Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch

 

Reprints Vision and the Scarlet Witch #1-4, Giant-Size Avengers #4

Written by Bill Mantlo and Steve Englehart.

Penciled by Rick Leonardi and Don Heck.

Inked by Ian Akin, Brian Garvey and John Tartaglione.

It's Halloween Night in Leonia, New Jersey. The Vision and his wife Wanda, the Scarlet Witch are enjoying a walk through their new neighborhood while the Vision entertains trick or treaters with displays of his superpowers. They have recently quit the Avengers and moved into their new home.  Edwin Jarvis, butler from Avengers' Mansion, has come to help them unpack.  

Jarvis gives Wanda an ancient book. Scarlet Witch puts the book down and walks away, not noticing that the book has opened itself. When the book is hit by moonlight, it causes Samhain to emerge from its pages. He attacks Wanda and tells her his backstory. Samhain is the personification of Halloween.  He wants to know why Wanda summoned him.

Samhain's power transforms trick or treaters into the costumes they're wearing. They attack Vision and cause him more pain than he's ever experienced.

Can Wanda and the wounded Vision overcome the power of Samhain?

Next, the two heroes are contacted by Robert Frank, better known as the Whizzer, a World War II era crime fighter who possesses super-speed. Wanda believed Whizzer to be her father at one time and he is the closest thing to a father she has ever known. Frank still thinks he's Wanda's biological dad. 

Frank wants to take custody of his autistic son Nuklo, who currently lives in a special medical facility.  Nuklo's nuclear-based powers made him a deadly opponent for the Avengers in the past, but he has the IQ of a toddler.   

Nuklo's therapist I.S. Bischoff has been very helpful to Nuklo's mental and emotional development.  But the heroes are shocked to discover Bischoff is actually Whizzer's arch enemy Isbisa. The villain wears a suit that allows him to drain Nuklo's power and use it as his own. Whizzer is killed and Vision's battle with Isbisa costs him an arm. Wanda's hex power is strong enough to defeat Isbisa, but the fight leaves the Vision in critical condition.  

Doctors stabilize Vision by inducing him into a coma. His android "brother" Simon Williams, better known as Wonder Man, is summoned to help save him. When the Vision was created, he was given some of Wonder Man's life energies. In order to save Vision, Wonder Man must repeat this process. 

But things get complicated when Wonder Man's brother the Grim Reaper shows up to kill the heroes!

Finally, Scarlet Witch and Vision fly to the moon to visit the Inhumans. They believe the Inhumans' advanced medical technology can restore Vision's arm. This also gives them a chance to visit Wanda's brother Quicksilver and his wife Crystal. They have recently become parents to a daughter named Luna.  

But the pleasant family reunion turns dark when Magneto, master of magnetism, arrives on the moon.  He has recently learned that he is the true father of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The heroes attack Magneto. But is the purpose of his visit to destroy them or to make peace?

Plus, the Vision and Scarlet Witch tie the knot in one of the the most unusual weddings of all time!  

Review:

Before I go any further, I should mention that this book opens with a reprinting of Giant-Size Avengers #4. This is unfortunate, because that issue was the last in a multi-part epic. If you haven't read the whole Celestial Madonna story, skip it and go straight to page 48, which is where the reprint of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch miniseries begins.

Story:

Wanda and the Vision were two of my favorite characters of the Bronze Age, so I've always enjoyed this miniseries. They were two long-serving Avengers who never got many adventures outside of the team. This series shows they could have starred in their own Bronze Age series. Bill Mantlo gives us a good story about a married couple.  

Magneto is also well-written here. The master of magnetism was undergoing a bit of a transformation from "bad guy" to a more complicated character who was persecuted during the Holocaust. This is an important part of Magneto's development.    

If there's any problem with the stories reprinted in Vision and the Scarlet Witch, it's that their battles with villains have repetitive results. The Vision experiences pain that he's never felt before while battling Samhain in the first story. Next up, Vision's arm gets melted during his fight with Isbisa.  Maybe it was Mantlo's way of dealing with a character that was so powerful. It gets old. Other than that, the stories are solid.

Art:

Rick Leonardi penciled the miniseries, inked by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey. Their art here sort reminds me of the early-80s art of Michael Golden. They do a nice job, especially when it comes to fight scenes and action.  

The art in the wedding story, from Giant-Sized Avengers #4, looks kind of rough. It's penciled by Don Heck and inked by John Tartaglione. As I understand it, Dave Cockrum was originally scheduled to pencil this issue and could not, so Heck and Tartaglione were pressed into service at the last minute because they could work quickly. So it was a rush job and looks like it too.   

