Three cows ... shot me down!
It seems that I'm romping in comic history this week. First the X-Men, and now it's a classic Avengers run that was one of the first *epic* storylines.
This story, originally published in Avengers 89-97 (first published in 1971-72), finds the Earth in the middle of an intergalactic war. The Kree and the Skrull hate one another, and if the destruction of a planet neither of them care about will help them destroy each other, it's all good.
And it's up to the Avengers to save us all.
Now, these are the cool Avengers. The ones that work together and save the day and try to be heroes once in a while. Not like today's Avengers, who mostly bicker, fight each other and get beat senseless by petty villains like the Hood.
While these Avengers have their issues (Captain Marvel is a Kree, which means he either has to betray the planet he's come to call home or his native race; Hawkeye's struggling with being a "normal" on a team of super powered heroes; Vision is trying to deal with the conflict between his android nature and his growing love for Scarlet Witch) they don't let it get in the way of the bigger goal. They get the job done. That's very important.
I'd like to see some of today's emo babies in capes take a page from the old school.
The dialogue is a bit dated, of course, and there's too much of a reliance on pseudo-science. But it was the 1970s. I'll let them get away with it. Because not only is this an iconic story, it's danged fun to read, even 35 years later.
Quite possibly the essential Avengers story.
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