The Avenging Hour

We're getting so close to New Avengers, but first we have one more series before the team reformed, and that's the first storyline in Young Avengers, which introduces some amazing new characters.  Here we meet characters like Asgardian (who?), Hulkling, Patriot and Kate Bishop and we see more of perennial Avengers villain Kang!

We finish up the GLA miniseries this week with more death, a surprise villain appearance and the heroes manage to defeat a villain that's given the main team a lot of trouble in the past!

We're back in current continuity with the first two issues of the GLA miniseries from 2005!  We learn more about the team, which loses some members and gains some members, as they try to step in to fill the void left by the absence of the Avengers after Disassembled!

We finish up the second series of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, where the Avengers face their most fearsome villains...the Circus of Crime! 

We continue through Earth's Mightiest Heroes II, coming to perhaps the most nonsensical plotline in Avengers history, the introduction of Yellowjacket!  Joe Casey does his best to force some logic on this fever dream, but at least he keeps the best part of it...the Circus of Crime!

Its issues 3-4 of Earth's Mightiest Heroes II, as we see the team fight AIM and some Adaptoids and we begin to see the first cracks in Hank Pym's facade.

We're back with Joe Casey's follow up to Earth's Mightiest Heroes, this time looking at the issues where Hank Pym had his first mental breakdown and became Yellowjacket!  Joe Casey does his level best to make that plotline make sense, but in the meantime, he adds in some other plots, including one involving the Super-Adaptoid!

We finish off the miniseries this week as Cap's Kooky Quartet is formed!  And we ask, who was this miniseries for?  Plus, we talk about the Dark Phoenix Saga, which is definitely Avengers related!

We continue talking about the Earth's Mightiest Heroes series, as we move toward the big fight between Cap and Zemo and the changing of the guard.  

We continue our look at Joe Casey's Avengers: Year One project, and we also talk about Wonder Man and John shows he's a pretentious prat.  Listen along!

We begin to discuss a limited series this week!  Fresh off the success of X-Men: Children of the Atom, Joe Casey comes to the Avengers and gives us a story during the first year and change of the original 1963 title.  These two issues cover issues 1-5 of the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run!

We skip a few years into the future to discuss the What If that reimagined Avengers Disassembled if the Scarlet Witch hadn't acted alone.  We then discuss why we won't be discussing Avengers AAFES in detail on the podcast.

This week we're talking about the Avengers: Finale, which tries to put a bow on Avengers Disassembled and then we take a quick stroll through everything we read during Volume of the Avengers!

We finish Avengers Disassembled this week, as the team is destroyed.  Yeah, yeah, I know they've done that trick before, but this time they mean it!

Well, we couldn't put it off any longer:  this week we start the Bendis run on Avengers!  But we needed some help, so we called in special guest Mike from The Nerdcave (TheNerdCaveVideos (@thenerdcavevideos) | TikTok) to help us begin Avengers Disassembled, where everything you know about the Avengers is going to change!

Its the end of the Avengers/Thunderbolts crossover but will either team, or the Earth itself, survive it?  (Spoiler alert:  Yes, the Earth survives.)

A restauración dunha parte da igrexa do Parador de Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil facilitou fai cinco anos o achado de catro aneis cos que unha lenda medieval chegou ata o século XXI. Unha minuciosa investigación histórica arredor deles e dos documentos que os acompañaban permite hoxe, desde a ciencia, certificar a súa autenticidade. Unha reportaxe de Mönica Rosas.

The Avengers/Thunderbolts storyline continues as the Thunderbolts roust the Wizard and Cobalt man joins their ranks!  Or does he?

It's time for a crossover, before the team is destroyed!  The Avengers and the Thunderbolts get together to tell a tale about trust and betrayal!  We start off with the Avengers inserting one of their own members into the Thunderbolts to figure out what that team has planned.  

This episode we're doing an interview with Kurt Busiek!  He wasn't able to come on the show in person, but he was so kind to answer a ridiculous number of questions and in some detail via email, and so Jason is going to play him, as we discuss his time on the Avengers!

The Once an Invader story ends, and Jason Lady, author of numerous books for the young (and young at heart) joins us to discuss them.  Find out all about Jason Lady's work at Jason R. Lady- Author of fantasy and sci-fi for young readers! 

The Lionheart of Avalon story ends with a new Captain Britain on the team, and then we begin Austen's second (and last) storyline, which introduces a new Invaders team!

The Lionheart of Avalon story continues, as Kelsey Leigh is given the powers of Captain Britain to avenge her death.  But there are some unintended consequences for her and what is going on with Thunderball from the Wrecking Crew.  

He's here!  Chuck Austen comes on as the new writer for a short stint, and he's bringing a whole new Captain Britain with him!  The Avengers fight the Wrecking Crew in London and a civilian dies!

It's another Avengers novel, this one written not only be someone who had read Avengers comics but even wrote them!  David Michelinie, who wrote some great Avengers comics, gives us a longer and much more interesting novel, that doesn't quite gel, but has some great scenes and some ideas I wish had been explored more.

We're doing the first Avengers novel, written by comic veteran Otto Binder...who may be a comics veteran but perhaps had never read an Avengers comic in his life.  It is a very weird thing.

