My
edition of The Avengers: Assault on
Olympus is a hardcover from the Marvel Premiere Classic line of reprints.
It’s super expensive but luckily I bought mine for 50% off. I have no idea why
Marvel charges so much for reprints of old comics. It seems wrong somehow as
well as counter intuitive. Why check out old comics when it’s cheaper to buy
new ones? Then again, new Marvel comics aren’t cheap either. Either way, if you
can find some of these old reprints for cheap, either in discount bins or 50%
off shelves, grab ‘em. They’re almost always a treat. Even when the comics are
bad it gives you an idea of what they were like back in the day. That’s always
interesting. If you get lucky, you’ll end up buying a comic as good as this
one. I’ve only ever read one comic by Roger Stern, Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment and that was an
excellent story. Clearly I’ve been missing out the Stern goodness because Assault on Olympus was also pretty great.
All of
the issues in this collection were written by Roger Stern with exception to
issue# 280 which was written by Bob Harras. Likewise John Buscema and Tom
Palmer illustrated all of the issues except for #280 which was drawn by Bob Hall
and Kyle Baker. Christie Scheele coloured most of the stories and Bill Oakley
did the bulk of the lettering. These are all familiar creator names for anybody
who has read Marvel comics from the 1980s. This is a solid creative team and it
shouldn’t have been surprising as to how good these issues were.
If the
people of the internet can be trusted, Stern had a pretty celebrated run on The Avengers that continues to be
popular with fans today. Assault on
Olympus was his last completed story on the title (he started another one
but didn’t finish it) and as such, he ends things on a high note. What more,
this story follows one of the stories often cited as one of the greatest Avengers storylines of all time. The
issues collected in this volume, #278-285, directly follow the events depicted
in Under Siege. You don’t need to
have read those issues to be able to enjoy Assault
on Olympus. I know I didn’t. There trouble isn’t that you won’t be able to
follow along, it’s simply that you missed out on another good story.
The
first three issues focus on specific characters and how they were affected by
the events of Under Siege. Janet van
Dyne, Wasp, was the leader of the Avengers at the time their mansion was
attacked by the Masters of Evil. She was their leader at a time when the
Avengers suffered one of their greatest defeats. Nobody blames her for it, much
the opposite, they’re all confident that she will be able to help the team
heal. Wasp, however, doesn’t feel she’s up to the task anymore and desperately
wants a vacation so she leaves the team.
The
following issue focuses on Captain Marvel. During a meeting to select the next
team leader, Captain America nominates Monica Rambeau who is also known as
Captain Marvel. She’s hesitant to take on the role as she thinks other team
members would be more capable than her. She talks it over with her parents and
does a lot of soul searching. She thinks about what the team means to her and
realizes that she’s been given more opportunity and encouragement to grow in
the Avengers that she’s ever had in her civilian life. It’s not long before she
makes her decision and agrees to take on the role as the leader of the
Avengers.
Issue
#280 also spends its time with one character who is dealing with the
consequences of Under Siege. Jarvis
is physically wounded. He’s lost 90% of the vision in one eye and had a knee
replaced, along with other injuries. He gets a visit from Tony Stark who
informs him that he’s done a lot for the Avengers over the years and that he’s
sorry for all the trouble he’s caused Jarvis. Stark asks him to consider
retiring with full pay and benefits. The rest of the issue is about Jarvis
reminiscing over his time with the team and thinking about what it’s meant to
him. It’s very similar to the previous issue but the differences in role
between Jarvis and Captain Marvel make for two very different issues.
Ultimately, this is a poignant and emotional visit down memory road that
culminates in a well-executed, if a little predictable, finish.
The last
five issues also deal with the consequences of the previous storyline but this
time the whole group is affected. The Avengers learn that their teammate Hercules
has been kidnapped from the hospital where he was healing from his injuries
sustained at the hands of the Masters of Evil. The culprit is Hermes, god of
the Greco-Roman pantheon acting on the orders of Zeus. The Avengers follow the
kidnapper to Mount Olympus where they are summarily sentenced to Hades to pay
for their crimes. Zeus believes the Avengers, specifically Wasp, are responsible
for his son’s injuries. The Avengers are then forced to escape from their
imprisonment and confront Zeus to convince him that he’s wrong about them and
Hercules. The result, naturally, is a huge brawl between the Avengers and the
gods of Olympus.
After
finishing Assault on Olympus I came
to the realization that this is my favourite classic Avengers story. By classic, I mean anything published prior to
2000. The writing is excellent. I really like that Stern and Harras take the
time to deal with the consequences of the attack on Avengers Mansion. It adds
weight to the story while also showing us that the Avengers are not infallible.
They can hurt and they can break just like everybody else. It humanizes them in
a way that you don’t often see in these kinds of comics. It’s also interesting
to see the juxtaposition of issues dealing with human failings followed by a
literal conflict with gods.
The art
was also very good. I’m surprised by the art style of John Buscema. It’s more
realistic than I remember. He’s grasp of anatomy is very pleasing but everything
else is also very realistically drawn. The costumes don’t look like body paint,
they look like actual costumes. Some of them are less functional than others,
certainly, but they look like something you could actually wear. One thing that
sometimes bothers me with older comics is facial expressions. In a team book
like this one that regularly has six panels per page, it’s difficult to get up
close to characters and see their faces. Simply put, sometimes there are too
many characters crammed into a single panel. One way to deal with this, as
Buscema and Palmer do, is to add more body language. It’s much more noticeable
in the action sequences where full body images happen frequently in order to
let the action tell the story, but it’s also noticeable in quieter scenes. I
also really liked the colouring in this volume. The sleek, high quality paper
of the Marvel Premiere Classic collection really lets the linework and the
colours pop off the page.
If you
have never read old Avengers comics,
I wouldn’t recommend you start here. This isn’t the most recognizable team
line-up. You might also find a hard time figuring out who is who, as a lot of
these characters have changed considerably in recent years or simply aren’t
figured prominently in current comics. If you’ve read old Avengers comics and enjoyed them, then I highly recommend this
volume. Heck, I’d ever recommend you start exploring Stern’s tenure on the title
with Under Siege or and earlier
storyline. I’ve been impressed enough by the guy’s writing to want to check out
more of it. I can’t see why the rest of his Avengers
wouldn’t be as good as these. If you ever find old Marvel comics on the cheap,
give them a try. You might just be as surprised and delighted as I was to discover
a good storyline like Assault on Olympus.
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