This is one of my all time favorite Avengers stories. Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern create an amazing story, and Carlos Pacheco's art is astounding.
The heroics are done by some great Avengers, cleverly pulled from various moments in time My favorites are a strong present day Wasp as team leader and a faith shaken Captain America reeling from a realization his government is not living up to the ideals he holds for the country.
This is one of the last and best uses of Wasp as a real powerful leader. Even in the Avengers on-going at the time Wasp is no where near as strong a leader as she is presented here. It really takes me back to her best days as chair of the team in the late 80's. Clearly this is Stern's influence on the story.
The story also features Avengers original villain Kang, I know he is Rama-Tut about a year earlier in Fantastic Four, but Kang is in Avengers first. Like Kingpin being Daredevil's arch-nemesis despite debuting in Amazing Spider-Man, Kang is the Avengers arch-nemesis.
Both heroic, and villainous, Kang is well developed. His motivations are suspect, but not overtly so, and the Avengers helping him don't feel out of character.
I'm not caught up yet on the big Secret Wars continuum shake up currently roiling in the Marvel U, but I'm guessing Avengers Forever's multitude of realities will get some play. Mulitudes of realities there are! Busiek and Stern grab from all over the Marvel Multiverse and throw some fun teams out there, including a fave of mine, a version of the Assyrian Avengers.
This is the first time I've seen it offered on sale. The total cost for all twelve issues is a mere $11.88. This is a real steal at that price. I only wish Comixology offered the books as a collection rather than the individual issues, but this is a small detail in an otherwise stellar solictation.
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