Avengers Forever (1998)

The 1998 to 1999 series by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern and Carlos Pacheco The superhero entry for readers who enjoy a timeline being tidied as much as broken. Immortus, Master of Time, and the Time-Keepers set out to destroy Rick Jones, and a team of Avengers pulled from different points in their history, including a past Captain America, Hawkeye and Yellowjacket, find themselves helped by Kang the Conqueror. Its real achievement is housekeeping on a heroic scale: Busiek uses the time travel to explain away decades of contradictory Avengers continuity, so long-time readers get answers as well as spectacle. Newcomers can still enjoy Pacheco's crowded, era-hopping pages, but this one pays best if you know some Avengers history.