Avengers Epic Collection: The Avengers/Defenders War (Epic Collection: Avengers)

A new Avengers movie in the theatres means a new Avengers Epic Collection on the shelves, which is always nice. This time around we're going back to 1973 for volume 7, an instalment that kicks off with the title story which sees the Avengers and Defenders coming to blows thanks to the machinations of Dormammu and Loki. It's a pretty fun story that pairs off heroes against each other to see who would win, but more than that is interesting as the first of what would become regular (some would say too regular) buy-em-all summer crossover events. This Epic collects both the Avengers and Defenders issues, and it all reads smoothly thanks to both books being written by Steve Englehart at the time.After that breathless eight-issue opening, Earth's Mightiest Heroes face a cavalcade of foes including the Collector, the Zodiac, Nuklo, Thanos (in a crossover with Captain Marvel) and Ultron (in a crossover with the Fantastic Four). A lot of this period focuses heavily on the bizarre love square between new members Swordsman and Mantis and team mainstays Scarlet Witch and Vision. It adds a pleasing undercurrent of melodrama to all the big action stuff. There's also big events like the wedding of Quicksilver and Crystal, the (first of many) revelations about Wanda and Pietro's parentage, and the beginning of Wanda's tutelage under Agatha Harkness, all drawn by a sea of seventies Marvel stars including Bob Brown, Sal and John Buscema, Jim Starlin and Rich Buckler.Extras are plentiful this time around, too; 21 pages from Marvel fan magazine F.O.O.M., house ads, the covers of the two previous Avengers/Defenders War trades, and 11 pages of original art. It's a bumper edition for Marvel's premiere team, and one that shouldn't be missed.

Totally biased on this epic edition as these were some of the first comics I ever bought back in the early to mid 70s and the Avengers-Defenders tales have to be one of best team-ups / battles ever. Many of the later stories didn't make it (as far as I recall) to the UK other than in specialist comic shops (such as Dark They were and Golden Eyed) so they are not so familiar. A wonderful selection of tales including the Collector as well as the end of the Thanos / Cosmic Cube tales along with Ultron / Nukla / Zodiac etc. Not too many bonus pages but the pages from FOOM are an excellent addition (would be great to see an epic edition of the FOOM magazine) - I purchased a few of those at the time and it was great to re-read the Vision / Wanda marriage bliss 2 pager. As ever, there is superb art and quality throughout the book. Only moan would be that the book ends of a cliffhanger which leads to some classic tales in the next epic edition (sadly, not as yet published)

One of the first major crossover in the Marvel universe, most of the art done by Bob Brown and the great Sal Buscema