We're taking a break from our normally scheduled program to do a special episode focusing on an Avengers focused issue of the 1970's Marvel fab club magazine FOOM!  It includes interviews with Avengers characters both fictional and real (Jarvis and Steve Englehart) and lots of tidbits that give a feeling of what Marvel was like in the early 1970's.  

The end of the Search for She-Hulk and the last Johns issue, where an Avenger dies, in one of the most confusing and confounding deaths in all Avengers lore.

We continue The Search for She-Hulk, including the return of Hawkeye to the team, and discuss the decompressed storytelling of this era.

We start with a Hank and Jan one off issue, which contained what was, at the time, an incredibly controversial sex scene, and then we begin The Search for She-Hulk, the last of Johns' multi issue storylines!

It's the end of the Red Zone, as the team fights the villain behind the entire affair and stop the cloud of death from continuing to spread across the country!

Red Zone continues as the Avengers deal with what this deadly virus is, why it was created and who it targeted.  We also learn the true identity of Dell Rusk and the She-Hulk goes savage!

It's the beginning of Geoff Johns' biggest storyline, The Red Zone!  A mysterious cloud of red mist, which kills those it touches, appears in South Dakota, and it is spreading!  The Avengers arrive to figure out what the cloud is, where it came from, and how to stop it!

This week we get the final part of a three-part storyline that features Captain America, Thor and Iron Man that sees Thor leaving the team for a long time, and then we get a Falcon spotlight and that also gives us a lot of time with Henry Peter Gyrich.  

We finally get the official lineup for the team and a new (old) security liaison, and then an issue that focuses on Ant-Man and the Jack of Hearts!  Geoff Johns is offering up some great character moments so come along and enjoy!

We finish the World Trust storyline, as the team takes on Scorpio, and rescues the In-Betweener!  And Thor is back!  

Now we welcome Geoff Johns to the regular title, as he begins his run with a story featuring a brand new Scorpio!  Cities disappear, long gone Avengers return to the team and Johns writes a great Namor!

We welcome Geoff Johns to the Marvel Universe with this tangentially related (but Avengers branded) four issue series about the Vision!  He gets his mind wiped by a new villain from World War II and has to seek our Phineas Horton's descendant for help.  Meet new characters that will never appear again in the Marvel Universe.  

Its the end of the first Ultimates miniseries...but is it also the end of the Ultimates (the use of the word 'first' is probably a clue)?  The team goes up against Nazi aliens, who are Skrulls but with the serial numbers filed off, and it gets nasty!

The Ultimates are now dealing with the aftermath of the Hulk attack and the aftermath of Hank's attack on Jan!  So new characters are introduced and a new threat arises!

The Ultimates continues, with even more cynicism, but hey, the books are beautiful to look at!   And if you like this series, please, write us and tell us why.  Defend your fandom!

Its the introduction of the Avengers to the Ultimate Universe, called The Ultimates!!  What if The Avengers, but as reimagined by one of the most cynical comic book writers in the business?  The issues are problematic, but man, they are gorgeous to look at!

Its the final issue of the crossover of the century, between the JLA and the Avengers and everyone's invited...not just the heroes of both teams but all of the villains as well!  

Its issue 3 of the epic JLA/Avengers crossover and there's a problem with time, as the Avengers and JLA are remembering crossovers that never happened and moving through the histories of both teams.  

The JLA/Avengers crossover continues as both teams race to get the cosmic items of power first in order to win the Grandmaster's game.  But if one team wins, everybody loses!  And can Krona be counted on to uphold his end of the bargain if he loses?

We're hitting it about a year before it should come up in our timeline, but it made sense to do it after we finished the Kurt Busiek run on the main title...that's right, it's the four issue Avengers and JLA crossover from 2003 by Busiek and George Perez!  And it's an excuse to have Jason and John talk about some DC characters!  This issue is a lot of table setting, but we discuss the Justice League and a ton of DC characters and get that table setting out of the way so we can get into the exciting stuff next issue!

Daryl Lawrence of the X-Factor Files has written a book about Alpha Flight (True North, available from Barnes & Noble) and we thought we'd use that as an opportunity to talk about the crossover from the 1980's when the Avengers and Alpha Flight teamed up to save Marrina from Attuma!  We saw one issue of it in Avengers #272, but there were a ton of Alpha Flight issues leading up to that one Avengers issue, and we're here to discuss them all!You can (and should) preorder Daryl's book here: True North: A Complete Reference Guide and Analysis of Alpha Flight's First Volume by Daryl Richard Lawrence, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

<sniff, sniff>  We are sad, as we examine the last two issues of Kurt Busiek's historic run on the book, one finishing up the Kang War and the other showing the inner workings of the Maria Stark Foundation (Avengers vs accountants!)!

The Kang War ends at last!  The heroes win (no surprise) but is Kang punished for what he has done?  And what is the final fate of the Scarlet Centurion?

This episode we start with a pseudo-Astro City issue, with Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson teaming up to tell a story together about Wonder Man and the Scarlet Witch!  And then the heroes gather to fight Kang for the final time!