One of the ever-green Avengers trade/HC collections that are still selling well to this day like DPS.
Should probably also be written before 1995 to count.
One of the ever-green Avengers trade/HC collections that are still selling well to this day like DPS.
Should probably also be written before 1995 to count.
It's crazy how 'iconic' story lines don't exist after 2000 on any comics.
Kree Skrull War I think might be considered the biggest classic Avengers story.
But really, I think a lot of the bigger signature Avenger stories are all the modern era stuff. Not saying the newer stuff is necessarily better or whatever... but I think this is actually the big era for the Avengers. Civil War is probably the biggest story the Avengers have ever had, and quite possibly might be the biggest story they ever will have.
Kang Dynasty or Avengers Forever though my personal favorite is Under Siege.
Phoenix saga has more of a similar thing. Someone gets really juiced up cosmic powers and plays with the world. I'm not sure what the corollary to the Collector's role is, but that was part of what made it so great, more or less two different plots that converge. "And then there were three"
Very good points to consider. Kree-Skrull took a few factoids and spun them; the deserted, hypnotized skrull cows from FF # 2, as you more or less imply. Things like that.
Michael Korvac is a human from the same time period as the original Guardians of the Galaxy. He is experimented on by the Badoon and has his lower half of his body replaced by machines. He fights the Guardians and Thor and escapes only to find the world ship of Galactus. He plugs himself into the world ship and gains god level powers and heads back to Earth with the intent on recreating a perfect world in his image. The Guardians follow him back through time to try and stop him. The Collector sensing the threat of Korvac tries to collect all the Avengers to preserve them.
The story takes place in Thor Annual 6 and Avengers 167-177.
Same thing that's happened to movies. Nobody wants to bet on anything less than a sure thing in entertainment these days.
Disassembled and Ultron Unlimited are probably the closest things to an Avengers story (that's not dependent on some larger event) that can't be compared to something from the first 10-15 years of their run. All of the Kang stories, for example, tend to share DNA with the Kang stories from issue 143 and forward.
For me, the most epic Avengers story, and the one most prototypical of what follows is probably the extended Masters of Evil arc that ran from No. 6-16. I love that it's based on the idea that no good deed goes unpunished (especially when a hero leaves a villain alive to desire revenge), and who don't like A Good Ole Superbrawl? Under Siege probably did it best, but The Old Silver Age Bullpen got there first.