place and time travel shenanigans with past and present Avengers meeting up. It's a good fun and i feel like the art while having some of the awful 1990sness that would define Marvel this decade...is not near as bad as it could be.
For me, what takes this book from three starts to four stars (maybe more like 3.5) was the reprint of the Avengers 30th Anniversary issue. There's a ton of insight into the history of its team, its major battles, and the reasoning behind some of the creative decisions made. To me, this more than made up for the book's deficiencies and made for a very fun read.
The stories in this one are a bit hit and miss - from the main Avengers title, I liked the Kree issues more than I did the end of the Gatherers arc. There are lots of battles throughout which are quite nice, and also a love triangle for when characters are taking a break. The annual is forgettable, the Terminatrix miniseries is quite ok and the anniversary magazine is also pretty interesting too.
Lots of 90s art style in here which I found to be enjoyable. I really liked the issues drawn by Steve Epting, as well as the wealth of pin-ups and splash pages from other artists.
Overall, I think this book has quite a lot of material that isn't/won't be collected anywhere else, so for anyone interested in the era it would be worth checking out.
This is a real up and down volume, some might say ranging from average to awful. If you're fond of the Avenger with bomber jackets era this one's for you.
Todo mundo tem uma fase na vida que, anos depois, a gente quer esquecer, porém sempre tem um amigo que guardou as fotos daquela festa que tu tava de gravata de cowboy e um terno azul tubarão. Para os Vingadores é essa fase, lá pelos anos 90, comemorando 30 anos, os caras fazem uma bosta dessa. Essa história acontece depois da Tempestade Galáctica em que alguns Vingadores se rebelaram e passaram a Inteligência Suprema Kree na faca, ou melhor, na espada; então tem todo aquele extremismo dos anos 90, tudo é dramático, tudo é uma novelinha de adolescente; a Sersi gosta do Cavaleiro Negro que gosta da Cristal que quer voltar com o ex e, no meio de tudo isso, tem uma outra mina, secretária do Cavaleiro Negro, que também quer conhecer a espada mágica dele. Sério, quem é o Cavaleiro Negro na fila do pão? Talvez seja a pior equipe dos Vingadores, tirando o Capitão América que aparece do nada e o Visão que não serve pra nada, o resto é segunda divisão, Hércules e Viúva Negra; pra baixo, Sersi, Cavaleiro Negro, Cristal, Deathcry - uma shiar que aparece do nada. Falta carisma, em compensação, sobram jaquetas de couro marrom com um Azinho vermelho no ombro e fones de ouvido, todo mundo usa microfone da Sandy e Júnior. Impressionante. E eu nem comecei a reclamar da história ainda. E a história é horrível, começa com os Ajuntadores - tradução livre de Gatherers -, um grupo de Vingadores de realidades destruídas querendo vingança contra a Sersi; enquanto isso, a Sersi tá toda se querendo pra cima do Cavaleiro, mas como ela é muito velha - os Eternos são, bom, eternos - ela tá ficando caduca; o principal inimigo dos Vingadores, a senilidade; enquanto rola uma confusão qualquer com os Eternos, os Ajuntadores trocam o Visão pelo Visão maligno deles, pra resolver a questão a Sersi divide a mente com o Cavaleiro transformando-o num Gajin Não-sei-o-quê, mas o Cavaleiro sabe que ex de amigo é que nem soldado, marcha igual, e quer dar uns pegas na Cristal, tá feita a merda. É confuso pra cacete mesmo. Foi mais ou menos por aqui que eu comecei a me perguntar; por que eu tô lendo essa porcaria? Quem é a Sersi na fila do pão? E aí ficou pior. O Visão maligno deu uma cantada numa das meninas, honestamente não lembro quem, afinal ele tem o poder de deixar tudo duro que bem diamante; rolou um climão, através do climão, os Vingadores descobrem que o Visão maligno não é o Visão bonzinho, o pau quebra e eles descobrem que os Ajuntadores estão nos Andes. O pau quebra em cima da montanha, inclusive no meio da luta com os Ajuntadores, o Cavaleiro Negro, sempre ele, resolve chamar o Capitão América na chincha. Cacete, quem é o Cavaleiro Negro na fila do pão? Do nada, aparece uns rebeldes kree querendo destruir o planeta. Acho que eles leram essa história também. Bom, então a história dos Ajuntadores é completamente esquecida para lidar com um plano besta de krees explodindo bombas, do nada aparece o Hank Pym - colocaram o Vingador mais louco pra examinar a caduquice da Sersi. Obviamente, tudo dá certo, o planeta não explode, a Madalena e a Deathcry viram Vingadoras baseadas na ideia de que se a Crystal pode, eu também posso. Continua o climão entre Cavaleiro, Sersi e Crystal. Além de tudo isso, tem mais duas histórias sofríveis, um anual que explora a espada mágica do Cavaleiro, com o Deadpool, porque né? Sério, quem é o Cavaleiro Negro na fila do pão? Acho que, na época, a Marvel tinha um fetiche medieval só pode. E mais uma mini série terrível com o Capitão América, Agente Americano, Thor, Thunderstrike, Homem de Ferro e Máquina de Combate contra a namorada do Kang, quer dizer, contra uma realidade alternativa de uma namorada do Kang. Se os anos 90 foram assim pros Vingadores, tu não tinha a menor chance com o cabelo cheio de gel, camiseta da Fido Dido, tênis M2000 e walkman do Paraguai.
I'm enjoying the Bob Harras run on the Avengers. Despite some of the criticisms of the 90's Avengers, this is the best the book has been since Roger Stern left.
It is very 90's though, from the bomber jackets, the edgyness, the new characters (Deathcry and Bloodwraith), and the Black Knight's appearance starting to strongly resemble Gambit from the X-Men (he even has the black and red eyes now). The art is great, but also feels very much of that era.
This volume has the Avengers battle the Gatherers, who have been menacing the Avengers for a while now. There's still a few mysteries unresolved, such as Sersi losing her sanity and the story behind Proctor, but I'm sure these will be resolved in future volumes. There's also the continued love triangle between Black Knight, Sersi, and Crystal, another battle with the Kree, and the return of Captain America and Giant Man to the team.
The Terminatrix Objective miniseries is also included here, which I could have done without. Aside from that, the end of the book contains the Avengers Anniversary Magazine which has a lot of interesting behind the scenes articles and interviews.
This era of Avengers seems very divisive. It has a lot of criticisms, but it also has its fans. I definitely fall in the camp of the latter. This roster of Avengers has started to become like a family and the characters are interesting and engaging, and the storyline with the Gatherers is really good. I would recommend it, especially if you enjoy 90's comics.