Avengers: Stern/Buscema/Palmer Run (#255-#287) Appreciation Thread

[Elmo]

I'm not much of a Marvel fan, but I wanted to come over to the Marvel boards to show some love to one of my favorite Avengers runs of all time.





This run is in my opinion the definitive run of the title. It stands out because every single issue was drawn by Buscema and Palmer. 33 issues, only one fill-in. To be fair they continued on the book for a lot longer but I marked Roger Stern's departure as the end of this specific run. Imagine an artist team today being able to put out that many issues, and in an era when comics were two pages longer than today’s.

They weren't exactly noteworthy for their artwork but man oh man could they tell a story. Their portrayals of Wasp, Captain Marvel, Black Knight, and a variety of others are classic.

Noteworthy moments from this run:

-Captain Marvel becomes trapped on Thanos’s vessel, the Sanctuary II, by Nebula and her crew (this was Nebula’s first appearance).
-The team fights Terminus in the Savage Land, and the whole thing gets destroyed and covered by ice.
-Firelord joins the team in travelling to rescue Captain Marvel, and gets all angry when he has to help Skrulls.
-The Beyonder shows up a few times, as Stern had to make the ridiculousness of Secret Wars II work in his storyline.
-The Avengers lease Hydrobase from Stingray after losing their security clearance, and receiving notification that they can’t fly their Quinjets out of their mansion anymore. Eventually, they move the whole mansion to Hydro Base (I don’t remember when it was moved back to Manhattan).
-Namor joins the team, which makes a lot of the general public very angry, because of his status at that time as a villain.
-The Avengers discover the weird pod-thing in Jamaica Bay which eventually turns out to be holding Jean Grey, in a tie-in to the new title X-Factor.
-Baron Zemo gathers his Masters of Evil in the slow set up to an epic story.
-After vanquishing the Beyonder, the Avengers and Fantastic Four need Molecule Man to fix the entire Earth so it’s not destroyed.
-Kang embroils the Avengers in a complicated plot to eradicate his other selves.
-Alpha Flight and the Avengers help Namor fight off Attuma, who has kidnapped his wife and taken over Atlantis.
-The Masters of Evil infiltrate Avengers Mansion, beating the hell out of Jarvis and Hercules in the process. Eventually they are taken care of, but it’s a pretty dark tale for that time.
-Dr. Druid joins the team, Thor wears some truly hideous armour, and Captain Marvel becomes the leader after the dust of the Masters of Evil story settles.
-We get to see some of Jarvis’s history with the team as he contemplates leaving, after recovering from his injuries. This is the fill-in issue, and it’s really weird to see Kyle Baker inking an artist as straight as Bob McLeod. You can see hints of where he has ended up as an artist.
-Zeus gets angry with the Avengers for allowing Hercules to be hurt (he’s in a coma), and brings them to Olympus (by way of Hades) for revenge.
-The Super-Adaptoid, in the guise of the Fixer, starts gathering robots and artificial beings to help him with a plot.

The team’s line-up is interesting during this time, consisting of:

-Captain Marvel
-Black Knight
-Captain America
-Hercules
-The Wasp
-Starfox
-Namor the Sub-Mariner
-Thor
-She-Hulk
-Dr. Druid


What are everyone's thoughts on this run?

[Nomads1]

My favorite Avengers run ever (well, Stern's whole run, actually, but no doubt Buscema and Palmer on art duty was a qauntum leap foward). Assault on Olympus is probably my all-time favorite Avengers story arc. Without a doubt worthy of pleanty appreciation.

Peace

[Anthony Shaw]

I'm not much of a Marvel fan, but I wanted to come over to the Marvel boards to show some love to one of my favorite Avengers runs of all time.





This run is in my opinion the definitive run of the title. It stands out because every single issue was drawn by Buscema and Palmer. 33 issues, only one fill-in. To be fair they continued on the book for a lot longer but I marked Roger Stern's departure as the end of this specific run. Imagine an artist team today being able to put out that many issues, and in an era when comics were two pages longer than today’s.

