Where to start with Avengers?

[Gnarkill]

Hey guys, I just finished Brubakers vol. 1 omni of Cap, and I own vol. 2 in tpbs but i was wondering, before i start on the death of cap trades, should i buy and read the avengers civil war trade as well as the regular civil war trade? I really like the whole tie in with Cap and would like to read more on it, are those to civil war book good? and should I buy and read something else if and before I read them?
Thanks alot!
(marvel newb here)

[gforce99]

My brother thought Avengers film was alot of fun. He wonder if there is a run with Hulk as Avenger ? He wonders about hailed fun style Avenger writer/run.

Im not Avenger fan myself so i cant help with recommendations. Im Cap/Bucky/BW fan in their ongoings.

While its true that Hulk was never really an Avenger, a version of Hulk, the Red Hulk or Rulk, is prominent in the newer Avengers comics (volume 4 I think).

Also, Marvel just came out with a new book called Avengers Assemble, which is essentially the team from the Movie but in the real/normal Marvel continuity. Hulk is in there as a member of the team. Enjoy!

[jonwalker]

Hi guys,

I have recently got into comic books and I'm interested in reading about Captain America, Iron Man and the Avengers but wondered where to start and what order?

I planned on starting Captain America with the Brubaker omnibus but I'm open to suggestions to fit around the other titles.

Regards

[Telos]

Hi guys,

I have recently got into comic books and I'm interested in reading about Captain America, Iron Man and the Avengers but wondered where to start and what order?

I planned on starting Captain America with the Brubaker omnibus but I'm open to suggestions to fit around the other titles.

Regards

Hi, welcome to the CBR forums!

The Brubaker omnibus is a very good place to start with modern Captain America stories. It's quite new reader friendly and strongly based around espoinage rather than superheroics. If you happen to want something a bit more traditional, try Captain America: Operation Rebirth by Mark Waid.

Invincible Iron Man is a good place to start for Iron Man. You don't need to know much, except that Tony came to be in charge of the organisation S.H.I.E.L.D., and this story is how everything goes wrong for him.

As for Avengers, there are a few places to try:
Avengers: The Origin - How the team first came together.
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - How Captain America was found and helped them bond as a group when he joined.
Avengers Assemble vol 1-5 - These five volumes collect a classic but relatively recent run by Kurt Busiek. They're very character-driven, and great for readers new and old alike. Highly recommended.
Avengers: Red Zone - A really cool modern Avengers story where a flesh-eating gas begins to spew from Mount Rushmore. The Avengers have to discover and neutralize its source while rescuing civilians and finding out who has been manipulating it all.
Avengers vs X-Men - Marvel's current big event, starring the Avengers. Issue #4 of 12 just came out today.

If you want to go back and catch up on all the major Marvel events leading up to the I can give you a list for those, but it's going to be a long list. You're best to stick with Brubaker's Captain America, Fraction's Iron Man and the Avengers stories I linked you.

[jonwalker]

Thanks for the response, I'm all for a bit of deep reading but if you think this is the best place to start then I'm happy to go along with your suggestion!

Any particular order to read it all in or just pick up and go?

[Telos]

Thanks for the response, I'm all for a bit of deep reading but if you think this is the best place to start then I'm happy to go along with your suggestion!

Any particular order to read it all in or just pick up and go?

Here's a rough reading order with a few of the essential events thrown in. Some of it takes place concurrently with other stuff.

Avengers: The Origin
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Captain America: Operation Rebirth
Avengers Assemble vol 1-5
Avengers: Red Zone
Avengers Disassembled (event)
Captain America by Ed Brubaker omnibus
New Avengers vol 1 (formation of the New Avengers, practically an event)
House of M (event)
Civil War (event)
Death of Captain America omnibus
Mighty Avengers: Assemble
X-Men: Messiah Complex
Secret Invasion (event)
Dark Avengers vol 1
Invincible Iron Man vol 1 by Matt Fraction
Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign
Captain America Lives! omnibus
Invincible Iron Man vol 2 by Matt Fraction
Siege (event)
Captain America: No Escape
Captain America: Trial of Captain America
Captain America: Prisoner of War
Fear Itself (event)
Invincible Iron Man: Fear Itself
Winter Soldier vol 1: The Longest Winter
Avengers: The Children's Crusade
Captain America vol 1
Captain America vol 2
Avengers vs X-Men

Colour code:
Fraction's Iron Man
Brubaker's Captain America
Great Avengers stories
Lead-in to Avengers vs X-Men
Other stuff to help you get the big picture

[jonwalker]

That's an awesome list and I'm truely grateful, would it be wise to start at avengers disassembled or will it not make much sense to me?

Thanks again!

