Cheap The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Book) (Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

This comic reprinthas been censored for your protection. . .
I've been out of the comic-scene for the last several months, so I'm not up to date on current trade paperback collections of previously released material. When I first saw this listing on Amazon.com, I thought "Neat, someone is releasing a MARVEL AGE DIGEST of mid-late seventies AVENGERS material. That's good stuff for the kiddies." <
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>Information on the specific contents was sparse and no cover image was available, but upon seeing Gerry Conway and Jim Shooter's names listed as writers, along with Perez for the art, I thought that I was looking at something along the run of AVENGERS (volume 1) #150-156, which again would be a good run to release in trade paperback geared toward a younger audience. <
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>And so, sight unseen, I placed an order. The merchant selling the item was prompt and efficient, and I received my item within five days of placing the order. I have no complaints with the merchant selling the item. My only complaint, if I have one, is with Marvel trade paperback division and the editor of the collection. <
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>To wit: this trade paperback is an edited re-release of 1999's AVENGERS VISIONARIES: GEORGE PEREZ volume. The aforementioned AVENGERS VISIONARIES volume consisted of reprints of AVENGERS ANNUAL #6, AVENGERS #161-162, AVENGERS ANNUAL #8, AVENGERS #194-196 and a short back-up story featuring Jarvis the Butler from AVENGERS #201. <
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>The MARVEL AGE edited reprint collection eliminates AVENGERS #194-196, a well-regarded story introducing the villainous Taskmaster and guest-starring the Scott Lang version of Ant-Man. <
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>Amusingly, in the cast of characters given in the introductory pages of this collection, the Scott Lang Ant-Man is listed as one of the cast of characters, but the only stories he appeared in during the period covered by this collection, the aforementioned issues #194-196, have been removed from this volume. <
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>Additionally, the credits page at the beginning of this volume lists Joseph Rubinstein, Jack Abel and Dan Green as inker, and again, the issues that they had worked on - the aforementioned issues #194-196 - have been omitted from this volume. Consequently, the book contains an inaccurate credits page. <
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>While these may be picayune objections to the product, the element the causes me the most amused consternation is that the artwork for the reprints of issues #161, 162, and Annual 8 has been bowdlerized. The artwork - which had been previously approved by the Comics Code Authority when it was first published - has been prudishly altered from that printed in 1977 and 1978 (and in the 1999 AVENGERS VISIONARIES volume) apparently to "protect the children" from Janet Van Dyne Pym's unfortunate wardrobe choices. <
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>For example, in issue #161, Jan wore a purple backless number with a plunging neckline, a bare midriff and lots of little cutouts running down the outside of the legs. For this collection, the art has been altered and recolored to eliminate Jan's cleavage and cover up her midriff. [They even went so far as to erase her bellybutton.] <
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>In issue #162, back in 1977, a naked Jan was bound on a platform with metal restraints strategically covering the naughty bits in a situation reminiscent of what befell the Dahlia Lavi character in the late sixties Bond spoof CASINO ROYALE. This remained untouched in the 1999 reprint, but in 2004, the artwork has been altered to put Jan in a light grey bodystocking. This time, the art-retoucher neglected to eliminate her navel, and this suit sweats in little beads of perspiration just like Jan's bare skin did in 1977. <
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>In Avengers Annual #8 (ca. 1978), Jan wore a blue-green minidress with a plunging neckline. Again the artwork has been altered to remove Jan's cleavage, by having Jan wear an undershirt in a color identical to the minidress. Not content with saving the reader from Jan's cleavage, the powers-that-be in charge of this collection have decided that they must also save us from the prospect of Jan's bare legs. Oh dear, oh dear, she now has leggings in an identical blue-green color to the minidress and new undershirt. <
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>I read these stories when they first came out at the tender age of ten and eleven. My own children have read these stories in their original form at ages younger than I was upon their first release. It has been by experience that mores liberalize with the passage of time, so I find this rampant censoring of material that twenty-six and twenty-seven years ago WAS considered appropriate to all-ages (as the current MARVEL AGE line is touted as being) most curious. <
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>As a reader and longtime fan, I expected Marvel to be responsible with regard to their reprint product, but not cowardly. The alteration of the material reprinted in this collection smacks more of moral cowardice than artistic responsibility. <
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>So, my review is mixed. The stories I would give a four-star rating, but the exection of this edition I would give a mere two star rating, thus averaging out to the three stars I have given above. <
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>Buy if if you are interested in it or think you or someone you know would enjoy it, but be aware that the material has been noticably altered from how it was originally intended.