AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES #1 - 8

Writer: Joe Casey | Art: Scott Kolins
Color Art: Morry Hollwell & Will Quintana
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Assistant Editors: Andy Schmidt, Nicole Wiley, & Molly Lazer
Editor: Tom Brevoort | Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley

As noted last week, AVENGERS: THE ORIGIN was actually published subsequently to AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES and EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES II. As a result, while the story feels mostly seamless in its progression, there are some hiccups created by the fact that when he wrote EMH, Joe Casey was working with the established Avengers backstory, and not the revised and lightly ret-conned backstory he came up with for THE ORIGIN.

EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES begins after the events of AVENGERS #1 (and therefore after the events of THE ORIGIN), with the Avengers signing their charter and bylaws, all drawn up by Tony Stark's legal staff. But the ever-disgruntled Hulk refuses to play along, putting a quick end to his involvement with the team. Unfortunately, part of Iron Man's pitch to the U.S. government was that the Avengers would keep the Hulk under control -- and now that the Green Goliath has become a free agent again, the Avengers need to track him down in order to earn their government clearance. But following a failed attempt to apprehend the Hulk, the group finds the body of Captain America, frozen in suspended animation.

Even though he doesn't appear in the first issue until its final page (and even then he's frozen in a block of ice), EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES is really Cap's story -- either focusing on him, or centering plot developments around him. The entire second issue focuses on Cap adjusting to the modern day, while Iron Man conspires to use the super soldier's still-active security clearance for the Avengers' benefit. Cap meets Rick Jones, hanging around with the group since the Hulk's departure, and immediately forms a protective bond with the teen, who reminds him of his lost partner, Bucky.

AVENGERS BY JOE CASEY & FRIENDS

Time for a few limited series from the twenty-first century House of Ideas -- and as you should know by now, I'm generally not a fan of much of Marvel's post-2000 output. At worst, I find it stupid and ill-conceived. At best, I find it uninteresting. But there are some diamonds in the rough, and this trio of limited series, written by Joe Casey between 2004 and 2010, are among those Marvel projects that I really enjoy from the era.

These three stories are "refreshed" versions of the early Avengers continuity, mainly the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/Don Heck and Roy Thomas/John Buscema years. Casey retells the Avengers' origin and presents new sub-plots (or enhances existing ones), and my recollection is that these stories -- especially EARTH'S MIGHTEST HEROES II -- were really, really good. I hope my recollection proves correct!

Please note that I've decided to present the series in chronological order rather than publication order. EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES and EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES II were published in 2004 and 2006, respectively, and THE ORIGIN came in 2010 -- but since THE ORIGIN is a retelling of the first issue of AVENGERS while EMH begins with team just formed, I'm going to cover THE ORIGIN first and then move onto the prior two series. Got it?

So, beginning Monday, let's take a jaunt back to one of Marvel's classic eras, by way of a modern-day retelling!

---

* Interestingly, it seems to mostly be Marvel's modern continuity titles that I have no use for, post-2000. I actually like a fair number of their out-of-continuity and/or "flashback" type of one-shots and limited series -- which these stories happen to be. I suppose it makes sense; by their nature, these sorts of stories can't include any of the modern characters, status quos, costumes, etc. that I dislike -- but also, these sorts of stories often tend to be written by guys who were on Marvel books pre-2000, which makes them "grandfathered in" for my approval.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN PART EIGHTEEN - EXCALIBUR VISIONARIES: ALAN DAVIS, VOL. 3

Much like "The Cross-Time Caper", my Captain Britain review series was intended to be relatively short. I figured maybe one post per book, except two for the Omnibus -- a total of eleven installments. But here we are on part eighteen! Hopefully folks have stayed with me this long. As I noted way back when I stated the series, I hadn't intended on blogging when I read the stories, so my "reviews" are little more than recaps with my own random thoughts tossed in, stream-of-consciousness style. My next, much shorter review series -- to be announced on Monday -- will be in the same format, but then I'll get into issue-by-issue reviews of a classic Marvel run, which will be structured more like my TRANSFORMERS series.

So if you've made it this far into my ramblings on the subject of Captain Britain, I really appreciate that. Let's see of we can tough it out for one last post. Much like Alan Davis at this stage in EXCALIBUR, I'm starting to get a little bored with my subject matter!