Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 2

Reprints Fantastic Four #241-250
Written, penciled and inked by John Byrne.

Summary:
The Fantastic Four are sent by SHIELD director Nick Fury to the African nation of Wakanda to investigate a "power pocket." They're accompanied by Human Torch's girlfriend Frankie Ray, who has recently discovered that she has powers similar to those of the Human Torch.

Wakanda's King T'Challa, also known as the Black Panther, joins the FF on this task. Shortly after their expedition begins, the heroes are captured and taken to an underground city that resembles Ancient Rome.

It's ruled by a man who calls himself Emperor Gaius Tiberius Agustus Agrippa. Gaius de-powers the Fantastic Four and takes them prisoner. He plans to make the Invisible Girl his queen. But if the Fantastic Four are to survive, only Sue can save them.

Next up, Galactus' herald Terrax attacks New York. He is trying to break free of Galactus and takes Manhattan hostage, taking it into outer space. He demands that the Fantastic Four battle Galactus for him.  

In the middle of this battle, Galactus arrives and easily disposes of Terrax. Galactus needs nourishment and decides to consume Earth's energies. The FF attack him and they're assisted by Doctor Strange, Captain America, Wasp, Iron Man and Thor. The heroes are successful in defeating him, but the Big G is near death. Before they can appreciate their victory, Reed makes a controversial decision to save Galactus.

But the ravager of worlds is not grateful to Earth. Galactus needs to feed on the planet and is preparing to do so. But Frankie Raye steps forward and offers an alternative to Galactus: if he spares Earth, she will serve as his new herald. The Fantastic Four are opposed to this, especially Johnny Storm. Frankie becomes cosmically powered and is now called Nova. She leaves Earth to find planets Galactus can feed upon. The Human Torch is devastated by Frankie's departure.

Sometime later, Sue returns to the Baxter Building and finds Ben and Reed unconscious. She discovers Johnny being attacked by a man she doesn't recognize. With her teammates out of commission, the Invisible Girl will have to go it alone against an extremely powerful foe. She will be shocked when she learns the identity of her opponent.

Subsequently, The Fantastic Four visit the Latverian Embassy so they can deliver the body of Doctor Doom, since their last battle ended with Doom in suspended animation. Doom regains consciousness and transports the FF to Latveria. For once, Doom is not trying to destroy them, but is seeking help from the Fantastic Four. The heroes recently helped the Latverian resistance movement overthrow Doom's rule of their tiny nation. Zorba, rightful monarch of Latveria, took power of the country.

However, under Zorba's rule, the country has fallen apart. Crime is rampant and Latverians are starving. Zorba's response has been a declaration of martial law, with Doom's old robots serving as Latveria's new secret police force. Doom says that the Fantastic Four owe it to Latveria to help him regain his throne.

They're reluctant at first, but after seeing the plight of Latveria, the Fantastic Four join forces and help Doctor Doom, since they feel partially responsible for Latveria's plight. Can the FF and Doom succeed in overthrowing Zorba?

Following the events in Latveria, the Fantastic Four fly to the moon to visit their old friends the Inhumans. They've been invited to the naming ceremony for Crystal and Quicksilver's infant daughter. All is well, until the entire surface of the moon is taken captive by a giant alien.

This creature is so huge that it is unaware that the FF and Inhumans are present. How can the Fantastic Four hope to defeat a being that is 1000 miles tall?!

When they return to Earth, New York is attacked by Gladiator, the alien Shi'ar warrior who has battled against and alongside the X-Men in the past. Gladiator's spaceship was driven off its course, which forced him to land on Earth. He mistakenly thinks he's arrived on the Skrull homeworld. The FF show up to stop him, but they're easily defeated by Gladiator.

But as soon as Gladiator has dispatched one team of heroes, another arrives to confront him: the Uncanny X-Men! But appearances can be deceiving.

Plus, Spider-Man and Captain America arrive to help the Fantastic Four deal with Gladiator!

Review:
Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 2 contains some great material written and drawn by one the Bronze Age's greatest storytellers. I remember buying some of these fresh off the spinner racks and I've enjoyed these tales for more than three decades.

Story:
We start off with a good done-in-one story guest starring the Black Panther. It's a nice nod to the Panther's early appearances in The Fantastic Four. In early issues written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby, stories were often broken into chapters. Byrne brings that back here, making it feel like a Silver Age tale told with a Bronze Age sensibility.

