This year celebrates the 60th anniversary of several major Marvel Comics publishing milestones. Yesterday I shared an update to my Silver Age X-Men Guide to mark the 60th Anniversary of X-Men (1963) #1, with a cover date of September 1963 (though it actually hit the stands in July – cover dates functioned as a “sell by” date in the Silver Age). The X-Men weren’t the only team to hit the newsstands in the middle of 1963, because the same month featured the debut of Marvel’s iconic supergroup – and another one of their most-iconic franchises – The Avengers! Today I’ve not only updated but completely rebuilt one of the most important Crushing Comics guides – my Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)!
I originally launched this guide back in November of 2011 as my first guide to comics outside of the X-Men line! It has been incrementally updated many times over since then. However, I never fundamentally changed the structure of the guide as Marvel’s collection strategy evolved to include more omnibuses, comprehensive coverage of universe-spanning events, and the amazing Epic Collection line to cover all of the gaps in each long-running series. The Avengers have transformed from an occasionally-collected title with major gaps – especially in the 90s – to a 400+ issue title with just a handful of issues left uncollected.
Today, I have completely rebuilt this guide from the ground up! What does that mean? Not only did I list every collected edition of Avengers (1963), but I also did all of the following…
- Rebuilt every single collected edition entry on the guide – that’s over 200 collections! Each collection now includes the publishing year, ISBN, and a link for digital purchase when available.
- Streamlined the “Avengers Bookshelf” section to explain major collected edition formations including Omnibus, Masterworks, Mighty Marvel Masterworks, Epic Collections, & Essentials – plus, added a new section for Marvel’s licensed reprints from Penguin Classics and Taschen.
- Simplified the collected edition listings for each era of Avengers, removing collections focused primary on other characters and teams in favor of linking to their respective guides.
- Expanded the “Modern” era of the guide to split it between the multi-author era that directly followed Roger Stern’s run and the lengthy Bob Harras run that followed [AKA the Leather Jackets Era].
- Explained the placement of every line-wide Marvel event – from Contest of Champions to Onslaught – relative to the continuity of the Avengers.
- Detailed the explicit placements of every Annual and Giant-Size issue, including continuity notes for every story in each issue.
- Updated the guide to include several supporting Avengers series and one-shots from the 90s, including Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective (1993), Avengers Strike File (1994), and Avengers Unplugged (1995).
- Included links to read every series digitally on Marvel Unlimited.
That’s a lot of avenging! It’s also a massively time-consuming process that took several days of research, continuity-tracking, and link-building. That’s what it takes to update the single most-definitive guide to the continuity and collecting status of Avengers (1963) #1-402 on the entire internet! I’m incredibly proud to have maintained this guide for the past 12 years and for how it has helped thousands of visitors who tracked down their ideal Avengers collection.
Whether today is your first time hearing about the guide or yet another visit you’re making since 2011, I am humbled that you trust me to guide you on your Avengers collecting and reading journey!
Don’t worry, this update to my Guide to Avengers (1963-1996) isn’t the only update I’ll be making to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Marvel’s Avengers! Just as I did for the X-Men earlier this year, I’ll be rebuilding every major Avengers guide from the ground up to match the quality and organization of this guide.