[Telos]

That's an awesome list and I'm truely grateful, would it be wise to start at avengers disassembled or will it not make much sense to me?

Thanks again!

You're welcome! Hope you enjoy it!

If you're going to do that, I'd start at Red Zone. It's only a few issues before Disassembled and lets you get a feel for the team before they're deconstructed. Disassembled was a pretty confusing story, but the Wikipedia is always available if you're unsure about anything.

The stuff before Red Zone I included because it's a good introduction to Captain America and the Avengers, but there are no important plot points carried over. You'll be fine skipping them, but I do recommend eventually going back to pick up Avengers Assemble vol 1-5. It's arguably the quintessential Avengers run.

[gforce99]

You're welcome! Hope you enjoy it!

If you're going to do that, I'd start at Red Zone. It's only a few issues before Disassembled and lets you get a feel for the team before they're deconstructed. Disassembled was a pretty confusing story, but the Wikipedia is always available if you're unsure about anything.

The stuff before Red Zone I included because it's a good introduction to Captain America and the Avengers, but there are no important plot points carried over. You'll be fine skipping them, but I do recommend eventually going back to pick up Avengers Assemble vol 1-5. It's arguably the quintessential Avengers run.

What issues does volume 5 collect?

[Telos]

What issues does volume 5 collect?

Avengers vol 3 #41-56 and Avengers Annual 2001. The whole thing is basically one epic storyline of Kang the Conqueror attacking Earth with an army from the future. While some people think it went on for a bit too long, this story - Kang Dynasty - is usually ranked as one of the top 10 all time best Avengers stories.

[jonwalker]

Practically finished reading the Disassembled trade and whilst I enjoyed it even without too much background knowledge, I found the Wanda stuff in 503 to be terribly hard to get my head around and perhaps need to do some background reading on wiki to gather a better understanding.

Part of me thinks after reading that I should go backwards to get a a better understanding of the chemistry prior to the break up. Would anyone recommend the Ultimates? Looking elsewhere it seems to come up quite often.

Thanks again.

[gforce99]

I just started reading through all of the New Avengers volume #1. Should I just keep going with NA vol.1 or should I read something else? I know there are other crossovers like Siege and Secret Invasion etc but aren't there other Avengers team books after New Avengers? Like Mighty and Academy? When in the chronology do they start?

[Telos]

Practically finished reading the Disassembled trade and whilst I enjoyed it even without too much background knowledge, I found the Wanda stuff in 503 to be terribly hard to get my head around and perhaps need to do some background reading on wiki to gather a better understanding.

Part of me thinks after reading that I should go backwards to get a a better understanding of the chemistry prior to the break up. Would anyone recommend the Ultimates? Looking elsewhere it seems to come up quite often.

Thanks again.

Yes, the Wanda stuff is pretty confusing. Part of this is because Avengers Disassembled is a retcon, meaning writer Brian Michael Bendis decided to change the history of the Scarlet Witch and her powers. If you want to go back and read the bits of Wanda's history relevant to Disassembled, I'd suggest:
Avengers: Vision and Scarlet Witch - A Year in the Life
West Coast Avengers: Vision Quest
West Coast Avengers: Darker Than Scarlet

Basically what happened is that the Scarlet Witch's powers were corrupting her and the loss of her children led to a mental breakdown. Unconsciously, she was using her powers to influence the people around her and create scenarios - bringing Jack of Hearts back to life and making him explode, activating Ultron, making She-Hulk rage, making Tony Stark feel like he was drunk at the U.N. conference, creating an army of fake Kree soldiers, etc.

House of M shows the aftermath of Avengers Disassembled, including Wanda's mania getting worse and her warping reality. Avengers: The Children's Crusade reveals more information about what really happened during Disassembled, which will hopefully make it easier for you to understand.

I just started reading through all of the New Avengers volume #1. Should I just keep going with NA vol.1 or should I read something else? I know there are other crossovers like Siege and Secret Invasion etc but aren't there other Avengers team books after New Avengers? Like Mighty and Academy? When in the chronology do they start?

Well, have you liked what you read of New Avengers so far? That should give you some idea of whether you should keep reading or not. I personally can't stand New Avengers, but to each his own.

Mighty Avengers first started after Civil War and was written by Brian Michael Bendis, same writer as New Avengers. It was better than New Avengers but still not great. The period after Civil War is collected in the hardcover Mighty Avengers: Assemble.

Avengers: The Initiative also started after Civil War. It's a fun series, but the main characters are a bunch of young trainees and the major Avengers don't really appear in it. It ran for six volumes, between Civil War and Siege.

