The Avengers - Which issue/series

[hdndhlovu]

I have stumbled across a stack of old Avengers comics and I was wondering if anyone can explain to me which series/ volume I have. I have got from issue no.5 dated week ending Oct 20 1973. It is labelled "Britain's Greatest" on the front cover. On the inside cover it says "Not to be sold in the USA or Canada". I have seen various volumes being advertised (Vols 1-3) but I am not sure how they all tie into the bigger picture of how many were released and where etc.

I have over a 100 issues ending with the week of July 7 1976 (issue 147).

Anybody have any ideas?

Huggybear1971

[The Night Phantom]

I am no expert on what you’ve got, but I’ll give it a shot.

It sounds like you have Marvel UK reprints of American-based Marvel’s Avengers series. I don’t know if volume numbers have any relevance for the Marvel UK editions, but they do for the original American issues. Vol. 1 began with #1 in 1963 and ran through #402 in 1996. Then vol. 2 #1–13, part of a multi-title event called “Heroes Reborn”, ran in 1996–1997. In 1998, vol. 3 #1 debuted. After vol. 3 #84 came out in 2004, the following issue was numbered vol. 1 #500. The “revived” vol. 1 ended with #503, and a few months later the current New Avengers began, with a new #1.

The American Avengers comics are generally published on a monthly basis. My understanding is that for the weekly market, Marvel UK broke each American issue’s story into pieces across multiple issues. I believe that typically each weekly Marvel UK issue also printed one or more story fragments from other American series and/or original properties created expressly for the UK market—for example, you might get part of an Avengers story and part of an unrelated Iron Fist story in the same issue. In America, Avengers has always been printed in color, but it’s also my understanding that the Marvel UK reprints of that period are generally black-and-white.

I did a little Web research and found a couple of US-based back-issue vendors with listings of UK Avengers issues (nearly all currently out of stock, I believe). One listed 147 issues; another’s list ended with #148. Maybe there are issues past that. It’s also possible that the weekly Avengers reprints continued in some other Marvel UK title.

Those vendors’ Web sites show cover images for just a few of the issues. At Mile High Comics, you can see #18, #22, and #s 90 & 92. At Lone Star Comics’ Mycomicshop.com, you can see #25, #67 & #80, and #148.

It’s also my understanding that monthly editions largely identical to the original US publications have also been released to the UK market, with the adjusted price on the cover being a telltale sign. On Mycomicshop.com, I found a sporadic listing of some of these issues, bearing the same issue numbers as their American counterparts. Some of the issues are from the same time period as the weekly run; some are from before or after it. (Mile High also lists some of the British monthly issues, but they are integrated into the listing of the American editions.)

[hdndhlovu]

That is a much better response than I anticpated. Thankyou very much.. You sound very much like an expert to me!!! Mine are in black and white and it looks like they are the reprints that you mention. I guess the original US copies are the ones that everyone is after, which would make them more collectable?

Thanks again.

[The Night Phantom]

hdndhlovu said:

You sound very much like an expert to me!!!

Nahh…I just had a little bit of knowledge, did a little bit of research, and typed a whole lot of words. A pleasure to be of assistance.