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 #1 - "Once An Avenger..."
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 #6 - ""
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 #11 - "...Always An Avenger"
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 #12 - "Old Entanglements"
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 #13 - "Lords & Ladies"
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 #14 - "Hi, Honey... I'm Hooooome!"
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 #15 - "Threefold Path"
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 #16 - "Mistaken Identity"
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 #17 - "Cage Of Freedom"
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 #18 - "The Battle For Imperion City"
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 #19 - "This Evil Renewed"
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 #20 - "This Evil Unfolding"
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 #21 - "This Evil Unveiled"
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 #22 - "This Evil Triumphant!"
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 #23 - "Showdown"
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 #24 - "Harsh Judgements"
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 #25 - "The Ninth Day"
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 #26 - ""...Under Cover of Night!"
Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger(!) are the artists. A group of B-list Avengers are recruited by Captain America to perform a cloak and dagger mission against the Triune Understanding. Johnathan Tremont goes a little loopy. Captain America turns out to be Taskmaster and the B-listers' mission is publically exposed, casting the Avengers in a very bad light. Not a bad issue, but the way the Avengers are being black-balled is a little hard to swallow. They're the world's protectors, for pity's sake-if they say they were framed, you'd think they'd be given the benefit of the doubt!
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 #27 - "New Order"
Justice and Firestar leave as the media backlash against the team continues. Wonder Man goes off to spend time in LA with The Beast. Thor refuses to apologise for smashing up a tv camera and also leaves. Lots of stuff about positive discrimination and racism, and She Hulk rejoins the team (Hurrah!). This issue-based conflict between the Avengers and the Triunes got a little stodgy, so it's nice to see it resolved, after a fashion.
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 #28 - "The Death Song of Kulan Gath Part 1: Long Shadows of Forgotten Spires"
Odd happenings in South America. The Avengers are engaged in publicity stunts, and Triathlon is being antsy. Junior member Silverclaw is called to South America and brings the Avengers into some weird magical realm where everything is not quite right. Turns out that a wizard called Kulan Gath is causing trouble and that Silverclaw's mother, a local god (!) is in some trouble. This is an odd storyline which doesn't quite work, but has a fun Silver Age feel to it and great art from George Perez.
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 #29 - "The Death Song of Kulan Gath Part 2: A Dream of Bitter Ash"
More of the Silverclaw/Kulan Gath arc. Not a lot happens, with the Avengers sneaking into Gath's fortress, getting into a bar brawl, then getting captured. Gath explains his nefarious scheme, and that's it. Good art from George Perez, Al Vey and Dick Giordano, decent writing from Busiek. Also, She Hulk's in it, and that's ALWAYS a good thing.
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 #30 - "The Death Song of Kulan Gath Part 3: Conclusion!"
A big fight as The Avengers fight Kulan Gath, and Silverclaw realises her destiny as a divine protector of her people. All is happily resolved as Gath is sucked into a vortex, and Silverclaw decides not to bother being a god and goes back to college. Yellowjacket turns up at the end, having helped the team without their knowledge throughout the entire story.
The Kulan Gath arc has been well put together, but has lacked excitement.
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 #31 - "And So It Begins..."
Something's wrong with Giant Man, but no one knows what. Triathlon and She Hulk train together and flirt. Wonder Man never returned from LA (where he'd been starring in the awful Avengers Two miniseries alongside X-Men's Beast). The Avengers are alerted to a meeting of the Maggia (Marvel's super-mafia) by aa AWOL Vision, who rejoins the team for the mission. The Grim Reaper is working for someone who wants to take over the Maggia and has a special interest in Madame Masque, Iron Man's ex. Masque commits suicide after giving IM a cryptic message. Another slightly dull plot, but Perez is back as a full-time artist (after a number of issues with at least two "Finishers" added to the art credits) to make it look good. The Grim Reaper is a bloody absurd villain.
