Best and Worst Avengers Run

[Celtic1967]

1) Avengers
Best: Roy Thomas, with Busiek a close second
Worst: Chuck Austen in terms of worst quality, Bendis due to long-term damage to the book. Aaron a close third.

2) Iron Man
Haven't read any run aside from the original Stan Lee run and the Extremis arc by Warren Ellis.

3) Thor
Best: Walt Simonson
Worst: Jason Aaron

4) Captain America
Best: Mark Gruenwald
Worst: Haven't read a Cap run that I didn't like. Spencer's and Coates' looked like crap, but I never read them.

5) Black Widow
Have not read any of her runs


6) Hulk
Best: Al Ewing (I have not read PAD's run, aside from a couple of issues here and there)

[davew128]

So, it's the worst if you exclude half of it, including the most important parts? OK then.

No kidding, right?

[H-E-D]

So, it's the worst if you exclude half of it, including the most important parts? OK then.

Well, i was being snarky... but the fact that New Avengers was (very) good doesn't change the fact that adjectiveless Avengers was bad. Which is something even Hickman himself admits.

[ARkadelphia]

1) Avengers
Best: Busiek
Worst: Bendis

2) Iron Man
Best: Michilinie
Worst: Kavanagh

3) Thor
Best: Thomas
Worst: Liefeld

4) Captain America
Best: Gruenwald
Worst: Spencer

5) Black Widow
Best: Harras
Worst: Thompson

6) Hulk
Best: Mantlo
Worst: Englehart

7) Hawkeye
Best: Englehart
Worst: Bendis

8) Spider-Man
Best: DeMatteis
Worst: Kavanagh

9) Black Panther
Best: Shooter
Worst: McDuffie

10) Carol Danvers
Best: Reed
Worst: Bendis

[Brian B]

Avengers

• Best: Conway/Shooter/Pérez

I think Shooter’s Avengers bibliography is rather mixed. There’s some great, fun stuff he did, especially early in his run. He also benefited from great, fairly early work in Perez’s career. However, he also gave us the rape of Ms. Marvel and Hank Pym, wife beater.

Avengers

• Best: Steve Englehart

Englehart’s run is quite frankly weird, and nearly as problematic in its own ways as Avengers #200 with Carol Danver’s rape. What is it about Immortus stories that brings out creepy writing?

Captain America

• Best: Jim Steranko

Three issues. That’s all Steranko did for Captain America. But that three-issue run is still the standard by which all other Cap stories and art are judged by me. I like it better than Brubaker, and I think his run was fantastic, too. But to me, it’s just not Steranko.

[Iron Maiden]

So, it's the worst if you exclude half of it, including the most important parts? OK then.

Wasn't Hickman sort of arm-twisted by Marvel to take over the Avengers when crazy Ike Perlmutter insisted that the Fantastic Four be cancelled because of negotiations for getting back Fantastic Four film rights weren't going well?

Hickman's New Avengers was pretty obviously allowing him to finish up the plots he had going on in Fantastic Four that would ultimated lead to Secret Wars.

[Rincewind]

Avengers

Best: Roger Stern
Worst: Chuck Austen

Iron Man

Best: David Michelinie/Bob Layton
Worst: Terry Kavanaugh

Thor

Best: Walt Simonson
Worst: Starlin/Marz

Captain America

Best: Mark Waid
Worst: Mike Carlin

Black Widow

Best: Macchio/Perez
Worst: Joss Whedon]

Hulk

Best: PAD
Worst: Byrne (2nd run)

Hawkeye

Best: Fraction
Worst: Steve Gerber (his Avengers Spotlight story was truly bad)

Spider-Man

Best: Dan Slott (yeah, I went there)
Worst: Howard Mackie

Black Panther

Best: Priest
Worst: Um, Peter Gillis? I know I read his BP mini from the 1980s, but I have no memory of the story

Captain Marvel

Best: Busiek
Worst: Claremont (didn't like her losing her MM powers then turning into Binary)

[Brian B]

Wasn't Hickman sort of arm-twisted by Marvel to take over the Avengers when crazy Ike Perlmutter insisted that the Fantastic Four be cancelled because of negotiations for getting back Fantastic Four film rights weren't going well?

Hickman's New Avengers was pretty obviously allowing him to finish up the plots he had going on in Fantastic Four that would ultimated lead to Secret Wars.

I heard a similar rumor, but I have not heard it confirmed.

[Omega Alpha]

Wasn't Hickman sort of arm-twisted by Marvel to take over the Avengers when crazy Ike Perlmutter insisted that the Fantastic Four be cancelled because of negotiations for getting back Fantastic Four film rights weren't going well?

Hickman's New Avengers was pretty obviously allowing him to finish up the plots he had going on in Fantastic Four that would ultimated lead to Secret Wars.

Not really, F4 was only cancelled years after he left. If anything, it's clear that some of the last issues he wrote on F4 were setting up Avengers (the one with T'challa, the stuff with AIM, etc).

[your_name_here]

Say what you will - but Bendis put Avengers in the top spot and the centre of the MU.
If he’d ended his run at Siege, I’d have his run near the top.

[Dermie]

Some of the solo series I don't always collect, but will pick up certain runs that interest me -- so for some of them I will have a best/favourite writer listed but not a worst/least favourite.

Avengers
Favourite: Roger Stern (with Kurt Busiek running a close second)
Least Favourite: the 2nd half of Hickman's run, building up to SECRET WARS.

Captain America
Favourite: Brubaker (but I will always have a soft spot for the Gruenwald run)

Iron Man
Favourite: David Michelinie

Hawkeye
Favourite: Jim McCann. Fabian Nicieza's short lived HAWKEYE series was great but just didn't quite manage to take off.
Least Favourite: Jeff Lemire, hands down.

She-Hulk
Favourite: Dan Slott
Least Favourite: Mariko Tamaki -- due to the status quo Jen was in for the start of her run.

Carol Danvers
Favourite: Kelly Thompson, with Claremont's original MS MARVEL series and Kelly Sue DeConnick's CAPTAIN MARVEL both close behind.
Least Favourite: Margaret Stohl, although there were things in her run I did like.

Black Panther
Favourite: Christopher Priest
Least Favourite: Reginald Hudlin

[Zero Hunter]

Say what you will - but Bendis put Avengers in the top spot and the centre of the MU.
If he’d ended his run at Siege, I’d have his run near the top.

Bendis was given free range to have any character he wanted. Any half decent writer would have been just as successful if given every big character in the company. Just adding Spider-Man and Wolverine probably doubled sales.

[Steroid]

Bendis was given free range to have any character he wanted. Any half decent writer would have been just as successful if given every big character in the company. Just adding Spider-Man and Wolverine probably doubled sales.

Quoted for the obvious truth.

[Omega Alpha]

Bendis was given free range to have any character he wanted. Any half decent writer would have been just as successful if given every big character in the company. Just adding Spider-Man and Wolverine probably doubled sales.

Bendis was the one that suggested they should add Spider-man and Wolverine in the first place. Also, while adding them would guarantee the book would get readers' interest, he managed to keep it the most popular Marvel book for many, many years, something no one else had done before. And the books that didn't have Spidey and Logan, like Mighty and Dark Avengers, also sold very.well- the latter actually outsold NA, IIRC.

[your_name_here]

Bendis was the one that suggested they should add Spider-man and Wolverine in the first place. Also, while adding them would guarantee the book would get readers' interest, he managed to keep it the most popular Marvel book for many, many years, something no one else had done before. And the books that didn't have Spidey and Logan, like Mighty and Dark Avengers, also sold very.well- the latter actually outsold NA, IIRC.

Exactly this.