History YMMV / TheGatherersSaga

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The entire concept of the Gatherers. The bulk of the villains are brand new characters with no real counterparts to the Avengers. Only Jocasta, Vision, Swordsman, Black Panther, and Black Knight have doubles and these are strictly C and D-List characters at the time of the story. Furthermore Black Panther and Vision's double are killed off quickly, Swordsman's double is an In Name Only version of the original, and Jocasta's does nothing of note even though Harras teases the idea of her having a bigger role (which doesn't come to pass). And Black Knight being Proctor was a literal last minute reveal that doesn't make any sense in hindsight given the build-up and previous issues of Proctor talking about his past and motives. Furthermore, the Avengers being responsible for failing to stop the end of the world and a band of time/space refuges wanting to destroy them for said failure, doesn't get played with and the Avengers West Coast don't even factor into the mix at all.

* DorkAge: The Gatherer Saga is considered a massive dork age for the Avengers, with it being the era when the team was filled with C and D listers, anchored only by Captain America and Vision. Black Widow (who had been floundering in limbo at the time save for random guest spots in Daredevil) officially joined the team full time during this period, but this was during the period that Natasha was strictly D-List fodder. It's also during the period when the team wore matching brown jackets and had been officially overtaken by X-Men as THE team book of the Marvel Universe, not to mention with Avengers West Coast having a proper classic Avengers roster. The fact that it wasn't republished in a collected format until 2021, almost 30 years later, didn't help its reputation. (To be fair, the stretched-out length of the story didn't help make collecting it easy.)

* DorkAge: The Gatherer Saga is considered a massive dork age for the Avengers, with it being the era when the team was filled with C and D listers, anchored only by Captain America and Vision. Black Widow (who had been floundering in limbo at the time save for random guest spots in Daredevil) officially joined the team full time during this period, but this was during the period that Natasha was strictly D-List fodder. It's also during the period when the team wore matching brown jackets and had been officially overtaken by X-Men as THE team book of the Marvel Universe, not to mention with Avengers West Coast having a proper classic Avengers roster. The fact that it's also the only remaining Avengers epic to never be collected, adds to its black sheep status.

* TheUnTwist: Deconstructed. Proctor being Black Knight was a literal last minute twist, as the character doesn't resemble the brown haired Dane Whitman whatsoever. When the character is first introduced, a lot of fans suspected him to be a brand new character, especially after Bob Harras revealed that Proctor was the estranged husband of Sersi who clearly was pissed off at Black Knight's mindlink with Proctor. Furthermore Proctor looked an awful lot like Wonder Man, which combined with restoring Vision's body, made some speculate he was an alternate universe version of Simon Williams. By the time Harras revealed Proctor was an evil version of Black Knight, it felt super forced in a way Harras (who left the book after the arc) threw it in because he had written himself into a corner and went with the easiest ending to wrap everything up in time for the 375 issue.

* DorkAge: The Gatherer Saga is considered a massive dork age for the Avengers, with it being the era when the team was filled with C and D listers, anchored only by Captain America and Vision. Black Widow (who had been floundering in limbo at the time save for random guest spots in Daredevil) officially joined the team full time during this period, but this was during the period that Natasha was strictly D-List fodder. It's also during the period when the team wore matching brown jackets and had been officially overtaken by X-Men as THE team book of the Marvel Universe, not to mention with Avengers West Coast having a proper classic Avengers roster. The fact that it's also the only remaining Avengers epic to never be collected, adds to it's black sheep status.

* TheUnTwist: Deconstructed. Proctor being Black Knight was a literal last minute twist, as the character doesn't resemble the brown haired Dane Whitman whatsoever. When the character is first introduced, a lot of fans suspected him to be a brand new character, especially after Bob Harras revealed that Proctor was the estranged husband of Sersi who clearly was pissed off at Black Knight's mindlink with Proctor. Furthermore Proctor looked an awful lot like Wonder Man, which combined with restoring Vision's body, made some speculated he was an alternate universe version of Simon Williams. By the time Harras revealed Proctor was an evil version of Black Knight, it felt super forced in a way Harras (who left the book after the arc) threw it in because he had written himself into a corner and went with the easiest ending to wrap everything up in time for the 375 issue.

* TheUntwist: All the gatherers are actually Avengers from alternate realities. But who is Proctor's identity in the main reality? Let's see, he has [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]], he knows everything there is to know about the "Gann Josin" mind link between Sersi and the Black Knight, he can subtly manipulate them, he claims that Sersi destroys all realities and hates her with a passion... who can it be? Nobody bats an eye when it was "revealed" that Proctor was an alternate Black Knight.