Bang! Bang! Hooper's Silver Age Hammer....

I have completed the complete run of Marvels West Coast Avengers/Avengers West Coast -why was it that the WCA or AWC were shut down by the founding Avengers?  Well, in an awful script/story -and some AWFUL artwork- that seemed to throw established characterisation and established Avengers history aside, it was because the WCA compound had been attacked and compromised too often.

Now, let's get this right: the established East Coast Avengers whose mansion had been infiltrated by the Scarlet Centurion, Immortus, Kang, The Masters of Evil (in the classic Siege storyline), Ultron -so many times I forget- by the Vision (before he became an Avenger), by Black Panther before he became an Avenger, by NSA Henry Gyrich, by Man Ape...look, you see where I'm going with this?

A team that had been attacked, injured, imprisoned in their mansion HQ -whose mansion HQ had been wrecked and damaged so often were telling the West Coast team.....I sat there reading this crappy story and just kept asking out loud "WTF???!!!"

It is interesting when you go through your collection of Marvel Comics that you notice writing and story-telling as well as art sharply decline at 1990/1991.  It's almost as though it's a different company. The good writers were still alive.  The good artists were still alive.  One Sal Buscema or John Buscema book was worth 20 or 30 of the new ones.  No comparison really.

 

 And, sadly, The Avengers volume 1 ended with #402.  Yes, things had gone down hill.  The Wasp had antennae and had become more like a dragonfly!  Tony Stark had become a murderer  in a misguided attempt to change history -seriously, it was almost as though Marvel wanted to kill their own comic books.

 

And so The Avengers died until the new Avengers vol. 2 which resulted in 11(?) issues that were so bad they then....died away.  That cover might look okay but inside....yeugh.

Then Marvel brought in Kurt Busiek and George Perez for volume 3 and things were back to the glory days until, as with the excellent Avengers Forever , Marvel thought "screw this!" and totally killed everything.

Where am I going with this? No idea. But I think my point is that 1990/1991 saw a huge and noticeable decline in Marvel Comics.

So, I have decided to just complete my Silver and Bronze Ages books.

I've completed Machine Man -the run started by Jack Kirby.  I've completed my Omega the Unknown series (10 issues)



And I have completed the 1960s-1970s run of The Sub-Mariner....a fantastic series.

I've only a few of the original Defenders series I need to get and, basically, I'll sort out others I need to complete such as Marvels The Champions featuring Hercules, Ice Man et al.  I need a good few of them!

It would have been nice to see to see issues of the Avengers in black and white from volume 1 #207 on but Marvel, like DC. seems to be scrapping The Essentials line for higher priced, fewer issues in colour in hardback form.  Yep, sell lots at a lower price or fewer at a higher price and "***** you fans!"

And, no, I'm not going to be ripped off with high prices: UK dealers note that I have bought three Avengers back issues from the US which, even with postage, cost less than one of them at an inflated high price. You do not want UK buyers trade **** you.