New Avengers: Guest Starring The Fantastic Four Special

(Marvel, 2005)
™ and © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.
Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) military giveaway comic.

The purpose of this comic book is summed up by the center-spread poster featuring the title characters with the slogan: “America Supports You Our Military Men and Women.” A million copies were produced as an exclusive giveaway to military personnel serving both domestically and abroad. This issue was labeled as “Not for Sale” and wasn’t distributed to the general public. But copies were immediately selling on eBay for as high as $16. Not bad for a week-old freebie!

Straight out of current New Avengers continuity, the story is a nice stand-alone tale reminiscent of the days when every comic book was a complete story. The Avengers and The FF investigate a spaceship so old that rock has formed around it, accidentally waking the crew of Kree warriors who were sleeping in suspended animation.

It’s unclear to whom the military readers are supposed to relate: the wisecracking super-heroes from Earth? Or the “no questions asked” Kree warriors—who are mistakenly ready to fight on sight? But still it’s a laudable effort by Marvel.

— Michael Tierney

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Notes

Writer

Artist

Giveaway #1

15-Dec-2015
Cover Price: $0.00
12 copies available from $2.25

Brian Michael Bendis

Dan Jurgens, Sandu Florea