The Marvel Cinematic Universe brought the Avengers to the mainstream, and the world gave them billions of dollars. MCU fans love the Avengers and for good reason, the team combines the best heroes that Marvel has to offer, putting them together for missions against the most dangerous threats imaginable. The movies were able to capture the coolest parts of the Avengers and bring them to the big screen, and millions of people worldwide finally learned what comics fans have known for decades. The Avengers are all about big superhero adventures, and the MCU have brought those adventures to life.
However, MCU fans who only stay with the movies are missing out on a lot of Avengers goodness. The comics have lots of brilliant Avengers adventures, and there are some that MCU fans should definitely check out. These ten Avengers stories are the ones that MCU fans need to read, giving them a better understanding of just how epic the Avengers can be.
A great place for MCU fans to start with Avengers comics is New Avengers. This book premiered in 2005 and was Marvel’s most important comic for years. It’s not always the best idea to start at the beginning with superhero comics – this isn’t manga – and you won’t find too many early Avengers stories on this list. However, the best place to start New Avengers is the beginning, with the arc called “Breakout,” by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch. The story opens with a group of heroes visiting the supervillain prison known as the Raft. When Electro engineers a jail break, it’s up to these heroes to, well, assemble and save the day. Their investigation into the breakout leads them to the Savage Land, where they realize that things are way more complicated than they imagined.
New Avengers combined Avengers stalwarts like Captain America and Iron Man, Marvel heavyweights like Spider-Man and Wolverine, and B and C-listers like Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, and the Sentry. It’s a new day for the Avengers — hence the book’s name — and this story will hook readers who give it a chance. MCU fans will love it; the quippy humor and dialogue style were lifted whole cloth and dropped into the MCU, and the book delivers with its art and breathtaking action sequences. “Breakout” will open the door for years worth of Marvel stories for MCU-only fans. With New Avengers due for a reprint, MCU fans will soon be able to find this story very easily.
Silver Age Marvel comics aren’t always an easy recommendation for MCU fans to try. They are very different from what they’re used to and the style that they’re written in isn’t like modern day comics. However, for MCU fans who want the best Avengers stories, there’s one Silver Age book they should try, Avengers (Vol. 1) #4, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This is the issue that returns Captain America to the Marvel Universe for the first time in years. Frozen in a block of ice, he’s found by the Avengers during their long-running battle with Namor. Cap joins the team, truly making them into the Avengers.
This issue is also Lee and Kirby at their best. Kirby had co-created Cap way back in the 1940s and he brings such an energy to the character every time he appears on the page. The scene where Cap whips the Avengers in Iron Man’s sub is amazing, showing what a master can do with the comic medium. Lee’s dialogue perfectly captures the grandeur of this issue and its moments, making this bombastic single issue perfect for MCU fans.
Dark Avengers members Sentry, Moonstone as Ms. Marvel, Norman Osborn as Iron Patriot, Ares, Daken as Wolverine, and Bullseye as Hawkeye
New Avengers leads to several major event comics, including Secret Invasion, with the Skrull invasion concluding with Norman Osborn saving the day. The government, in control of the superhero community since Civil War, gives him the keys to the kingdom, which leads to Dark Avengers. The first story arc of that book is “Assemble,” by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr. Osborn brings together a group of villains — Moonstone, Daken, Venom, and Bullseye — puts them in the costumes of heroes — Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Hawkeye, respectively. He recruits Kree hero Noh-Varr, making him Captain Marvel, and keeps powerhouses Ares and the Sentry from the previous Avengers team.
This group doesn’t have much to do until Morgan Le Fay arrives from the past to go after Osborn’s ally Doctor Doom. “Assemble” is an Avengers tale unlike anything MCU fans have experienced before. It’s great to see the bad guys as heroes, and the story does a great job of capturing why they’re both good and bad at it. The Thunderbolts movie seems to be going in this direction, so reading it might also give MCU fans a glimpse into a possible MCU future. There’s some excellent humor and beautiful art in this one, and it will definitely impress MCU fans.
Avengers: Age of Ultron isn’t the most beloved Avengers movie, which is a tragedy. Ultron is one of the greatest Avengers villains, and the movie did a terrible job of showing why comics fans love him so much. If MCU fans want an amazing Ultron story, there’s one place to go – the classic Avengers tale known as “Ultron Unlimited,” by Kurt Busiek and the late great George Perez. This 1999 story featured the return of the mechanical menace, bringing him with an army of Ultron drones. Ultron destroys the country of Slorenia, and the Avengers, along with Black Panther, race into the ruins of the country to stop Ultron from taking his rampage across the world.
“Ultron Unlimited” shows why Ultron is one of the most dangerous Avengers villains of them all. MCU Ultron was funny; comic Ultron is chilling and this story shows why. Busiek and Perez are brilliant storytellers together and this is the best arc of their run — there are many out there who consider them the perfect Avengers creative team and for good reason. “Ultron Unlimited” is everything that Age of Ultron could have been, which makes it a must-read for MCU fans.
Avengers Forever, by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, and Carlos Pacheco, was a twelve issue maxiseries that premiered in 1998, and it’s an interesting beast. The story is a bit complicated, but that’s part of its charms. A team of Avengers is brought together from various eras in order to stop humanity being expunged from the timeline by Immortus and the Time Keepers. This leads to the Avengers making some strange alliances — the Kree Supreme Intelligence, the villain Libra, and Avengers archnemesis Kang all lend them a hand as they fight against the greatest threat to humanity ever.
