On Friday, to mark the start of a new “Avengers” run, and the group’s 60th anniversary, we asked you to name your favorite run on the comic. You assembled, and coming in at number one with 36.1 percent of the vote was Jonathan Hickman’s 2012-15 run on the series and “New Avengers,” which was drawn by excellent artists like Jerome Opena, Dustin Weaver, Steve Epting, and many more. A spiritual successor to Hickman’s “Fantastic Four” run, it gave the world truly apocalyptic storylines like ‘Infinity,’ ‘Time Runs Out,’ and 2015’s ‘Secret Wars.’ Despite its recency, the run has proven immensely influential on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is currently building to its own version of Hickman and Esad Ribic’s grand finale.
In second place with 21.3 percent was Kurt Busiek’s 1998-2002 run (primarily penciled by George Perez, Alan Davis, and Carlos Pacheco), which saved the franchise after the disaster that was ‘Heroes Reborn.’ It gave readers the definitive Ultron and Kang storylines, ‘Ultron Unlimited’ and ‘Kang Dynasty,’ as well as the classic maxiseries “Avengers Forever,” and set the stage for “JLA/Avengers.” In many ways, Busiek’s run feels like the last “classic” Avengers series, with major roles for the Scarlet Witch (who embraced her Romani heritage during the run), Vision, Wonder Man, the Wasp, and more, before Marvel began to emphasize the biggest names in their universe.
The run that began to make the Avengers more like the Justice League, Brian Michael Bendis’s 2004-2012 run, came in third place with 9.8 percent. Bendis ‘Disassembled’ the group, reassembled them as the “New Avengers,” and then shepherded them through all the major stories of the era — ‘House of M,’ ‘Civil War,’ ‘Secret Invasion,’ ‘Dark Reign,’ ‘Siege,’ ‘Avengers vs. X-Men’ et al. — before handing over the reins to Hickman. His run was controversial for ditching longtime members for characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine, and often derided for its pacing and repetitive dialogue, but it clearly has a fond place in many readers’ hearts.
Thanks for voting, and be sure to assemble on Friday for our next Reader Poll!
