Avengers #155
Avengers #155
(We join this multi-part crossover with Super-Villain Team-Up, already in progress). The details are muzzy, but it looks like we’ve walked in on some multi-cornered war between Doctor Doom, the Avengers, the Sub-Mariner, and Attuma and his undersea goons. But the tasty prospect of a George Perez-pencilled Avengers vs. Doctor Doom showdown must wait, as the bulk of the Avengers are knocked out on the splash page, and mostly what Doom does in this issue is gloat. And this man can gloat. (The recap pages are packed with action, though).
Eventually the battle gets going. With most of the Avengers on the sidelines, it is the Beast and Wonder Man who get the spotlight. Oh yeah, and the Whizzer, too. (Pause for adolescent snickering). The issue ends with the Vision going rogue and seemingly making common cause with Doom — we know better, of course, but it will cost us another thirty cents next month to find out what’s really going on!
- Script: Gerry Conway
- Pencils: George Perez
- Inks: Pablo Marcos
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Posted on April 16, 2018, in Marvel 1977 and tagged Avengers, Avengers Infinity War, George Perez, Gerry Conway, Marvel Comics, Pablo Marcos. Bookmark the permalink. 19 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
It’s a always a pleasure to discover a new Kirby cover (with some very nice inking by Allen Milgrom)!
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Damn, I wish I could fix my typos!
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I checked the original cover and noticed some color alterations but I don’t see any reason to justify it. I wish modern colorists could stick to the original intent and stop changing things for the sake of changing, so annoying!
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The covers are captured from whatever Marvel has posted to their digital Unlimited service.
It has taken me awhile to get used to digital covering for the interiors, but I never noticed a difference for covers before. Do you have this issue in print?
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I don’t but I have checked several scans online, like this one :
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/7/7e/Avengers_Vol_1_155.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080727235758
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I think I mentioned in a previous comment that Kirby seems to have done a LOT of covers for Marvel in 1977. I’ve encountered them again and again while pursuing this review project. And this is in addition to his work on Black Panther, Cap, and the Eternals. I wasn’t specifically thinking of Kirby’s Marvel return when I picked 1977 for my topic but I’m glad to have scooped up a lot of Kirby’s final Marvel work by doing so!
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Strangely, it didn’t strike me sooner that I still had a gold mine to dig… Tons of new Kirby art (at least, for me)!
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Paul, may I suggest, if this is not too much work, you give full credits for the issues you review?
Something like this:
Avengers 155 — January, 1977
“To Stand Alone!”
Editor-in-Chief: Archie Goodwin
Cover Artist: Jack Kirby
Cover inker: Allen Milgrom
Writer: Gerry Conway
Pencilers: George Perez
Inker: Pablo Marcos
Colourist: Glynis Wein
Letterer: John Costanza
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I’ve pre-written Marvel ’77 posts well into August at this point, but when I go back to writing new installments, I will try to included extended credits as you suggest. Basically I can just reproduce what is printed on the comic’s masthead (which usually doesn’t include covers, though I might sometimes guess at those).
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Thanks for them all!
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Perez’s late-70s and early-80s renderings of the Avengers withstand the test of time. They still look fresh and exciting today. Along with John Buscema’s work, they remain high-water marks for the Earth’s mightiest heroes. I love more recent work, like that of David Finch and Bryan Hitch, but some of the classic, vintage runs are every bit as enjoyable to look at.
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I think Perez is my favorite Avengers artist and he’s certainly in the discussion for favorite superhero artist, full stop.
My favorite Perez/Avengers work is the “Bride of Ultron” arc, which I will be revisiting here at Longbox Graveyard during the run-up to Avengers Infinity War.
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Perez is a competent storyteller, a good craftsman and, yes, it withstood the test of time but I generally find his work too generic.
I like stylists masters like Jack Kirby, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Alex Toth, Frank Thorne, Frank Robbins, Michael Golden, Keith Giffen, or, in a more illustrative classic vein, John Buscema, Wallace Wood, Russ heath, Mike Zeck or John Romita when he inks himself… (Buscema being on a class of his own from the second group and Kirby towering above everybody).
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I very much like nearly all the artists you list. I think you damn Perez with faint praise a bit but opinions differ.
Surprised to see Frank Miller and especially Will Eisner missing from your list!
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No faint praise, Perez is a solid professional.
He knows how to tell a story visually (and this is something many “better” artists sorely lack) but I don’t find edge in his style… Like I said, solid but generic.
Frank Miller is a good case… Less technical skill but way more ambitious in pushing the envelope to compensate for his limitations and he did find his own distinctive style. I could include him in my list but I wasn’t trying to be exhaustive anyway as I also forgot Darwyn Cooke and Bruce Timm!
As fort Eisner, not sure if I would include him, I was mostly covering artist who had some work in the superheroes genre.
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Right on. Pérez’s patience and generosity impressed me at the comic convention I attended a couple years ago. If I were collecting the best of the Avengers, “Bride of Ultron” and Ultron’s first appearance would make the cut. I missed out on the more recent Pérez/Busiek run but hope to read it someday.
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My old Malibu Comics pals worked with George on the Ultraverse, and they are universal in remarking that there isn’t a nicer guy in comics.
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This little arc (Avengers #154-156) is one of my all time favorite Avengers stories, even though I’ve never read Giant-Size Avengers #6, which apparently starts the story.
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Marvel seemed mad for these bizarre little cross-overs in the 1970s. Often they were just one issue each of two different books. I expect they originated with guys like Steve Englehart crossing over books like Avengers, Defenders, and Captain America when he was writing all or both of them. They must have goosed sales at least a little bit, because Marvel kept going back to that well … but at the same time, they seemed limited to specific book lines. (I don’t recall a lot of cross-overs in Uncanny X-Men or Amazing Spider-Man). No, it was always some weird mix of Super-Villain Team-Up + Nova + Giant-Size Man-Thing or whatever.
I expect these cross-overs were created more on faith than out of any science proving they worked. Retail reporting wasn’t great in those days — it could be months between the time a book shipped and the final sales numbers, with the time in between spent by having the book on the rack, then stripped and returned and eventually counted up and recorded. I believe this is why we see so many sudden cancellations in the Bronze Age. It’s like, the book gets to issue six or seven and then there is a “THE BOOK IS SELLING WHAT EVERY MONTH??” moment and the publisher takes the nuclear option.
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