In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Avengers, we're doing a poll of the greatest Avengers stories of all-time! You all voted, now here are the results of what you chose as the 50 Greatest Avengers Stories!
Each day will have five more stories on the countdown (eventually I think it'll get to three stories a day). Here is a master list of every story featured so far. Here are #30-26!
Enjoy!
30. "The Morgan Conquest" Avengers Volume 3 #1-3
Kurt Busiek, George Perez and Al Vey brought the Avengers back to prominence after an ill-fated attempt to reboot the Avengers on an alternate Earth. The plot involved every Avenger ever coming together to stop an attack by creatures from Norse mythology. This turns out to be a plot by the evil Morgan Le Fey to draw the Scarlet Witch out. Le Fey uses Scarlet Witch (and some other Norse magical items) to recreate the Earth as a medieval world where she is in charge. Luckily, a handful of Avengers manage to break free from her spell. Couple with an assist from an Avenger thought to be dead, the Avengers find a way to win and to officially regroup (with a couple of surprising new members).
29. "The Gatherers Saga" Avengers #343-344,348-349,355-363,372-375
This storyline began with Bob Harras' first issue as the ongoing writer on the Avengers, which was also the issue that Steve Epting joined longtime Avengers inker Tom Palmer as the penciler on the Avengers. Epting lasted for the length of this saga, which involved a mysterious man named Proctor from an alternate reality who "gathers" alternate versions of familiar faces to the Avengers to serve him. Proctor is obsessed with the Avenger Sersi and has basically been killing his away across the mulitverse to get his ultimate revenge on her. Harras did a great job slowly unraveling this mystery and the slow burn allowed a lot of great character work with Black Knight, Crystal and Sersi, as they formed an unlikely but interesting love triangle.
28. "Betrayal by a Friend" Avengers Annual #10
This is the classic story where Chris Claremont (along with artists Michael Golden and Armando Gil) addressed the resolution of Avengers #200, where Ms. Marvel went off to limbo with the son of Immortus, a man who pretty much admitted that he had psychologically manipulated Ms. Marvel into falling in love with him. In this issue, Claremont allows Ms. Marvel (who is now powerless after having her powers sucked out of her by Rogue, who makes her first appearance in this issue) to express her anger and disappointment in the Avengers in one of the most heartfelt and tragic Avengers stories ever.
27. "Homeland Security" Ultimates #7-13
In “Homeland Security,” the Ultimates learn that an alien race has been infiltrating Earth for decades and now the Ultimates are going to go up against their most difficult threat yet - so dangerous that they might need the assistance of the first superpowered threat they ever faced, the Incredible Hulk! Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary drew this epic action tale that introduced the “shadow” Ultimates team of Black Widow, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (the latter two who seem to have WAY too close of a relationship for a brother and sister).
26. "Breakout!" New Avengers #1-6
In this modern re-imagining of "The Coming of the Avengers," Brian Michael Bendis introduced the brand-new Avengers as a disparate group of heroes are thrown together to combat a mysterious prison break at the prison for super-powered criminals known as the Raft. The coming together of this new team inspires Captain America to re-form the Avengers. The new team heads to the Savage Land where they uncover a conspiracy behind the prison break (this conspiracy would ultimately lead into Secret Invasion). David Finch and Danny Miki did the artwork.