Avengers1959_1_Cover.jpg
For people who liked the historical setting for X-MEN FIRST CLASS, Marvel is rolling out some similar treats in comics form.

When it comes to retro comics that capture the feeling of past decades, Howard Chaykin is one of your go-to guys, and he’s been tapped to write and draw AVENGERS 1959 which will feature Sabretooth, Kraven the Hunter and Namora. The book spins out of Avengers continuity and features a historical superteam trotting the globe for adventures.

“I’m grabbing what feels like a brass ring here, with the opportunity to do an untold story of the lost years of the Marvel Universe,” explained Chaykin. “In a follow up to the sensational stuff laid out by Brian Bendis in NEW AVENGERS, we’ll follow Nick Fury and his Avengers around the world as they track down and take down super powered survivors of the Third Reich–as their ever effort is countermanded by a mysterious agency with a dark agenda of its own.”

1 COMMENT

  1. “When it comes to retro comics that capture the feeling of past decades, Howard Chaykin is one of your go-to guys…” except, as usual, when it comes to costuming women. That woman in red’s outfit shows a bit too much skin in the midriff and above the waist in general to be period-appropriate.

  2. The 1959 part of the Avengers stories is pretty terrible. I like the Avengers in general, but not too found of this stuff….not sure what kind of market is out there for yet another spin off or mini Avenger’s title.

  3. When I looked at Nick Fury, I felt like as if I was looking at American Flagg with an eye patch.. :)

    I thought it was Cody Starbuck, myself.

  4. “The 1959 part of the Avengers stories is pretty terrible.”

    You may not like it, but it’s far from terrible. Well paced, great art, fun plotting, rich characters…. It’s quality material.

  5. I love Howard Chaykin! It’s sad that comic fans have to be so negative all the time (see the first comment predicting poor sales). Why can’t we just enjoy the good material?

  6. I LOVE Howard Chaykin! (The Shadow, Black Kiss, American Flagg, Blackhawk, etc.) but I don’t know… I can’t tell if he’s changed up his style, or it’s the computerized coloring he’s putting out, but it’s lost something. Not really much of a fan for his newer stuff.

    Unfortunately the 1959 Avengers storyline LITERALLY made me drop New Avengers, so I won’t be picking this up, either. (Though it’s NOT written by Bendis, so it could rock! ;)

  7. This is 1959 two years before the Fantastic Four and six years before Tony Stark made Nick Fury head of SHIELD, or some other 1959? Sigh.

  8. @Elayne

    “That woman in red’s outfit shows a bit too much skin in the midriff and above the waist in general to be period-appropriate.”

    You must not be familiar with a little thing called the golden age. Synsider beat me to the punch with posting the picture so I’ll see his Blond Phantom and raise him a Phantom Lady…

    http://www.rtsunlimited.com/images/PhantomLady%2323Med.jpg

    And don’t even get me started on Domino Lady.

    I would have liked seeing Chaykin put Sun Girl on the team.

  9. Does the Blonde Phantom have powers? I only know her from Byrne using her occasionally in the 80s/90s. I enjoyed Chaykin’s work in the recent New Avengers flashbacks, so I’m on board for this one. Namora was used as one of the physical bruisers in those stories, as an Atlantean should be.

  10. @Shawn: The Blonde Phantom had no powers – she just fought crime in an evening gown. She carried a gun.

    @Gall: It’s meant to be the actual year 1959, ie 52 years ago as of now. It’s a spin-off from the last NEW AVENGERS arc which had extended flashbacks to Nick Fury forming his 1959-era Avengers team. The group was mostly composed of extremely long-lived characters who’d presumably have been around then, though I think they also threw in Silver Sable’s father.

  11. I like getting started on Domino Lady — that’s why I reprinted her stories in “Compliments of the Domino Lady”, and commissioned new illustrations by Steranko :)

  12. really, this group has very little to do with the avengers as a concept. they come off more like: thunderbolts 1959! (but since the avengers are way more popular, i guess they’ll go that route). still, guest shots by the longer living characters of the MU and maybe some of the golden age heroes of the time should be interesting and fun, and the agents of atlas showing up eventually is probably a given. would be nice to see this book last a year or two so they can touch on all those bases.