Avengers Epic Collection, Vol. 5: This Beachhead Earth

Avengers Epic Collection

by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams (Illustrator), John Buscema (Illustrator)

Roy Thomas' epic AVENGERS run continues with the origin of the Black Panther, the debut of the Lady Liberators, the return of Squadron Sinister and the all-time classic Kree/Skrull War! Caught in the cross fire, Earth has become the staging ground for a conflict of star-spanning proportions! For two eternal intergalactic enemies, the merciless Kree and the shape-changing Skrulls, have gone to war, and our planet is situated on the front lines! Can Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers, bring about an end to the fighting before humanity becomes a casualty of war? And what good are even a dozen super-powered champions against the vast military machines of two of the great empires of the cosmos? COLLECTING: AVENGERS (1963) 77-97, INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) 140

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

504 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2020

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Sean Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avengers upshifts from a Villain-of-the-Month-Club format to epic space opera, and Neal Adams throws down some of the prettiest lines ever to grace the book’s pages. A fun era.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the closest that The Avengers has gotten to a really solid sustained run since the book started, but the plots and stories are still pretty uneven.

There's some hilarious stuff in here, like T'Challa's constant conspicuous mentions of the fact that he's a high school teacher in his secret identity, or Roy Thomas's insane feminist panic fever dream that (sort of) introduces the Valkyrie and the Rutland Halloween Parade.

But it also contains the Kree-Skrull War, which is legitimately epic right up until it falls on its face in the final chapter. We also get an expanded version of the Black Panther's origin, which introduces the heart-shaped herb and gives us our first inkling that the Panther is superhuman, not just a good fighting guy. (Though having read through all of this, I now understand why Christopher Priest made it a top priority to retcon all of the Roy Thomas Black Panther/Avengers stuff; it's so much better through Priest's lens.)

The best part about these stories is the artwork. John Buscema was the perfect artist for this book, and it's a shame that he didn't draw more of it, especially when Tom Palmer was available to ink him. But even the issues illustrated by his less-celebrated (and highly underrated) brother Sal are pretty great, and then toward the end of the book, we get four issues from a kid named Neal Adams, who I predict will have a future in this business.

The early '70s were a pretty low moment for Marvel's superhero books, especially in the immediate aftermath of Jack Kirby leaving for DC. But there are some moments of legitimate greatness in this collection. Honestly, you could start your Avengers reading here and not miss too much.

[Space Dragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

You get everything in this. can highly recommend it as a jumping on point for new readers.

A good mix of late 60s early 70s superhero childfriendly Goofyness and the Avengers Kree Skrull war, and one hulk issue.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I want to say right off the bat is that John Buscema and Tom Palmer are one of the great unsung duo's when it comes to pencil/inker teams. This artwork is INSANELY GOOD! I hear people giving Big John praise, but I've never heard too many people praise the work of this team. They really add a lot of physical weight to the characters. Captain America and Thor look powerful! Not just like they have Muscle, but like heavy powerful warriors who can call on a great strength!
The Kree/Skrull war happens in this book. It's my first time reading it. I was a little underwhelmed by it. It's supposed to be this massive storyline in the Avengers history. In a lot of ways it feels disjointed. I was reading it and thinking, "this is it?" Don't get me wrong, it's a good story, but I don't know if I was just thinking it would be much better.
I usually don't have a problem with this kind of thing, but one thing that did bother me in the book was the language. Specially the way characters would identify other characters through really...ignorant ways. They call Black Panther the Black Avenger. Yes, he is black and he is an Avenger, but he isn't the black avenger. Usually, I let this stuff slide because it's a comic from a different time, and language changes over time. In this book though, they are also going out of their way to point out that Wanda is a women, like it needs pointing out. It was just... a little too much for me.

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love these classic Avengers stories. Especially the Neal Adams stories in the Kree-Skull epic. Tales from my youth. Great memories.

[Fez Vaccaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this straight after Epic volume 3: Masters of Evil and Thomas' work is consistently stronger here. Maybe it's having spent a lot more time with the characters and having clearer picture of their roles or his growth as a writer, or both.

There's 2 main multi story arcs: a Zodiac story near the start that sees 3 separate storylines dovetail together, and; the Kree-Skrull War at the end. Art wise they're both the strongest too, with John Buscema on the former and Neal Adams with the latter, with handy ink assists by Tom Palmer on both. Adams art practically leaps off the page and the issue with a tiny Ant-Man exploring Vision's synthoid body is worth the price of admission alone.

