Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus

Written by Roger Stern, Marv Wolfman, Steve Leialoha, Bill Mantlo, Marie Severin, Jan Strnad and Tom DeFalco
Penciled by John Byrne, Marie Severin, Mike Zeck, John Romita Jr., Jim Mooney, Denys Cowan, Rick Leonardi, Luke McDonnell, Jim Shooter, Ed Hannigan, Greg LaRocque, Al Milgrom, Bob Hall, and Ron Frenz.
Inked by Steve Mitchell, Al Gordon, Bruce Patterson, Jim Mooney, Dave Humphry's Josef Rubenstein, Frank Springer, Vince Colletta, Gene Day, Pablo Marcos, Bob Wiacek, Dave Simmons, Dan Green, Frank Giacoia, John Romita Sr., Bob Layton, Terry Austin, Klaus Janson, Brett Breeding, Kevin Dzuban.  

Variant cover.

Note:Many of the stories reprinted in this book have been reprinted in other books and have already been reviewed here. This review will focus on tales that I have not previously covered.

Summary:
Over 1200 pages of Spider-Man stories written by one of his best scribes!

Nitro, the exploding man is released from the gas tanks that served as a prison. He uses his exploding powers to rob a bank. This draws the attention of Spider-Man. If Spidey wants to beat Nitro, the webhead will need to use his scientific knowledge instead of his spider-powers.

The mercenary known as Jack O'Lantern is taken to a hospital. He's recovering from a recent fight with Machine Man when his thugs arrive to break him out. When the police show up, Jack O'Lantern takes the hospital hostage. Spider-Man arrives and attempts to save the hospital from "Jackie!"

But for Spidey, this is no ordinary hostage scenario. One of the patients being held captive is Nathan Lebansky, boyfriend of Peter's Aunt May!

J. Jonah Jameson is holding a party and has invited many of New York's movers and shakers. The cause for celebration is that his girlfriend Marla Madison has been hired to work for the Brand Corporation.  Peter Parker is on hand to photograph the party. The party ends when the villain Killer Shrike shows up and captures Marla.

He takes her to a Brand facility, but doesn't seem to be in control of his actions. Can Spider-Man save Marla and figure out who is controlling Killer Shrike?

The super-criminal known as the Ringer is ordered to fight Spider-Man by a mystery villain. Ringer doesn't really want to fight, but he's got a device strapped to him that can be detonated from a remote location. If Ringer refuses to battle the wallcrawler, he will be blown up.

After defeating him, Spidey learns that Ringer was merely a pawn of his old foe the Beetle, who has revamped his costume. This makes Beetle much more dangerous than ever. But Spider-Man gets an unlikely ally when the Gibbon helps him fight the Beetle.

The villain called Moonstone attacks the campus of Empire State University. She breaks into the office of Dr. Curtis Connors. Spider-Man tails Moonstone and confronts her.

During their fight, Peter's colleague Marcy Kane shows up. Marcy is zapped and knocked unconscious by Moonstone. Peter must figure out a way to get Marcy to safety and defeat Moonstone. 

Sometime after that, a criminal named Georgie flees from Spider-Man and takes refuge underground in the sewers.  Georgie stumbles on an old hideout of Green Goblin. While Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, is dead, the warehouse is full of the Goblin's costumes, gliders and pumpkin bombs.

Georgie shows this off to his (unnamed) boss, who kills Georgie and then augments a glider and dyes a costume orange. A new villain is born—The Hobgoblin!

Peter hears news reports about break-ins at several Osborn facilities. On a hunch, he checks out one of Green Goblin's old hideouts. Spider-Man busts in and finds Hobgoblin and a battle ensues. Hobgoblin escapes and learns that Spider-Man is tougher than he expected. The Hobgoblin is determined to find a way to defeat the wallcrawler.

Spider-Man's old enemy the Vulture is leading a relaxed life in a retirement community. But that changes when he sees an ad for an electronics expo in New York. One of the companies presenting at the show is Bestman Electronics, headed by Gregory Bestman. Seeing Bestman's name sets off Vulture and he heads to New York.

When the Vulture arrives, he kidnaps Bestman and takes him to an old hideout. Can Spider-Man save Bestman from the Vulture? And why does the Vulture hate Bestman so much?

The Hobgoblin realizes that if he wants to face Spider-Man in combat, he'll need to enhance his strength. The villain reads Norman Osborn's journal and learns that Green Goblin developed a super-strength serum. After testing the serum, Hobgoblin decides he's ready to face Spider-Man once again, but their fight ends in a way Spidey could have never predicted.