Right off the bat, MCU fans will recognize things like Kang and the Time Keepers. This book showcases them brilliantly and in many ways is a tutorial on Avengers and Marvel history for newcomers. The book digs into Avengers history, explaining everything a reader needs to know to not feel lost. It’s a massive cosmic adventure, perfect for a MCU fans who wants to see some wild Avengers adventures all while learning a lot about the history of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Avengers Forever has it all – great art, amazing writing, and it’s completely new reader friendly – which makes it perfect for MCU fans.
MCU fans got enjoy what the Avengers are all about when it comes to cosmic shenanigans in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, but that was just a taste compared to the comics. In the source material, the Avengers are known throughout the universe, and the best Avengers stories remember that. This brings us to the work of writer Jonathan Hickman, who gave readers a brilliant multi-year run on the Fantastic Four and then took over the Avengers. Hickman’s first Avengers story – “Avengers World” with artist Jerome Opena – set truly universal stakes for the team. A disturbance on Mars sees a team of Avengers captured, leading Iron Man to activate what he calls “The Avengers Machine,” bringing together the biggest and most powerful roster for the group ever.
A nearly perfect Avengers story, “Avengers World” pits the team against a powerful new threat, assembles a massive team of heroes, and gives readers some awesome action scenes, all while blowing their mind with some brilliant superhero sci-fi. The story dropped right after 2012’s The Avengers, and was written with bringing movie fans into the comics in mind, which will definitely help MCU fans get into it. “Avengers World” will give MCU fans a totally new Avengers experience, one they never knew they needed.
Kang the Conqueror is one of the greatest Avengers villains of all time, with only Ultron challenging him for the mantle of the greatest. There are a lot of brilliant Kang stories out there, but the one that MCU fans should give a try is “Kang Dynasty,” by Kurt Busiek, Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer, Ivan Reis, and Manuel Garcia. Kang arrives in the past with his son Marcus and decides to get serious about taking over the world. The villain is able to succeed, with only the Avengers left standing to try and take the world back from their time traveling foe.
“Kang Dynasty” is a sixteen part story, making it the longest on this list, and it’s entertaining on every page. Kang is such a great villain and MCU fans barely got to spend any time with him, with “Kang Dynasty” showing off just how dangerous he can be. This story marks the first time that a villain actually physically took over the world in the mainline Marvel Universe, a tremendous feather in the cap of Kang. The MCU was almost certainly going in this direction before the controversy surrounding Jonathan Major ended any hope of Kang returning, so this story will give MCU fans an idea of exactly what might have been.
Uncanny Avengers was a very different kind of Avengers series. It came in the wake of Avengers Vs. X-Men, a war between the two teams over the Phoenix Force. Afterwards, both sides agree to work with each other more and that led to the formation of the Avengers Unity Squad in “The Red Shadow,” by Rick Remender and the late John Cassaday. They first come together against mutant villain Avalanche, but that’s only the beginning, as they find themselves next facing one of the greatest villains on the planet: Red Skull. However, this Red Skull is very different and the Avengers Unity Squad’s unity is going to prove to be either their greatest weapon or their biggest weakness.
The Uncanny Avengers roster has some heroes that MCU fans will know and some they won’t, but their interplay as a group is always entertaining. On top of that, it’s one of the better Red Skull stories of the last few decades, which makes it perfect for an MCU fan that wants to see exactly why Red Skull is such a big deal in the Marvel Universe. This is a unique Avengers experience, and it will show MCU fans a side of the team that they’ve never seen before.
“The Kree-Skrull War,” by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, Sal Buscema, and John Buscema, was the first major cosmic Avengers stories and remains one of the best over half a century later. The Kree and Skrull empires had been fighting an interstellar war for millennia, one that spills over into Earth as each race tries to jump start their evolution using humans for the purpose of defeating their sworn enemies. The Avengers stand between the Earth and the warring aliens, embroiling themselves in a situation unlike anything they’d even been in.
“The Kree-Skrull War” is classic Avengers at its finest, featuring three of Marvel’s greatest artists – the Buscemas and Neal Adams. Roy Thomas was Stan Lee’s protege, and he’s honestly a much better writer than Lee, especially for the Avengers, which definitely helps this story. MCU fans have heard of the war between the Kree and the Skrull, so getting to see the Avengers deal with it will be a treat for them.
“Under Siege,” by Roger Stern and John Buscema, shows the Avengers at their lowest. Baron Zemo brings together the biggest roster of the Masters of Evil ever and unleashes his veritable army of supervillains on the Avengers. The Masters are able to take over Avengers Mansion and beat the Avengers at every turn, forcing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to dig deep in order to defeat their foes.
The Avengers are a powerful force, but they aren’t perfect, and that’s what makes “Under Siege” so compelling. The Masters of Evil beat the Avengers at their own game, using a foolproof plan as well as overwhelming power to completely decimate the Avengers. It’s perfect for MCU fans who want to see the Avengers at their best and their worst. It’s awesome to see the team struggle but still find the power to win. After “Under Siege,” MCU fans will see the team in an all-new light.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe brought the Avengers to the mainstream, and the world gave them billions of dollars. MCU fans love the Avengers and for good reason, the team combines the best heroes that Marvel has to offer, putting them together for missions against the most dangerous threats imaginable. The movies were able to capture Read More