What is the Avengers equivalent of "The Dark Phoenix Saga"?

[TheBatman]

I'm getting into more Avengers comics, and was just wondering which story is generally considered their magnum opus.

[CRaymond]

What do you mean?

What’s the one story/era/event that seemingly always returns to traumatize the Avengers?

What’s the most subversive, unconventional, and feminist story in Avengers’ past?

What’s the story where a significant Avenger dies and impacts the most characters?

What story is nearly impossible to adapt due to culture moving forward and comics holding to nostalgia?

[Zero Hunter]

Probably the The Korvac Saga or Under Siege. Both are epic stories. Maybe The Kree/Skrull War also.

[Cap808]

Korvac Saga, I believe.

Although I do think that the Trial of Hank Pym and the first volume of the Ultimates, could be considered.

[CRaymond]

It’s too bad we can’t do another Kree/Skrull War they way we seem to redo Phoenix every 10 years. Skrulls are cool, Cap Marvel’s a hit, Hulkling COULD be a breakout star.

[K7P5V]

Probably the The Korvac Saga or Under Siege. Both are epic stories. Maybe The Kree/Skrull War also.

Agreed. I would also add Englehart's Celestial Madonna Saga, Starlin's Final Threat and Busiek's Ultron Unlimited.

[gurkle]

I would say "The Kree-Skrull War," but in a very different way from "Dark Phoenix." The Kree-Skrull War is the arc where Roy Thomas used the Avengers to bind together all of Marvel comics into what we now call the "Marvel Universe," creating connections between characters across different comics (Captain Marvel, Inhumans, Fantastic Four and other series have important payoffs in this arc) and even different decades, and hinged on continuity references to comics that many readers weren't even old enough to remember. Plus a lot of the story was driven by the Vision's realization that he was in love with the Scarlet Witch, and that romance would become a huge part of the comic for decades.

It's very different from the Phoenix saga because it doesn't have as much emotional impact or character depth, but this is a different kind of comic than X-Men.

The Korvac Saga is a popular story but it doesn't have big implications for the comic the way the Phoenix saga did; it's more of a self-contained story where Jim Shooter tried to explore the idea of what it was like to have omnipotent power, but it was mostly over when Korvac left the book.

[Ultimate Captain America]

Civil War. A crossover event, but the Avengers were the stars of it.

[TheBatman]

What do you mean?

Its just another way of asking what their best or most iconic story is.

[Crawfo]

I really enjoyed Under Siege and the subsequent Assault on Olympus story arcs, they're not exactly cosmic in scale but really fun Avengers stories I also really enjoyed the Kang Dynasty and Ultron Unlimited. Man you are in for a treat, there are a lot of great stories waiting for you to discover them.

[Shadowcat]

Korvac Saga today, tomorrow, and yesterday.

[Sutekh]

Korvac Saga.

But for paralleling the Dark Phoenix Saga shamelessly, perhaps Darker than Scarlet? 'Cause we can't be having the strongest team member being a woman, without her flipping out and needing to be shut down 'for her own good.' (Even Sue Richards got that, in her Malice phase.)

[CRaymond]

I guess I want to know the broad strokes of the Korvac Saga then.

[LordMikel]

Personally I'd go with Infinity Gauntlet which was primarily an Avengers story. Then check out Ultron story, which is done often.

[JudicatorPrime]

If I had to call it, I'd say the Kree/Skrull War.

DPS was, what, 3 years in the telling? The Avengers have some really epic story arcs, but I don't think they have anything that approaches DPS in terms of build up and execution.

The Korvac saga did have quite a bit of mystery, but the ending left much to be desired. It felt like it was an exercise in how to press the "Undo" button, because none of the heroes suffered any lasting consequences of Korvac's cosmic intrigue. Maybe if several members of the team had been permanently killed off, I would rank the Korvac Saga higher. As with Warlock's death to Thanos the first time, stories where a hero makes the ultimate sacrifice always appeal to me more than epic yarns where everyone survives unscathed.