How Does It Look?:

Here's a page scanned from my 36-year-old copy of Vision And The Scarlet Witch #3:

And this is how the same page looks in the tpb:

Extras:

The tpb includes a two-page humor story that features Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Forbush Man that was originally presented in FOOM #6. There's also a painting of Vizh and Wanda by David Mack.  

Rating:

I always enjoyed Wanda and Vision as a married couple. These stories are a nice reminder of one of the most interesting relationships in comic book history. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch features some important moments in the lives of these characters, good stories and enjoyable art. It's recommended to fans of this couple and those who want an introduction to their Bronze Age adventures.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2

Reprints X-Men #101-110
Written by Chris Claremont.
Penciled by Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Bob Brown and Tony De Zuniga.
Inked by Sam Grainger, Terry Austin, Bob Layton, Tom Sutton, Dan Green and Tony De Zuniga.

After their battle in space with the Sentinels, the X-Men are travelling back to Earth in a space shuttle. Upon returning to Earth's atmosphere, the shuttle crashes in New York's Jamaica Bay.

All of the X-Men emerge from the wreckage except for Jean Grey, who was piloting shuttle.

Suddenly, Jean flies out of the water wearing a new costume. She calls herself Phoenix and says she is no longer Jean, but has become "fire and life incarnate!" Jean suddenly collapses and is taken to the hospital.

The X-Men's leader, Prof. Charles Xavier, says that Jean and Scott don't need the rest of the team hanging around the hospital and orders them to take a vacation. The professor has good timing, since Banshee has just received an invitation to visit Cassidy Keep, his family's castle in Scotland. He's accompanied by Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus.

Their vacation has barely begun when the X-Men fall through a trap door. They find themselves standing in front of Banshee's cousin Black Tom Cassidy and Xavier's half-brother, the Juggernaut!

Black Tom possesses the mutant power to project heat through his shillelagh. Since Tom and Banshee are related, they're immune to each other's powers. So they must engage each other in hand-to-hand combat.

Juggernaut is one of the strongest beings on Earth and is (as his name suggests) nearly unstoppable. Storm is unable to help her teammates due to an attack of claustrophobia. How can the X-Men hope to stop Juggernaut and Black Tom with the odds stacked in their enemies' favor?

Subsequently, the X-Men visit Scotland's Muir Island, where their friend Dr. Moira MacTaggert operates a mutant research facility. But when the X-Men arrive at the island, they are met by Magneto, master of magnetism and oldest foe of the X-Men!

This new group of X-Men is still struggling to learn how to fight their opponents as a team. Magneto exploits this and quickly gains the upper hand. Thankfully, Cyclops arrives and decides the X-Men are outmatched and not ready to tackle an enemy of Magneto's caliber and orders them to flee the scene. Cyclops also deduces that Eric The Red is planning to attack Xavier and orders everyone to fly back to New York.    

When the X-Men return home, Eric The Red is waiting for them. They attack him, but Eric is joined by another combatant. He's Firelord, a former herald of Galactus. He possesses the Power Cosmic. His power is (in Firelord's own words) "like unto that of a raging sun!". Firelord isn't evil, but he's been tricked into believing the X-Men are the aggressors. The X-Men are easily defeated by Firelord.  

At the same time, Jean Grey and her new housemate Misty Knight are hosting a housewarming party at their New York apartment. Jean's parents and Prof. X are in attendance. Suddenly, a women with avian features materializes in Jean's living room. We learn that she is an alien named Lilandra of the Shi'ar.   She has been mentally communicating with Xavier for months, telling him that her brother, Emperor D'Ken, has grown insane and drunk with power. 

A few minutes later, Firelord arrives at Misty and Jean's apartment. Jean transforms into Phoenix and takes on Firelord. Phoenix is so powerful that she handles the former herald with relative ease, blasting Firelord from Greenwich Village to the New Jersey Meadowlands!  

While Jean is distracted by Firelord, Eric The Red attacks Lilandra. He is revealed to be Davan Shakari, who was exiled to Earth by Lilandra. Eric now serves Lilandra's brother, Emperor D'Ken. He sets up a stargate that will transport him back to the Sh'iar homeworld. Eric takes Lilandra with him, to be executed there.

Eric's stargate closes before the X-Men can jump into it, but Phoenix creates a new stargate. The X-Men, especially Cyclops, are amazed at how powerful Jean has become.  