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 #32 - "Behind the Masque!"
She Hulk leaves (Boo! Hiss!), Black Widow arrives. There's lots of flashbacking concerning Madame Masque, who may not be dead. Giant Man's at the briefing, but another Hank Pym is in a bar brawl at Columbia University. Tension develops between the Triune Understanding and Triathlon, who's beginning to feel at home with The Avengers. The team ambush The Grim Reaper as he and an army attack Madame Masque's hideout. Then Count Nefaria turns up with Wonder Man and Thunderbolt's Atlas in tow. The Avengers cack their pants, apart from Triathlon, who doesn't know who Nefaria is.
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 #33 - "Tainted Love"
The real Madame Masque hums and has about helping the Avengers fight Nefaria, since they're not doing too well. Giant Man throws a wobbly. The Vision somehow saves the day, and Nefaria for some reason decides not to bother capturing Masque after all and buggers off. The Grim Reaper is arrested, and Masque decides to help the team kill Nefaria. The story continues in Thunderbolts #44, but nothing is resolved there either, so it's back here in a month, folks!
A scrappy issue, with a lot of unclear storytelling, but improved a great deal by the presence of Nefaria. I like him. Energy-vampire powers aside, he strikes me as an evil Superman, which is always fun.
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 #34 - ""
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 #35 - ""
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 #36 - ""
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 #37 - ""
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 #38 - "Above And Beyond"
A Greek town is overrun by Hulk clones. Good art by
Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. New proactive stance for the team, as they go after villains even if they haven't done anything recently. Slightly dubious morally, but acceptable, since these guys are villains after all. Unfortunately, this great new idea is completely ignored from now on, serving only to give the team a brand new piece of equipment.
[Keen-eyed readers will spot an Avenger on the cover who isn't in the current team. All is revealed in #40]
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 #39 - "Condition: Green"
The Hulks attack. Giant Man screws up and almost gets everyone killed. This is because he's *not* Giant Man, but Yellowjacket.
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 #40 - "THOOM"
Avengers beat the Hulks with a bizarre plan, whilst Silverclaw fights Diablo (who turns out to be behind it all, for some unfathomable reason) in New York, and earns the respect of the team. Epilogue shows Kang ready to strike. The whole Hulk/Diablo plot is good fun, if a little lightweight, and Alan Davis really does make it look good.
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 #41 - "The High Ground"
Kang War Episode 1: Kang destroys the UN. Starts well. Good art again.
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 #42 - "No More Tomorrows"
Brilliant issue. Kang reveals that he's not trying to conquer the world at all, but rather that he's trying to save it from other threats. This is a nice twist on the usual formula, with Kang essentially acting like the Authority. Unfortunately, in the later stages of the plot, Kurt Busiek completely forgets this and makes Kang into a villain again. Superb art, especially in the bits that show the futures only Kang can protect us from.
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 #43 - "Global Presence"
Kang takes over the world while in Russia, the first of the threats Kang is supposed to be fighting appears and kills Captain America. Seriously. The fake Giant Man starts to wear the Yellowjacket costume and then faints.
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 Annual 2001 - "The Third Man/House Cleaning"
The real Giant Man is discovered, and the Avengers realise that both will die unless they can be reunited. They are forced to go to the Triune Understanding for help, where they discover that the cult is building a spaceship. The cult help to save Giant Man/Yellowjacket by doing some weird psychic therapy. This is essentially a Hulk story with Giant Man taking the place of Banner/Hulk, and doesn't do a lot to further the main plot.
A second "story" concerns Jarvis answering emails from the Avengers' national security advisor. Basically, it's an attempt to tie up some continuity issues. For those that are interested, this story clears up the problem of who exactly is wearing the Iron Man armour, whether or not Falcon is a mutant, and whether Cap's shield is made of adamantium or not.
[Marvel phased out the Annuals after this year's batch, choosing instead to simply release an extra issue of the regular title. This policy may change in the future.]
