Limited Series Assemble!
In addition to a variety of ongoing series and one-shots, the Avengers have starred in a few limited series--comics which are published for a deliberately finite number of issues. Descriptions of a few such limited series follow below, with titles, dates, plot synopses, cast lists and other notes.
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Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective # 1-4 (September-December, 1993)
By Mark Gruenwald and Mike Gustovich.
Ravonna the Terminatrix is exploring the boundaries of the cross-time kingdom of Kang, whose throne she usurped when injuries he suffered in her defense in Avengers Annual # 21 left him in a death-like coma. During her border exploration she encounters Alioth, a monstrous and hostile rival time lord from an expanse of time that he rules in the distant past, from 2000 BC backward. Meanwhile, a rival time ruler from a far-future era, Revelation of the year 9999, recruits the Avengers members War Machine, USAgent and Thunderstrike as pawns to dispatch against Terminatrix. Terminatrix responds by recruiting her own Avengers pawns--Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America--and pitting them against Revelation's. In the process, Terminatrix reaches Revelation's realm and learns that Revelation is one of her alternate future selves; she had attacked Terminatrix to get her attention and offer a means of reviving Kang so that he can stop Alioth, thereby saving both Terminatrix's realm and Revelation's. Terminatrix revives Kang, who neutralizes the attacking Alioth with the aid of the Avengers, whom Kang then restores to their own time periods. Kang and Terminatrix then settle their differences and renew their old romance as a partnership of equals, ruling Kang's kingdom of Chronopolis together.
Avengers Assembled: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, War Machine, USAgent, Thunderstrike (all six Avengers appear in all four issues).
Other Characters: Terminatrix, Alioth, Deathunt, Marcus Immortus, Revelation, Immortus, Time Keepers (Ast, Vort and Zanth), Tempus.
Note: The Kang who subsequently showed up in The Crossing bore little resemblance to the Kang in this story, or any other previous Kang for that matter, fueling suspicions that the Kang from The Crossing was some sort of divergent temporal counterpart or an impostor. If so, Terminatrix Objective is the last major appearance of the true Kang to date.
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Kree-Skrull War starring the Avengers # 1-2 (September-October, 1983)
By Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, John Buscema and Tom Palmer, with a new prologue by Alan Zelenetz and Walt Simonson.
These two comics summarize the events of Avengers (v1) # 89-92 in a new prologue, reprinting Avengers (v1) # 93-97 in their entirety. Together these tell the story of the Avengers' intervention in the intergalactic Kree-Skrull War, one of the earliest and most celebrated cosmic epics in super-hero comics.
Avengers Assembled: Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man (also appears as Yellowjacket), Wasp, Rick Jones (honorary), Captain America, Goliath (II), Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Vision (II), Captain Marvel (unofficial).
Other Characters: Ronan the Accuser, Supreme Intelligence, Sentry 459, H. Warren Craddock, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Crosby, Stills, Nash, Super-Skrull, Anelle, Nick Fury, Triton, Black Bolt, Maximus the Mad, Annihilus, and mental projections of Captain America, Sub-Mariner, the original Vision, the original Human Torch, the Fin, the original Angel, the Patriot and the Blazing Skull.
Note: The Kree-Skrull War concluded with a cliffhanger of sorts since its finish left the fate of Clint Barton, AKA Goliath, ominously uncertain. This was cleared up in Avengers (v1) # 98-99, which revealed that Clint had stopped the Skrull craft from bombing Earth and escaped back to Earth on his own. In the process, he abandoned his Goliath identity and resumed his original Hawkeye identity.
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Last Avengers Story, The # 1-2 (November-December, 1995)
By Peter David and Ariel Olivetti.
This mini-series is set in an alternate future timeline, one in which the Avengers have fallen on hard times and face total destruction. Ultron destroys the new generation of Avengers and challenges the survivors of the earlier Avengers to meet him and his allies in battle. Hank Pym assembles a motley band of cripples, retirees and kids, but they prevail in the end despite suffering tragic losses. The villains are defeated, and the surviving heroes go back to their lives.
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Official Marvel Index to the Avengers vol. 1 # 1-7
This bimonthly, squarebound series by George Olshevsky and friends lasted seven issues. The first issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 1-23. The second issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 24-45 and Annual # 1. The third issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 46-66, Marvel Super-Heroes (v1) # 17 (featuring the Black Knight) and Avengers Annual # 2. The fourth issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 67-87, Ka-Zar (v1) # 1 (featuring an Avengers story) and Avengers Annual # 3-5. The fifth issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 88-108 and Kree-Skrull War # 1-2. The sixth issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 109-126, Defenders # 8-11 (featuring Hawkeye and an Avengers crossover) and Giant-Size Avengers # 1. The seventh and final issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 127-145 and Giant-Size Avengers # 2-5.
Official Marvel Index to the Avengers vol. 2 # 1-6
This monthly six-issue limited series by Murray Ward and friends ran six issues (though I've never been able to find the sixth for some reason). The first issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 1-60 and Annual # 1-2. The second issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 61-122 and Annual # 3-5. The third issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 123-176, Giant-Size Avengers # 1-5 and Avengers Annual # 6-7. The fourth issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 177-230 and Annual # 8-11. The fifth issue indexes Avengers (v1) # 231-285 and Annual # 12-16.
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X-Men vs. The Avengers # 1-4 (April-July, 1987)
By Roger Stern, Marc Silvestri, Tom DeFalco, Jim Shooter and Keith Pollard.
The infamous mutant terrorist Magneto, supposedly reformed and residing with his old foes the X-Men, attracts global attention when he salvages potentially dangerous equipment from his Asteroid M headquarters. The Avengers and the Soviet Super-Soldiers are dispatched by their respective governments to apprehend Magneto, bringing them into conflict with the X-Men and each other. Magneto eventually turns himself in and is tried by a world court for his past crimes, but he secretly uses mind-altering technology to have the chief justice declare him innocent by reason of not being subject to the laws of the court since he acknowledges no allegiance to its member nations and considered himself to be in a state of war with humanity at the time of his criminal past.
Avengers Assembled: Thor, Captain America, Black Knight (III), She-Hulk, Captain Marvel (II), Doctor Druid (all six Avengers appear in all four issues).
X-Men: Havok, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Dazzler and Magneto (all six appear in all four issues); Psylocke and Longshot in have a cameo role in # 4.
Other Characters: Soviet Super-Soldiers (Crimson Dynamo [V], Darkstar, Ursa Major, Vanguard, Titanium Man [II]), Crawler, Leiko, Slider, The Light, Gabrielle Haller. The Soviet Super-Soldiers appear in # 1-3, the other characters in issue # 4.