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The Korvac Saga is one of those stories I’d always heard about but never actually read. This was the idea of writer Jim Shooter and artist George Perez. The whole thing starts with Thor Annual #6 (1977) as a reintroduction to Korvac and the whole of the saga takes place in the pages of the Avengers (#’s 167-168 and 170-177, I guess #169 was a fill-in issue) from January 1978 to November 1978. Jim and George start off the Avengers books but they don’t finish. The book was still “plotted” by Shooter but David Michelinie and Bill Mantlo finished it off. After Perez left, Dave Wenzel finished. The Thor annual was credited to the writing team of Len Wein and Roger Stern with art handled by Sal Buscema. Ralph Macchio writes a brief introduction (from 1991) talking about “The Michael Saga,” as it was known. The Thor Annual starts off innocently enough. It’s a team-up between Thor (who was brought to the 31st century) and the Guardians of the Galaxy as they battle Korvac the Machine Man to stop him from take over the universe. The whole thing ended with Korvac making Thor and Starhawk fight but their fight destroyed Korvac’s headquarters and Korvac escapes. No one knows where he’s escaped to but Thor returns back home.
Of course, as soon as Thor gets back the Avengers find that the Guardians have ended up in the 20th century (so weird to write that now) to look for Korvac. They are worried he wants to kill the young Vance Astro to stop the Guardians from ever forming. After the prerequisite battle, Thor tells the Avengers who these guys are. Meanwhile, Jan stops the Porcupine but ruining her show but the main plot there is that a blonde haired man is able to lure a blonde woman into his grasp and they disappear together. They will become very important in about 8 issues. In fact, the next issue shows that this man is Korvac. Starhawk meets up but loses a battle of wills and becomes powerless against Korvac. Number 169 must’ve been a fill-in because #170 picked up where #168 left off. Jacosta is reawakened and heads off to find her husband, Ultron. The Avengers fight her but let her go (Iron Man thinks she’ll lead them to Ultron) and indeed they find Ultron. Ms. Marvel joins up with the band and Ultron is defeated. However, a troubling trend has occurred. Why are some Avengers literally disappearing in front of our eyes and where are they going?
#172 starts with Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, Vision, and Scarlet Witch fighting Tyrak and besting him without too much effort. The big thing in this issue is that more Avengers are disappearing. So Tony calls together all the Avengers, but even MORE disappear. Eventually the Avengers find out that it is the Collector behind this all. So the Avengers must battle him and it ends up being Hawkeye that really puts an end to things. The Collector reveals after his defeat that he was just collecting them because of the impending enemy that is arriving but before he can tell them who it was, the Collector is killed! We readers know that the enemy is Korvac and it gets even more interesting because the woman Korvac originally seduced was the daughter of the Collector (Carina) and it was her that betrayed her own father. See, building things over issues while still telling single-issue stories can have a magical effect. So the Avengers have no idea who is behind this whole mess while Korvac schemes from the sidelines. All the Avengers are at wits end until deciding to ask the Guardians (still protecting Vance Astro) for help. Of course, even Starhawk can’t help since he originally lost a battle of wills to Korvac and Korvac made him forget about him and how to find him. This whole thing comes to a head during the last two issues. The Avengers come together and actually find Korvac and the last issue was a massive fight where Korvac kills most of the team. However, when Korvac sees doubt in Carina’s mind he allows himself to be killed, but not before restoring to life those that he killed. The whole saga ends with Korvac and Carina dead next to each other on the ground.
-The Bottom Line- It’s amazing how much is fit into these stories. For instance, there is a running plot here besides the Korvac saga of Captain America questioning Iron Man’s authority, The Beast leaving the team, and Henry Gyrich questioning the Avengers security and revoking their priority status. Besides all those sub-plots you have the fantastic main story. I breezed through this volume because it was so good. There was a lot going on in each issue to keep each interesting on their own but with the overarching story going on it made it that much better. The art was great all around, and the writing and plotting was even better. This is a definite classic in the true sense of the word. The extras added were cool, too. The original Trade Paper Back had a little addendum added by Gruenwald and Morgan that proved to be a nice epilogue. You get some Marvel Handbook entries, too. This is one of the larger Premiere Hardcover Classics (at about $35 retail) but it is well worth it for the great story that is inside.
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