The Avenging Hour

We start off an Avengers miniseries that features a great cast of Avengers, with fan favorite Roger Stern in the writer's chair!  The cosmic storyline isn't great but the characterization is top notch!

Hokey smokes!  We have a real live professional on the podcast this week, and an incredibly talented one at that!  Alex Segura has written an Avengers story exclusively for Marvel Unlimited and we discuss it, but he has written so much more!  He's written many Marvel and DC characters, plus creator owned and Archie comics!  And then there's all of his novels, including Secret Identity an...

We talk about the end of the Nefaria Protocols, the big Avengers/Thunderbolts crossover!  And we are joined by author Jason Lady who helps us talk about these last Avengers issues by George Perez. You can find more information about Jason Lady's books at Jason R. Lady- Author of fantasy and sci-fi for young readers !  

It's the beginning of the Nefaria Protocols storyline, which begins the last storyline of George Perez's run on the title (sniff, sniff) and features so many fun characters!  Besides the Avengers we have the Thunderbolts, Count Nefaria, Madame Masque, the Grim Reaper and some various other fun B villains!    

We start off discussing a Patsy Walker centric annual that has some fun art and a surprise group of villains for a magic centered story.  And the Avengers are kind of in it as well!   And then we look at a special 1.5 issue by Roger Stern and Bruce Timm that tells an untold tale of the original team!

Its three issues by Roger Stern and Mark Bagley that team up two of the most fun Avengers (when they're together), Wonder Man and the Beast!  So this must be a slam dunk, right? Well, maybe not, unless you read and loved Wonder Man's solo series.  

We finish up the good tie in comic to the bad Avengers cartoon, where we see Dr. Doom and Jason's favorite villainous punching bag, the Collector!  

Back in the 1990's, Fox Kids decided to follow up their successful (and good) X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons with an Avengers one.  It was...not as successful.  However, the comic tie in is actually good and we discuss the first half of that series in this episode!

It's the conclusion of the Death Song of Kulan Gath, as Triathlon becomes more fully a part of the team and Silverclaw joins!  Is it in time to stop the end of the world?

We get a new team roster!  Lots of members quit, old members return and a new member is inducted!  And then we start a plotline revolving around a Conan the Barbarian villain and visit Silverclaw's home country (and her origin).  

We finish up the Domination Factor crossover with the Fantastic Four, where mysteries are revealed and time travel is the name of the game!

It's a crossover with the Fantastic Four!  Domination Factor is an eight-issue miniseries involving both teams and we're covering the first four parts of it this week!  And we've got writer/artist Jerry Ordway back for the Avengers issues!

We finish off the big return of the Exemplars, and then we have an issue without the regular team in it, which brings the Triune Understanding back to the forefront of the plot!

This week we see the matters between Wonder Man and the Vision come to the head and then the first part of a follow up to the crossover called The Eighth Day, which introduced the Exemplars!  Don't worry if you don't remember it...it wasn't an Avengers crossover and no one really remembers it.  

Ultron Unlimited wraps up this episode with one of the best panels in comics, and we discuss just how amazing this storyline is!

This week we start what John considers the best storyline of the Busiek/Perez issues, a run filled with a lot of great stuff!  It's Ultron Unlimited, one of the best uses of Ultron ever!  Watch the Avengers fight an Ultron at his most evil and vicious!  

We finish off the Jerry Ordway fill in and then we do a special Wizard issue that serves as a prelude to the next big plotline....Ultron Unlimited!!!

Loving the Kurt Busiek and George Perez issues?  Well, we've got a three issue fill in that we're starting today by writer/artist Jerry Ordway!  These issues guest star the Wrecking Crew, Monica Rambeau and the Black Knight!  It also stars an obscure villain from the 1970's!

We take a look back at what happened while the heroes were "dead' during Heroes Reborn and we learn a lot of secrets.  Characters who have been missing for years turn up and the biggest mystery surrounding Jarvis is finally solved!

We finish our tour of the MC2 universe with the alternate Avengers going to ANOTHER alternate reality to help defeat some familiar alternate foes.  Then we see the team go up against some enemies from around the MC2 universe!

We're moving through the rest of the A Next title, and we're introduced to a new mysterious villain who will be plaguing the team a little later.  We also find out the secret of Mainframe!  And we get an updated Sons of the Serpent, because we can never get away from racists, sadly.  Come join us!

The MC2 Universe continues to throw old characters we know at the Avengers as well as some new ones with connections to ones we know.  A fan of Doctor Doom or Hercules?  Then you're going to want to check out this episode!  (Non fans should check it out too.)

We continue looking at the Avengers of the MC2 Universe, where we get the return of the original Defenders and some new members for our team!

It's time for another side trip outside the regular Avengers series, and this time we're going to a completely different universe!  It's the MC2 Marvel Universe, or the Spider-Girl universe, since the entire thing is centered on her (although we won't be seeing her in this series).  This universe has their own team of Avengers, and even though they call themselves the Avengers,...

The Beast is back!!!  And the first issue also guest stars famous comic book characters Kurt Busiek and George Perez!  Then we learn more about the Triune Understanding with the return of Triathlon!