Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
Assembling the definitive Marvel Age Avengers anthology
By early 1963 the foundations of the Marvel Universe had been laid. Still, Marvel editor in chief Stan Lee realized something was missing. “I was writing these characters and I thought it would fun to put them together in a team,” he recalled. So Lee and artist Jack Kirby assembled Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor, and the Hulk to create the Avengers.
Right away it was clear this team was different. If the Fantastic Four were family, then the Avengers were the co-workers you didn’t choose. Not everyone got along—the Hulk fought with everyone—but working together they could defeat the baddest of Marvel’s bad guys, like Loki, Kang the Conqueror, the Masters of Evil, and Immortus. The lineup was ever changing: The Hulk departed, Captain America joined, and then, remarkably, villains Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch became heroes—and Avengers.
Relive the classic early adventures of Avengers Nos. 1–20 now available as a compact trade edition. TASCHEN has attempted to create an ideal representation of these books as they were produced at the time of publication. Each page has been photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company, then digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques—as if hot off a world-class 1960s printing press.
Accompanying the stories are an original foreword by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and an in-depth history by the Eisner Award-winning writer Kurt Busiek that’s illustrated with original art, little-seen photographs, and rare documents. This mighty collection about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is worthy of Tony Stark’s library—or yours.
© 2024 MARVEL
The artists
Jack Kirby (1917–1994) was one of comics’ most legendary and prolific artists whose notable cocreations include Captain America, Avengers, X-Men, Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Thor.
Stan Lee (1922–2018) is known to millions as the man whose super heroes propelled Marvel to its preeminent position. His cocreations include Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and hundreds of others.
The author
Kurt Busiek has been writing comic books since 1982. He has written several series for Marvel, including The Avengers, and won acclaim for his work on the four-issue miniseries Marvels.
The contributing author
Kevin Feige, President, Marvel Studios, and Chief Creative Officer, Marvel, has been the driving creative force behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is responsible for all 23 interconnected feature films in the MCU.
