I feel somewhat bad for writing this, considering how much i love silver age Marvel, but this book is not very good. Just overall in terms of story, and the art, it comes up laking. I was trying to figure out what this book seems to be missing and i think i know: there are no subplots. The gold standard for Marvel around this time would be Spider-Man, or the Fantastic Four, and the thing that makes them good is all the subplots going on. While an issue of either of those would advance the lifes of the characters of the book, an issue of Avengers focuces on the villian of the month, and how to defeat them. It’s the kind of superhero story i just don’t like.
There are some good things though, and i should mention those as well. The story of how the team actually comes together is good, and very imaginitive. It would be easy for the team to simply already be a team at the start of the issue, like X-Men, but Stan and Jack take the time to come up with a reason for the hero’s to join together. That was really cool.
The Jack Kirby issues are, of course, stunning. I love Jack’s version of all these characters, so seeing them all on one page is a treat. Issue four where Cap joins the team, and then they fight Namor, was really good artwise. There is also a few issues where Jack was inked by Chic Stone, and i think those two make a great pair. I can’t say i really care for Don Heck that much. I did notice that his style seems to change based on the inker. I think he is one of the artist, like Gene Colon, who needs an inker that understands how he draws to really make the art the best it can be. The issues inked by Wally Wood is a perfect example of this.
Another thing of note is that I’m not very familar with many of the Avengers villians. This collection here is basically all the Avenger comics i’ve ever read. It was intresting to read about villians that i don’t know everything about before i even read an issue. I am looking foward to more of that.
My final thoughts on the book is that it just isn’t as good as it should be. This is a book with almost all the A-listers in Marvel, at the time, so it should be freaking awesome, but somehow it’s boring and hard to get through. I’ve already decieded that i want to continue reading the Essential Avengers line, but it is mostly because i want to read more of the early Marvel storys, not because this book left me wanting more.