In between we also get: the fun Lady Liberators issue; a Harlan Ellison-Roy Thomas 2 parter that sets up a more interesting Hulk story that is also included (which Planet Hulk has more than a passing resemblance to, proving you can't blame writers wanting to revisit good story ideas decades later), and; a Panther origin story, which I can never say no to.

The only negative in regards to the book is the exclusion of Daredevil #69, which features Panther and is written by Thomas and sets up their appearance in Avengers #82. But overall a very good and essential set of Avengers stories.

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is primo Roy Thomas Avengers action from the early 1970s, including the classic Kree-Skrull War issues (#s 93 through 97), drawn primarily by Neal Adams and Tom Palmer. Thomas can be as wordy as Stan Lee, and if there’s a pop culture reference lying nearby, he certainly picks it up and uses it. These issues are action-packed—the volume actually reprints #s 77 through 97, and a ton of original art stats, including some of Adams’s pencils from issue #93—and I remember them fondly from my youth. Pair this with the previous volume (#4: Behold … the Vision), which includes the introduction of the Vision and you have Roy Thomas’s finest work on this title.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a shame that some of the issues in this volume feel a bit like padding, otherwise I may have awarded it five stars.

The issues featuring various Zodiac members are a mere shadow of the previous plotlines featuring Kang the Conqueror or Ultron. I feel the same about Arkon the Magnificent, to be honest. However, I love the parallel universe story featuring the Squadron Supreme, and of course, the Kree-Skrull War is absolutely mind-blowing for its time. It was probably one of the most important events at that time.

John and Sal Buscema's art is lovely, Neal Adams' is gorgeous. Writer Roy Thomas continues strongly overall.

Definitely worth checking out.

[Shannon Schmelzle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was definitely my favorite volume of the Avengers Epic Collection so far. On art you got John and Sal Buscema and coming in midway is Neal Adams. All of these are great artist. And Roy Thomas here starts becoming the Roy Thomas I know and love. The one who connects his story bits to old stories and digs up old underused characters.

Plus this volume includes one of my favorite Marvel heroes, Captain Marvel.

I would definitely say by this volume Roy Thomas and company have come into there stride and are firing on all cylinders.

[Terrance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes the legendary Kree-Skrull War! Some overwrought dialogue and exposition, but overall good use of these characters. The Kree-Skrull storyline is at the center of several recent movies and comics including Captain Marvel and Empyre.

[Doug Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book gets better and better the further in you read, with some pretty good stuff in the back half. all of the kree/skull stuff is really good and feels like a rewarding wrap up to some VERY longrunning set up.

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun but a little disjointed, and not what I expected from such a big storyline.

[Barry Bridges · Rating 3 out of 5]

The early seventies, such an innocent time. But so much fighting !!

[Alex Andrasik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read through issue #88 before turning to the rest of the run in the Kree-Skrull War TPB.

[Joe B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Marvel classic by Stan and the boys.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning of my favorite era of the Avenger. The creative teams come and go but the seventies bring the gold for Marvel's Mightiest.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually get excited to read Roy Thomas stuff as much as other writers but I heard good things about his work on Avengers and thought he did a pretty good job in this volume. The stories dragged a bit here and there but I felt like he was constantly juggling so many characters and did a good job of eventually bringing everyone back together.
The highlights for this volume to me was probably the Black Panther story. I still haven't gotten into his volumes yet so I thought this backstory did a good job filling me in and wasn't that far off from the mcu version. I also thought the story with "Valkyrie" getting all the lady characters to join up as their own team was pretty fun even if it ended them just being tricked in the end but when aren't heroes tricked into fighting each other 😂. Other than that i really loved when ant man has to go inside the vision to fix a wire in his brain but it's the art in that issue has really stuck in my head.
The Kree/Skrull was really what I was looking forward to in this book and while it had it's moments, I felt it wasn't my favorite part of the book and some of the way things get revealed just felt messy. I really loved the callbacks to the cows from early FF as I always heard they would come back later.
All and all really liked this volume more than I expected but I really think the art is what sold me on this volume. Roy wrote some decent stories but it was the talented artists that really brought everything together that still had me excited to see what was on the next page all these years later.