Avengers

Uncanny Avengers & A+X – Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading-order on collecting Uncanny Avengers comic books via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated May 2024 with titles scheduled for release through July 2024.

Collecting Uncanny Avengers

Before 2012 the word “Uncanny” had always been a mutants-only adjective at Marvel and The Avengers franchise included relatively few mutant members.

That all changed in the wake of Marvel’s massive Avengers vs. X-Men crossover in 2012. The flagship book of their new Marvel Now line-up was Uncanny Avengers – a greatest hits combination of the most recognizable members of both teams, all striving to maintain Professor Xavier’s message of unity and the Avenger’s mandate of protecting the Earth.

What felt like an uneasy alliance to start began to feel more natural with 2016’s All-New, All-Different Marvel. Maybe that’s because the book felt less like X-Men problems pasted onto the Avengers, or maybe it’s the mix of characters – now also includes of The Inhumans.

The third volume (there was a brief second one after Axis) jettisons the idea that the team must be comprised entirely of major stars like Wolverine and Thor and leans hard into Rogue as the central character. It rotated more Avengers in and out of the mix, plus brought in Deadpool and then Cable (the latter of whom has always been a great partner and foil to Rogue when they occasionally bump up against each other, as they did early in Mike Carey’s X-Men Legacy run).

Now, over half a decade since their debut, Uncanny Avengers feel like their own institution distinct from their pair of parent franchises. Who knows how that feeling will be affected by “No Surrender,” mega all-Avengers crossover in early 2018 that will see all of the books merged down to a single Avengers weekly title.
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Marvel says “NO” to reboot, launches new Marvel NOW! titles this fall – UPDATED

July 3, 2012 by krisis

News of Marvel’s post-Avengers vs. X-Men plans has leaked, and it’s everything a fan could hope for – major creator changes, new titles, and an intact sense of Marvel’s over seven decades of superhero continuity!

A sneak peak at the future of Marvel from the pen of Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada.

How are they doing it? With Marvel NOW! – a relaunch of one new title a week for five months – 22 new books to stand along some long-running favorites. The official news breaks later today on EW.com, but it hit the web last night.

Avengers, written twice monthly by Jonathan Hickman
Uncanny Avengers, written by by Rick Remender with art by John Cassady!
X-Men, written by Brian M. Bendis

There are other rumored changeovers not covered by EW – namely, Bendis on Guardians of the Galaxy, Frank Cho on Wolverine, Ed McGuinness on Nova, Matt Fraction on Fantastic Four, plus Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen talking the helm of Iron Man. Plus, already-announced changes like James Asmus on Gambit, and Kelly Sue DeConnick on Captain Marvel starring Carol Danvers.

That’s just 10 of a rumored 22 titles!

What does that mean for readers? Let’s take a look.

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman

Marvel currently runs five Avengers titles separated by blurry lines, and it sounds like some of them will end this fall to make way for this twice-monthly monster.

Hickman is the Marvel architect that reinvented Fantastic Four as a smash hit with a story that spanned 50+ issues and more than quintupled the core cast, but still resolved into several brief, funny arcs. He’s also the author and designer of some mind-bending creator-owned work like Nightly News and Pax Romana.

Now he’s unleashed on one of Marvel’s two big teams, with reportedly 18 characters in a mix of standalone adventures and cosmic smashes. Plus, his one potential weakness – a slowly unfolding meta-story – will be aided by an accelerated ship schedule – already a success on The Amazing Spider-Man.

This is the Avengers everybody wants to be reading after the movie, and it marks an even bigger cast and more prominent role for Hickman, who has yet to misfire. It’s going to be awesome.

Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender

Remender’s Uncanny X-Force has been a hit since day one, especially because it focuses equally on its cast instead of only featuring Wolverine.

Holy total status quo change, Batman! While The Avengers have had their share of mutant members, Wolverine is the only full-time X-Man to stay with the team for any length.

Now Remender is getting all sorts of X into the Avengers, bringing them X-Men’s traditional adjective along with a team that reportedly boasts Wolverine, fan-favorite Rogue, and First Class star Havok alongside Captain America and Thor.

