Avengers Annual #1 (Part 5)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

We come to the last chapter of Avengers Annual #1 (1967), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Don Heck.

While all the other Avengers have spent the previous chapters fighting for their lives, Captain America and Quicksilver have been sitting on their duffs back at the Mansion.

Actually, that's not quite fair. What they've been doing is tracking Mandarin's transmissions sent to the various super villains. They've finally discovered the source of those transmissions, so they borrow a rocket from NASA and blast off into space.

Because the Mandarin's secret lair is a giant space station. The villain allows Cap and Pietro to board, because he wants the satisfaction of killing them personally. It's a tactically silly thing to do--he could have easily blown up their rocket while it approached the station. But this sort of ego-based decision fits a lot of master villains, including Mandarin. What could have seemed like a cheat by the writer comes across as an acceptable way to progress the story. 

Mandarin and the two heroes go at it for a round or two in another nicely choreographed fight scene--with everyone using tactics that make sense in a world ruled by Comic Book Logic. Then the other Avengers show up. Cap had, of course, sent them the coordinates.

But it's at this point that Mandarin unveils his master plan, showing off the big diamond we saw back in Chapter 1. It emits a hate ray. Mandarin wanted at least one of his villain teams to bring some diamonds back to him, which would have allowed him to amplify the power of the hate ray and blanket the Earth with it. All three of his teams failed, but the hate ray will still work at short range. The Mandarin pulls a lever and the Avengers are soon pounding away at each other. This allows Don Heck to give us a magnificent splash page.

 

In an ironic twist, the Mandarin doesn't stop to consider that one of the hate-filled Avengers might attack HIM. He soon finds himself bowled over by Wasp's sting, knocking the hate-ray lever to the OFF position as he falls. Before he can recover, Quicksilver wrecks his equipment at super speed. This causes some violent explosions, which tear a hole in the space station wall. The Mandarin is hurled into space, probably dead but one never knows about villains. 

In another nice ironic twist, the Avengers plug up the hole with the giant hate-diamond. They then rig the station to explode, crowd into the space craft that brought Cap and Pietro to the station, and head on home. 

It's a great climax to a great story. Don Heck gives us some superb fight scenes and the script is solid--with the action following Comic Book Logic in a way that allows us to follow the story as it jumped from one location around the world and off the world. The Mandarin's plan makes perfect sense within the confines of a Comic Book Universe and the characters are all given appropriate personalities and dialogue. This was fun from start to finish.

Next week, we'll take a break for Thanksgiving. (Readership always drops during the big holidays, so I've planned to begin skipping Thanksgiving week and Christmas week from now on.) In two weeks, we'll jump to the DC universe and look at a Justice League annual. 

Avengers Annual #1 (Part 4)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

Avengers Annual #1 (1967), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Don Heck, was epic. It's even--on its own--made me a fan of Heck's art. I had always thought of his work as good, but a little stiff. But he was simply killing it here. I need to go back and look at some of his other work--it's possible I've been way too harsh on him.

In this chapter, Thor and Hawkeye confront the Living Laser in an unnamed African city. No country is given either--the city seems to have a mostly white population, which might have still be possible in a few places in 1967. This is another fun chapter, but if I were going to criticize it, it would be to point out that the setting is pretty generic. It is indeed supposed to be Africa, which gives room for a lot of different cultural styles. But, from what we see, this story could have been set in downtown Trenton without making a difference to the plot. It's a minor point, though, since the enusing fight seen is pretty darn cool. 

When L.L. is confronted by the two Avengers, the villain manages to dodge Thor's hammer. In turn, Thor blocks return laser fire. Hawkeye then claims first crack at the bad guy. 

It actually makes sense that Thor's sense of honor would cause him to hold back after Hawkeye states he wants to go first. It's an excuse to give us some Hawkeye vs. Living Laser scenes without Thor (whose raw power would bring the fight to an end quickly) taking part. But its a reasonable excuse that fits the characters.

And the Hawkeye/Living Laser fight is pretty cool, with both of them using intelligence tactics and counterstrikes against one another. In the end, though, the archer manages to pin the bad guy to a wall.

But it's at this point that the Mandarin's big, giant android Ultimo bursts out of a pit and changes the odds. He manages to knock Mjolnir out of Thor's hands, which means the Thunder God will turn back into Donald Black in 60 seconds. Hawkeye distracts Ultimo long enough for Thor to retrieve the hammer (in the absolute nick of time--Thor even changes back into Black for a moment before recovering Mjolnir). Thor then batters the android back into the pit from which he emerged, then uses lightning to seal the pit shut.

So all three of Mandarin's schemes have been foiled (and keep in mind that we have been given no clear idea of what the villain's goal might be). 