A great three-part Galactus story follows. Byrne shows that being heroes makes you do things that sometimes seem antithetical to heroism, like saving the life of Galactus. While Terrax is certainly a bad guy, Byrne reminds readers that Terrax became Galactus' herald when he was forcibly recruited by the FF.

This portion also contains a nice brief scene where Spider-Man and Daredevil, Marvel's "street level" heroes, decide that fighting Terrax and Galactus is above their pay grade.  

The book ends with the great Gladiator battle. Gladiator was created as an analog to Superman and Byrne shows that Gladiator should be considered one of Marvel's heaviest hitters, up there with Hulk, Thor and Juggernaut. Gladiator makes mincemeat of the Fantastic Four in the first round of their battle.

While most of this book features very serious drama and action, Byrne also finds time for some lighter, humorous moments. For instance, the scene below-right, where Reed shows off his new re-usable Christmas Tree:

And I still smile at the Thing's "Indian Jones" costume!

There are some stories contained in this tpb that aren't great. The essential message of the Doctor Doom story is that some countries are better off being ruled by totalitarian dictators. My academic background is in history and political science. I try to not to take comic book stories too seriously, but I've always had a problem with this story and can't endorse that idea. I figure Byrne just wanted to return Doom to his status quo of Latverian monarch and this was how he decided to pull that off.

The story from FF #245 begins with five pages of Sue debating a talk show host about her powers and her decision to take Reed's last name. It doesn't really add anything to the story.

The Inhumans story also isn't that great. It's one of those "it was all just a dream" tales and it isn't exactly essential FF material.  

But on the whole, these are great stories and Byrne's love for the characters shines through on every page.

Art:
Byrne pencils and inks every panel of Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 2 and all of it looks great. 

This scene here, where Gladiator punches the Thing through 8 cars is a nice example of how great Byrne's art looks in this tpb!:

And Spider-Man's guest appearance near the end of the book gives us this gorgeous splash page that features the wallcrawler:

On the bottom left panel of the second page, Byrne draws a nice homage to the cover of Amazing Fantasy # 15, which featured Spidey's first appearance:

Byrne's art is wonderful to behold from start to finish. It looks great in this glossy tpb.

How does it look?:

It looks great, here's a scan from a copy of Fantastic Four #250:

This is how the same pages look in the reprint:

Extras:
I'm not sure this really counts as an "extra," but Fantastic Four #250 ended with a pinup of the FF penciled by Byrne, that's included in the back of this tpb.

Rating:
Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 2 features mostly good stories and art that still looks, dare I say it, fantastic 35 years after it was originally published. If you're a fan of John Byrne's art, this book is must-read, since these stories never looked better.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7

Reprints Uncanny X-Men #151-159, X-Men Annual #5, Avengers Annual #10

Written by Chris Claremont.

Penciled by Dave Cockrum, Michael Golden, Brent Anderson, Bob McLeod, Jim Sherman and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Inked by Josef Rubinstein, Bob McLeod, Armando Gil and Bob Wiacek. 

Carol Danvers, the Avenger known as Ms. Marvel is attacked and left for dead in San Francisco Bay. She's rescued by Spider-Woman and taken to the X-Men's mansion. Their leader Professor X hopes to rehabilitate Carol.

We later learn that Ms. Marvel was defeated by Rogue, an evil mutant who has the power to temporarily absorb superpowers by merely touching superheroes. She has stolen Ms. Marvel's powers and memories. Rogue touched Danvers for too long and has permanently absorbed the powers.  

Rogue is the newest member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, a team of super-powered criminals that previously battled the X-Men. She and team leader Mystique team up to break their teammates out of prison. Thankfully the Avengers learn of the Brotherhood's plans and battle the villains. However, the odds are stacked against them, since Rogue has already taken out Captain America and Thor. Can the Avengers overcome the Brotherhood?!  

Subsequently, three members of the Fantastic Four are captured by the alien race known as the Badoon. The lone FF-er left is Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl. She goes to the X-Men for help rescuing her teammates. The X-Men and Sue are assisted in the fight with the Badoon by their friend Arkon!

When the X-Men return to Earth, they receive some shocking news: their youngest member, Kitty Pryde, is being removed from Xavier's school and transferred to Massachusetts Academy! It's a plot concocted by the X-Men's foe Emma Frost, AKA the White Queen, who serves as the Academy's headmaster. She's used her mental powers to coerce Kitty's parents into sending her to the Academy. 