Later, Peter Parker reads a Daily Bugle profile of a boy named Timmy Harrison, who is known as "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man". Timmy has a scrapbook that contains clippings of dozens of articles from newspapers and magazines. He even owns some old film footage of Spidey's appearances on television.

When Timmy asks how he acquired his spider-powers, Spider-Man reveals more about himself to Timmy than he has ever told anyone else.

Finally, the Hobgoblin continues his crime wave and concocts a plan to defeat Spider-Man once and for all. He creates a device that will nullify the webhead's spider-sense!

How can Spider-Man defeat the Hobgoblin without one of his most important super-powers?

Review:
I've said here before that I believe Roger Stern to be the best Spider-Man writer since Stan Lee. Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus contains more evidence to back up that claim.

Story:
Stern gives us just about every type of Spider-Man story I can think of. We get old villains like Vulture and Tarantula coming back for revenge. Stern utilizes Marvel villains who have never faced Spidey before, such as Nitro, Thunderball, Ringer and Moonstone. His Juggernaut story is one of the best Spider-Man stories ever published.

Thunderball gets a face full of webbing!

We also get quieter stories, like "Options". In this story, Peter Parker decides to quit graduate school. It contains about three pages of superhero action (Spidey easily captures some gunmen) and the rest is all about Parker's personal life and decisions he must make. He decides to quit graduate school to focus on photography and being Spider-Man. It's a major moment for the character, since one of Peter's defining characteristics since his introduction was straight-A student and science whiz. It was a gutsy move by Stern.

Another good but "lighter" story is "The Daydreamers". Stern shows us what Spider-Man, Black Cat, Jameson and Mary Jane think about when their minds wander. In the case of Black Cat, she dreams that under Spidey's mask she'll find...Cary Grant?

The Beetle story is a high point. Beetle had become a joke of a villain with a silly costume. Stern gives us a character that continues to be a major presence in the Marvel Universe. In recent years, Beetle has been better known as MACH-1 of the Thunderbolts.

Best of all, Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus reprints the introduction and early adventures of the Hobgoblin. Reading these stories took me back to when I first bought them back in the early 1980s. Hobgoblin was a fascinating villain, cunning, calculating and possessing as much intelligence as Spider-Man himself.

Spider-Man battles Hobgobin in the battle van!

As far as I'm concerned, "Hobby" (as Spider-Man derisively called the villain) is up there with the best villains in Spidey's rogues gallery.

Fans of Spider-Man's supporting cast will also appreciate the way Stern writes them here. Mary Jane makes her return to Peter's life and J. Jonah Jameson is written as a complicated character, not just a one-note Spider-Man hater (though he does still hate Spidey in these tales!). Even Aunt May gets to do more than usual, getting a boyfriend and turning her home into a rooming house for senior citizens.

Art:
As you can see in the credits at the top of this review, Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus contains art from a lot of pencilers and inkers. They all do a good job and none of the art stands out as bad.

I'd say John Romita Jr. provides the best pencils in this book. He gives us lots of great fight scenes and does a great job depicting Peter and his supporting cast as well as Spider-Man and the super-villains.

John Byrne penciled the first story in the book and also Spidey's duel with the Ringer. I believe Byrne also helped redesign Beetle's costume and it's a major improvement over the old one.

How Does It Look?:
This page was scanned from my copy of Spectacular Spider-Man #58:

And this is how the same page looks in Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus:

Extras:
This super-sized book features a plethora of bonuses. Roger Stern wrote a brand new six-page introduction. Most of the letter columns from the reprinted issues are included. It also includes fifteen pages of Spider-Man pin-ups (which feature text written by Stern) and a two-page humor story (written by Stern) from Marvel's What If? series.

Rating:
Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus contains every Bronze Age Spidey story written and/or scripted by Stern. This book contains lots of milestone moments, great villains and fantastic art from the best pencilers and inkers of the era. It's highly recommended.
J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Avengers: The Trial Of Yellowjacket

Reprints Avengers #212-230
Written by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Steven Grant, Roger Stern, Bob Hall, J.M. DeMatteis and Alan Zelenetz.
Penciled by Alan Kupperberg, Bob Hall, Alan Weiss, Don Perlin, Greg Laraocque, Sal Buscema and Al Milgrom.
Inked by Dan Green, Brett Breeding, Chic Stone, Joe Sinnott, and friends.

As I was preparing this review yesterday, I learned of the passing of artist Alan Kupperberg, who penciled the first issue that is reprinted in this book. This review is dedicated to Kupperberg and I send my condolences to his family and friends.