They weren't exactly noteworthy for their artwork but man oh man could they tell a story. Their portrayals of Wasp, Captain Marvel, Black Knight, and a variety of others are classic.

Noteworthy moments from this run:

-Captain Marvel becomes trapped on Thanos’s vessel, the Sanctuary II, by Nebula and her crew (this was Nebula’s first appearance).
-The team fights Terminus in the Savage Land, and the whole thing gets destroyed and covered by ice.
-Firelord joins the team in travelling to rescue Captain Marvel, and gets all angry when he has to help Skrulls.
-The Beyonder shows up a few times, as Stern had to make the ridiculousness of Secret Wars II work in his storyline.
-The Avengers lease Hydrobase from Stingray after losing their security clearance, and receiving notification that they can’t fly their Quinjets out of their mansion anymore. Eventually, they move the whole mansion to Hydro Base (I don’t remember when it was moved back to Manhattan).
-Namor joins the team, which makes a lot of the general public very angry, because of his status at that time as a villain.
-The Avengers discover the weird pod-thing in Jamaica Bay which eventually turns out to be holding Jean Grey, in a tie-in to the new title X-Factor.
-Baron Zemo gathers his Masters of Evil in the slow set up to an epic story.
-After vanquishing the Beyonder, the Avengers and Fantastic Four need Molecule Man to fix the entire Earth so it’s not destroyed.
-Kang embroils the Avengers in a complicated plot to eradicate his other selves.
-Alpha Flight and the Avengers help Namor fight off Attuma, who has kidnapped his wife and taken over Atlantis.
-The Masters of Evil infiltrate Avengers Mansion, beating the hell out of Jarvis and Hercules in the process. Eventually they are taken care of, but it’s a pretty dark tale for that time.
-Dr. Druid joins the team, Thor wears some truly hideous armour, and Captain Marvel becomes the leader after the dust of the Masters of Evil story settles.
-We get to see some of Jarvis’s history with the team as he contemplates leaving, after recovering from his injuries. This is the fill-in issue, and it’s really weird to see Kyle Baker inking an artist as straight as Bob McLeod. You can see hints of where he has ended up as an artist.
-Zeus gets angry with the Avengers for allowing Hercules to be hurt (he’s in a coma), and brings them to Olympus (by way of Hades) for revenge.
-The Super-Adaptoid, in the guise of the Fixer, starts gathering robots and artificial beings to help him with a plot.

The team’s line-up is interesting during this time, consisting of:

-Captain Marvel
-Black Knight
-Captain America
-Hercules
-The Wasp
-Starfox
-Namor the Sub-Mariner
-Thor
-She-Hulk
-Dr. Druid


What are everyone's thoughts on this run?

I loved that run. I read a few of my uncle's old comics. It was during the end of this run that I was old enough to buy my own comics.

A few years back, I got the run in a series of nice trade paperbacks.

[Anthony Shaw]

My favorite Avengers run ever (well, Stern's whole run, actually, but no doubt Buscema and Palmer on art duty was a qauntum leap foward). Assault on Olympus is probably my all-time favorite Avengers story arc. Without a doubt worthy of pleanty appreciation.

Peace

Assault on Olympus was the first story I brought with my allowance money. What an awesome story!

I hope that storyline gets adapted as a feature film during my lifetime.

[Andru]

One of my favorite Avengers runs! Really needs to be collected in omnibus form ASAP!

[Winterboy]

Under Siege is one of my favorite Avengers tales, ever.

[Orf with his head]

This is my Avengers and it’s never been bettered in my opinion. I started with 273 by accident as it was in a bundle of comics I was given by a friend when I bought a huge bundle of 2000AD’s off him.

In the bundle we’re issues of Alpha Flights, Power Pack, Thor, Uncanny X-Men and Avengers. Reading all these got me hooked on Marvel comics and I’m still reading them today.

After reading this issue, I scoured the newsagents and bookstores for more and managed to pick up issues from 250 onwards.

I fell in love with Stern’s writing and Buscema’s art and followed both afterwards to whatever there were working on.

