Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

John Buscema & Tom Palmer — Avengers, Assemble

Avengers #84, January 1971

John Buscema was the Avengers artist of the late ’60s and early ’70s—despite famously claiming he didn’t much care for superheroes.

Every panel feels like it could’ve been pulled from a widescreen adventure film, even when the scene is nothing more than a nightmare and a jolting wake-up. That was his magic: Buscema could make anything feel epic.

This page shows exactly how he defined the Avengers in that era. Grace, power, and cinematic clarity are baked into every beat, transforming a bad dream into something memorable—and unmistakably Avengers.

Behind the scenes, Marvel was running hot. Kirby had just left for DC, schedules were tightening, pages were due, and assignments were shifting fast. You can feel a stronger Tom Palmer inking presence here than in some earlier issues, suggesting John may have supplied looser pencils as deadline pressure mounted and the machine kept moving.

Marvel may have been in motion, but Buscema’s vision was locked in.

Art Adams — A Classic, Revisited

Avengers # 24.Now, February 2014, Variant Cover

Art Adams pays homage to Neal Adams with this terrific Avengers variant cover from 2014.

Neal’s original Avengers (#92) cover is from 1971, and remains one of my personal favorites. In addition to loving the dramatic art and striking colors, I have a fond memory of guessing the cover’s story gimmick before I actually read the comic.

(Spoiler alert: Thor, Cap and Iron Man are actually skrulls, which we don’t find out until the next issue. Another spoiler: Writer Roy Thomas shortcuts some of the backstory of how that came to pass — blink and you might miss it. Before it’s all over though, the Avengers will find themselves in the middle of the Kree-Skrull war. But, as always, we digress.)

Art’s modern version swaps out X-Men for Avengers, and seamlessly adds additional characters as well.

2021-2022 is the 50th Anniversary of the Kree–Skrull war, so… Happy Anniversary, and Happy New Year!

Paul Ryan & Al Williamson — Eternals, Avengers, Oh My!

Eternals #12, September, 1986

This “sequel” Eternals series couldn’t have gone quite as planned.  

Peter Gillis launches as writer, but Walter Simonson takes over mid–stream. Sal Buscema starts us off on pencils, (ands in some case, inks) but the art team shifts a few times too with a variety of Bullpen artists from the era, until we finally get here, the double-sized last issue, with pencils by Paul Ryan and inks (mostly) by Al Williamson, with assists fromSam de la Rosa.

All pretty odd stuff for a limited-series.

That aside, this is dynamic page featuring Eternals and Avengers working together to defeat their common foe. And hey, based on the film trailers alone, it’s obvious the Eternals exist in the greater MCU, so a crossover like this down the road is not the craziest idea you’re going to hear today. (It’s still early, so trust me on this.)

Eternals opens in theaters on Friday. (Well, technically tonight in many locations.)