The Avengers have recently formed a new team. Founding member and noted scientist Henry Pym, currently known as Yellowjacket, has rejoined the team and Tigra is an Avenger for the fist time. Pym is feeling insecure, feeling embarrassed about depending on his wife's money and also feeling that his powers are inadequate compared to his teammates. Pym appears to be losing his sanity. This is likely related to his changing from insect-size to giant-size and using multiple costumed identities over the years. This causes Yellowjacket to lash out at his wife Janet, who fights crime as the Wasp, and at the other Avengers.

In rural Northern Virginia, a woman named Linnea and a man named Gorn have decided to rejoin civilization. They have been living for thousands of years in a hidden glade and are surprised at what they find when they visit Washington, DC. Gorn gets into a bar fight and stabs a police officer. This gets the attention of the Avengers, who set out for DC.

More police arrive on the scene and shoot Gorn, killing him. Linnea is incensed and goes on a rampage. The heroes arrive and make the battle a brief one. Captain America is trying to talk Linnea into surrendering. Suddenly, Yellowjacket zaps her from behind with his sting-blast.

Linnea resumes her attack. Pym's teammates are angry with him for attacking Linnea when she had all but given up, but Yellowjacket believes he did nothing wrong.

The Avengers return to New York and prepare to court-martial Yellowjacket. Pym is convinced they will find him guilty, but has an ace up his sleeve. He's constructed a robot called Salvation One that will attack the team and then only Yellowjacket will be able to stop it. Pym believes this will once again make the Avengers see him as a hero. When Wasp confronts him, he slaps her in the face, giving his wife a black eye.

Pym's court-martial doesn't go well and he activates the robot, but it's more dangerous than he anticipated. Wasp is able to stop Salvation One and Yellowjacket skulks away in disgrace.

The team lingers about the Avengers Mansion, trying to come to grips with Pym's betrayal.

At the same time, Warren Worthington III, better known as the X-Men's Angel, is driving through New Mexico. He encounters Ghost Rider, who attacks the mutant. Angel's girlfriend Candy Southern calls the Avengers for help. They arrive, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes learn that the Spirit of Vengeance is not easily defeated.

Sometime later, the cosmically powered Silver Surfer arrives in New York. He encounters the super-villain known as the Molecule Man.

The Surfer discusses his time when he served as the herald of Galactus and helped the Big G find planets to be consumed. Molecule Man is inspired by this story and says he wants to "eat" the planet Earth!

Molecule Man surrounds a portion of New Jersey in a force field and creates a kingdom for himself.  The Avengers try to bring him to justice, but are easily defeated. Molecule Man kills them (or appears to), except for Tigra. The newest Avenger will have to go it alone, or it could mean the death of everyone on Earth! 

The team regroups after the battle with Molecule Man. The Avengers gather at the mansion for a meeting. Wasp calls for a new leader and nominates herself to chair the Avengers. The others agree unanimously and for the first time, the Avengers are led by a woman.

At the same time, Hank Pym encounters his arch foe Egghead in a New York diner. Egghead seems to have reformed. He's feeling guilt over causing his niece, Trish Starr, to lose her arm as a result of one of his earlier schemes. Egghead asks Pym to deliver a cybernetic arm to Trish, but it's all a ruse to frame Yellowjacket. The arm makes Trish go crazy and is actually under the command of Egghead.

With Trish's life in jeopardy, Egghead forces Pym to break into a military base. This gets the attention of the Avengers, who are forced to fight their ex-teammate. When Yellowjacket is defeated, he tells the heroes he was forced to aid Egghead, but Trish acts like she has no idea what Pym is talking about.  Yellowjacket is taken into custody and sent to jail. It seems that Egghead has finally succeeded in defeating his greatest enemy.

Next up, a young boy named Morgan Macneil Hardy shows up at Avengers mansion and meets with the team. But this is no ordinary child. He takes out a pistol and shoots himself, committing suicide.

Within seconds, he is reborn! Hardy tells the Avengers he is immortal and as old as life itself. He is tired of living asks the heroes to help him die. The Avengers are torn, since they've dedicated themselves to protecting people. Hardy takes things into his own hands and sneaks onto an unmanned rocket headed towards the sun. But instead of killing him, the sun transforms Hardy into a deadly fire monster!

Subsequently, the Avengers receive a video transmission from Drax the Destroyer. He tells the heroes that he and his daughter Moondragon have helped stop a brutal war on the planet Ba-Bani. Using her mental powers, Moondragon has kept the peace on Ba-Bani.