So we get another fun chapter with another well-choreographed and nigh-epic fight scene. My only minor complaint was that it was stressed in an earlier chapter that this was taking place in Africa, but then we were given no real sense of place when the action starts.

In the next chapter, Captain American and Quicksilver will finally get off their lazy butts and track Mandarin to his lair, bringing us one last epic chapter before the story ends. We'll look at the final chapter next week. 

Avengers Annual #1 (Part 3)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

Chapter 3 of Avengers Annual #1 (1967--writer: Roy Thomas; artist: Don Heck) moves the action to Asia, where Hercules and the Scarlet Witch are confronting the Enchantress and the Executioner. The bad guys have brought along an army of trolls, but Hercules  and Wanda wade through those until they essentially give up and go home.

So the battle quickly narrows down to two heroes and two villains. The Executioner figures an epic battle like this needs an epic location, so he carves through dimensional barriers with his axe and brings all four of them to a between-dimensions location called the Citidal of Silence.  This annoys the Mandarin (who is listening in on the battle), because there's something in Asia his supposed minions are supposed to bring him. But Asgardian bad guys have always had trouble listening to mere mortal bosses. The Executioner tosses the communication device away.

It's a nifty bit of irony in that whomever wins the fight, the Executioner's arrogance alone has already spoiled this part of the Manderin's plan.

Hercules and Executioner pound away at each other while Enchantress trades hexes and spells with Wanda. 

Eventually, Herc knocks out his opponent. Wanda has done pretty well against Enchantress in the meantime, but the villain eventually forms up some debris into a frost giant that's a little too much for the Witch to handle. 

So Herc throws the unconscious Executioner into the giant, destroying it and knocking out Enchantress with the ensuing magical backlash from her spell being disrupted.

So it's another win for the bad guys. The two villains are bound with Enchantress's hair, which will keep them prisoners until Odin can judge them, while Hercules and Wanda return to Earth. 

Once again, Don Heck's art is magnificent, with this issue continuing to change my opinion of his art. I never hated it, but never loved it. Now I kinda love it.

The fight is imaginatively choreographed and the arrogance of the villains is captured perfectly. Hercules is portrayed as a big bruiser, but who also keeps his head during the fight. I love that he uses his unconscious opponent as a missile.

Next week, we'll move to Africa to see how Thor and Hawkeye are fairing.

Avengers Annual #1 (Part 2)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

Last week, we looked at the first chapter of Avengers Annual #1 (1967), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Don Heck. In it, we saw the Mandarin gather together a team of supervillains. He sends them out to attack three different locations, one each in Africa, Asia and South America.

For this chapter, the action moves to South America, where Power Man and Swordman lead an army of mercenaries to capture a diamond-rich city. The two villains speed past the defending army in an air car and confront the city officials with an ultimatum. Either they give up or THE HUGE SWORD HOVERING OVER THE CITY will drop down and destroy everything.

The city officials are cowed and about to surrender when Wasp and Goliath show up. What follows is a cool fight scene, with Goliath and Power Man beating down on each other, while Wasp tries to snatch the activation device for the sword away from Swordsman.

Goliath takes more hits than he gives, but then uses his size-shifting abilities to confuse the villain and get in a knockout blow. Wasp is temporarily stunned by Swordsman, but recovers quickly enough to save her husband's life later in the fight.

But Swordsman does have time to use the device and send the sword dropping down towards the city. This, in turn, gives Iron Man a chance to save the city, using every drop of energy in his suit to stop the sword from falling and eventually throw it off into the jungle.

I have always been a little critical of Don Heck's work. I've always thought his figure work was a little stiff. But looking at this issue is making me re-evaluate my opinion. His art is dynamic and strong throughout, with the above Iron Man splash page being a highlight.

The writing is strong as well. We have a unique threat, a well-choreographed and fun fight scene and a moment of epic heroism. 

So this chapter ends with one of the Mandarin's three attacks being thwarted, though the Master Villain once again reminds us that only one of the three needs to succeed for his Master Plan (whatever that may be) to also succeed.  Next week, we'll see how things go for his team in Asia.

Avengers Annual #1 (Part 1)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

The first Avengers Annual is cover dated September 1967 and its a doozy, with an imaginative script by Roy Thomas and outstanding art by Don Heck. And I'm not normally a huge Don Heck fan. But this particular issue looks great.

It's divided into 5 chapters, running from 8 to 11 pages each. So I'm going to make this a five-part review, so that we can look in detail at each of those chapters and how they move the overall story along.

