Avengers: First Sign

Captain America 449, Thor 496, Invincible Iron Man 326, Avengers 396

And now I leap forward to 1996 with a pointless four-part crossover (First Sign).  The big three Avengers battle the D-tier cannon fodder of Zodiac.  That’s really it.  It comes in the middle of some notable runs - Mike Deodato on Thor, Mark Waid/Ron Garney on Captain America, and the infamous teenage Stark era.  (More on that when I get to those issues).  It makes no sense to have this random story interrupt any of them.  Yet for all that, I remember it fondly, and rereading it confirmed those feelings.  Waid has always been the best Cap writer, Deodato’s art is gorgeous, and teen Stark has...always been a guilty pleasure for me.  

Other notes:

• Ron Garney intrigues me as an artist.  He’s definitely not flashy, and sometimes his art is flat out replacement level.  But there are other times when he just hits it out of the park.  He does it quite a bit with Cap.

Only Cap and Superman can pull of these kinds of lines.

• Mike Deodato is so darn good.  A little overzealous with the muscles, but one of the best at that 90’s style (Along with Lee, Silvestri, Portacio, and Campbell.  I’m sure I’m missing others).

Love a good silhouette

There's...so...much...hair!

• And then we get John Statema on Avengers.  Sigh.  Art so bad that I have to share.  Sorry, John.

The opposite of all the Cap pictures I've been posting.  The physics of that shield toss defies the physics of disbelief suspension.

• And there was the time they did this to the Wasp:

• 

  Bad sign 883: When the villain channels George McFly in his monologue.

  
  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

And with those issues, I’m done with my first box of comics!  

Some stats:

Time spent reading: 24 hours, 52 minutes

Issues read: 150

Issues cut: 13  (Would have been 21, but Raindancer vetoed 1602’s removal.)

Highlights (Good or better): Last Avengers Story, Avengers Annual 10, Siege of Avengers Mansion

My collection is split between the stuff that’s on shelves (current titles that I’m collecting and the really good stuff) and the issues that are in boxes (everything else).  I had been considering interspersing shelf comics with box comics, so that I’m not stuck reading not-great comics for too long.  But I’m going to put that on hold, since the next box is looking pretty stacked.

I’ve been enjoying this whole exercise a ton, so onwards!