When the X-Men arrive at the Shi'ar Empire, they're attacked by the Imperial Guard, superpowered Shi'ar who are led by their Praetor, Gladiator. The X-Men are outnumbered by the Imperials, but they hold their own long enough to free Lilandra and escape.  

She explains that D'Ken has been driven mad by his discovery of the deadliest weapon imaginable.  Lilandra tells the X-Men that every million years, nine stars align and shine into the M'Kraan Crystal.  This would allow the crystal to open a gateway to absolute power.  

When the Imperial Guard resumes their attack, the X-Men are assisted by team of space pirates called the Starjammers! These pirates are led by Corsair, an Earthling who has a surprising connection to one of the X-Men.  

D'Ken positions himself at the base of the M'Kraan Crystal and the stars shine upon it, with disastrous results. The crystal causes the entire universe to "blink" out of existence. Eventually, the M'Kraan Crystal will cause longer blinks and the universe will cease to exist. Only Phoenix can save the universe from D'Ken's madness. 

Subsequently, the X-Men arrive home and are looking forward to spending a leisurely day having a picnic at a nearby lake. Their plans are cancelled when a man who calls himself Weapon Alpha arrives. Weapon Alpha wears a battle suit that enhances his strength, gives him a force field and allows him to fly. He has come to take Wolverine back to Canada. But Weapon Alpha didn't count on the X-Men arriving on the scene to help Wolverine.

Finally, a telephone repairman arrives at the X-Mansion. When Moira is showing the repairman to the phone junction, he zaps her with a stun gun. This "repairman" turns out to be the mercenary known as Warhawk.  

The X-Men are training in their Danger Room. Warhawk enters the Danger Room's control room, and decides to use it to kill the X-Men. Can the X-Men escape from the Danger Room and defeat Warhawk?

Plus, members of the original X-Men team show up at the mansion and challenge the new team to a fight.  

But there's something about these old X-Men that makes Cyclops doubt they're the real deal.

Review:
In short, this is a great collection of X-Men stories. The creative team really hits their stride in this volume and produces some of the most memorable tales of the Bronze Age.

Story:
Chris Claremont continues his run of great action and drama in Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2.

This book opens with a space shuttle crashing into Jamaica Bay and Phoenix rising out of the water. It's one of the most iconic moments of the Bronze Age. But then Phoenix collapses and isn't seen again for 76 pages. The next time we see her, Phoenix displays god-like powers, trashing Firelord and saving the universe.  

Fans of Claremont's trademark narrative captions will be glad to see the return of the "malicious narrator." In the images scanned below, the narrator reminds Wolverine that he's "never had any friends."  

During Phoenix' absence we get great battles that feature Magneto and Juggernaut, two of the old X-Men's greatest foes. Storm's claustrophobia flashback to her childhood during the Juggernaut battle gives Claremont a chance to give us more information about Ororo's past.

Claremont makes a gutsy move in the Magneto story. The X-Men retreat from one of comicdom's most powerful villains. That's not something that superheroes did in the Bronze Age. But Claremont makes it work, since the X-Men aren't ready to fight Magneto and saving Xavier is the more important matter. Once we learn that the mastermind behind most of the X-Men's problems has been Emperor D'Ken, Cyclops' decision makes more sense.

The Firelord-Phoenix duel does a nice job of showing how powerful Jean has become. Scott thinks to himself that Jean was the least powerful member of the X-Men and now has become one of the most powerful beings on Earth. Claremont follows up with Phoenix saving the universe from D'Ken's insanity. Claremont's narration is amazing during the M'Kraan Crystal portion. It's even more wonderfully over-the-top than usual. Just read the captions in the images below:

This book also contains one of Claremont's trademark "downtime" stories, when the X-Men get a few moments to relax at the mansion and talk to each other. This gives Claremont time to develop the characters a little more. Wolverine feels that everyone has misjudged him since he arrived. Colossus bemoans the fact that he lacks the words to describe his homeland to Storm. It's interesting to watch Cyclops feel alienated from Jean when she gains the Phoenix power (this will be very important down the road, when Jean/Phoenix is presumed dead). Nightcrawler shows that he's an all-around good guy. Kurt tries to get Cyclops to open up about his feelings and also tries to set up a date for Colossus.

The Weapon Alpha fight helps build Wolverine's backstory. It also shows the X-Men coming to his rescue, since they've grown to care about the abrasive Logan and consider him a friend.