When Storm takes Kitty to the new school, Emma zaps Ororo with a gun that causes them to swap minds and powers. In Storm's body, the White Queen leads an attack on the X-Mansion with the help of her Hellfire Club teammates and several mutant-hunting Sentinels!

Later, the X-men are relaxing at the mansion, but Colossus' sister Ilyanna is having trouble getting to sleep. Kitty Pryde tells Ilyanna a fantastical fairy tale where the X-Men are pirates and wizards!

After that, Storm and Cyclops are having a quiet dinner at the mansion when a spaceship crashes outside. Inside the ship they find Corsair of the Starjammers, who also happens to be Scott's father. Corsair is being chased by Sidrian hunters from space. The heroes escape and defeat the hunters, but the X-Mansion is destroyed in the process.  

Cyclops, Storm and Corsair are beamed aboard a Shi'ar spaceship. Their friend Lilandra, empress of the Shi'ar, has been kidnapped and taken to Earth. Acting Shi'ar leaders Araki and Samedor tell the X-Men that if Liliandra is not rescued, Earth will be destroyed. When they return to Earth, the X-Men learn that Lilandra's sister Deathbird is behind the kidnapping. The heroes battle Deathbird and her allies, the Brood. Colossus is severely injured in the fight and is near death.  

It turns out that the Deathbird is receiving help from within the inner circle of the Shi'ar Empire itself! While most of the X-Men are battling the Brood, it's up to Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler to save the day and discover who has betrayed Lilandra. Things get even more complicated when it appears that Dark Phoenix has returned from the dead!

Back on Earth, the X-Men learn that anti-mutant sentiment is on the rise. They fear that any information the government has on the team will be used against them. Wolverine, Storm, and Carol Danvers sneak into the Pentagon to erase the X-Men's file from the DOD computers. However, things don't go as planned when Rogue and Mystique also show up at the Pentagon. Can Storm and Wolverine keep their foes tied up long enough for Carol to erase the files?  

Finally, the X-Men visit their friend Misty Knight's apartment in New York City. Misty is away, but her new housemate, fashion designer Harmony Young, welcomes the heroes. When Storm goes out for a walk in Manhattan and doesn't return right away, the rest of the team, especially Kitty, grows worried. They are shocked when they learn that Ororo has fallen under the power of Dracula, lord of vampires! Can even the combined might of the X-Men defeat Dracula?   

J.A. Morris says:

I first read these stories when they were brand new back in 1981-82 and have always had mixed feelings about them.  

Story:

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 opens with a reprint of Avengers Annual #10, which was written by Chris Claremont. This story introduced future-X-Man Rogue and it's an absolute classic. The Brotherhood takes out half of the Avengers before the main battle even begins. Rogue is depicted as being extremely dangerous and powerful. She defeats Ms. Marvel, Captain America, and Thor in her first appearance! The X-Men's role is limited in the story, but it sets up the subplot of Carol Danvers living in the X-Mansion to get help from Professor X with regaining her memories.  

This story is also famous for righting wrongs that were done to Ms. Marvel in Avengers #200 (I'll go into more details about that in a forthcoming review).

Next up is a reprint from another annual that features the X-Men teaming up with the Fantastic Four and Arkon to fight the Badoon. I've never been a big fan of the Badoon who are rather generic green aliens (I've always seen them as skrulls without the ability to shape-change) or Arkon, who is basically an outer-space version of Conan the Barbarian. Not a great story and the presence of the Fantastic Four doesn't add much of interest.

The Hellfire/Sentinels story is okay, but not particularly memorable. It's a typical mind-swapping story.

Kitty Pryde's fairy tale is another high point and has long been a fan favorite. It's basically a simplified version of the Dark Phoenix saga told in a pirates/wizards setting. It might not be an "essential" X-Men tale, but it's charming and fun.  

The bulk of Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 is taken up by a four-part story involving Lilandra, Deathbird and the Starjammers. It goes on for too long and the stakes are so huge (Earth being destroyed) that we never believe the X-Men will fail. Colossus' critical injury doesn't add much to the story either. I don't know how most X-Fans feel about the Shi'ar, but I never found them very interesting. I feel the same way about Deathbird.  

