Good Idea, Bad Idea: Avengers Classic
Sometimes a comic book company will announce a bit of news and I’m just not quite sure what to make of it. When that happens, I’ll weigh the pros and cons of the issue in a new feature called Good Idea, Bad Idea.
Last Friday, Marvel announced the start ofa new series dedicated to the good old days of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: Avengers Classic. It will be a reprint series in the vain of X-Men Classics, where a classic story is reprinted, followed by a back-up tale set in the same period as the main story.
Good Idea: Creating a new series that caters to Avengers fans that aren’t crazy about the All-New, All-Mighty adventures currently being published. I’m not a fan of Brian Michael Bendis’ writing. Unfortunately, I am a big fan of the Avengers. Right now, those two things just don’t mesh. Bendis has a stranglehold on the franchise (of course, it wouldn’t even be a franchise without Bendis’ star power). I can’t have the Avengers without Bendis, but I don’t want the Avengers with Bendis. Marvel was able to remedy that for a while with Young Avengers, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and New Thunderbolts, but YA is done, EMH is nearing the end of it’s second all-too-short run, and T-Bolts is radically different from what it was two years ago. So where can I turn when I want a good old-fashioned Avengers fix? Just my long boxes…and Marvel doesn’t make any money from that.
Bad Idea: Starting at the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, the early issues of Avengers were great. It’s Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, so how can you go wrong, right? But the Avengers back then hadn’t yet developed into what comes to mind when I think of the Avengers. I’m talking the Kree/Skrull War, Under Siege, the Korvac Saga…the real “classic” Avengers storylines. That’s what I want to read when I’m in the mood for classic Avengers. And unfortunately, a lot of stuff from that time period isn’t collected in trade form. But the early years? We’ve got the Essential trades for that. And if you don’t like black & white, you can get full color in the Masterworks series. Both of those collections start from Avengers #1. Do we really need a third series of reprints starting from the first issue when there’s so much great stuff that’s never been reprinted?
Good Idea: Making the series The Avengers: Special Edition. In addition to providing all new back-up stories in every issue, Marvel is completely redoing the coloring for the series. And in a pleasantly surprising move, they’re going to be re-creating the original coloring instead of using modem coloring techniques on the classic images. So they won’t be replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christiansen or adding a musical number in Jabba’s palace, just cleaning up the negatives and fixing the cockpit shots during the Hoth battle. And really, that’s a special edition we can all be happy with.
Bad Idea: Pricing it the same as a regular series. Avengers Classic will have no writer, penciller, inker, letterer or editor to pay for the main story in each issue. So why should I have to spend $2.99 on each issue? Sure, Marvel has to pay the colorist, and sure, there’s a ten (or so) page original back-up in each issue, but normally I spend $2.99 and get 22 pages of completely original content. Here, I’d be paying the same amount for half the work. That’s a horrible value. Especially when you take into account that I can get color reprints in the Masterworks series for about $2 an issue or B&W reprints in the Essential series for less than $1 an issue.
Good Idea: That cover. Here it is again, just because it’s so awesome:
Poster, please.
The Verdict: Bad Idea. I love that Marvel’s finally releasing some non-Bendis Avengers stuff, but I’m disappointed it’s just reprints. Especially considering I can get the same reprints for less money already in trade form. At a monthly rate, it’ll take ten years before they get to the really good issues, and I don’t think there’s any chance this series will stick around for that long. The inevitable trades on Avengers Classics might be worth the cover price, but single issues just won’t be.
Y’know, you would think that with two – count ’em, two – Avengers books, Marvel would be thinking, “Well, let’s give the other one to someone else.” Nope. Bendis all the way. It’s called sharing, ya mook.
-M
Well this will be the 4th Avengers book, if you count Slott’s book which Marvel seem to.
I’m excited for this. I love the old comics but I can only buy so many Masterworks… dropping £40-50 a go is too much money for 12 issues or so.
I can’t wait for this series.
I like that they’re including new backup stories. I might actually buy it now.
Yeah, when they started Classic X-Men, #1 took place right at the beginning of the “All-New, All-Different” team right about the beginning of Claremont’s run. You’re right, you could just start at Kree-Skrull War and run from there.