The Avengers Epic Collection: Judgment Day Paperback – July 8, 2014

Contains some of my favorite story lines, artists, and characters. I miss those days of good story telling where friendships were tested and grew stronger through trouble. The story’s nowadays seem to be missing essential layers of thoughtful connections.

The collection reminds me of the days when I used to collect. Got to reread some of my favorite issues (both remembered and forgotten).

Roger Stern at his finest. His Avengers is one if the finest runs ever. This collection features some of his best.

Awesome !

Very good liked alot

Given that the Epic Collections have the ability to "Cherry Pick" some of the best material this does seem to be a somewhat strange selection. We get a hodgepodge of Avengers material printed in 1987. Eight issues of The Avengers regular title (#278-#285), a mini-series X-Men Vs. Avengers, two Annuals which cross over (West Coast Avengers #2 & Avengers #16) plus Marvel Graphic novel (Emperor Doom). I enjoyed all the material and found it all very good to excellent.The first eight issues of The Avengers are all excellent. Seven issues of the comic are from the regular team of Roger Stern writer, John Buscema pencil breakdowns and Tom Palmer pencil finishes and inking. This is simply one of the best creative teams of any era of Avengers. Roger Stern's stories are master crafted. I also think Tom Palmer is greatly underrated . Anything he works on is fantastic.Avengers #278 is a great introduction to the cast as they are recovering from a big battle with the Masters Of Evil with both Jarvis the butler and Hercules hospitalized. It spotlights Janet as The Wasp is debating taking a break and stepping down as Chairperson. Avengers #279 likewise is a Captain Marvel spotlight as Monica (Captain Marvel) considers taking over the Chairperson position. Stern who created this version of Captain Marvel in Spider-Man Annual has a great feel for the character.Avengers #280 is listed on the contents page as "The Challenge Of The Hobgoblin" but is not instead we get" Faithful Servant" which has nothing to do with the Hobgoblin but instead is fill in story about Jarvis . The story written by current Editor In Chief of DC Comics Bob Harris and illustrated by Bob Hall and Kyle Baker is a great fill in about Jarvis recovery and a decision he must make. This story is also excellent. Still I wonder about Challenge Of The Hobgoblin. Since Stern was hip deep in Hobby's doings at the time in Spider-Man I am assuming he had plans for an Avengers cross-over but never followed through with it.Then after three done in one stories we get the five issue Mega Opus of the Avengers battle with Zeus and the Greek God Pantheon. Zeus discovers a comatose Hercules in a hospital and blames the Avengers, This tightly plotted action packed saga is as good as it gets and reason enough to own this volume.Next we get the four part Mini-series X-Men versus Avengers. At the time (1987) X-Men was far better selling book so it's title appears first. Not so with the recent cross-over. The team for the first three issues is Stern and then up and coming penciler Marc Silvestri (now head honcho at Top Cow) and inker Josef Rubenstein. The plot involves fragments of Magneto's Asteroid M braking up and falling to Earth. The Avengers set out to apprehend Magneto who at the time is good and hanging out with the X-Men. The Soviet Super Soldiers get involved so that we have a three way battle. This series is the weakest from this collection and was spoiled by in house office politics. The story was built around Magneto turning back to pure evil in the fourth act and becoming a Master Villain again.. But Chris Claremont objected and Jim Shooter sided with him so that the forth issue was plotted by Shooter and Tom DeFalco , written by DeFalco and penciled by Keith Pollard . It has a total different tone to it. It also makes Captain America and Wolverine look kind of stupid because they are foreshadowing the Magneto turn in the first three issues. Pages of Stern's original plot are included as back matter in this volume.Stern would write two more regular issues of The Avengers before he was fired by editor Gruenwald over future plot lines. Stern soon found himself at DC and worked with John Byrne on the Superman re-launch.Next we get the two Annual cross over with the West Coast team. In West Coast Avengers Annual #2 The Collector and The Grandmaster are up to tricks as they pit the pair of teams against each other. Steve Englehart writes a very fun story. The art is by Al Milgrom. Englehart pairs the teams down to seven against seven and in every chapter you get a battle and results. And yes there are winners and losers. Avengers Annual #16 is the conclusion and now the two groups pair off in unique combinations to battle The Legion Of The Unliving. Fifteen good and bad guys all previously dead. We get Dracula ,Bucky, Captain Marvel, Green Goblin, Drax The Destoyer and many more. I think more then half of these characters are no longer dead in the Marvel Now Universe. The writing is Tom DeFalco and a string of artists all doing a chapter or two of the story. This is usually means it was a rush job and late. Still it is Fun Stuff.Lastly we wind up with Emperor Doom (Marvel Graphic Novel #27) . The credits on page 376 says this story takes place before West Coast Avengers #1 which makes no sense , since on page 385 we are told this is compound of the West Coast Avengers. The story was written by Iron-Man super scribe David Michelinie and art by Bob Hall. The plot is good one with Doctor Doom capturing the Purple Man and using his powers to take over the world. Wonder Man is the star of story and gets the most spotlight time. Again lots of fun, but I think it along with two Annuals could have fit in a West Coast Avengers Epic Collection.The back contains original art work, Marvel Age articles, Script pages and unused Covers plus covers from previous trades and Hard Cover collections.At under $35 for over 460 pages of quality color art and stories this gets my Highest Recommendation.

