I'll admit to being inspired by Justin Carmona's article on comicsbulletin.com wherein he came up with his Top 10 Avengers covers - some of which I liked, others I beg to differ with. But rather than complain, I decided ot come up with my own Top 10... however, I found myself liking a lot of covers, that I've decided to come up with my favorites in groupings first. Therefore, I'll have several write-ups about these covers - maybe up to 5, to say the least; assuming there would be a coverage of my choices from 100 covers every article until we reach the fairly recent ones.
If you wish to read up on Justin's article, see this link: Top 10 Avengers Covers by Justin
As for me, here are my 'personal' Top Ten from the first 99 issues (at least, the bottom half, namely from numbers 10 to 6):
Number 10 is issue #20
I liked the idea of seeing Captain America being seemingly hurled by the issue's villain, namely the Swordsman, as Cap's fellow Avengers stare in shock and seeming helplessness.
Yet if you look closely, Cap's face is anything but calm - you could almost imagine him planning how to get out of this predicament. A definite attention-getting cover to any passers-by.
Needless to say, one has to wonder how Captain America will get out of this predicament - hence the need ot read the comic's contents.
If I'm not mistaken, the artist to this cover looks like Jack Kirby, and if so - I have to say that Jack sure draws a noble-looking Cap... not surprising, since he (Jack) does draw Cap as well in his (Cap's) solo title.
Number 9 is issue #60
Talk about covers that grab you? This one feels like its literally strangling the reader and not just the Wasp! And a wedding? For the casual reader, this is another curiosity - for the Avengers fan, this is a milestone... after all, aside from Reed Richards and Sue Storm, who else happens to be married?
Come to think of it, where are the Avengers anyway? The floating heads of the Avengers staring down seem to hint at their not being present - or helpless to stop the really large snake from sinking it's fangs (and presumable poison) into Janet, as her husband to be - the mysterious (at that time) Yellow Jacket is rushing to try and save her.
Once again, the reader is literally drawn into the story - and the byline below the page seems to tease the readers that it may very well happen within this comic's pages.
Number 8 is issue #71
In hindsight, one realizes now that this is a momentous event as it sets the first ever cross-over between the Avengers and the chronologically (in Marvel time) formed team of World War II heroes - the Invaders. Of course, when this comic came out, the Invaders were not even an idea thought out,,, in fact, if you look at Cap's shield - it looks rather different... hinting at the fact that this is Cap of WWII fighting with the Black Panther.
It stands to reason that the Human Torch battling the Vision is Jim Hammond - the original version, and not Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four.
Lastly, we have Namor battling Yellow Jacket - and you have to wonder how this guy... Yellow Jacket, got the capability to fight the Submariner.
The story is part of a multi-dimensional, multi-temporally manipulated time battle pitting the Avengers against heroes and villains of differing time lines. Whether this becomes the impetus for Roy Thomas to create the Invaders a decade later remains a mystery... but I won't discount the possibility.
Number 7 is issue #70
I'm a sucker for these team rushing headlong into battle covers - I mean, isn't this what the Avengers is all about? Battling either a villain to large for one of them to handle alone... or battling another team - more so if its a team of villains?
Well this issue does have villains - carefully crafted after the JLA... you have Hyperion (the Superman counterpart) fighting it out with Goliath, Whizzer (the Flash of course) vs. Thor, Doctor Spectrum (the Green Lantern amalgam) battling Iron Man and Nighthawk (the Batman of their team) fighting Captain America.
This story happens to be an earlier part of the previous issue I referred to - and in this case, this seems to be a dimension-hopping battle.
Later, the Squadron Sinister would inspire the creation of the 'Good' team - Squadron Supreme. But for now, they're a new team of villains, specifically chosen to battle one half of the team of Avengers (while the other half of the team is sent to WWII).
Number 6 is issue #53
As I said, I'm a sucker for teams rushing headlong into battle - but this time, its not a team form the past or a team from another dimension. It happens to be a team of mutants more popularly known as the X-men, and whatever the reason, it seems that the Angel is rushing from somewhere to stop the fight.
This happens to be the X-men as graduates from Xavier's training, thus the very colorful costumes as opposed to the blue and yellow uniforms they wore while under Xavier's tutelage. Of course, not all of Xavier's graduates have good taste in costumes - as Angel's color combination is horrible.