But the Avengers soon learn that Moondragon's powers have (quite literally) gone to her head. She has set herself up as a goddess and only the Avengers can stop her. That won't be easy, because Moondragon has taken mental control over Thor!

Shortly after returning to Earth, the Avengers meet and decide it's time to add new members. Tigra has recently resigned, leaving the team with only 4 active members. Wasp says the team needs "more girls". Jan invites She-Hulk and several other superheroines to join the team. She-Hulk and Wasp click immediately and the jade giant agrees to join the Avengers.

At the same time, Captain America and Iron Man pay a visit to Clint Barton, their former teammate known as Hawkeye the archer. Barton is still a bit upset over the way he was removed from the active roster a few months back and is angry that Cap and Shellhead expect him "to come crawling back to the almighty Avengers," but he nevertheless relents and rejoins the team.

The new team has little time to coalesce. Egghead has recruited several super-criminals to form a new Masters Of Evil team. The new Masters consist of Moonstone, Whirlwind, Scorpion and Tiger Shark. Egghead wants them to go after the Avengers, but only when the time is right. Plans get changed when Whirlwind pays the Wasp a visit. This leads the villains to the Avengers' mansion, where the new Masters Of Evil face off against the new team of Avengers!

Later, Hawkeye visits a carnival in Long Island. He used to work there and the carnival's owner, Marcella Carson, has written to the archer seeking help. The Avenger discovers Marcella is being held captive by thugs.

Scott Lang is also attending the carnival with his daughter Cassie. When Scott sees Hawkeye running around the carnival, he decides it's time to don his Ant-Man costume and aid the archer. It's a good thing he did, because the heroes discover the man behind the scenes is none other than the Taskmaster!  The villain has a bomb that will kill everyone at the carnival and only Ant-Man and Hawkeye can prevent this from happening.

While all of these events are occurring, Hank Pym remains in jail, awaiting trial. Tony Stark is paying his best lawyers to represent Yellowjacket. Ant-Man believes Pym is innocent and sneaks in to the jail (easy to do when one is ant-size!), intending to spring Hank. But Pym wants to stay in jail and prove in a court of law that he was framed by Egghead.

The mystical superhero known as Doctor Druid arrives at Avengers Mansion. He transports the Avengers back to the 12th century, where they find their former teammate Dan Whitman, the Black Knight. The Knight had been stuck in the past, fighting in the Crusades.

Whitman needs the Avengers help to confront the Fomore, an evil race of super-powered immortals.  The Fomore prove to be a tough opponent for the Avengers. The most dangerous Fomorian is the giant known as Balor!

When they return to the present, the Avengers have a new member among their ranks. Her name is Monica Rambeau, known to the world as Captain Marvel. Monica can transform herself into any form of energy, which gives her the power to fly across the universe in seconds. The Avengers devise a test for Captain Marvel's powers and are quite impressed with the results.

Captain Marvel joins the Avengers.

Finally, Henry Pym's trial date arrives. But shortly after it begins, the Masters Of Evil break into the courtroom. They claim to be acting on Pym's orders, but it's part of Egghead's plan to further discredit Hank. The Avengers battle the villains, but Pym is taken to Egghead's Long Island hideout.

Egghead forces Pym to help him, telling him that the Masters Of Evil are the closest thing to allies Pym has in the world. The Avengers are hot on Egghead's trail. But if Henry Pym is to survive and clear his name, he must engage Egghead in a one-on-one fight to the finish.

Plus, the would-be menace of Fabian Stankowicz, the Mechano-Marauder!

Review:
A momentous saga that features the end of Hank Pym's superhero career (for a while at least) and the end of his marriage to Jan. But on the whole, it's a mixed bag.

Story:
The big problem with this story is that Pym's fall from grace happens very quickly. He lost his mind three years earlier in "real" time. But after that, Yellowjacket recovered and he and Wasp had a solid relationship. But one minute Hank feels a bit disrespected, the next he's plotting treachery and smacking his wife in the face. Most of this book is written by Jim Shooter, who wrote some classic Avengers stories in the late 70s. The tales reprinted in Trial Of Yellowjacket aren't as good. The stories that depart from the Pym-centric portion don't add much. The Ghost Rider fight is a mess.

The book also would have been a slightly better reading if issue #211, where Pym rejoins the team, was included.

