By d. emerson eddy — Last week's look at the opening arc of the 1998 relaunch of The Avengers made me want to take a look at some of the other works I, and many others, consider highs throughout the history of the franchise. The characters are enjoying an increased prominence due to their adaptations in film and television, and I wanted to spotlight a few of their great comics stories. Starting with one that helped lay the groundwork for grand scale storytelling at Marvel and countless ramifications afterwards, The Avengers: Kree/Skrull War by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, Sal Buscema, John Buscema, Tom Palmer, Sam Grainger, George Roussos, Alan Weiss, Sam Rosen, Art Simek, Mike Stevens, with the restoration team of Tom Mullin, Michael Kelleher, and Will Glass & All Thumbs Creative.

Originally running through Avengers #89 - #97, the Kree/Skrull War arc took elements running from the second issue of Fantastic Four through many regions of Marvel continuity and wove them together into a broad scale cosmic epic, with the Avengers caught in the crosshairs.

The first half drops four of the Avengers at the time [Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Goliath (Hawkeye popping Pym pills)] into a quandary with the Kree and Captain Marvel, leading to problems with the American government as it launches the Alien Activities Commission. It's an interesting way to play upon McCarthyism and HUAC, somewhat grounding the fantastical nature of the story in something real. This first bit is pencilled by Sal Buscema, whose early work always reminded me of a fine-lined Jack Kirby. There's a real dynamism to his poses and action sequences that hearken to the best of the relative simplicity of early comics.

Everything then changes in #93, the first issue pencilled by Neal Adams. It's odd, because Roy Thomas' narration and dialogue style doesn't change between the two halves of the arc, but it still feels like a sea change as Adams comes aboard. His choices for staging angles, layouts, and panel transitions feel like a radical departure in storytelling approach. The amounts of lines he uses for shading and contour seem to reflect an attempt at greater depth and realism in the artwork. And we get an incredible journey through the Vision with ample science fiction movie and EC Comics references. It's an incredible issue just in itself and Vision's horrible attack by three cows.

The story wends through Skrulls and Inhuman plots before concluding in #97 with a finale pencilled by  the legendary John Buscema. Although one of the earliest Marvel stalwarts, his art kind of bridges some of the simplicity of early '60s Marvel art and the complexities of '70s Marvel art, making it perfect for the conclusion. It basically comes around full circle, advancing Captain Marvel's character arc, and finishing up details of some of the unresolved plot threads.

One of the things that I particularly enjoy about how this arc was approached is that each individual issue still more or less has a complete story. Each segment builds and fits in with the large arc, and a broad story is told, but you still get satisfying adventures each issue.

Overall, Avengers: Kree/Skrull War from Thomas, Adams, S. Buscema, J. Buscema, Palmer, Grainger, Roussos, Weiss, Rosen, Simek, Stevens, Mullin, Kelleher, Glass, and All Thumbs Creative is a high water mark for Marvel. It's one of the (relatively) early long form comics stories at the company that mined its history, piecing it together in a fascinating and exciting way, penned by one of the masters of that form of storytelling. And the ramifications of the story are still being explored in today's comics.

Avengers: Kree/Skrull War

Avengers: Kree/Skrull War
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencillers: Neal Adams, Sal Buscema & John Buscema
Inkers: Tom Palmer, Sam Grainger, Sal Buscema, George Roussos, Alan Weiss & Neal Adams
Letterers: Sam Rosen, Art Simek & Mike Stevens
Art & Color Reconstruction: Tom Mullin, Michael Kelleher & Will Glass and All Thumbs Creative (original colorists sadly uncredited)
A conflict of star-spanning proportions - with Earth caught in the crossfire! For those eternal intergalactic enemies, the merciless Kree and the shape-changing Skrulls, have gone to war, and our planet is situated on the front lines! Can Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers, bring about an end to the fighting before humanity becomes a casualty of war? And what good are even a dozen super-powered champions against the vast military machines of two of the great empires of the cosmos? The key to victory lies with the expatriate Kree Captain Mar-Vell and his human host, honorary Avenger Rick Jones! Featuring the trend-setting artwork of Neal Adams, the Kree/Skrull War is universally acknowledged as one of the finest and most important sagas in the Marvel canon.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $16.99
Buy It In Print: Avengers - Kree/Skrull War
Buy It Digitally: Avengers - Kree/Skrull War via comiXology

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.