Galactic Storm is truly awful.

[Jely4me]

In its defense, it’s been 30 years since I read it last, and I bought the Epic to collect it all rather than pay insane prices for some of the Quasar and Avengers issues, but Bob Harras and Gerard Jones were two of the most godawful writers Marvel had in their stable back then. Simon Williams is portrayed as quite a douchebag, Rick Jones too, Thunderstrike Thor is like a 12 year old, Cap, Hawkeye are serviceable, Crystal and Sersi were meh, Dane Whitman, who is one of my favorites from the Stern era, developed the, I feel, out of character blood lust, that had nothing to do with the Ebony blade, he had his lightsaber, and I have to say, overall, whatever rift the killing of the Intelligence caused comes across as forced…I’m glad I got the book, but big woof on the overall story. Disappointed…sorry for the rant…

[Baron of Faltine]

In its defense, it’s been 30 years since I read it last, and I bought the Epic to collect it all rather than pay insane prices for some of the Quasar and Avengers issues, but Bob Harras and Gerard Jones were two of the most godawful writers Marvel had in their stable back then. Simon Williams is portrayed as quite a douchebag, Rick Jones too, Thunderstrike Thor is like a 12 year old, Cap, Hawkeye are serviceable, Crystal and Sersi were meh, Dane Whitman, who is one of my favorites from the Stern era, developed the, I feel, out of character blood lust, that had nothing to do with the Ebony blade, he had his lightsaber, and I have to say, overall, whatever rift the killing of the Intelligence caused comes across as forced…I’m glad I got the book, but big woof on the overall story. Disappointed…sorry for the rant…

Oh boy I am with you. Recently I was tempted to buy a trade of this, but man had I forgot how messy it was, and more importantly very unfunny to read. So after giving a look I decided to skip it.

[Gaastra]

Have not read it in years so don't remember much. They did a what if issue on it also. Funny one of the big plots is avengers don't kill and they kill all the time in the movies.

Also what did you think of the arcade game?

[gurkle]

I like Harras's Avengers, but Your Mileage May Vary; the writer I can never really like is Gruenwald, who I feel over-explains everything ("She's dimmed her corona by a factor of 100"). But I wouldn't claim any of these titles were in a golden age at this point.

The crossover is a real triumph of editing because Gruenwald and the staff editors managed to construct this enormous story that actually flows pretty well across all these titles and doesn't have a lot of obvious continuity mistakes (though there are some). Gruenwald even managed to use the Captain America 400 milestone issue for a celebration of Cap's past while still fitting it into the crossover. And the idea of using the test at the top of the splash page to recap where we are in the crossover was really smart and arguably more effective than the modern recap page.

[strathcona]

As far as I'm concerned it's one of Marvel's best crossovers ever. Up there with Age of Apocalypse, Annihilation or Infinity Gauntlet. I've reread the whole event several times.

[Jely4me]

I hear what you’re saying re: Gruenwald, who I felt ran out of gas with that idiotic Cap-Wolf/Cable story. Most of his earlier stuff, Quasar too, was pretty decent IMHO. The AWC portions of this story were undone by the atrocious artwork. I’d honestly forgotten the simplicity of Paul Ryan, both here on the Avengers books and FF. Too bad Waid on Cap was aways off. That was gold. Even the second round of Garney/Kubert. I want some of whatever whomever was smoking when they told Bob Harras he was a writer, his JLA post Johns stunk too, I get that DC was trying to wrap up the run, but that was the best option??? Yikes.. I know everyone starts somewhere, but I’m avoiding Woke Cap/Sam like the plague, hoping for some name recognition in the next volume. The heydays for both Marvel and DC are well behind them, and that’s a shame.

[Dreaded Porcupine]

As far as I'm concerned it's one of Marvel's best crossovers ever. Up there with Age of Apocalypse, Annihilation or Infinity Gauntlet. I've reread the whole event several times.

I agree here. It had its flaws but overall I enjoyed it. Always had a soft spot for the Imperial Guard. Plus I liked how it was numbered in chapters so it flowed well. The best part is when Thunderstrike beat the hell out of Gladiator after he kicked Wonderman’s ass. This is in my top five.

[K7P5V]

For what it's worth, the defeat of Captain Atlas at the hands of Wonder Man will always be my favorite.
I'll always LOVE how Simon used his head, instead of losing it (LOL):

[stingray]

Some of the chapters weren't great, but as a whole I thought it was really good. And Bob Harras was certainly NOT one of Marvel's worst writers. His Gatherers story is one of my all time favorite Avengers stories.

[SJNeal]

Agree to disagree.

Loved it when I was 10, still love it today.

[strathcona]

Some of the chapters weren't great, but as a whole I thought it was really good. And Bob Harras was certainly NOT one of Marvel's worst writers. His Gatherers story is one of my all time favorite Avengers stories.

Agreed with this. Harras's run on Avengers is one of my favourites.

[gurkle]

Agreed with this. Harras's run on Avengers is one of my favourites.

There's a lot to criticize about it and it did after all end with "The Crossing," but Harras and Epting were the first team that did anything interesting with the book since Roger Stern was fired.

The cast was not great (West Coast Avengers had a better cast for most of the run) but I liked that Harras brought back some of the soap opera romance melodrama that had been mostly absent from the book in the Stern era and beyond.

I do find it funny that the infamous bomber jackets are introduced out of nowhere in the middle of the Galactic Storm arc, and they just cover it with a line saying Sersi zapped those jackets up. But why? And why did they keep wearing them?

Maybe there was a miscommunication and Epting introduced them too early, like when George Pérez later introduced the Scarlet Witch's new costume earlier than intended.

[Anthony W]

In its defense, it’s been 30 years since I read it last, and I bought the Epic to collect it all rather than pay insane prices for some of the Quasar and Avengers issues, but Bob Harras and Gerard Jones were two of the most godawful writers Marvel had in their stable back then. Simon Williams is portrayed as quite a douchebag, Rick Jones too, Thunderstrike Thor is like a 12 year old, Cap, Hawkeye are serviceable, Crystal and Sersi were meh, Dane Whitman, who is one of my favorites from the Stern era, developed the, I feel, out of character blood lust, that had nothing to do with the Ebony blade, he had his lightsaber, and I have to say, overall, whatever rift the killing of the Intelligence caused comes across as forced…I’m glad I got the book, but big woof on the overall story. Disappointed…sorry for the rant…

They really were two of the worst but I would still take them over two of the worst writers working at Marvel today.

[Magmaster12]

I love the story as well, but it might just be because it was the first good Avengers story after reading so many horrible issues on Marvel Unlimited.

[IamGroot]

I read Avengers #314 to the end of vol.1 about 5 years ago and I thought Galactic Storm was great fun; Gatherers story line was awesome as well!