I started reading comic books in the mid-1950s. I started with Bat-Man and Superman. After a few years, I was buying The Flash (my favorite), Green Lantern, and Adam Strange. Things changed radically in 1961 when I bough Fantastic Four #1. I still bought DC comics, but I was much more interested in Iron Man (my favorite MARVEL hero), Thor, and The Hulk.
DC had The Justice League group of super-heroes and MARVEL came up with The Avengers. Paul Cornell traces the changes in The Mighty Avengers Vs. The 1970s. Depending on who was running the comic at the time, emphasis shifted among a variety of characters.
As Cornell shows in his year-by-year chronology, The Avengers faced a difficult decade with a multitude of changes with MARVEL and the changing reading tastes of the comic book audience. If you’re a fan of The Avengers, you’ll find out a lot about the inner workings of the comic book industry during this decade. GRADE: A
Table of Contents:
Introduction — 1
1. Roy Thomas (1970—1972) — 6
2. Steve Englehart (1972—1976) — 31
3. A Difficult Year (1976) — 61
4. Jim Shooter (1976—1978) — 66
5. The Greatest Fill—In (1978) — 85
6. David Michelinie, Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant… and Roger Stern (1978—1979) — 91
Acknowledgements — 109
Illustrations — 110
In a bit of serendipity, I just ordered Otto Binder’s 1967 paperback THE AVENGERS BATTLE THE EARTH WRECKER as a Christmas present for my 13-year-old grandson (for Heaven’s sake, DON’T TELL HIM! It’s a surprise). Not quite the Seventies, but what the hell…
Jerry, I loved THE AVENGERS from the 1960s, too! What a great Christmas present!
Pass.
But I thought you’d like to know that Jackie just got a Black Friday week sale and subscribed to Apple+ for $5.99 a month. Now we can watch Slow Horses.
PLURIBUS is also good on Apple. Happy Birthday, Jeff.
Thanks.
We got rid of Peacock and will dump AMC+ and just get Acorn without it.
Jeff, we get AMC+ bundled with our Spectrum cable…but I seldom watch it.
Patti, I watch Apple TV+ and Paramount+ more than Peacock or HBO.
Alice bought Netflix so she could see South Korean quasi-soaps, quite the rage, and has been pleased…I’ve watched a few things on N, but it’s notable how lackluster their series (particularly older-series) selection is compared to HBO’s.
Much more annoying is how Fox has decided to not allow streaming of their network programming except through Fox One, for extra charge even with cable subs…inasmuch as my FBC viewing at the moment is pretty much limited to DOC and THE SIMPSONS, I guess I’ll be content with seeing DOC on HBO on delay, without ads.
With luck, we won’t lose NJ PBS. We do need to purge the Make America Gag Again crowd, even as MAGA finally realizes how little there is to recommend Drumpf.
Jeff, both Patti and I love SLOW HORSES! The series improves over the seasons. SEASON 5–based on LONDON RULES–was the best yet! And, don’t forget DOWN COMETARY ROAD, too!
Happy birthday to both of us, Jeff!
As for superhero teams, I don’t care for them! Too many bodies on stage at once, or most of them have to wait in the wings while the cape du jour does battle with the next evil conqueror! I also dislike boy sidekicks!
Bob, sometimes the Justice League and the Avengers got a bit crowded!
Happy birthday to the Cap’n.
Mine is actually on Monday.
Happy natal to both of you!
When my dad was young he worked at a straw board ( where they pulled paper etc to make new paper. He used to bring golden age comic books to his younger sisters and brothers. This was probably in the 30s. Sadly.noone kept any of them.
Maggie, an early SUPERMAN comic book just sold for $9 million!
So is my granddaughter Sofia’s. Turning 15, so she’ll be impossible to live with for at least four more years.
None of my comics were kept in anything like mint till I was in my 20s and dipping back in with the likes of WIMMEN’S COMIX and other children of the undergrounds. WEIRD WAR COMICS and THE SPECTRE (when I could find it) from DC, and WEREWOLF-BY_NIGHT from Marvel, and DC and Marvel’s reprint titles in horror in the early ’70s such as TOMB OF DARKNESS (Marvel) and the fatter issues of THE WITCHING HOUR (DC) along with the occasional Gold Key TWILIGHT ZONE and Charlton HAUNTED were my meat, among comic books per se, MAD and the occasional NATLAMP, along with POGO and other newspaper strip collections and NEW YORKER and other panel cartoon collections in book form.