During Secret Invasion, New and Mighty Avengers tied into it for two volumes worth of issues each (Mighty Avengers: Secret Invasion, New Avengers vol 8-9). Those volumes issues are, to be frank, garbage. In Mighty Avengers, the Avengers barely appear, and focus is instead placed on the Skrulls, Noh-Varr, Nick Fury's new Secret Warriors team. Do yourself a favour and skip them.

After Secret Invasion, a new writer, Dan Slott, took over Mighty Avengers and introduced a new cast. The quality improved a lot - the stories were fast paced and funny. Although it kept the "Mighty Avengers" title, it has almost no relation to the previous Mighty Avengers comics written by Brian Bendis. These issues are available in Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign.

A Dark Avengers title was also launched, which featured Sentry and Ares from Mighty Avengers, along with a lot of the characters from Warren Ellis's run on Thunderbolts. It only lasted for three volumes.

All of these titles were cancelled after Siege. Four new titles were launched instead:
Avengers - An all-star title written by Brian Bendis. Mediocre at best.
New Avengers - Basically the same as the previous 12 volumes of New Avengers.
Secret Avengers - A black ops team led by Steve Rogers, and later on, Hawkeye. The Steve Rogers issues, written by Ed Brubaker, are fairly good. The Hawkeye issues, written by Rick Remender, are much better.
Avengers Academy - A spiritual successor to The Initiative and Mighty Avengers. This is a group of superhuman teenagers being trained by Hank Pym and some other veteran Avengers. Quite good.

So, to recap:

New Avengers vol 1: Breakout
New Avengers vol 2: Sentry
House of M
New Avengers vol 3: Secrets and Lies
New Avengers vol 4: The Collective
Civil War
New Avengers vol 5: Civil War
Death of Captain America vol 1: Death of the Dream
Death of Captain America vol 2: The Burden of Dreams
Death of Captain America vol 3: The Man Who Bought America
Avengers: The Initiative vol 1: Basic Training
Avengers: The Initiative vol 2: Killed in Action
New Avengers vol 6: Revolution
New Avengers vol 7: The Trust
Mighty Avengers: Assemble
Thor vol 1
Secret Invasion
Avengers: The Initiative vol 3: Secret Invasion
Avengers: The Initiative vol 4: Disassembled
Thor vol 2-3
Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign
Invincible Iron Man: World's Most Wanted
Dark Avengers vol 1: Assemble
Dark Avengers vol 2: Molecule Man
New Avengers vol 10: Power
New Avengers vol 11: Search for the Sorceror Supreme
New Avengers vol 12: Powerloss
Avengers: The Initiative: Dreams and Nightmares
Thor: Latverian Prometheus
Captain America: Reborn
Invincible Iron Man: Stark Disassembled
Siege
Avengers: The Initiative: Siege
New Avengers: Siege
Dark Avengers: Siege
Avengers Prime
Avengers vol 1
Avengers vol 2
New Avengers vol 1
New Avengers vol 2
Secret Avengers vol 1
Secret Avengers vol 2
Avengers Academy vol 1
Avengers Academy vol 2
Fear Itself
Fear Itself: Avengers
Fear Itself: Secret Avengers
Fear Itself: Avengers Academy
Avengers vol 3
New Avengers vol 3
Secret Avengers: The Descendants

[gforce99]

Thank you Telos, you are a wealth of knowledge. I have no intention of stop reading New Avengers, I rather like it, but I agree that Bendis seems to almost be too fast paced or too slow in every book. What I have read about Secret Avengers sounds like a lot of fun. What about the Avengers Assemble title?

Here is a slightly related but different question: where is the best place to buy so many trade paperbacks? Any website/shop known to be well stocked and priced affordabley?

[Telos]

Thank you Telos, you are a wealth of knowledge. I have no intention of stop reading New Avengers, I rather like it, but I agree that Bendis seems to almost be too fast paced or too slow in every book. What I have read about Secret Avengers sounds like a lot of fun. What about the Avengers Assemble title?

Here is a slightly related but different question: where is the best place to buy so many trade paperbacks? Any website/shop known to be well stocked and priced affordabley?

You're welcome!

Avengers Assemble started very recently, and would be at the bottom of the list I made. It's got the same cast as the Avengers movie so new readers can jump on easily. I haven't been reading it, but supposedly it's better than most of Bendis's Avengers work. Issue #3 came out this month.

It depends on where you live, really. If you live in the U.S.A., I'd suggest Amazon.com because it's usually much cheaper than buying things in-store. However, if you live outside of North America, the international postage required basically nullifies any savings you'd get from buying from Amazon. I live in Australia, so I usually buy from bookdepository.com - it's prices are more expensive than Amazon, but it offers free postage worldwide.

I just edited the list to add a few volumes of Captain America, Iron Man and Thor that really compliment the last eight years of Avengers stories. They're also great stories in their own right.