On a less positive note, Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2 also contains some lackluster material. The book includes two fill-in tales that are a step down in quality from the rest of the stories. The Old X-Men/New X-Men duel (from X-Men #106) feels like a case of "been there, done that" since it's a bit too similar to a fight featured in X-Men #100.

The book ends with the Warhawk story, another fill-in. Warhawk was created by Claremont as an Iron Fist villain, but here he's just a generic criminal-for-hire bad guy.

On a personal note, the Cassidy Keep two-parter has long been a favorite (even if I find the leprechauns a bit silly), since it was my introduction to the Juggernaut.

In spite of the fill-in material, the stories are excellent, they add up to another great chapter in Claremont's long saga.

Art:
Dave Cockrum pencils the first 89 pages of Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2. His work is strong throughout and sometimes it's fantastic. Cockrum does some great work in this two-page spread from the Firelord story:

It should be noted that the Imperial Guard is an homage to DC Comics' Legion Of Superheroes. For instance, Gladiator is a stand-in for Superboy and Hobgoblin strongly resembles Chameleon Boy. This was a bit of an inside joke, since Cockrum penciled the Legion's stories and designed many of their costumes. It's Cockrum's last story and it's a nice farewell for the New X-Men's co-creator.

Speaking of homages, Cockrum also gets a nice Star Trek tribute in the image below. The Shi'ar bridge looks a lot like the bridge of the USS Enterprise.

John Byrne and Terry Austin succeed Cockrum and the art gets even better, even if it takes a few stories for them to develop what would become their classic style. Byrne and Austin's art at the end of the D'Ken story, when Phoenix saves the universe, still looks amazing  nearly 40 years after it was first published. Check out their work below:

Simply gorgeous work by Byrne and Austin.
That's one of the best examples I've ever seen of a writer, penciler and inker working together to make a great comic book story. Even today, when I read those pages I can almost hear the creative team saying, "let's knock the readers' socks off!"

I also love the way Byrne and Austin depict Peter's transformation into Colossus in this image:

The first fill-in tale features Bob Brown on pencils inked by Tom Sutton. They both did some nice work in the Bronze Age, but I didn't feel that their styles meshed well here. Which is too bad, since this tale is the last artwork Brown created before his untimely death.

Tony De Zuniga penciled and inked the last story. I enjoyed his work in Bronze Age horror titles, but De Zuniga's art here is a step down from Cockrum, Byrne and Austin.

How Does It Look?:
Here's a great image scanned from X-Men #107:

Here's how the same pages appear in Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2:

Extras:
Comic legend Stan Lee wrote an introductory essay for the 1993 edition of this collection. It's reprinted here in this book. If you enjoy Stan The Man's alliterative writing style, you'll want to read this essay.

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2 is highly recommended to any X-Fans. The M'Kraan Crystal story is reason enough to pick it up. While the aforementioned fill-in stories aren't great, the great far outweighs the mediocre in this book. The introduction of Phoenix and the art of Cockrum, Byrne, and Austin make this a must-have for any fan of Bronze Age comics.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders Volume 2

Reprints Defenders #7-16, Giant-Size Defenders #1 and Avengers #115-118
Written by Steve Englehart, Len Wein and Tony Isabella.
Penciled by Sal Buscema, Bob Brown and Jim Starlin.
Inked by Frank Bolle, Frank McLaughlin, Jack Abel, Klaus Janson, Dan Green, Mike Esposito, Al Milgrom and Frank Giacoia.

Variant cover.

Valkyrie, Hulk and Namor, the Sub-Mariner, all members of the Defenders, encounter the archer superhero Hawkeye. He's recently left the Avengers and wants to find a new direction in life. After a less-than-friendly encounter with Hulk and Valkyrie, order is restored and Hawkeye is invited to join the Non-Team.

Suddenly, an Atlantean arrives at their headquarters and tells Namor that his old foe Attuma is preparing to attack Atlantic City. The Defenders head to the Jersey Shore to battle Attuma and his minions. In a short battle, Namor, Hawkeye and Valkyrie are captured and imprisoned on Attuma's ship.

The heroes learn that Attuma's new partner is the Red Ghost. The Ghost uses cosmic rays to mentally control the captured Defenders and orders them to attack Atlantis. Thankfully, the Defenders' leader, Doctor Strange, returns and brings Silver Surfer with him to take on Attuma and Red Ghost.