No one is better for this job than Remender. After bubbling under on a solid run on Punisher he exploded on Uncanny X-Force, a stunningly grim and hilarious take on Wolverine’s secret execution squad. It sent readers into endless fangasms when its first year concluded with the epic Dark Angel Saga. Now Remender in the saddle of what will unarguably be Marvel’s flagship title, with all of the star power of the Marvel Universe at its disposal.

In late-breaking news, art star John Cassaday of Planetary and Astonishing X-Men will be joining Remender, at least for the first arc.

Says Remender: “In 1943, Arnim Zola, who was this bio-fanatic engineer, recorded the Red Skull’s consciousness, and set it to wake up 70 years later. So the Red Skull [in Uncanny] is right out of 1943-44. Prime Nazi scumbag. In his mind, he’s taking that vitriol and hate and Nazi horror and methodology, and pointing it at the mutant species.”

For everyone who argued if the Avengers or the X-Men was Marvel’s Justice League, here’s the answer: it’s both. This is about as huge as a single Marvel comic can be, both in characters and creators.

All New X-Men by Brian Bendis

Fans both love and loathe Avengers impresario Bendis, who has steered the line for nearly a decade. He’s introduced a consistency and gravitas to the once meandering Avengers, bringing them to prominence and expanding a single book to a line of five. He also has steered Marvel’s snappy Ultimate Spider-Man title since day one. But he’s a slow, decompressed storyteller who relies on a lot of talking heads and domestic scenes, and he uproots long-running plot threads for his own plans.

The community buzzed with heartbreaking rumors that he would be wresting control of the entire X-line from beloved authors like Remender, Gillen, and Aaron, but this move is a total left-turn from there! Bendis gets a single X-book, with a time-displaced team of the original five X-Men made popular in every form of media – Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, and Jean Grey!

This is the best possible weapon for Bendis – fan favorite characters in a new context that’s not a side-universe. It lets him tell stories fans love without the interference they loathe.

Marvel is shaking up its existing architects, with four of them shuffling titles and Rick Remender seemingly replacing Ed Brubaker.

With Avengers vs. X-Men involving the reality-bending Phoenix Force fans have feared the worst for the post-event landscape; fans would riot if Marvel conducted a DC New 52 style full-line reboot. However, if this is the tone the soft relaunch of Marvel will be taking, it looks like readers will have plenty to celebrate.

Marvel’s development over the past few years has been steered by five major authors – Marvel Architects. Brian Michael Bendis on the entire Avengers line; Matt Fraction on Iron Man, Uncanny X-Men, Thor, and The Defenders; Jonathan Hickman’s ground-breaking run on Fantastic Four and cult Secret Warriors; Jason Aaron on Wolverine and his integration into X-Men, and Ed Brubaker on all things Captain America.

It looks like Brubaker is stepping down from his Architecture role, and Remender is stepping up! Meanwhile, a new class of fan favorites like Kieron Gillen, Ed McGuinness, Christoph Gage, and James Asmus has been racking up excellent runs and major sales. If Remender’s move to Uncanny Avengers is any indication it looks like this under-bill of writers is about to step into the spotlight.

Avengers & New Avengers flagship titles (2010 – present) – The Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide on collecting Avengers flagships comic books from 2010 to present, including Avengers & New Avengers, Avengers by Hickman, Avengers by Aaron, & Avengers by MacKay via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Comics – Guide to Marvel Comics. Last updated August 2024 with titles scheduled for release through March 2025.

In 2005, Marvel stopped publishing a comic called “Avengers” for the first time since 1963 in the wake of Brian Bendis’s “Avengers: Disassembled” event. In its place was his relaunched New Avengers, and later Mighty Avengers along with it.

That changed in 2010, when Marvel and Bendis launched the twin Avengers flagship books of Avengers (2010) and New Avengers (2010), each focused on a different element of the team – the heavy-hitters and the street-level characters. He would later add Avengers Assemble (2012) to focus on a movie-friendly team.

After that point, Avengers flagships continued into Jonathan Hickman’s relaunch of Avengers (2012) and New Avengers (2013), his Infinity (2013) event, the addition of Avengers World (2014), and the lead-up to his Secret Wars in 2015.

