Big Milestones and All-New Characters for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
Stan Lee and Don Heck finish their seminal ’60s run in Marvel Age style
In the years 1965 through 1967, Stan Lee and his art partner Don Heck guided the Avengers through their “Kooky Quartet” era with unbridled adventures and important character development. Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Captain America took on all comers, often in multi-part epics that pitted the Avengers against foes old and new, like the Enchantress, Doctor Doom and Kang.
The Avengers of 1965–1967 also featured change within the ranks of the team and its creative stable. The Wasp and Giant-Man would rejoin Earth’s Mightiest–the latter adopting a new costume and codename–and Black Widow and Hercules would join as guest stars. Lee would depart as writer in the summer of 1966, handing the keys to the Avengers over to newcomer Roy Thomas, whose earliest stories set the stage for his future glories carrying the title to a legacy filled with milestone after milestone.
Avengers Nos. 21–40 are collected here in a volume that closely simulates the size and proportions of the original comic artboards; with comics sourced from the collection of Bob Bretall, holder of the Guinness World Record for largest comics collection, meticulously photographed to resemble the way these comics looked when first published, while also being digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques to correct problems with the era’s imperfect printing. A custom paper stock was developed exclusively for this series to replicate the newsprint feel and color holding of the original comics. The Marvel Comics Library has earned well-deserved raves for combining an old school reading experience with a luxurious oversized book format, winning the industry’s coveted Eisner Award for Best Publication Design.
Complementing the comics is an essay by Black Panther writer Christopher Priest, whose lively style merges with a deep and abiding love for the comic book artform and its history. Accompanying his essay is a gallery of original art, photographs, rarities, and other ephemera of the era.
The artists
Don Heck (1929–1995) was one of the stalwart artists of the Marvel Age, working alongside Stan Lee’s stable of famed artists to provide the visual contours of the seminal years of the Marvel super hero. Established in all genres—particularly horror and romance—Heck took on the super hero genre with aplomb, taking over The Avengers from Jack Kirby, and co-creating Iron Man and his debonair alter ego Tony Stark, and future Avengers the Wasp, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. He was an Avengers artist for more than a decade and a prolific comics creator at both Marvel and DC through to his death in 1995.
Stan Lee (1922–2018) is known to millions as the man whose super heroes propelled Marvel to its preeminent position in the comic book industry. His cocreations include Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and hundreds of others. While the Chairman Emeritus of Marvel, he was also the Chief Creative Officer of POW! Entertainment, where he created numerous new characters and stories in areas including publishing, film, reality TV, stage, documentary, and multimedia.
Roy Thomas was among the first comic book creators reared on comics themselves, bringing an encyclopedic knowledge of the medium as well as a youthful enthusiasm that served him well in his prime years as a writer and editor in the industry. He served alongside Stan Lee during the pivotal years of Marvel’s ascension to the number one company in comics, with storied runs on The X-Men, The Avengers, and Conan the Barbarian. Thomas continues to publish his authoritative Alter Ego comics history magazine and remains a popular addition to convention lineups around the world.
The author
Christopher Priest arrived at Marvel in the late ’70s, serving as an assistant editor and later editor under Jim Shooter. It wasn’t long before he made his mark with the company as a writer, with long runs on Conan the Barbarian and Power Man and Iron Fist. His move to DC Comics led to him join a collective of African American creators on the Milestone imprint. Later, it was his revival of Black Panther at Marvel Knights that rejuvenated the character in a way that set the stage for a cinematic depiction that took the world by storm.
