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Episode 1436 Talkback: Spotlight on The Avengers in the Chromium Age Part Two
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
And Now: The Nineties! Travel with us back to that misunderstood decade, when came to pass some of the highest and lowest points in the fifty-year history of the Avengers. The menace of the Gatherers! The madness of Sersi! The multitude of cover enhancements! The momentousness of the Avengers' 30th anniversary! The malodorousness of 'The Crossing'! The mediocrity of 'Heroes Reborn'! And the renaissance that was the Busiek/Pérez run and the Avengers Forever maxiseries! Miss it not, frantic ones! (2:20:18)
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I love clichés
Matthew
PS
Could we have a Murd & Chris time bubble duo crossover in the future? Thanks!
I'm glad BOMC is coming back! I wasn't a CGS listener for the majority of them, and listening to old episodes made me envious I couldn't follow along. Avengers Forever is one of the best Marvel series from that time and before I knew about stuff like OHOTMU, it read like a Monster Manual for the Marvel Universe (or at least the Avengers corner). I talked about it briefly on my own podcast a few months ago, but my meager plot synopsis did not do it justice. Can't wait to hear you Marvel Maniacs tear into it!
As for Bova and the Wundagore characters, I think Dan Slott last used them during his run on Mighty Avengers. The High Evolutionary and related characters are some of my favorite sci-fi concepts from Marvel, and the Evolutionary himself showed up in Hickman's Avengers not too long ago.
I've heard rumblings on these boards about an FF spotlight series next year and that's a team I know even less about that the Avengers, so I'm pumped for that. Keep up the great work guys and thanks for the long episodes. They help pass the time at work.
Chromium Age Avengers, In my recollection, went downhill fast and hard after Stern left and Buscema ended his run and didn't really pull up until Busiek came on-board. I have referred to this era as the "bomber jacket Avengers" era complete with light-saber wielding Black Knight. I agree with @JamieD that we should just flush it away quickly. You can tell that Jamie has a soft spot for the Avengers.
Some higher-than-mediocre points during this era were Galactic Storm, Blood Ties, and The Gatherers storylines, but after issue 379, when they changed the logo (why?!), the writing was on the wall that this first volume needed to be put out of our misery.
Now, since I seem to have a penchant for posting pics, I couldn't resist these, although I couldn't tell if this first one was featuring Cottonelle or Charmin :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUdE6mWIjXw
ditto!CHROMIUM AGE AVENGERS QUALITY CHECK
Remixed self-edit with art by Bobby Rubio
This pic was posted and quickly deleted from Charmin's Twitter feed earlier this week.
And yes, this really existed in the 70's
Thanks again to Chris Eberle (is he on the forums?) and @Adam_Murdough with @ShaneKelly batting clean-up. This is a good lineup gentlemen. Looking forward to many more episodes! Thank-you again.
Concerning the Ultraverse... if I'm not mistaken (and I could be), the characters were at least co-owned by their creators, and that is what has kept Marvel from doing much of anything with them since absorbing Malibu, that they couldn't come to an arrangement with the creators. One of the things, anyway; I'm sure a general lack of interest on Marvel's part factors in as well.
It was Justice who wanted to be an Avenger, and not Firestar -- she only came along for his sake, though she did finally come to embrace it later on.
It's no surprise that the writing during the Heroes Reborn phase was either poor or non-existent, since that was the Image approach. Todd McFarlane himself (who was not involved in the HR books) was often quoted disdaining the writing aspect of comics, saying that the only thing the readers wanted was the pictures, and who cared anyway what went on the page so long as the readers bought the books? That philosophy permeated most of the Image titles of the time, one reason why I never bought more than a small handful of them (and usually by the non-founders), and that was pretty much how Liefeld (especially) and Lee approached the Marvel titles they were assigned: a story was nothing more than a framework for them to hang the pictures they wanted to draw, whatever way they wanted to draw them.
Last Exodus was seen is right after Regenesis in X-Men Legacy. He's currently being held captive at the Jean Grey School...I think. He first appeared during the Fatal Attractions crossover.
....I can't remember what else I pointed out but I think it had something to do with creation. Anyway most of that talk in the second part. Check out the podcast if you're interested in hearing about Avengers Forever in detail. We don't get Murdonian or Everly with our coverage but it's still worth checking out.
Honestly, having enjoyed AVENGERS FOREVER so much seeing the current series trend towards that future, even to the point of Captain America being essentially in charge of the Galactic forces against the Engineers and Thanos, creeps me out all the more.
I'm hoping this is something that gets addressed and is intentional on Hickman's part.
As for the Ultraverse, I read the occasional issue of Prime bu the real draw for me was Ultraforce. Perez was what made me buy that series and I enjoyed it.
Gentlemen all, great episode as always. I really enjoy any marathon episodes you do, they make the work day pass all that much more pleasantly.
And Chris...? Great to have you on-board on a pretty much regular basis as an official Geek.
Who were the Infinites? At first I thought the image was the Star Brand but it seems different.
And Avengers Forever is, of course, a masterwork.
I laughed when @Adam_Murdough brought up that series of Marvel annuals that introduced all of the new characters and their respective polybagged trading cards. The only annual I bought that year was Captain America Annual #12, which introduced...
As for the Ultraverse, the only book from that line I've read any significant amount of was James Robinson's Firearm, which was about an ex-pat Brit P.I. (and former Special Forces op) whose work routinely brought him into contact with Ultras (most of whom he hated), and that book was all kinds of excellent. I've meant to explore a few more corners of that particular universe (particularly Prime) but just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Both books managed to recapture the joy of the Avengers from my childhood, but with an updated, more "modern" flavor.
Gotta' go re-read Avengers Forever in anticipation of the upcoming episode...(hopefully upcoming...)
Thanks for another great episode, guys!
I agree with Adam. Harris is a problem at DC. I just didn't know it had gotten so bad that he was making his own 20-years stale ideas from Marvel (which apparently were not that great to start with) the event of the year.