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The link to Scott’s list appears to be broken.

Avengers Day debuted in Avengers v.1 #22, not #45.

To clarify…it was declared by the Marvel Universe New York City government on the last page of #22, but we never actually saw it celebrated until #45.

Thanks for the good word, Brian. I certainly welcome all comments on my list; tomorrow I will be posting a response to address any questions or concerns people have and explain why specific stories did or didn’t make the list, so if you think there’s something on the list that sucks or something missing form the list that’s awesome, by all means, let me know. I’m always open to the possibility, however incredibly remote, that I may be wrong. And after all, debating these things is (usually) part of the fun of being a comics fan.

I’ll also be explaining in more detail tomorrow why Bendis is missing form my list, but the short version is that I think it’s too soon to really get an accurate read on his stuff. People are still so worked up about him even now that the haters unfairly devalue everything he does while his fanboys hype his work beyond all reason. Five or ten years from now I think we’ll be able to get an objective view of his Avengers stuff but right now I think it’s still too early. I also think his writing strengths don’t lend themselves to either the kind of epic superhero work that has traditionally been the Avengers strength — as his best work in my opinion is smaller scale character work — nor to lists like this, as he has a very Chris Claremont style of blending one storyline into the next. Which pulls readers along very nicely but doesn’t make it easy to define specific stories or storylines; I think you almost have to judge his New Avengers as a whole, which is a bit outside the scope of this sort of list.

But hey, if you feel strongly about a Bendis story, by all means, feel free to make your case and convince me I’m wrong. I’m happy to consider making changes if necessary.

Regarding Avengers Day, it’s interesting to note that Avengers Day doesn’t appear to be an annual celebration in the MU but rather seems to be a spontaneous event that is declared occasionally by the city of New York as a reaction to various fights or whatever. In other words, it’s less like the 4th of July and more like a Super Bowl victory parade. In Avengers #22 it’s in response to the Avengers clearing their name of false charges against them that the city and media had blown up out of proportion, so they are kind of trying to smooth things over. In Avengers #45, though, it’s to celebrate the Avengers saving the world from the Mandarin in Avengers Annual #1.

I wonder how many Avengers Days were celebrated in the MU that weren’t shown on panel? Did it become a regular thing to the point where the Avengers just stopped showing up and it was only fanboys? Or did they city just get tired of throwing parades every time the Avengers saved the world?

By the way, this has nothing to do with anything, but Cap isn’t exactly the picture of politeness after the team clears its name in Avengers #22. Quicksilver of all people tries to smooth things over with him regarding the team disbanding in #21; Cap’s response?

“I’ve played straight man to you jokers long enough! You can get yourself another clown! Now that our names are cleared, I’m kissin’ you off!”

Captain America: the A on his apparently stands for asshole.

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Bah, you’re all taking the deep religious significance out of Avengers Day. CAPTAIN AMERICA DIED FOR YOUR SINS!

( And came back, but still… )

Whatever happened to the Super Adaptoid? He was one of my favorite villains back in the day.

Along with the Nazi Sleeper robots.

Surely there are a dozen or so more buried somewhere in America.

Just waiting for Cap and Batroc to defeat them!

Well, somehow AIM transformed a new Black Widow (not Natasha) into a new Super Adaptoid in New Avengers Annual #1. (By Bendis, of course.) She ended up exploding into a pile of goo. (Interestingly, everyone blamed the Sentry, who had to insist he had nothing to do with it. I guess even then they suspected what he was capable of.)
I have no idea what happened to the old Adaptoid. Last I saw, he had gathered a group of robots to form a team called Heavy Metal, but that story wasn’t very good, so I didn’t get the next issue.

I didn’t know Wanda’s hair was black back then. I have #150, which reprints most of #16, and a caption refers to her as ‘a black-haired beauty’, but she’s pictured with the same auburn hair you normally see. Did they re-colour it, but forget to change the caption?

Mary, there should be a slight correction in your comment. The Heavy Metal story was awesome, not “wasn’t very good.” Otherwise I agree with your post.

(Ok, it was awesome by my 6th or 7th grade standards, which basically boiled down to “A bunch of robots teamed up to fight the Avengers? Awesome!” But whether it stands the test of time or not, I’m sticking with awesome.)

I liked the idea of all these loose robots teaming up, I just didn’t think it worked out well as it was written. So I gave up after part three. All I remember is that the Adaptoid contacted the Cosmic Cube, which had mutated into some weird being by this point.

For me, the Heavy Metal storyline is cool, but not great, in part because it was halfway through this arc that Roger Stern was kicked off the title, still one of the worst editorial decisions Marvel has ever made. The story does get major bonus points for the ending, where Captain America talks the Adaptoid into proving he can do anything a human does by dying. It went something like this:

Cap: For all your big talk, mister, you can never truly replace humans because you’re an android. You can’t understand humanity because you can’t die.

Adaptoid: Ha, you’re wrong. I can di–!

*adaptoid drops dead*

The end.

The ending is also a nice call back to Avengers #68 when Hank Pym defeats Ultron by quoting some lines about love, causing Ultron to short circuit as he is unable to understand the concept.

Robots, amirite?

A fun list, Scott Harris. A few random thoughts:

1.Epochocentrism: I think that there is something to be said for deciding not to evaluate work that is both controversial and temporally close to us. Charles Murray did something similar in his HUMAN ACCOMPLISHMENT when he excluded from evaluation anything created post-1950.

2. Red Hair: Mary Warner, if memory serves, the Black Widow went from brunette to redhead when she changed from her hideous original costume to her Emma Peel derived catsuit. I don’t think that any explanation was ever offered, either. The retcon explanation is that she dyed her hair black for a while.

3. Scott Harris: Wasn’t there an issue of the AVENGERS where Scott (Ant-Man) Lang was mistakenly called Scott Harris?

Indeed there was, it was Avengers #196, the first full appearance of Taskmaster.

I’ve posted the wrap-up to my list, where I answer reader questions about my choices and discuss the stories that didn’t make the list and why:

http://comicsvault.blogspot.com/2010/05/greatest-avengers-stories-ever-wrap-up.html

Thanks all.

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