The story begins in prison, where Tony Stark is demonstrating  new anti-riot weapons. But in a nearby cell, Arthur Parks (aka the Living Laser) is plotting his escape and has gathered the components he needs to built a wrist laser. 

Naturally, a fight between L.L. and Iron Man ensues. It's a short fight, but its well-choreographed and it serves its purpose in establishing the Living Laser as a legitimate threat when he comes very close to taking out one of the most powerful Avengers.

The villain then mysteriously disappears--apparently teleported away via a method that seems to indicate the master villain Mandarin is responsible. The Mandarin is supposed to be dead, but this a Comic Book Universe. That the Mandarin may have escaped the nuclear blast that was supposed to have killed him is a plausible theory.

Concerned, Iron Man calls the Avengers for an emergency meeting. 

In the meantime, the scene shifts to the Mandarin's secret headquarters. He's gathered together the Living Laser, Power Man, Swordsman, the Enchantress and the Executioner to carry out his as-yet unexplained plan.  Mandarin convinces the others of his power by pretending to summon up the Submariner (actually just an image of Namor) and easily "destroying" the Atlantian powerhouse. 

He then reveals to them a giant synthetic diamond, which is somehow central to his plan.

It's another effective scene, showing us one aspect of Mandarin's plan but leaving us largely in the dark. This was a good decision. It would have been totally in character for the Mandarin to egotistically explain his entire plans to his minions, but we simply find out that he DOES have a plan. We don't know what that plan it. It adds considerably to the overall tension of the story.

We then move to Avengers Mansion. Iron Man, not currently a member, gets into a brief tussle with new member Hercules, but Thor shows up to tell them to play nice. Thor also reveals that the Executioner and Enchantress have left Asgard. Captain America rounds this off by saying he's lost track of Power Man and the Swordsman since they last fought. Though the Avengers don't know for sure, they decide to work on the assumption that their enemies are teaming up to seek revenge against the Avengers.

Also present, by the way, are Hawkeye, Goliath, Wasp, Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver. It's a fun line-up with a nice variety of powers and personalities.

Before they can finalize plans, they get a call from Nick Fury, who tells them the villains are launching simultaneous attacks against targets in Africa, South America and Asia. Captain America assigns a team to each area, while he and Quicksilver remain behind as a reserve and to investigate the involvement of the Mandarin.

It's another great scene, with the Avengers exchanging information and making plans with dialogue that sounds natural, but still updates us with all the information we need to follow the story. This chapter runs 11 pages and contains a lot of exposition, but there enough action and cool visuals to keep the pacing fast. It's a great example of how to write a superhero comic book.

Next week, we'll visit South America with Iron Man and two other Avengers as we take a look at chapter 2.

Cover Cavalcade

  OCTOBER IS HAWKEYE & GREEN ARROW MONTH!!!

This 1973 cover is by John Buscema.

Tracking the Bad Guys by the Scent of a T-Rex

 

cover art by John Romita & Rich Buckler

Avengers #111 (May 1973) starts off with Magneto forcing a mind-controlled Wanda to dance for him. I'm not up on modern comics, but I think it's been established that Magneto is not Wanda's dad, which was Canon for a number of years. That would be a good thing, because otherwise this scene would be even creepier than it already is.

Steve Englehart is the writer, while Don Heck does the art. As I mentioned last week, I'm not a huge fan of Heck's art, but this issue is still fun to read and look at.

Anyway, we find out how Magneto is mind-controlling the various X-Men and Avengers he captured last issue. He's figured out how to use the iron in blood to slow the flow of blood to the brain and make sure "my victims have the only the consciousness I allow them!" 

In early issues of the X-Men, Magneto occasionally showed telepathic powers, but this soon stopped being mentioned. As for this magnetism-based mind-control power, I don't remember it ever being mentioned again. I may be wrong about that, though. In any case, that power is very much in play for this short story arc.

Meanwhile, the non-captured Avengers (Thor, Vision and Black Panther) have teamed up with Daredevil and Black Widow to rescue the captives. Unfortunately, they don't know where the captives are. But Daredevil theorizes that a nearby meeting of the Atomic Energy  Commision might be a target. DD's logic is pure Comic Book Science, but makes sense in that context. Atomics cause mutations, which would interest Magneto.

Magneto and the mind-controlled heroes do indeed attack the conference and kidnap the attendees. The good guys arrive and a well-choreographed fight ensues. But Magneto makes a getaway with his hostages.

That leaves the good guys stumped once again, until Black Panther remembers that Magneto had sicced dinosaurs on the Avengers in the previous issue.  They must have come from somewhere nearby. T'Challa will just back-track their scent. So, in the end, the villain will lose because T-Rexes are stinky.