This story is important for one reason: the introduction of the Brood. These alien "sleazoids" first seem to be nothing but hired thugs working for Deathbird, but they would become a major adversary of the X-Men shortly after this.  

Kitty plays around with a Shi'ar costume-making machine!

The Rogue and Dracula stories that end the book are both pretty good. A nice way to finish a book of inconsistent stories.

Art:

The art is generally better than the stories contained in this Masterworks book.  

Michael Golden penciled (with inks by Armando Gil) the Avengers/Brotherhood adventure and it looks gorgeous. Here's a nice example of Golden's work:

Armando Gil provides nice embellishment to Golden.

Brent Anderson provided art for the Badooon story and Hellfire Club tale, respectively. They both bring some nice Marvel house style art to this book.  

Dave Cockrum drew most of Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 and fans of his work will be pleased. He obviously loved drawing pirates and pirate-influenced costumes. This is readily evident in the costumes worn by the X-Men in Kitty's fairy tale and the Starjammers, who are "space pirates." 

Cockrum's most interesting design is the Acanti, a race of alien space whales who the Brood use as living spaceships.   

Bill Sienkiewicz drew the Dracula story and it looks great. At this point in his career, Sienkiewicz was transitioning from his "Neal Adams"-influenced style to the more abstract pencils. So we get a great combination of his early and later art.  

How Does It Look?:

Here's a two-page spread of the Acanti as it appeared in Uncanny X-Men #156:

It looks like this in Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7:

Extras:

This book contains four pages of original art plus a Crazy Magazine cover that features the X-Men.  

Rating:

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 contains some stories I've loved for years. I'm happy to see the Avengers annual, the fairy tale, and the Dracula story get reprinted in the Masterworks format. But this book gets otherwise bogged down in mediocrities like the Deathbird story and the Hellfire two-parter. Hardcore Dave Cockrum fans might enjoy the book a bit more than others.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

2.5 Sals.

Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10

Reprints Avengers 89-100
Written by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams.
Penciled by Neal Adams, Sal Buscema, John Buscema and Barry Windsor-Smith.
Inked by Sam Grainger, Sal Buscema, George Roussos, Tom Palmer, Neal Adams, Alan Weiss, Tom Sutton, Joe Sinnott, Syd Shores and Barry Windsor-Smith.

Summary:
The Avengers battle aliens, gods and Inhumans in a star-spanning epic of the Bronze Age!

On the planet Hala, the villainous Ronan The Accuser takes power over his people, the Kree, and forcibly overthrows its proper ruler, the Intelligence Supreme. Ronan's first act is to activate Sentry 459, a giant robot.

Ronan dispatches the Sentry to Earth to kill the Kree Captain Mar-Vell, AKA the superhero Captain Marvel. Thankfully, the Avengers are protecting Mar-Vell. Vision, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch battle the Sentry, but the robot captures Mar-Vell and teleports him away from the Avengers.

Avengers Wasp and Yellowjacket are conducting research in the Arctic Circle, near Alaska. They notice a strange tropical island among all the ice. When Yellowjacket investigates this, he's shot with some sort of ray. It's the work of Ronan, who has set up a base on the island.  Fearing that her husband has been killed, Wasp contacts her fellow Avenger Goliath, who in turn calls the rest of the team to the Arctic. 

The Avengers learn that Ronan blasted Yellowjacket with an Evo-Ray, which causes Pym to de-evolve into a brutal, savage caveman. Ronan intends to de-evolve all life on Earth, which will make it easier for the Kree to conquer or destroy the planet.

During the battle, Ronan receives an emergency transmission from outer space. The Skrull Empire, eternal foes of the Kree, have launched an all out war against Ronan's people. Ronan flees Earth to join the battle. The Kree-Skrull War has begun! The Avengers find themselves caught in the middle of two alien races who are determined to slaughter each other.

The Avengers decide to keep Ronan's actions on Earth secret from public knowledge, believing that it would cause panic and paranoia. When the Kree activities are uncovered, the Avengers are in hot water for keeping secrets. A sense of dread about alien invasions takes over the public consensus. Captain Mar-Vell is suspected of being part of the Kree invasion. This leads to the formation of the Commission on Alien Activities, headed by H. Warren Craddock.

