Review by Frank Plowright

Given that Jim Starlin wrote and drew 80% of the twenty comics reprinted in this massive collection, what does it say about Marvel that they don’t have the decency to credit him on the cover?

This isn’t everything that Starlin wrote and drew between 1972 and 1975, but it’s the bulk of that period. It charts the growth of an influential and visionary creator, the first to look beyond Earth in the Marvel universe to any significant degree.

Because these are his earliest comics Starlin is growing up in public with pitfalls and stumbles along the way, which are most apparent in his opening dozen chapters introducing Thanos, Drax the Destroyer and Moondragon. This is largely within a story also transforming Captain Marvel, which drags on too long and has some decidedly dodgy art in places as Starlin assimilates the energy and vision of Jack Kirby with the dynamism of Gil Kane. By the final few chapters, though, Starlin has nailed the formula and is supplying astonishingly composed art very attuned to the 1970s. It should also be noted that despite problems with the pacing and art, the ambition and talent ensures this work stands well against the first dozen published comics from any other American comic creator you can name.

With an Avengers film just released in 2013, it perhaps makes marketing sense to exploit their name in the title, but they’re bit players over the first arc, most visible in a chapter tying into Starlin’s work by Steve Englehart and John Buscema. It’s nicely drawn, but concentrates more on problems the Avengers are having than the bigger picture. Even less connected is Moondragon’s appearance in a Steve Gerber Daredevil story. It’s not the work he’ll be remembered for, and art from Don Heck and Bob Brown is uninspired. Six pages of Thanos and Drax are over-written by Scott Edelman, but early art from Mike Zeck shows promise.

Englehart and Mike Friedrich script parts of the Captain Marvel story, but while Starlin’s still finding his way on the chapters he scripts, by the time Warlock takes centre stage he’s providing an authentic voice. The Warlock solo chapters are bereft of the Avengers, although Thanos is necessary in setting up what’s to come when they are involved. All these years later, it’s still a remarkable story of a depressed hero who considers his entire life has been a failure, and there’s really only the single option available to end his pain. This is beautifully set up by Starlin, having Warlock meet his cynical future self and unable to believe that’s what he’ll become.

By the time we reach the big spectacle produced in 1977, Starlin has mastered pacing and storytelling, and it’s an absolute thriller all the way through. Thanos wants to destroy the universe, Warlock wants to destroy himself, and the Avengers don’t consider either situation ideal.

This shouldn’t be confused with another Avengers versus Thanos issued in 2018, which is very different content.