But it's not all bad. Shooter writes the Wasp as a very strong, powerful character. He deserves kudos for making Jan the first woman to lead the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Wasp is forced to grow a lot in a short time and Shooter makes it believable.

Shooter's Molecule Man story is entertaining, even if we never believe the villain has killed the Avengers at the end of the first part. Silver Surfer's guest appearance also helps make this a solid tale.

The Black Knight story written by Steven Grant isn't great either. The Fomorians aren't very interesting and feel like one-shot villains.

David Michelinie writes the one-and-done Hawkeye/Ant-Man team-up. Taskmaster was always fun and Michelinie creates a memorable maneuver that Ant-Man uses to save the day. A highlight of the tpb.

J.M. De Matteis penned the Morgan Macneil Hardy story. It might not be essential to the Avengers' history. But it gets into some interesting topics when Hardy asks them to help him die. The heroes are torn, since they've spent their careers saving lives.

Roger Stern began his long Avengers tenure by finishing the Pym saga. He does a nice job wrapping things up, with Hank clearing his name. It would have been easy for Stern to blame Egghead's machinations for Pym's domestic violence, but that's not the case. The Wasp's maturation that Shooter began continues under Stern's pen.

Art:
The art here is all decent, but never rises beyond pretty good. My favorite art is found in the portion reprinted from Avengers #227. It features Sal Buscema embellished by Brett Breeding. The lack of a consistent artist (seven different artists provide the pencils) hurts the book. This tpb also includes several issues that are inked by committee, which means at times the art will look very different from one page to the next.

 
How Does It Look?:
Here's a panel from Avengers #212:

And this is how the reprinted version looks:

Avengers: The Trial Of Yellowjacket reprints a story that has had repercussions for years to come, especially regarding Wasp and Hank Pym. The story itself is not a classic of the Bronze Age, but the Wasp's growth, the Hawkeye/Ant-Man tale, and the final battle with Egghead make it worth reading.

J.A. Morris' ratings

.5

Avengers: Heart Of Stone

Reprints Avengers #188-196 and Avengers Annual #9
Written by Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant, David Michelinie, Mark Gruenwald.
Penciled by John Byrne, Arvell Jones, Don Newton, George Perez, Arvell Jones and Sal Buscema.
Inked by  Ricardo Villamonte, Dan Green, Frank Springer, Joseph Rubenstein, Marvel Staff.

The Avengers are flying home from Europe and decide to take a shortcut through Soviet airspace.  They're about to ask a MiG pilot for permission to do so when the Soviet plane explodes. The Avengers land their Quinjet and find themselves on a Soviet military base. The Russians ask for their help in freeing a nuclear reactor that has been taken over by a strange team of criminals. 

The base is under attack by a team of villains called the Elements of Doom. Each member is the living embodiment of an element. The Elements capture Falcon and Wasp and intend to turn them into elements. It's up to the Avengers to save their teammates and the base.  


In a secret cave below the Avengers' mansion, the android known as Arsenal is planning to attack the Avengers. Arsenal is talking with a computer it calls "Mistress", who gives it orders.

Iron Man learns that his father, Howard Stark, created Arsenal during World War II. Arsenal would be activated if the Nazis took over the United States to defend the country from the Third Reich. It will take the might of the Avengers to stop Arsenal, but Iron Man is shocked when he learns of his  connection to Mistress.

After the fight with Arsenal, Hawkeye leaves the team mansion in anger. He's still frustrated over being removed from the team in favor of the Falcon.

Falcon tries to make peace with Hawkeye, to no avail.

He gets a job as chief of security at Cross Technological Enterprises. He is glad to have a "cushy" job, but it doesn't last for long. Cross is attacked by Deathbird, Ms. Marvel's old enemy. She's been stealing technology from Cross, and Hawkeye will have to stop her all by himself.

Later, a meteor lands in Jamaica Bay. Unlike regular meteors, this one sprouts legs and walks from the bay into New York City.

At the same time, the Avengers are subpoenaed and forced to attend a Senate hearing. Their NSA liaison, Henry Peter Gyrich, has accused them of violating the membership rules he recently set up for the team. 
The hearing ends when Gyrich learns of the "walking meteor" and the Avengers are allowed to leave so they can stop it. They're shocked to learn it's really their old foe the Gray Gargoyle. He turns several Avengers into stone.

Subsequently, Tony Stark is touring a steel mill in Pittsburgh that he possibly intends to purchase. The mill's claim to fame is that Thor once visited it for repairs to his hammer. A worker named Joseph Conroy keeps a fragment of Thor's hammer as a good luck charm. But disaster strikes when one of Conroy's enemies pushes him into a vat of molten steel. Due to the hammer fragment, Conroy is transformed into a monster known as Inferno. The Avengers are called to Pittsburgh to battle this new menace.