I’ve got the trades/Epics but really want a Stern/Buscema omnibus

[Elmo]

This is my Avengers and it’s never been bettered in my opinion. I started with 273 by accident as it was in a bundle of comics I was given by a friend when I bought a huge bundle of 2000AD’s off him.

In the bundle we’re issues of Alpha Flights, Power Pack, Thor, Uncanny X-Men and Avengers. Reading all these got me hooked on Marvel comics and I’m still reading them today.

After reading this issue, I scoured the newsagents and bookstores for more and managed to pick up issues from 250 onwards.

I fell in love with Stern’s writing and Buscema’s art and followed both afterwards to whatever there were working on.

I’ve got the trades/Epics but really want a Stern/Buscema omnibus

I would LOVE an omnibus. Does Marvel typically reprint old classic runs in omnibus forms like DC? I've seen a couple collections for different storylines (Assault on Olympus has an HC reprint for example) but not usually for an entire run.

[ed2962]

These were classics

[Captain Astounding]

My favorite Avengers run ever (well, Stern's whole run, actually, but no doubt Buscema and Palmer on art duty was a qauntum leap foward). Assault on Olympus is probably my all-time favorite Avengers story arc. Without a doubt worthy of pleanty appreciation.

Precisely what I came in here to say, word for word. I still have Dr Druid in my Avengers dream team.

[pugbuddy]

My favorite Avengers run ever (well, Stern's whole run, actually, but no doubt Buscema and Palmer on art duty was a qauntum leap foward). Assault on Olympus is probably my all-time favorite Avengers story arc. Without a doubt worthy of pleanty appreciation.

Peace

Yep. This run was as good as it gets IMHO. Stern's stories were excellent and the team of JB and TP is one of the best Marvel has ever put together. "Epic" is too small a word.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

You state to be not much of a Marvel fan Elmo but when you come over to the Marvel boards to show some love to one of your favorite Avengers runs of all time, you to me knock it out of the park!

[L.R Johansson]

I haven't read much of it, admittedly (mostly the goofy SWII -stuff, actually!) so my opinion on it is... that it's ok. It's all right - not the worst, but not really any of my fav's either.

My favorite Avengers run ever (well, Stern's whole run, actually, but no doubt Buscema and Palmer on art duty was a qauntum leap foward). Assault on Olympus is probably my all-time favorite Avengers story arc. Without a doubt worthy of pleanty appreciation.

Peace

Oh? I thought your favourite was that run after this one, the one with Rage, and Hank Pym permanently stuck(?) as Giant Man and drawn by Steve Epting? (of all people...! I never quite liked his art when he was early and green though.. IMHO, his later work improved greatly - you could still see multiple weaknesses in his work at that time - it was clear that, even though he was promising, he was still a bit unpolished)

[gurkle]

In some ways I wasn't wild about the cast - mostly because Vision & Scarlet Witch were taken away from the book just as Buscema rejoined, plus I'm not a big Black Knight or Hercules fan (though lots of people are). But it didn't matter because the Stern run got much better with the new art team than it was under Al Milgrom.

Milgrom was a workhorse, but he was not an exciting artist on Avengers or West Coast Avengers and his art looked old-fashioned without being cool. Buscema was also old-fashioned by the '80s, but the best kind of old-fashioned - timeless.

And I think Stern's writing improved (with Marvel method writing I guess it's especially important to have pencils that can inspire good scriptwriting). It felt like the stories got much bigger while still keeping some of the personal stuff, like showing how the pressures of running the Avengers affected the Wasp. And Monica Rambeau finally emerged as the interesting character that Stern always wanted her to be.

[Rincewind]

I would LOVE an omnibus. Does Marvel typically reprint old classic runs in omnibus forms like DC? I've seen a couple collections for different storylines (Assault on Olympus has an HC reprint for example) but not usually for an entire run.

They have in the past. Daredevil, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Thor and Spider-Man have creator focused omnibi released.

Roger Stern was a good storyteller on Avengers, but when John Buscema joined the title was really in a groove. No offense to fans of Bob Hall and Al Milgrom, but they are not on the same level as Buscema.