The return of the Marvel Universe launched with two flagship titles – All-New All-Different Marvel included Mark Waid’s All-New All-Different Avengers (2015) and Al Ewing’s New Avengers (2016). It later added David Walker’s Occupy Avengers (2016).

The refocus on classic characters and foes in Marvel Legacy saw those two flagship titles transform into Waid’s Avengers (2017) and Ewing’s U.S.Avengers (2017), culminating in the “Avengers: No Surrender” weekly event. (Some of the All-New team also spun out into Waid’s Champions (2017) – see Guide to The Champions.)

Then, Marvel Fresh Start kicked off with the launch of Jason Aaron’s lengthy run on Avengers (2018), which includes the Heroes Reborn (2021) event and tie-ins to Avengers / X-Men / Eternals: Judgment Day (2022). (While “Avengers: No Road Home” is listed below, for Savage Avengers see Guide to Conan the Barbarian).

This guide tracks all of those flagship Avengers titles from 2010 forward as well as supporting books and events tied closely to those titles and Avengers one-shots from those periods.

For Avengers+X-Men titles from 2010 to present, check out the Guide to Uncanny Avengers. Also, see Guide to Young Avengers, which includes both actual “Young Avengers” titles as well youthful or in-training teams like Avengers A.I. (2013).

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Collecting New Avengers (2005) as graphic novels

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide on collecting New Avengers (2005) comic books via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Collecting Avengers: A Definitive Guide. Last updated August 2024 with titles scheduled for release through May 2025.

Collecting New Avengers by Brian Bendis (2005 – 2010)

NAvgV01 - 0001 The Avengers no longer existed in the wake of Brian Bendis’s shocking Avengers Disassembled, but a breakout from The Raft super-villain prison brings together a team of unlikely allies – classic Avengers Captain America and Iron Man, but also long-time solo heroes like Spider-Man! As they cooperate to wrangle the villains and dig deeper into the mystery of their breakout, they quickly realize they are a team of new Avengers.

This title offered an ever-changing cast of heroes who gathered only to be splintered again and again by events like Civil War and Secret Invasion. Altogether, the series descends into one of Marvel’s darkest periods before it resolves back to a unified set of Avengers teams at the end of Seige.

Along the way, scribe Brian Michael Bendis makes some unlikely changes to the Avengers franchise – Wolverine and Spider-Man join the team, and Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Spider-Woman, and Dr. Strange all become fixtures. In fact, after Civil War splinters the team and discards Iron Man and Ms. Marvel there are hardly any “classic” Avengers on the team, save for a disguised Hawkeye!

With the launch of this series, Marvel began the practice of releasing an initial “Premiere Hardcover” of each run before offering a trade paperbacks, meaning that there are always two editions of the same book with the same issues collected. Then, later, Marvel issued “Deluxe Hardcovers”to collect multiple editions of the original hardcovers (which quickly fall out of print). Finally, some single issues are also featured elsewhere as a part of event tie-ins or creation collections.

There are several options for collecting this run of New Avengers:

Collecting The Avengers Vol. 2 (1996-1997) & Vol. 3 (1998-2005) as graphic novels

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide on collecting Avengers comic books from 1996 to 2005 – including Heroes Reborn and Avengers by Busiek & Pérez – via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Comics – Guide to Marvel Comics. Last updated August 2024 with titles scheduled for release through December 2024.

Avengers: Reborn and Disassembled

This run continues from Avengers (1963) – see Guide to Avengers (1963 – 1996) for collection details.

In 1996, The Avengers were presumed dead at the hands of Onslaught in the Marvel Universe, but they were just hidden – trapped in a pocket dimension without realizing they had been removed from their own reality. This was an attempt by Marvel to revitalize some of their most-established (but not especially popular) properties by handing them to the creators who left them for Image Comics.

The experiment was short-lived, but Marvel took advantage of the heroes return to restart The Avengers third volume in 1998 with a bang – they brought in Kurt Busiek and classic DC artist George Perez.

The series remains popular to this day, as does the following run by Geoff John. However, Marvel hasn’t shown any recollection love to the two Chuck Austen stories that followed prior to Brian Bendis thoroughly disassembling the franchise to launch New Avengers. [Read more…] about Collecting The Avengers Vol. 2 (1996-1997) & Vol. 3 (1998-2005) as graphic novels