Mar-Vell wants to turn himself in to the commission, believing it will calm the anti-alien sentiments and take heat off the Avengers. His friend Carol Danvers disagrees and takes Captain Marvel to a farm owned by her friends in Upstate New York. Mar-Vell's friend Rick Jones has a vision that Captain Marvel will be attacked when he arrives at the farm. Rick and Mar-Vell have a unique connection (Rick used to "swap atoms" with Mar-Vell, so the Kree captain could appear on Earth), and he fears his friend is in grave danger.

Craddock calls the Avengers into a hearing, where they are made to look like traitors. Original members of the Avengers Thor, Iron Man and Captain America are embarrassed by this development. They tell Wanda, Pietro, Vision and Goliath that they have disgraced the Avengers and the team is dissolved!

Shortly after this, Vision arrives at the mansion. The android is near death. After Ant-Man saves Vision, he tells the Avengers that he, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver were attacked by three cows who turned into members of the Fantastic Four in Upstate New York.

But this version of the FF have different powers than Vision expected. The heroes decide to investigate these strange cows.

The Avengers battle the Thing, Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic. After a brief fight, the heroes learn that their opponents are actually Skrulls. They also discover that the Cap, Iron Man and Thor who dissolved the Avengers were also Skrulls.

Captain Marvel, Quicksilver, and Wanda have been captured by Super-Skrull, who possesses all the powers of the Fantastic Four. Super-Skrull takes the heroes to the Skrull homeworld in the Andromeda Galaxy, hoping to regain the favor of Skrull Emperor Dorrek.

When he arrives at the emperor's throne room, Super-Skrull is promptly stunned and imprisoned.

Emperor Dorrek forces Captain Marvel to construct an Omni-Wave Projector. Such a device could wipe out the Kree. Mar-Vell is forced to construct the projector when Dorrek threatens to kill Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Back on Earth, H. Warren Craddock has decided to arrest the Avengers. He sends a brigade of Mandroids to the Avengers' mansion. Mandroids all wear weaponized armor created by Iron Man's alter ego Tony Stark. Iron Man's unexpected knowledge of the Mandroid armor helps the Avengers win the day.

The Avengers then blast off into space, determined to save their friends and battle Skrull and Kree alike.

In the middle of all this, Rick Jones is captured by the Kree, taken to Hala and brought before Ronan. He taunts Rick and mocks Earthlings as primitive creatures who are beneath his contempt. However, Ronan tells Jones that Earth is important strategically, since it is the exact midpoint between the Kree and Skrull homeworlds. Due to its location, the Kree will either conquer Earth...or destroy it!

At the same time, the Avengers capture a Skrull spaceship and defeat the crew. The Vision interrogates one of the Skrulls, demanding to know the whereabouts of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Vision gets carried away, beating the Skrull within an inch of his life. The Avengers intervene and save the Skrull's life. He tells the heroes that Earth is doomed, since a Skrull ship is headed towards Earth. The ship is carrying a nuclear warhead powerful enough to wipe out all of humankind.

Rick is imprisoned with Intelligence Supreme. The fallen Kree leader tells Rick that he has an important role to play in the war and zaps Rick with a bolt of energy. This gives Rick the power of the entire human race. Intelligence Supreme suggests that Jones' memories of reading comic books from the 1940s could help him bring peace between the Skrulls, Kree and Earth.

What will Rick Jones do with his newfound powers? Can Rick and the Avengers possibly save Earth from two alien races bent on its destruction?

After the war, the Avengers have little time to relax. A man who calls himself Mr. Talon is stirring up crowds of people, encouraging them to commit acts of mass violence.

When the Avengers arrive to quell the violent mobs, Thor recognizes Talon as Ares, Greek God Of War! Thankfully, Hercules has returned to the Avengers' ranks. But Hercules is suffering from amnesia.

While the Avengers are probing Hercules' mind at their mansion headquarters, the heroes are attacked by two Olympian Warriors named Bia and Kratos. They capture Hercules and take him to Mount Olympus.

Ares has also gone to Mount Olympus where he's joined by the Enchantress, one of the Avengers' oldest foes. The Avengers call every hero who has ever served as an Avenger to Olympus. They will need everyone they can get if they hope to rescue Hercules and defeat Ares. 

Review:
At this point, it's hard to say anything new about the Kree-Skrull War. I'd put off reviewing it, focusing on less-famous storylines. But the recent release of Captain America: Civil War got me thinking it was time to review this volume of Marvel Masterworks. 

