Marvel Read-Through: The Second Avengers

I last left the Avengers as a competent and effective team consisting of Iron Man, Thor, Wasp, Giant-Man, and Captain America. I was excited to come back to this group even if it was only for one issue. I have a soft spot for the classic Avengers lineup, but one of my favorite things about the team is how quickly and often the roster changes. In Avengers #16 everyone decides to take a leave of absence except Captain America, and he gains Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch as his new teammates. While I was sad to see the original Avengers go, I enjoyed the ushering in of this new era. Having Hank and Janet return also helped the new era feel connected to the original members. Watching them grow to work together was mostly cool, and the added spotlight on Cap as team leader was great for a Cap fan like me. I was not expecting him to leave the team in issue #47 and I was sad to see him go. Overall, this second major roster was a delight and the new villains and allies like Swordsman and Black Widow made for interesting stories. I didn’t know much about Swordsman other than his name until he played a role in 2020’s Empyre event, and I was happy to read his origin and I look forward to seeing him grow into the character that I familiarized myself with last summer. Of course, having Black Widow go from Russian spy to Avengers ally and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was also a great part of Marvel history to read through. I also never knew that her and Hawkeye were a real couple in the 60s! I also never knew that Clint forgoes his archer persona to become Goliath II for a time, which I find extremely weird and I’m looking forward to seeing him return to being Hawkeye.

Sorry, Clint, no one talks to Cap like that

I’d say my biggest complaint with this era of the Avengers is Hawkeye. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a Hawkeye fan, but he’s been involved in the Marvel universe since the beginning and he is a staple of the Avengers, so I was disappointed with how annoying I found him. He was so cocky and genuinely rude to his fellow Avengers that I found myself disliking him more than almost any major Avenger character I can think of. I loved how the original group became real friends and while I did like seeing the new heroes grow to work together, I would have liked more of a friendship between them and I feel like Hawkeye’s characterization was the main factor in the constant team arguing. As time went on, he did grow on me and started to look more like the Clint Barton I know today, but sadly that only seemed to occur after Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch left the team to rejoin Magneto. Speaking of which, I loved how this thread from X-Men was picked up and felt like a natural part of Avengers. The Maximoffs were given room to become themselves and the iconic characters that they are, and their story with Magneto intertwined nicely with the team’s overall arc. I’m really looking forward to picking back up on their arc when I return to X-Men comics.

Part of me really wants the original Hawkeye and Black Widow costumes in the MCU, and part of me really doesn’t

I have to hand it to Stan Lee and his successor Roy Thomas for making me really like Hank Pym this time around. His character had some of the most interesting stories, as he wrestled with the toll his powers have taken on his body and changed his superhero name to Goliath and to Yellowjacket (the Yellowjacket schizophrenia story was majorly silly and has not aged well though) following the new limitations of his powerset. His relationship with Janet felt so much more real this time since he was finally nice to her most of the time and started to view her as an equal member of the superhero community. As for Wasp herself, she still fell into the 1960s Marvel category of poorly-written female characters, but when Thomas took over writing duties she started to exhibit somewhat better characterization and got a chance to show off her skills and intelligence on a few occasions.

Shouldn’t New Yorkers be used to seeing superheroes by now?

The change in creative team breathed some new life into Avengers as Thomas and artist John Buscema introduced more members to the team, particularly Hercules and Black Panther. As with Swordsman, I don’t know much about Hercules, and I ended up really enjoying his character and his arc. Having T’Challa join the team was also a breath of fresh air just by having some diversity in these old comic books. His character didn’t grow much and isn’t really the same regal Black Panther of modern comics, but I liked having him around. Old school Wakanda is so different too. It looks much more tribal and non-developed than I expected despite their advanced technology.

Hercules was a highlight of the team for me

Another character addition I adored was Vision. I knew next to nothing about this character until 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron movie and I have since become a huge fan of his. I’m super excited for next weeks’ WandaVision TV premiere and my favorite comic I have ever read is Tom King’s Vision from the mid-2010s. I was surprised that the exploration of his identity as a synthetic human began so soon in his history. Questions such as: Is he human? Is he robot? Android? Can he be trusted as loyal to humans? came up much sooner than I expected and I love exploring these aspects of his character, whether it be in the 60s or today. Having him as part of the team is what made the Thomas/Buscema era stand out to me.

The introduction of one my favorite characters made this era of Avengers comics stand out

As for the art, I missed Jack Kirby while Don Heck was around for the end of Lee’s run. Heck’s art did not work for me. It often seem muddled and I had trouble following what was going on in fight scenes. Buscema was a step in the right direction, but still couldn’t live up to the precedent set by King Kirby. Buscema’s creative direction on the stories and characters was great, but I can’t say his art made an impact on me at all. For one issue that I read, #63, Gene Colan took over as artist and I loved it. This 1969 comic had art that came off as very 1970s-esque, and got me excited to watch the Marvel art evolve past Kirby and Ditko in the coming weeks of my journey. One of my favorite things about Colan’s art was the layouts. He did not follow any standard positioning in his panels, which gave me a much more modern feel. I love seeing things like this evolve through history. I finished my reading with some issues drawn by Barry Smith and one by Sal Buscema, John’s younger brother. Smith continued Colan’s 1970s vibe, but I preferred Colan’s actual drawing. Buscema’s art was reminiscent of his brother and did not standout in my mind, but Colan and Smith’s work has me eagerly anticipating the future.

It’s still simple and kind of standard, but Smith’s panels here stood out to me, not to mention the beautiful artwork inside them

Another example of Smith’s art that stood out to me. The pencils seemed a lot more in line with 1970s art I have seen

This was a great era for the Avengers. While they lost most of their classic members, the new characters are almost all major players and icons whose beginnings I enjoyed reading. New writers and artists stopped the book from growing stale and really have me excited to begin the 1970s books. Next time I’ll be finishing up the X-Men’s 60s adventures so don’t miss it!

Issues Read:

Avengers #15–16, #19–20, #28–29, #35, #43–44, #47–50, #52, #54–55, #57–60, #63, #66–68

Favorite issue: 49 was great, I really enjoyed the Magneto arc