Near Mint Condition announced another Marvel omnibus for March 2027, and it’s the start of collecting a massive recent run of comics: Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 1!
For the past 25 years, we’ve seen Avengers comics rotate through three phases, though not always in the same order: a “classic” phase where there are lots of recognizable cast members, a “new” or “reinvention” phase where several atypical Avengers are recruited, and a “decadent” phase where it’s everyone as an Avenger to tell a massive and maybe even slightly outlandish story.
Perez & Busiek? Classic. Bendis? New, obviously! Hickman, just as obviously a reinvention.
Things got slightly less clear after Secret Wars (2015), when All-New All-Different Marvel brought us an Avengers team that felt both classic and new, thanks to it being nearly a full team of “Legacy” heroes – Sam Wilson as Cap, the female Thor, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, Sam Alexander as Nova, and the new Unstoppable Wasp – Nadia Van Dyne.
Similarly, Jason Aaron’s run started out classic and turned decadent. The first two years of the run had a fairly standard, largely recognizable cast. Of course, there were signs of decadence – including the team living inside of a Celestial in the Arctic Circle and going to war with vampires! At the midway point the team had a classic tournament arc over who would control the Phoenix Force and fought against a rampaging Khonshu.
By the end of the run we were into “everyone is an Avenger” territory and dealing with different dimensions and alternate versions of the team! It was a book that had big stakes but that also trended slightly sillier than the typical Avengers comic, even if that silliness was more about the setup of the somewhat inane situations rather than a particularly comedic script.
This hefty first 45 issues of Aaron’s run takes you through the classic intro and into the increasing decadence of the run, through the Phoenix Tournament arc. Basically: Things get a bit silly here. A bit decadent. If you loved Aaron in his run on Wolverine and the X-Men (2011) but wished it wasn’t quite so focused on fighting the Kid Hellfire Club and killer clowns, this run is going to be a hit for you!
See the full contents of the book (as well as every other Spider-Man omnibus) in my Guide to Avengers Flagship Titles (2010 – Present).
Did you pick this book on your Marvel Omnibus 2027 Fantasy Draft ballot? I didn’t, so no points for me.
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