Story:
Roy Thomas is credited as writer, but in his introduction, he gives Neal Adams co-plotting credit.  In any case, this is a great story that deserves its "classic" status.

There's lots of drama, action and character development.

Ronan's threat to de-evolve Earth feels like a legit "end of the world" scenario. The Avengers are under siege from the Skrulls, Kree, Ares, the Enchantress and their own government for the entire book!

Of course great superhero stories require great villains, and Ronan The Accuser certainly fits the bill. The Skrull's Emperor Dorrek is also as evil as they come. The Super-Skrull is a minor player in this book, but he's always been one of my favorite villains. As far as I'm concerned, any story can be improved by the presence of Super-Skrull!

But it's a tribute to Thomas and Adams' storytelling that not every alien here is evil. The Intelligence Supreme helps Rick Jones and Skrull Princess Annelle begs her father not to go to war.

While readers of this story know Earth won't be destroyed, Thomas' script keeps adding layers of tension to the story. These tales also give us early indications that the Vision and Scarlet Witch would eventually become romantically involved.

Thomas' script is full of pop culture references. The characters mention Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash (the names of three ants who help Ant-Man!), and the silent movie Metropolis. This helps lighten the mood, so that the story isn't all doom, gloom and paranoia.

The Commission on Alien Activities is an obvious allegory for Red Scare-era investigatory entities such as the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Internal Securities Subcommittee.  H. Warren Craddock's behavior resembles the actions of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. This will seem obvious to any student of history, but such allegories didn't appear very often in comic books of the early 1970s.  Roy Thomas deserves kudos to adding Craddock's committee to the story, it adds a bit of realism to the story.

Making Rick Jones the hero of the story is also a nice touch. Rick served as sidekick to Hulk, Captain America, Mar-Vell and the Avengers during the 1960s and early 70s. Jones always wanted to be a superhero and in this story he gets to save three planets from destruction.

If there's anything to criticize about the Kree-Skrull War, it's that the Inhumans portion of this story doesn't add a whole lot. Most Bronze Age Inhumans stories involve Maximus seizing control (or at least attempting to seize control) of Attilan. This one is no exception.  

The Ares story that follows is a comparably weak follow-up. It's not bad, but any story that followed the Kree-Skrull War was guaranteed to be a bit of a let down.

Art:
The first four issues reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10 feature pencils by Sal Buscema embellished by three inkers (including himself). Sal does a fine job drawing aliens, fight scenes and cavemen. I love Sal's depiction of the helicopter crash in these images:

Neal Adams (pencils) and Tom Palmer (inks) take over the art duties after Sal and this is some of their finest work. Ant-Man's journey into the Vision is one of the most memorable stories of the Bronze Age and that's because Adams and Palmer make the Vision's insides look like something out of a sci-fi movie (it's an homage to films like Journey To The Center Of The Earth and Fantastic Voyage). Here are two gorgeous pages from "Journey To The Center Of An Android":

I also love this Triton splash page from Adams and Palmer:

Great stuff.

Sal's brother John Buscema succeeds Adams and finishes the Kree-Skrull War, with Palmer staying on as inker. It's too bad Adams couldn't finish this saga, but "Big John" and Palmer were always great together. Here's a nice example of their work in this book:

Barry Windsor-Smith provided pencils on the Ares story. He's a great artist, but I've never been crazy about his art in superhero stories. But Windsor-Smith provides some good art here, even if his work (like the story he penciled) is a bit of a step down from the previous tale. I've always liked this splash page he drew that features the Black Knight. 

Extras:
Roy Thomas wrote a new introduction where he discusses the creative process behind these issues. Walt Simonson and Tom Palmer created some new Kree-Skrull War pages that were published in a 1983 reprint of the storyline and their work is reprinted here. The book also contains several pages of Adams' original artwork.

How Does It Look?:
I have never owned any of the original issues that are reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10. However, I found a scan of the splash page for Avengers #92 posted on one of my favorite blogs, Diversions Of The Groovy Kind. Below you'll see that page paired up with the splash page as it looks in this book:

Left: Original page from Avengers #89;
Right: How it appears in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10.

It looks pretty good to me. I don't notice any strange re-coloring.

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10 contains a story that lives up to its hype 45 years after it was first published. When it comes to creators, it doesn't get much better than scripts by Roy Thomas combined with art of Adams, Windsor-Smith, Palmer and the Buscema Brothers.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!