by Jim Shooter, George Pérez and Pablo Marcos
Long before Star-Lord beat Ronan the Accuser with an on-screen dance-off, I thought the Guardians of the Galaxy were a much bigger deal that they really were.
It was partly because, for some reason, I had a beach towel with the original Guardians flying through space for much of my childhood (I've tried to find an example of the art used on that towel, which I would always recognise, many times over the years, without any luck). But it was also because the archetypical Avengers for me will always be the brief time the Avengers were teaming up with the Guardians to take down the evil Korvac.
The Korvac Saga actually only runs for several issues, but still looms large over the hiostory of the Avengers. Written by Jim Shooter, and largely drawn by Pérez at his seventies heights, it has the Beast at his most eloquently humourous, Wonder Man in that bitchin' leisure suit, the colourful Vision and the Scarlet Witch blatantly getting it on, and Captain America, Iron Man and Thor to round out the iconic roster, and even that crew wasn't enough to stop the reality warping Korvac was bringing to the party.
Adding more characters to the long-term plotting would usually leave the story feeling crowded and thin, but with Shooter and Perez, it all flows remarkably well. Issue #167, a comic I've had since I was five-years-old, has all the heroes team-up and recognise the stakes they are facing, before shifting gears entirely and having Yellowjacket, the Wasp and freakin' Nighthawk beat up on the Porcupine for several pages.
Decompressed comics had their day years ago, but the style still lingers in most mainstream superhero comics, so this kind of tight storytelling still feels impressive. As impressive as I always thought Starhawk and Charlie-27 were, drifting through the void on my towel.
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