Avengers #1
Avengers Vol. 3 #1 is the formal launch of the 'Heroes Return' era, restoring the Avengers to the mainstream Marvel Universe (Earth-616) after the divisive Heroes Reborn experiment handed the title to outside studios for a year. Kurt Busiek and George Pérez set the tone for an unapologetically traditional, continuity-rich approach to the team at a moment when much of the industry was moving in the opposite direction — deliberately counter-programming against the deconstructionist wave of the late 1990s. The oversized, 48-page issue assembles virtually every living Avenger in a single story, signaling that Busiek and Pérez intended to honor the full depth of the team's history rather than whittle it down, and the Morgan Le Fay 'Once an Avenger…' arc that begins here immediately demonstrated what that ambition looked like in practice. The run that starts with this issue is routinely cited alongside the Roy Thomas and Roger Stern eras as one of the high-water marks for the franchise.
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The direct editorial context is Marvel's 'Heroes Reborn' experiment of 1996–1997, in which Avengers and three other flagship titles were licensed to studios run by former Image Comics founders Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld following the Onslaught crossover; reader response was mixed, and when those contracts expired the characters were returned to Earth-616 in the 'Heroes Return' initiative. Marvel tapped Kurt Busiek — fresh from his Eisner-winning Marvels with Alex Ross and his own Thunderbolts launch — to write the relaunched Avengers, and George Pérez agreed to pencil it specifically because Busiek was the writer, reuniting Pérez with a franchise he had drawn during its celebrated 1980s period. The companion one-shot Avengers Rough Cut #1 documented the creative process, revealing that last-minute art revisions included swapping out a monster, correcting Binary's costume, adding Rick Jones in a wheelchair, and inserting D-Man onto the cover.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Kurt Busiek; penciled and co-inked by George Pérez; inked by Al Vey; colored by Tom Smith; lettered by Richard Starkings and Comicraft. Cover date: February 1998; on-sale: December 1997.
- Directly continues from Avengers Vol. 2 #13 (the final Heroes Reborn issue), picking up after the events of the Heroes Reborn: The Return limited series that brought the team back to Earth-616.
- The story is titled 'Once an Avenger…' and is divided into four named chapters: 'And There Came a Day…', 'Avengers Assemble!', 'A Common Threat…', and '…To Fight the Foes…'. The issue also begins the three-part 'Morgan Conquest' arc that runs through issues #1–3.
- The issue features a gatefold cover by George Pérez and includes a short biographical paragraph on each Avenger — an unusual production feature for the era, documented further in the companion one-shot Avengers Rough Cut (1998) #1.
- The plot reunites nearly every living former Avenger at the Mansion in response to a Thor-led warning about the missing Twilight Sword and Norn Stones, with Morgan Le Fay and Mordred revealed as the villains manipulating events from the issue's final pages.
- The issue is also catalogued under Marvel's Legacy renumbering as Avengers #416, reflecting its place in the uninterrupted count of the original 1963 series.
- The opening three-issue arc 'The Morgan Conquest' was first collected in the 2000 trade paperback Avengers: The Morgan Conquest, and later in the 2004 hardcover Avengers Assemble Vol. 1 (issues #1–11), and subsequently in the Busiek & Pérez Omnibus Vol. 1.
- George Pérez only joined the series because Kurt Busiek was writing it — the two had a mutual interest in collaborating, with Pérez excited to return to a team he had drawn in the 1980s and Busiek eager to work with the artist associated with that celebrated run.
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