Being a fan of the X-men, this would have been a sucker bet regarding whether I'd get this issue or not. I mean, two of Marvel's top three teams battling it out? This cover just screams of action - so whatever the reason, this promises Marvel's best teams (at the time of this issue's release) fighting... nuff said.
So there you have it, the bottom half of my Top 10. I decided to cut the blog entry short to make it more manageable - as against coming up with the article filled with 10 issues - which seeming becomes unwieldy. I'll be posting part two in a while, so no worries.
The Avengers, Invaders, Fantastic Four, Squadron Sinister and Squadron Supreme are all characters of Marvel Comics. Batman, Superman, Green Lanters and the Flash are all characters from DC comics. All covers are courtesy of cover browser: Cover Browser - Avengers
If you wish to read up on Justin's article, see this link: Top 10 Avengers Covers by Justin
As for me, here are my 'personal' Top Ten from the first 99 issues (at least, the bottom half, namely from numbers 10 to 6):
I liked the idea of seeing Captain America being seemingly hurled by the issue's villain, namely the Swordsman, as Cap's fellow Avengers stare in shock and seeming helplessness.
Yet if you look closely, Cap's face is anything but calm - you could almost imagine him planning how to get out of this predicament. A definite attention-getting cover to any passers-by.
Needless to say, one has to wonder how Captain America will get out of this predicament - hence the need ot read the comic's contents.
If I'm not mistaken, the artist to this cover looks like Jack Kirby, and if so - I have to say that Jack sure draws a noble-looking Cap... not surprising, since he (Jack) does draw Cap as well in his (Cap's) solo title.
Talk about covers that grab you? This one feels like its literally strangling the reader and not just the Wasp! And a wedding? For the casual reader, this is another curiosity - for the Avengers fan, this is a milestone... after all, aside from Reed Richards and Sue Storm, who else happens to be married?
Come to think of it, where are the Avengers anyway? The floating heads of the Avengers staring down seem to hint at their not being present - or helpless to stop the really large snake from sinking it's fangs (and presumable poison) into Janet, as her husband to be - the mysterious (at that time) Yellow Jacket is rushing to try and save her.
Once again, the reader is literally drawn into the story - and the byline below the page seems to tease the readers that it may very well happen within this comic's pages.
Number 8 is issue #71
It stands to reason that the Human Torch battling the Vision is Jim Hammond - the original version, and not Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four.
Lastly, we have Namor battling Yellow Jacket - and you have to wonder how this guy... Yellow Jacket, got the capability to fight the Submariner.
The story is part of a multi-dimensional, multi-temporally manipulated time battle pitting the Avengers against heroes and villains of differing time lines. Whether this becomes the impetus for Roy Thomas to create the Invaders a decade later remains a mystery... but I won't discount the possibility.
Number 7 is issue #70
Well this issue does have villains - carefully crafted after the JLA... you have Hyperion (the Superman counterpart) fighting it out with Goliath, Whizzer (the Flash of course) vs. Thor, Doctor Spectrum (the Green Lantern amalgam) battling Iron Man and Nighthawk (the Batman of their team) fighting Captain America.
This story happens to be an earlier part of the previous issue I referred to - and in this case, this seems to be a dimension-hopping battle.
Later, the Squadron Sinister would inspire the creation of the 'Good' team - Squadron Supreme. But for now, they're a new team of villains, specifically chosen to battle one half of the team of Avengers (while the other half of the team is sent to WWII).
Number 6 is issue #53
This happens to be the X-men as graduates from Xavier's training, thus the very colorful costumes as opposed to the blue and yellow uniforms they wore while under Xavier's tutelage. Of course, not all of Xavier's graduates have good taste in costumes - as Angel's color combination is horrible.
Being a fan of the X-men, this would have been a sucker bet regarding whether I'd get this issue or not. I mean, two of Marvel's top three teams battling it out? This cover just screams of action - so whatever the reason, this promises Marvel's best teams (at the time of this issue's release) fighting... nuff said.
So there you have it, the bottom half of my Top 10. I decided to cut the blog entry short to make it more manageable - as against coming up with the article filled with 10 issues - which seeming becomes unwieldy. I'll be posting part two in a while, so no worries.
The Avengers, Invaders, Fantastic Four, Squadron Sinister and Squadron Supreme are all characters of Marvel Comics. Batman, Superman, Green Lanters and the Flash are all characters from DC comics. All covers are courtesy of cover browser: Cover Browser - Avengers
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