Roger Stern Avengers

Avengers 245, 246, 248-250

Missing issue 247.  If these stories had been remotely interesting, I’d care a lot more about finding them to complete the Stern run.  As it is, I may not be keeping the issues I have.  

Issue 245 completes the Dire Wraith arc from yesterday.  It’s a tie-in with a story that was happening over in Rom: Spaceknight, which I’ve never read.  The only thing of note is the absolutely absurd visual of Wasp holding a Dire Wraith at gunpoint while in her shrunken state:

The physics of holding the gun and pulling the trigger escape me.  Not to mention what the recoil would do to her.

Bad enough to see it once, but Milgrom has to draw her in this ridiculous pose for multiple panels. The story would have worked just as well with Janet at full size.

Another pic of Vision smiling like a crazy person.  I gave Milgrom crap yesterday for his facial expressions, but he’s got this one mastered.  I’m genuinely creeped out.

"Okay, maybe a sketchy Starfox would be preferable to this."

The rest of the issues deal with Maelstrom, a half-Eternal half-Deviant baddie.  (I know who the Eternals are, don’t remember anything about the Deviants.)  He’s got the same powers as Sebastian Shaw, but has the technology to transfer his mind into a cloned body whenever he dies.  It takes the combined efforts of both coasts of Avengers to defeat him, in a way that’s pretty interesting: Maelstrom has the ability to grow as he absorbs kinetic energy.  The Avengers pour energy into him as such a fast rate that he grows in size without increasing in mass, so he eventually dissipates into nothingness.  Kinda neat.  

Issue 249 is a fun little tie-in to the Malekith/Casket of Eternal Winters/Surtur/Ragnarok arc in the Thor comic.  The hordes of Surtur’s demons give a hint of the epicness that Simonson brings to Thor, and I can imagine how sweet this issue would have looked under his pencil.  (Stern’s Avengers runs in parallel with some storied runs on other titles - Simonson’s Thor, Byrne’s Fantastic Four, and Claremont’s X-Men.  If my memory doesn’t fail me, this title is by far the weakest of them.  I hope that it doesn’t; If those are as dreary as the Avengers is right now, I’m going to be in trouble.)