What was the best Avengers run?

[your_name_here]

Loved The Ultimates.

Bendis’ run (up to New Avengers: finale) was full of good stuff.

[Wall-Crawler]

Jonathan Hickman's Avengers is the best, followed very closely by Kurt Busiek's.

[Elmo]

Stern/Buscema/Palmer were an unparalleled trio, some of the best Avengers stories ever are from that run. issues 255-287

I made an appreciation thread but it got closed.

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

after that Busiek, and I quite enjoyed Hickman's Avengers, but that to me feels like a years-long event book rather than a strictly Avengers title.

Remender's Uncanny Avengers was great too.

[stingray]

Busiek is my first choice. Stern, Thomas, and Shooter also had some great stuff. Forget Ultimates. Different continuity, and clearly not the same thing. Turned versions of my favorite characters into a bunch of asshats and I hated that run anyway.

[Ying Ko]

Michelinie, Busiek, Stern for me. Not sure in which order i'd rank them.

Also, I haven't read everything, not even close.

[captchuck]

I'd go with the Roy Thomas era as he created the modern team era. I've enjoyed most of the eras since then.

[Alan2099]

I have to go with Busiek. He just hit the ball right out of the park again and again.

Stern ranks a very respectable second place. Truly a classic.

Shooter also had some good moments.

Stan, while always entertaining didn't quite give the book a strong focus.



The Ultimates may just be the worst version of the Avengers ever written, either that or Bendis. It's a tough call.

[your_name_here]

No Surrender/No Road Home

[K7P5V]

I have to go with Busiek. He just hit the ball right out of the park again and again.

Agreed. A very enjoyable run, with Ultron Unlimited being a highlight:

Stern ranks a very respectable second place. Truly a classic.

Agreed. Always been grateful for this run for officially making Namor a member of the Avengers
(something I've been waiting for for a very long time, actually):

Shooter also had some good moments.

Agreed. Black Panther "alone" against Ultron will always be my favorite from Shooter's run:

[K7P5V]

Stan, while always entertaining didn't quite give the book a strong focus.

Agree with you about Stan Lee's Avengers always being entertaining, especially for fans of Cap:

The Ultimates may just be the worst version of the Avengers ever written, either that or Bendis. It's a tough call.

I'll always remember the Ultimates for having insane ideas, such as Ultimate Cap masquerading as Black Panther:

Bendis

I'll say this about the Bendis run, it had a great start full of potential:

[Mike]

Avengers #166!
DlA-jMkXoAUC3j_.jpg

[pageturner]

Stern followed by Bendis

[EMPulse]

Stern - everything was worth reading
Busiek - much needed after Heroes Reborn
Harras - Big3 was not around but still good reads. Also Operation:Galactic Storm was awesome.

[XPac]

Stern - everything was worth reading
Busiek - much needed after Heroes Reborn
Harras - Big3 was not around but still good reads. Also Operation:Galactic Storm was awesome.

Though I wouldn't say Harras run my favorite, I do think it's somewhat underrated and forgotten about. It ended up sort of a mess with all the Crossing stuff, but the stuff that led up to that was very very solid. It focused on different characters that often aren't the focus, and added some soap opera romance lovie triangle stuff which actually worked pretty well. It's a somewhat forgotten gem in Avengers lore.

[Solid Snake]

Hard to decide between Busiek and Stern. And Hickman of course. Millar’s Ultimates was also fantastic if that counts. I loved some parts of Bendis’ run as well, Dark Avengers series for example.