Shortly after that, Loki, Asgardian god of mischief falls off a cliff after being blinded in a battle with his brother Thor. Loki is rescued by the dread Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension. Dormammu tells Loki he will restore his eyesight if Loki will assist him in his "grandest scheme."

Dormammu wants to recover the Evil Eye, a device that will give him the power to destroy the Earth.  He manipulates the Defenders into finding the pieces of the Evil Eye, which are scattered all over the world. The Black Knight, a friend of the Defenders has been turned to stone. Dormammu tricks the Non-Team into believing that only the Evil Eye will restore the Knight's humanity.   

But Loki has second thoughts. He believes Dormammu will destroy Asgard after he eliminates Earth.  Loki secretly contacts the Avengers and tells them that the Defenders are evil and willingly aiding Dormammu. After hearing Loki's tale, the Avengers go in search of the Evil Eye. This leads to a clash of epic proportions between the Defenders and the Avengers!

On an island in the South Pacific, Silver Surfer battles the Vision on top of an active volcano!

Iron Man takes on his old Avengers teammate Hawkeye in Mexico!

Valkyrie and Swordsman engage in a sword-fight in a Bolivian castle!

Doctor Strange faces off against Mantis and Black Panther in an Indiana cornfield!

Captain America seeks the Evil Eye in Osaka, Japan and is confronted by Namor!

Last but definitely not least, two of the mightiest beings on Earth, Hulk and Thor, duel in Los Angeles.

Eventually, the Defenders and Avengers realize they've been duped and team up to battle Dormammu.  But to defeat him, they'll have to enter the Dark Dimension, where Dormammu reigns supreme.

The Avengers & Defenders unite to battle Dormammu!

After the clash with the Avengers, the Defenders still have to free the Black Knight from his stone prison. This requires them to time-travel back to the Crusades! The Defenders are surprised when they find the Black Knight battling giant gnomes! These gnomes are a difficult obstacle for the heroes to overcome.

Sometime later, Hulk is attacked by the Defenders' old foe Xemnu, the Living Titan. Doctor Strange and Valkyrie come to his rescue and help Ol' Greenskin battle Xemnu.

Next up, the supervillain Nighthawk pays a visit to Doctor Strange's Greenwich Village home, which serves as the Defenders' unofficial base of operations. Nighthawk has recently quit the criminal team known as the Squadron Sinister over their latest scheme.

The Squadron, which consists of Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum and the Whizzer, has "sold" Earth to an alien "geologist" called Nebulon, the Celestial Man. Nighthawk left the Squadron when he learned of Nebulon's plan. The alien has created a laser gun that will melt the polar icecaps and cover the entirety of Earth in water!  
 
Nighthawk tells the Defenders about this and convinces the Non-Team to join him in tackling the Squadron. They arrive at the Squadron's base and quickly gain the upper hand on the villains. But Nebulon arrives and easily beats the Defenders. He imprisons the Defenders in an energy globe and blasts them into space. 

The Defenders ultimately come out on top, thanks to the intervention of Nighthawk. The former villain says he wants to fight crime now and is granted membership in the Defenders!

Lastly, Doctor Strange receives a mental contact from Charles Xavier, known to the world as Professor X, leader of the X-Men. Xavier has discovered something amazing in the Carlsbad Canyons in New Mexico.

But shortly after the Defenders arrive in Carlsbad, they're attacked by Magneto and his new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Defenders defeat the Brotherhood, but Magneto has a secret weapon.

The Defenders face off against the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

The master of magnetism has discovered alien technology that gives him the power to create new forms of life. He uses this tech to create Alpha, the ultimate mutant. Alpha easily beats the Defenders and he departs with the Brotherhood to New York. Magneto walks into the United Nations and declares himself ruler of the world. Alpha's power makes Magneto seemingly unbeatable. But as long as the Defenders are alive, there's hope for Earth's survival!

The Defenders are no match for Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant!

Review:
I'm a huge fan of the Defenders and this is one of my favorite lineups of the Non-Team.

Story:
Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders Volume 2 features stories from one of the classic eras of the Defenders. Even in the context of Bronze Age comic books, the Defenders shouldn't work. But somehow they do. It's always fun to watch Doctor Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie and Sub-Mariner interact with one another. The Non-Team nature means the cast is always rotating, so you never get bored with characters. Hawkeye and Silver Surfer don't stick around very long. But Nighthawk arrives shortly after their departure and Kyle Richmond goes on to become a Defenders mainstay for many years to come.  

The Defenders meet the Avengers and explain that they are on the same side.

