Collecting Avengers #188-196, Avengers Annual #9.

Avengers #189 is written by Steven Grant and Roger Stern. John Byrne is the regular artist. When Iron Man tells Henry Peter Gyrich that the Avengers will not force people to join their team, Gyrich threatens to shut them down. Meanwhile, Hawkeye is still bitter about being left off the team and ends up taking a job as a security guard where he runs in to the deadly alien villain Deathbird.

This issue was a downtime story for most of the Avengers. Hawkeye is the one who gets all the action. He gets a security job working for Cross Enterprises, but end sup getting into a fight with Deathbird when she tries to rob the place. Hawkeye has always been one of my favourite Avengers, so it was nice to see him be the main focus for once.

Avengers #190 is plotted by Roger Stern and scripted by Steven Grant. The Avengers are appearing at a Senate investigation into their activities, which was called due to Henry Peter Gyrich's threats to shut them down. However, the investigation is soon cut short when the Avengers are called to stop a giant stone creature form running amok.

A lot of weird stuff ends up in Jamaica Bay. First it was the real Jean Grey (except we don't know that yet) and now it's the stone creature that ends up crashing in there. It's a pity that John Byrne doesn't stick around on art for lomger as his art really is a delight. I can't be too disappointed though as George Perez is back on art soon and I always love seeing his work.

David Michelinie scripts Roger Stern's plot for Avengers #191. Michelinie will be the regular writer from now on. The stone creature is revealed to be the Grey Gargoyle and he soon starts fighting the Avengers. Luckily, Daredevil is there to lend a hand.

The Daredevil appearance isn't just a gratuitous cameo. Matt Murdock was one of the lawyers defending the Avengers during the hearing. He wasn't the only comic book lawyer appearing. Luke Cage and Danny Rand's lawyer Jeryn Hogarth was there and so was Emerson Bale, who was apparently the former counsel for the Champions. It's a pity that She-Hulk hadn't been created yet as her lawyer skills could have come in handy too. The Grey Gargoyle is a pretty neat villains, so it was nice to see him make an appearance. He is primarily a Thor villain so he was probably grateful that Thor wasn't there to give him a good smiting again.

Arvell Jones is on art for Avengers #192. Tony Stark takes Wonder Man on a tour of a factory that Simon Williams used to own before he became Wonder Man. The factory was also once used by Thor to repair his hammer and one of the workers has kept a flake of the hammer as a good luck charm. Unfortunately, the man falls into a vat of molten metal and the enchanted shard turns him into a monster.

The worker that falls into the vat is supposed to be black and there's tension with the other workers because I guess they're racist. However, due to a colouring error he looks like a white guy. The art from Arvell Jones was such a letdown after John Byrne's work. At this point I think Byrne had started his short run drawing Captain America. I think he was still drawing Uncanny X-Men at this point, so maybe drawing three books at once would have been too much.

Sal Buscema is on art for Avengers #193. Iron Man and Wonder Man do battle with the creature, now called Inferno, as it seeks vengeance against the workers that pushed him into the vat of molten metal in the first place.

The Scarlet Witch has been a bit shaken ever since Quicksilver and Crystal announced that they are having a baby. I guess that Wanda's concerned about whether she and the Vision will ever be able to have babies. Any way, she ends up leaving the Avengers for a while and Wonder Man is re-inducted to the team in her place. As sad as I was to see Wanda leave, having Wonder Man back means that there will be plenty more opportunities for him and the Beast to hang out together.

George Perez is the regular artist starting from Avengers #194. Free from Gyrich's regulations, the Avengers are able to reorganise their roster once more. Meanwhile, an escape patient by the name of Selbe seeks help against the people that are trying to kill him.

Another fine downtime issue. The Scarlet Witch leaving and Wonder Man re-joining aren't the only changes as the Falcon leaves as well. It was a pity that the Falcon felt he had to quit just because he was on the team to fill out a quota. I really would have liked to more from him as an Avenger. Elsewhere, we have some nice flirtation between Captain America and Ms. Marvel. Also, the Beast finds out that Wonder Man appeared in a children's show and proceeds to give him a good ribbing about it. I really do enjoy the friendship between the two of them.

In Avengers #195, the Avengers discover that the Wasp has gone off on her own to help the patient Selbe. The Avengers follow the trail to the Solomon Institute for the Criminally Insane but are unable to enter without a search warrant. The Avengers end up recruiting Yellowjacket and Ant-Man to help and they discover the Wasp being help captive by Dr. Pernell Solomon, head of the Institute.

This issue is all about Yellowjacket and Ant-Man. They are the only ones able to sneak into the Institute to rescue the Wasp. It's interesting that there is an academy for training henchmen in the Marvel Universe. I guess the super-villains have to get the lackeys from somewhere. The Tinkerer specialises in creating gadgets for villains, so now we have somebody providing henchmen. Now all the Marvel Universe needs is somebody that finds villains their secret lairs.

In Avengers #196, the Avengers are ambushed by a villain named Taskmaster. Taskmaster had been using the Institute as a front for an academy trainign henchmen, but Dr. Solomon's own plans interfered by getting the Avengers involved. As a result, Taskmaster is there to punish Dr. Solomon for mucking it all up.

Taskmaster appeared right at the end of the last issue, but he makes his proper debut in this issue. I always thought Taskmaster was a cool villain. He can copy a person's skills just by watching them. He can throw a shield like Captain America and wield a sword like the Black Knight. He might look a bit silly, like a pirate Skeletor, but he can still kick anybody's butt and that includes a whole team of Avengers.

I have skipped by reviews of Avengers #188 and Avengers Annual #9 as I already covered them in my previous Avengers review. They weren't particularly exciting, so it's no great loss. The rest of the collection was pretty enjoyable though. A fun solo adventure with Hawkeye, the two-art Grey Gargoyle story with some great art by John Byrne and the return of the always-awesome George Perez with the first-ever Taskmaster story. Thankfully, this collection ends before we get to the infamous Avengers #200. Unfortunately, that does mean I miss out on a cool-sounding story of the Avengers fighting Red Ronin, a giant Japanese robot. Maybe I will check out those Red Ronin issues on their own some time.

My rating: 3.5 stars.

Next time: Batman- Road to No Man’s Land Vol. 2