Back in New York, a man named Selbe comes to the Avengers' Mansion seeking help. Selbe has escaped from the Solomon Institute for the Criminally Insane. He claims he's been tortured at the institute.

The Wasp feels very sympathetic to Selbe's cause, but the other Avengers aren't sure what to think of him. It's a moot point when someone arrives at the mansion with a court order that sends Selbe back to Solomon Institute.  

Jan shrinks to "wasp" size and sneaks into the institute, where she's gassed and imprisoned. Wasp's husband, Yellowjacket guesses she's inside and plans a rescue mission. The Avengers learn that man behind Selbe's torture is a criminal who calls himself the Taskmaster, who was born with the rare gift of Photographic Reflexes. This gives him the ability to watch feats performed by superheroes and imitate them with amazing accuracy. Taskmaster has set up "schools where I could train crooks and social misfits to be goons for the frontline baddies." The Solomon Institute is one of his crime schools.

Taskmaster makes a grand entrance.

Can the Avengers stop the Taskmaster and shut down his criminal training school? They're helped in this battle by a guest superhero, Scott Lang, the Ant-Man!

Plus, Wonder Man's acting career results in a gig...as second banana on a local children's show!

Wonder Man gets a job on The Uncle Elmer Show as "Mr. Muscles!"

Review:
While none of these stories are classic or essential Bronze Age tales, it's a good, solid entertaining book.

Story:
Bill Mantlo wrote opening tale. It isn't great, but it features a good action story, even if the Elements of Doom are forgettable. Mantlo also penned the Arsenal story. It would have a lasting impact on the Marvel Comics and Cinematic universes. For it shows Howard Stark actively involved in creating WWII-era technology, something we would see in Captain America: The First Avenger.

David Michelinie scripted the majority of these stories and they're all pretty good. He writes Hawkeye as a jerk. There's a nice panel where Yellowjacket says, "Hawkeye's never happy unless he can complain about something!" Truer words were never spoken by a comic book character. But Hawkeye's solo outing, credited to Michelinie, Steven Grant, Mark Gruenwald, & Roger Stern is a fun ride.

The Taskmaster never reached A-list villain status, but he was a great bad guy and one of my favorite Avengers antagonists. I always thought his idea to start schools for minions made sense in the context of comic books. 

Last but not least, the Inferno/Pittsburgh story is credited to Michelinie and the Pittsburgh Comix Club.  It's basically a tale of corporate corruption, with the steel mill having connections to the Maggia. But setting a story outside of New York was a nice touch and it features some good references to Pittsburgh landmarks.

Inferno rampages through Pittsburgh.

Art:
The book opens with several stories penciled by John Byrne and ends with a three-parter drawn by George Perez, two of the finest artists of the Bronze Age. They both provide gorgeous work in Heart Of Stone.

This was a great era to be a Byrne fan. I've never been a big fan of Grey Gargoyle, but Byrne makes him look great in this tbp. Here's a nice fight scene that features the Gargoyle and Falcon:

I love this "training exercise" drawn by Perez, great stuff:

And Perez pencils a nice snowstorm, as seen in this scan:

 
Don Newton penciled the Arsenal story. I haven't read many stories drawn by Newton (this is one of only two Marvel credits since he mainly worked for DC), but his art is good here. It's a shame he didn't get the chance to draw Marvel characters more often.

Arvell Jones penciled the Pittsburgh/Inferno story and his work is decent. Sal Buscema is credited as the penciler for part 2 of the Inferno battle, but Dan Green's inks are so heavy Buscema's work is barely visible. Their art isn't bad, just a step down from the work of Byrne and Perez.

Extras:
We get an essay written by Tom Breevort that praises Perez' Avengers art. Seven pages of original art are included. The Avengers roster, from the 1982 edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is also reprinted in this tbp.

How does it look?:
I don't own copies of all the issues reprinted in this tpb.  But here's the splash page as of Avengers #196:

And here's how the same page looks in the book:

Looks pretty good to me. I don't see any "modern" recoloring.

Avengers: Heart Of Stone contains some good stories, great art, and it introduces Taskmaster. The contents of this book might not be as important to the Avengers history as the Korvac saga or battles with Ultron, but it's a fun book that is worth picking up. It's especially recommended for fans of Perez and Byrne.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

 3 and a half Sals.