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 #44 - "Down Among The Dead Men"
Back to the Kang War. Thor and Firebird are the only survivors of the Russia attack. Thor goes mental because Captain America is dead and single-handedly sends the villain packing. Roman Catholic Firebird, seeing a "god" in action, begins to question her faith. Thor gets upset because he realises that his teammates can die and he cannot. Through some silly plot twist, all the dead Avengers come back to life. A good issue, with some interesting questions about religion and mortality. The art is crap for the most part (Davis has gone now), and the ending is stupid. But well worth it to see Thor have a hissy fit.
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 #45 - "Life During Wartime"
By now, Kang has become a conventional villain, and has forgotten he's supposed to be saving the world. The US military plots a fight back using Sentinels, and the Avengers join forces with the Deviants of Lemuria. Lots of chatting as the various members of the team get over their personal issues. The Master of the World (from Alpha Flight, apparently) decides to save the world from Kang, who's supposed to be saving the world from...
More crap art from Manuel Garcia.
[There is a faintly embarrassing letter from me on the letters page.]
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 The Ultron Imperative
A pointless bit of tosh. A bunch of different artists draw this, making it look stupid. Basically, this is intended to resolve the Ultron Unlimited plot, but in fact doesn't resolve anything and leads into an Iron Man story arc, where it's probably not resolved either. The Ultron/Alkhema plot described here is one of the threats Kang warned about in #42, by the way, which means it should be Kang saving the world from Ultron, but of course Busiek's forgotten completely about that rather important plot point.
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 #46 - "Absolute Mastery"
The Kang War continues in the background while the Avengers go after the Master. Garcia on art again. At this point, the comic deviates from the Marvel Universe continuity, because we've got the Master building walls around major cities, and the Hulk, Wolverine and Daredevil (among others) fighting in the front lines! The funny thing about this was that when I saw it going on, it made me realise that I didn't care that much about Marvel continuity, and that in fact Busiek is telling a better story by ignoring it! They do a good job of the "fighting on two fronts" idea, with nice cuts between the various battles. Oh, and Kang's son starts to fall for Warbird.
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 #47 - "In The Heart Of Battle"
Kang's son (Scarlet Centurion) helps Warbird to infiltrate the Master's base. Lots of flashbacks about Warbird and Kang's son, although it was a different version of the Centurion, apparently (all from
Volume 1 #197-200). Another one of the threats Kang is supposed to save the world from turns up at the end. A big, Borg-esque space pyramid.
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 #48 - "War Plan 'A'"
Kieron Dwyer on art, who's better than Garcia...just. One squad of Avengers attacks Kang, while another attacks the Master. Meanwhile, Thor continues to have doubts while he defends Eurpoe from Kang's armies. The Triune Understanding launch their craft, which kills or stuns most of the cult as it feeds off their psychic energy. The space pyramid is the "Triple Threat" they've been waiting to fight so off they go. The Avengers fail in their attack on Kang, so the US launches the Sentinels, and Kang promptly takes control of them and sends them to attack earth. Warbird kills the Master. Nothing really wrong with this issue, but since Busiek abandoned the interesting "Kang saves the world" idea this has become a very standard, and very dull "beat the villains" plot.
Reprinted (this is a "100 Page Monster") are Avengers Vol 1 #98-100, which are okay. It's a war between Asgard and Olympus.
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 #49 - "There Are No Words..."
One of the better silent issues. It's not really silent, since people speak and an awful lot blows up, so it's more like watching an action movie with the sound muted. But somehow it works so much better than most of the other silent issues. The Avengers see off the Sentinels, but Kang nukes Washington. Quite interesting since they must have been putting this together when Sep 11 happened.
It happens completely "off-screen" and isn't actually mentioned, but I think an important character dies in this issue. A later issue is devoted to remembering this character, which confused me a little as I couldn't remember him dying.
