The Avengers have more than lived up to their appellation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. A pop culture phenomenon because of the MCU, the Avengers have been entertaining fans for sixty years. In those decades, creators have put out some of the greatest superhero stories of all time, epic stories with Marvel’s biggest heroes and villains.
With a history as storied as the Avengers, it can be hard to narrow down the best stories. Avengers history is a treasure trove, but even so, there are stories that stand out above the rest. These timeless classics are the best of the best.
10 Operation: Galactic Storm Is An Underrated Epic
For most fans, the ’90s are mostly a low point for the Avengers, but it wasn’t all bad. Both the beginning and end of the decade have some great Avengers stories and the best from the early ’90s is Operation: Galactic Storm. Running through Avengers, Avengers West Coast, and the various solo titles of team members, it had the Avengers get involved in a war between the Shi’ar and the Kree.
Taking a page from the “Kree-Skrull War”, Operation: Galactic Storm takes that story’s epic scale and dials it up to eleven. Touching on the morality of the Avengers fighting a war and delivering thrilling action, this story is a hidden gem.
9 Avengers (Vol. 1) #185-187 Take Scarlet Witch To Wundagore Mountain
Avengers #185-187, by writers David Michelinie, Mark Gruenwald, and Steven Grant, and artist John Byrne, digs into Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s origins and sends the team to Wundagore Mountain. Things get crazy there and the team has to deal with Scarlet Witch as her powers rage out of control.
This story is one of the first “crazy Scarlet Witch” stories and still one of the best. The epic of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s origins is a long and storied one, with this story representing a high point. There’s a murder’s row of talent on this story and it showcases one of the most iconic Avengers line-ups of all time, so there’s a lot to love.
8 Avengers: Avengers World Begins Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers Epic
Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers run is the best of the 21st century. The writer built an epic like few others, and it all kicked off in Avengers: Avengers World, with art by Jerome Opena and Adam Kubert. When Avengers go missing on a mission to an anomaly on Mars, Iron Man creates the largest team of Avengers ever to go after them and that’s only the beginning of what this story has in store for readers.
Avengers World goes for the jugular right from the beginning. Hickman is an amazing craftsman and it shows on every page of this opening story. On top of that, Opena and Kubert’s art is amazing, selling the larger-than-life stakes of this massive story.
7 Dark Avengers: Assemble Showcases A Very Different Avengers Team
Dark Avengers: Assemble, by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato Jr., is one of the highlights of Bendis’s long run on the Avengers’ books. In the aftermath of Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn is given the keys to the kingdom, assembling a team of powerful villains and putting them in familiar heroic mantles. Their first mission- stop evil sorceress Morgan Le Fay.
Dark Avengers took full advantage of everything Bendis did well and put it on display. The team is the most entertaining of his Avengers tenure, as befits a team of villains, and this story has some beautiful Deodato art. It has it all and gives readers a look at how the other side avenges.
6 Avengers Disassembled Showcased The Worst Day In Avengers History
Brian Michael Bendis’s first foray into the Avengers was Avengers Disassembled. Joined on art by David Finch, the story had a mysterious foe attacking the team, immediately drawing blood by killing Ant-Man and the Vision. Things only get worse from there, as the reserves assemble and the Avengers are caught up in one of their biggest battles.
Bendis’s time with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes definitely has its ups and downs but it started out wonderfully. This story is a sweeping Avengers epic and put the team back on the map in a huge way. it kicked off storylines that play out over the next few years and is a great read to boot.
5 Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War Was The First True Avengers Epic
The Avengers had always been Marvel’s foremost superhero team but Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War, by writer Roy Thomas and artist Neal Adams and John Buscema, eclipsed everything that came before it. When the ancient rivalry between the Kree and Skrull heats up again and the Earth is caught in the middle, the Avengers do their best to limit the damage to humanity and end the conflict.
Guest-starring Mar-Vell, the first Captain Marvel, this was the first big Avengers cosmic story. It’s a comic that has it all and is one that every fan of the team should read. It would provide the blueprint for Avengers stories in the future, with a grand scope that is still hard to top.
4 Avengers Forever Is Time Twisting Avengers Goodness
Avengers Forever, by writers Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern and artist Carlos Pacheco, is both an exciting Avengers story and a trip through the team’s history. Pitting a team of Avengers from the past, present, and future against machinations of the Time Keepers and Immortus, one of Kang the Conqueror’s many guises, it’s a story perfect for new and long time fans.
Avengers Forever sets out to both clean up the clutter of Avengers history and tell an amazing story, something it does very well in both respects. It’s an exciting story, one that will keep readers on the edge of their seats, and it has killer art. It’s the total package.
3 Avengers (Vol. 1) #4 Features The Return Of A Legend
Captain America is Marvel’s most inspiring hero but he wasn’t around for the beginning of Marvel’s Silver Age. Avengers (Vol. 1) #4, by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, changed all of that. Bringing the Golden Age icon into the present of the Silver Age and retconning his adventures to fit, it gave the publisher its greatest hero back.
Lee and Kirby are one of comics’ most iconic teams and that’s on full display for this one. This is a story that pretty much every Marvel fan needs to read at some point. Kirby helped co-create the Sentinel of Liberty in the Golden Age and his kinetic artwork in this issue proves why he’s considered one of the best.
2 Avengers: Under Siege Pit The Team Against The Masters Of Evil
Avengers: Under Siege, by writer Roger Stern and artist John Buscema, is a landmark Avengers story. Baron Zemo, desperate for revenge against the team, assembles the most powerful Masters of Evil roster ever and attacks the Avengers when they least expect it. The team finds themselves in a position they’ve never been in before, as the Masters hold all the cards.
Stern and Buscema’s classic is timeless. Featuring an all-star line-up of heroes and villains, it illustrates just how great a villain Zemo can be, as well as why the Avengers are so formidable. Their come from behind victory is the stuff of legend and this story plays it perfectly.
1 Avengers: Ultron Unlimited Is The Best Ultron Story Ever
Ultron is the Avengers’ greatest foe, his personal rivalry with the team fueling his hatred of humanity and spurring on his reprehensible deeds. Avengers: Ultron Unlimited, by writer Kurt Busiek and artist George Perez, presents his most heinous act, slaughtering the country of Slorenia in minutes, and the Avengers mobilizing to stop him.
Busiek and Perez’s run on the title is probably the best in recent memory, two amazing creators at the tops of their game and this story is its highlight. It’s the finest Ultron story of all, which puts it in rarefied air, and showcases everything that makes a great Avengers story work.
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