(Originally posted on
The very first Avengers comic book I ever lay my grubby little prepubescent mitts on was Avengers #155 (January 1977). Absolute first exposure to Marvel’s superstar team.
Considering the recent blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War, I thought a trip down memory lane would be fun. This was a memorable comic in so many ways–and I still love it.
Let’s start with the cover: Jack “The King” Kirby. Do I really need to say any more? I didn’t appreciate Kirby’s work as much as a kid as I do today, much the pity. Now I realize what a titan the man was. I wish he’d lived to see the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Then we come to the interior artwork. Not only was this my first Avengers comic, it was my first George Perez comic. It was love at first site. George has always been one of my favorite comic artists and it all started here. Check out the second and third pages, where not only does George do flashback panels, but simultaneously illustrates a battle involving the entire Avengers team! He does this without looking cramped or sacrificing clarity. Show me a modern comic artist who can do this.
Pablo Marcos does a solid job of inking, although his inks are usually a little heavy-handed for me, he meshes very well with George’s pencils here. Gerry Conway has writing chores, and I can’t complain. Team books are tough not only for artists, but for writers.
This brings me to an odd thing about this being my first Avengers comic–the main Avengers are hardly in it. Instead the story focuses on Beast, Wonder Man and The Whizzer (yes, make a joke.) They’re on a mission to rescue the other Avengers after they got their asses handed to them by Tyrak the Treacherous in the previous issue. Beast escaped, but returned with help from The Whizzer (stop laughing!) and the recently-revived Wonder Man (who had presumably died in Avengers #9–in 1964.) They ran into the Sub-Mariner and were (naturally) tricked into fighting him. Wonder Man stomps the Sub-Mariner in several cool fight panels.
Side note about Wonder Man. He has always been one of my favorite Avengers who just doesn’t get enough respect. I think the disrespect might come from writers who didn’t know what to do with him. He’s also had some completely godawful costumes. In this issue, he’s still wearing the original costume from 1964, and while it’s not spectacular, it’s not bad. I prefer the Ray Ban look for him. I kind of liked his “civilian” look they gave him later. Really, if a guy is nearly indestructible and his “fists pack as much of a wallop as Thor’s hammer”, does he really need a fancy costume?
I had very little idea who most of these characters were or what their powers and stories were–aside from Iron Man–I just knew they looked awesome. They had space-age looks, fired blasts and walked through walls. Can’t get much better than that.
And there were so many of them! The pages were crawling with characters, many of which were only there in flashbacks or mentioned occasionally. That might have been one of the things that drew me in–so much backstory! The Marvel Universe was a comfortably “lived in” universe in 1977–fourteen years after its birth. It made me want to learn it all.
This comic was my gateway drug into comics addiction.
