1975! Groove turned 12, and was more wise in the ways of birthday comics than ever! There was no way I was gonna pass up Marvel Treasury Edition #7! Not only did it feature my absolute favorites, the Mighty Avengers, not only was it 100 ad-free pages, not only did it have awesome cardstock covers (by Jack "King" Kirby, no less!), but it featured some of the absolute best Avengers stories ever by the Avengers team supreme, Roy Thomas and John Buscema!The whole she-bang started off with a reprint of the Black Panther's first foray into the Avengers, from issue #52, "Death Calls for the Arch Heroes!" This story also featured the debut of the Grim Reaper, who would later become a major Avengers foe, especially during the Steve Englehart era of the series.
Next came perhaps the ultimate Avengers story, "Behold...the Vision!" The greatest Avenger of the Groovy Age's debut story from Avengers #57. You young whippersnappers don't have a clue as to how great the Vision was if you've never read this classic!
Another classic shocker "...Til Death Do Us Part!", from Avengers #60, featured the wedding of the Wasp and Yellowjacket. Of course that story also revealed that Yellowjacket was really Hank Pym, who was also Goliath, who was also Giant Man, who was also Ant Man...no wonder the poor guy was always so uptight! This story was cool, also, because of all the guest-stars. Everyone from the FF and Spidey to the X-Men and Dr. Strange showed up for at least a panel.It would've been cool to have gotten a reprint of Avengers #59, which featured Yellowjacket's debut, but then we wouldn't have gotten a to see "Come On In...the Revolution's Fine!" from Avengers #83. This story was an absolute hoot, being set in Rutland, Vermont's famous Halloween Parade and featuring folks dressed up like comicbook characters from not only Marvel but DC and most everyone else. Marvel's grooviest super-chicks (Black Widow, Medusa, Scarlet Witch, and the Wasp, natch) talked into creating a group called the Lady Liberators by Valkyrie (in her debut story) battling the Avengers plus a group of super-baddies that included Klaw, the Radioactive Man, Whirlwind, and the Melter. Of course, the Enchantress was behind it all, and the good guys won, but the battle of the sexes rages on!
Hey Groovy One!
ReplyDeleteIt was hard to try & keep up with buying all those treasures. Especially the treasures which I loved! Man the more I enjoy your site the more I am so greatful I grew up in the 70's! Comics were great then!
I loved Kirby so much I would have paided my meag bucks of a $1.50 just to have that cover! It's too bad Marvel didn't include a poster of each cover inside each edition. Now that would have been truly AWESOME! I loved the Avengers as much as the FF & X-Men equally. I just wish I would have had even more $ back then. And that the Power of warlock would have kept going & The Beast would have gotten his own monthly as well as Ant-Man.