A great collection of the brief but fun Gerry Conway ,Jim Shooter George Perez era. and Hank Pym greatest moments.

This was the first time I had read any of these tales, although I knew the vast majority of the characters.It starts off slow with Doctor Druid joining the team and the search for a new chairman followed by an introspective story involving Jarvis who is in hospital recovering from an attack by the Masters of Evil.It kicks into gear when Hercules, who was also injured in the same battle, is kidnapped and taken to Olympus and the team journey to Olympus in an effort to rescue him from an almost insane through grief Zeus.There's also a 4 issue mini series that sees the Avengers, X-Men and some Russian heroes fighting over the right to bring Magneto to trial. Two Giant-Size crossovers as the West Coast and East Coast Avengers face the Grandmaster and the Collector along with many dead heroes and villains including ex-Avengers. It ends with a great tale involving Doctor Doom.The Epic Collection series is a superb reasonably-priced way to catch up on some great stories that I had missed and, being in colour, trumps the Essential series.

It's Roger Stern, of course it's pure class! Even with that ne'er do well Doctor Druid!

The second Avengers Epic Collection release (after the previous 'The Final Threat') brings us Volume 17 of the eventual complete run. The book covers the year 1987; buyers of previous Epic Collections, which all spanned at least a couple of years, may wonder why the timeframe is truncated for this one. Well, relax - this volume is as chunky as the others. But one of the cool things about the ECs is that they do not only collect the 'main' ongoing series from years past; they also fold in related material for completeness' sake, and that's what has happened here. As well as a run of the main Avengers title, we also have a miniseries, a two-annual crossover and a graphic novel thrown in.First things first: the material from the Avengers book concerns the aftermath of the famous siege of Avengers Mansion by the Masters of Evil. We get some reflective issues, focusing on individual Avengers (including a poignant issue featuring faithful butler Jarvis), a reshuffling of the team membership AND a new chairperson, before the Avengers are thrust into a deadly struggle against the gods of Olympus. Roger Stern is finishing his stint as writer, and he proves as adept with the character-rich moments as he does with the bombastic action scenes. He really seems to 'get' the voice of each Avenger (and it must be noted the team makeup is extremely interesting at this point, with mainstays like Captain America and Thor rubbing shoulders with lesser lights such as the Black Knight and Doctor Druid). Art is provided by Tom Palmer over John Buscema breakdowns, and as expected with such a pedigree, is excellent, rich in action and detail.After that, we are treated to the X-Men vs the Avengers miniseries, again scribed by Stern, but this time with art by a then-upcoming Marc Silvestri. The self-contained story sees reformed supervillain Magneto hunted for his past crimes, leading to a three-way tussle between the Avengers (who want him to stand trial), the X-Men (who want him to stay free despite their own better judgment) and the Soviet Supersoldiers (who just want him dead). Interestingly, despite containing plenty of action as the three factions clash, the story moves into more reflective territory as it reaches a thrilling courtroom climax. A great mix of philosophical wrangling and fisticuffs.More straightforward is the double annual crossover that sees the Avengers battle their West Coast brethren in the realm of the dead, due to the machinations of the Collector and the Grandmaster. It's essentially a succession of fights, even if the universe is at stake, but is at least undemanding fun.The volume is rounded off with 'Emperor Doom', the longer-format graphic novel, and again we see slightly more thoughtful fare as Doctor Doom finally achieves his goal of conquering the planet, with only one lone Avenger left to foil his schemes. Writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Hall craft a tale of despair, defiance and the drawbacks of gaining your heart's desire.So a jampacked instalment in this series, then. It's really nice to see so much material, much of which has been out of print for a long time, given such quality treatment. The Epic Collection series is going from strength to strength, and we can only hope the quality continues.