Classic Comics - The Avengers #51

You can blame this blog and my interest in comics in general on this issue of The Avengers, cover dated April 1968.

When it was published, I was a student in Junior High School, and I didn't read comic books.

Of course, I had read them faithfully all through my younger days, and learned to read in part because of comics. But I was growing up.

As a kid in the '60s, once you got out of Elementary School, there was pressure to not read comics. The thinking at the time was that comics were just for kids (of course, there are plenty of people who still think this today).

My parents, bless them, never dictated to me that I had to stop reading comics, but they would occasionally suggest that I was getting to be too old to be reading comics. Other relatives did the same, and so did other adults I knew. Even the kids in school and in my neighborhood were outgrowing comics, so I finally decided it was time to grow up, put childish things aside and give up comics.

My resolve lasted for a few months, until I was sitting in class one day next to my pal Jeff. For reasons I can't remember, we weren't having a normal class that day in whatever class it was - it became a study period. The teacher stepped out for a moment, so Jeff showed me the new comic he had smuggled into class - this issue of The Avengers.

I was surprised for a number of reasons. First, that a kid my age was still reading comics. Second, that he had brought a comic book into the class - if the teacher caught him, she'd have confiscated it, probably forever. Third, the comic (which he let me read in the class, though I had to return it) was terrific, both in terms of the story by Roy Thomas and the art by John Buscema, with inks by George Tuska.

The comic featured a guest appearance by both Thor and Iron Man (who ended up in a big fight, thanks to some mind control action) while Goliath, the Wasp and Hawkeye fought the Collector and assorted monsters. (In retrospect, having Janet Van Dyne fighting the bad guys while wearing a bikini probably didn't hurt.)

Reading that comic, something clicked for me. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there was nothing wrong with reading comics at any age. Besides, didn't Dad occasionally pick up one of my comics and read it? Just like that, I was back into the comics buying habit (although it would be years before I'd track down my own copy of this issue - it was sold out at the newsstands).

It's something my family finally accepted about me - they would occasionally ask, "Are you still reading comic books?" I'd say, "Yep!"

I sometimes wonder if I would have made my way back to comics eventually. It seems likely, but I'm still grateful to Jeff and The Avengers for giving me that nudge just when I needed it most. They brought me back to the fold, and aside from some months of poverty during and after college, I've been here ever since!

Grade: A