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 #50 - "Book Of Revelations"
This is when they start letting Dwyer do cover designs, and they're quite spiffing. This is essentially the origin of Triathlon, and his connection to the 3D Man and the Triune Understanding. It's all tied in with the space pyramid thing, and also ties in with a rubbish X-Men story that if you read it, you see actually has nothing to do with this plot at all. Triathlon, the 3D Man and the cult leader all turn out to be embodiments of some cosmic force of good that's obsessed with triangles. The cult guy goes mad and tries to take over the pyramid, but Triathlon (and the ghost of the 3D Man and his brother) stop him. It's all a bit complicated and hard to believe, but it's okay.
Oh, and Lord Templar and Pagan turn out to be the cult guy's brothers who he's absorbed into himself just as Triathlon has absorbed the 3D Man and his brother. Why the cult guy's brothers look like they do isn't explained.
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 #51 - "Prisoners: A Love Story"
Kang's won, and the superheroes are in jail. This is Wonder man and Scarlet Witch in a prison camp. More deviance from continuity, with the Fantastic Four in jail and Spidey and Wolverine on the run. A decent self-contained story, with a fun twist. Brent Anderson's on art and does a good job, but he makes Wonder Man look about sixty.
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 #52 - "Counter Attack"
A very Communist-esque cover this month. Kang War Epsiode Number I Don't Care. The Avengers fight back, now having control of the pyramid and the Master's fortress. Ivan Reis on art, and does a good job. Busiek's ill, apparently, which may explain why the plotting really goes downhill from here on in. The various armies that allied with Kang in #42 now turn on him, and as far as I know only one of them has any reason to do so. Oh well. The pyramid arrives just in time to stop Kang nuking everything, and Kang and Captain America put on virtual reality suits and have a holographic fight in orbit (I'm not kidding).
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 #53 - "The Last Castle"
Kang and CA fight, while the rest of the team attack Kang's ship. The cult guy shows a last bit of power, helps the Avengers break Kang's shields, then dies. Scarlet Centurion hesitates, allowing Warbird to destroy Kang's ship. Kang goes down with the ship. Dwyer's worst art so far, and Busiek's writing isn't much better.
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 #54 - "A Good Day To Die"
Kang crashes to earth and CA beats him up again. Avengers win. CA gives another wanky speech about how no one wins in war (except himself, obviously). Avengers are celebrated in street parties. Kang gets broken out of jail by his son. Kang reveals that he knew all about his son's betrayal and kills him. He also reveals that he wanted to conquer earth this last time as a retirement gift to himself (motive number three, which is different to both of his previous motives, and makes it look like Busiek's just making this up as he goes along). Because his son failed him, he can't retire. The End. This isn't very good, but the scene at the end with Kang and the Centurion is good. Kang's newest motive for taking over the world isn't as interesting as the first one ("I'm the only one who can save the world"), but at least it's better than the crap one given in #45 ("I'm just a standard megalomaniacal villain").
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 #55 - "The Last Farewell"
The world remembers the dead. Warbird gets away with murder (literally), with a minimum of moralising from Captain America. 3D Man, his brother and Triathlon go home, and the Vision starts fancying real women again. The rest of the issue is about the Avengers' government liason, who apparently died in #49, but it wasn't mentioned. Thor gets everyone drunk.
I suspect that incoming writer Geoff Johns didn't want to do anything with the liason character, so Busiek had to get rid of him. Realising that we hadn't seen him since #44, Busiek decided to kill him offscreen.
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 #56 - "Lo...There Shall Come An Accounting!"
Disco cover!!! Busiek writes his best issue since about #44. Here, the Avengers are visited by accountants. And that's it. A nice self-contained issue with some fun moments. X-Men's Beast pops in, as does She-Hulk and a very rude USAgent. Thor's all beardy. Drawn by Yanick Paquette, who did some Gen13, and does a good job here.
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