I especially love how the Hulk is written in these Defenders tales. I still laugh when he calls Doctor Strange "dumb magician" and refers to Nighthawk as "bird-nose"! It's also nice to see the Hulk be happy for a fleeting minute or two. Like in this panel, where he realizes his fellow Defenders are his friends.

Hulk smiles when he realizes "Dumb Magician" is his friend. 
It's nice to see Hulk happy every now and then.

The centerpiece of this book is what's become know as "The Avengers/Defenders War." This is one of Steve Englehart's crowning achievements and one of the most entertaining stories of the Bronze Age...with one caveat. During the Vision's fight with the Silver Surfer, Scarlet Witch is around for the sole purpose of being a victim. This is silly, since Wanda had already been established as a heavy hitter.  Englehart makes up for it later by having Scarlet Witch play a major role in the battle against Dormammu, but it's still silly.

The other Defender vs. Avenger fights are all excellent. I was surprised when I re-read this to see that the Defenders won every battle, or at least walked away with the piece of the Evil Eye they were seeking. Maybe Englehart wanted to help the new team build their reputation against the old one. I was also surprised to see the Swordsman stab someone to death. It doesn't bother me, since Swordsman was a recently reformed villain engaging in self-defense, but I'm still shocked Englehart would write a story where an Avenger kills someone. The Hulk-Thor conflict is the highlight of the book and Englehart does a great job in the narration building up the powers of "Jade Jaws" and the thunder god.

Len Wein takes over after Englehart and the stories remain strong. The conflict with the evil mutants takes place during an interesting era for Marvel's mutant characters. The X-men series had been cancelled and turned into a reprint title.  But Professor X and the X-men made sporadic appearances in other Marvel series between the end of the old team and the first appearance of the new X-men.

It should be noted that Magneto is written here like a cartoonish madman villain dedicated to world domination. That's fine by me, but modern readers may be surprised by this, since the story was written about 8 years before the retcon that established Magneto as a survivor of the Final Solution.

Of course superheroes need quality opponents. Any book of Bronze Age reprints that features Dormammu, Loki, and Magneto as villains has to be good! Plus we get appearances by Nebulon, the Squadron Sinister, Attuma, and the Red Ghost, who aren't exactly slouches either.

Good stories all around from Englehart and Wein.   

Art:
The art is as good as the writing here, if not better.   

Sal Buscema pencils the Defenders stories. This book shows Buscema at the peak of his Bronze Age powers. He gives us lots of great fight scenes. Buscema was the definitive Bronze Age penciler of the Defenders series and his work still looks great today.

If there's any problem with the art in this book, it's the lack of a steady inker. But Sal B.'s work shines through no matter who inks him. Klaus Janson inks two of the issues reprinted here, I thought he was the best inker of the bunch. Here's a great two-pager, where Nighthawk describes what the Squadron and Nebulon will do to Earth if they aren't defeated:

Nice work by Buscema and Janson!

Bob Brown was the Avengers penciler at the time and he provides some good art as well. Brown received a special on-page commendation for his art in Avengers #118, which required him to draw 14 superheroes, a few SHIELD agents, Loki, Dormammu, a few other heroes making cameos. Plus, Brown does a nice job depicting Dormannu's Dark Dimension. Brown was 20+ years into his career at this point, but the art in the Avengers/Defenders War is one of his finest hours as a penciler.

Giant-Size Defenders #1 consisted of reprints, but it also included new "wraparound" pages penciled by Jim Starlin and inked by Al Milgrom. Their art is great and leaves you wanting more.

How does it look?:
I dug out my old copy of Defenders #16, here's a scan from that issue:

The same pages look like this in the Marvel Masterworks version:

Looks pretty good to me, no weird recoloring.

Extras:
A nice 4-page introduction from Steve Englehart where he talks about writing the Avengers-Defenders war. One gets the impression that Englehart is very proud of that storyline 40 years later, and rightly so. 

We also get three non-Bronze Age stories. As I mentioned above, Giant-Size Defenders #1 featured reprints with new filler material. A Sub-Mariner story from the Golden Age is reprinted, along with Silver Age stories that feature Hulk and Doctor Strange. I'm not crazy about this, since it means we get one less Defenders story.

Marvel Masterworks: Defenders Volume 2 is worth buying just to have the Avengers/Defenders battle, but the other stories are fun and action packed as well. Plus, this book features work by some of the finest writers and artists from of the Bronze Age and easily earns my highest grade.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!