Magneto is mind-controlling the Commission members he kidnapped to get access to atomic installations. But the good guys find his underground base. We get another pretty cool fight scene, but then Magneto steps in to mind-control everyone.

The issue ends with a nice twist. Vision had used his intangibility to inhabit the body of the Piper, Magneto's current minion. He karate-chops Magneto unconscious and thus wins the day.

Comic Book Science reigns again here--he keeps himself intangible enough to avoid damaging Piper's organs, but solidifies his brain just enough to take over Piper's body. I'm completely okay with that. 

Vision also explains that the trick is very dangerous to both himself and the person he takes over, so it's not something he would commonly try. That's a perfectly good explanation for why we don't see the Android Avenger doing that trick more often. 

I'm still not sure if there's a reason why Magneto didn't keep using mind-control as a common tactic. It would be awfully handy. If anyone knows of if an in-universe explanation was ever given, please comment on it.

Avengers #110 and #111 is an entertaining two-parter. As I stated last week, I'm annoyed that it claims to be a three-parter by inserting an unnecessary crossover with Daredevil #99, which you don't even need to read to follow the story. But, well, it's been a half-century now since this came out. I suppose one should learn to forgive and forget.

Next week, we'll return to the pages of Dell's Indian Chief. 

Who are these "X-Men?"

 

cover art by Gil Kane

I'll get the credits for Avengers #110 (April 1973) out of the way first, because in an attempt to confuse future bloggers when writing reviews, it switches artists halfway through. The writer is Steve Englehart. The artist for the first 12 pages is Don Heck. John Buscema takes over starting with page 13.

The story starts by adding to some of the ongoing character arcs before moving on to the story. Quicksilver has been missing for some time, but now contacts the Avengers to announce that he was rescued by the Inhumans and has fallen in love with Crystal. Wanda, pleased, announces that she's fallen for the Vision. Pietro does not react well and disconnects after ordering Wanda to dump the android. 

More character drama pops up later on and does connect a little more with the main story. Hawkeye, who quit the Avengers after learning that Wanda liked Vision better than him, heads out to San Francisco to see the Black Widow. 

Anyway, the drama is appropriate. Marvel Comics had a decades-worth of Soap Opera shenanigans behind it by this point and it was these character-driven arcs that so effectively humanized the protagonists.

But, hey, lets move on to the really cool stuff. Another message comes through on their viewer, showing them the wrecked X-Mansion and unconscious X-Men. The source of this message is mysterious and, not surprisingly, it turns out to be a trap.

Reading this story nowadays, when we are so used to multiple crossovers and various superheroes teaming up on many occasions, it's fun to see the Avengers trying to remember who that Professor X guy is and then reveal that they have no idea where the X-Mansion is. They have to split up and search for it.

They find it eventually. A booby trap gives them a little trouble, but they manage to get the professor, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman and Angel outside.

In dealing with the booby trap, I do wonder why Cap is fighting it while Wanda is barely able to pull Xavier from the room. Couldn't Wanda have hex-blasted the thing while Cap easily carried the professor out? In fact, though I like this issue a lot, my one complaint is that Wanda never gets a chance to show her stuff, even during the ensuing action.

Because lots of action does ensue. Boulders jump up from the ground "like meteors" and we get an awesome Buscema-illustrated three page battle against mind-controlled dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs are defeated and the Avengers are about to confront the Piper, the mutant who has been controlling the monsters. That's when Magneto launches a sneak attack. It was he in Angel's costume, waiting for his chance to strike. He reveals a new mind-control power of his own (something that will be explained in the next issue). He walls off Thor, Vision and Black Panther with boulders, steals the quinjet with the X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man and Wanda are his prisoners.

I do like this story. The action looks cool, with the presence of dinosaurs making everything even better (as is always the case with dinosaurs). Magneto's trap was reasonably clever and the issue ends with an effective cliffhanger. I'm not the biggest fan of Don Heck's art (his figure work always seems a bit stiff to me), but Buscema's art in the second half is great.

I will now rant about something I dislike. The story is said to be continued in Daredevil #99. First, I dislike stories crossing over into different issues, forcing fans to buy something they might not necessarily want to buy. Second, the crossover is largely unnecessary. Most of the Daredevil involves Hawkeye getting into a fight with Daredevil. The uncaptured Avengers show up to get reinforcements. Hawkeye, still in a snit, refuses to come, but Daredevil and the Black Widow do join up.

It's not at all necessary to read this issue to know what's going on in the next issue of The Avengers. A flashback quickly brings us up-to-date and the Hawkeye/Daredevil fight has no effect on the Magneto story. I do love the Marvel Universe of the 1960s and 1970s, but this was a cheap shot.

Anyway, next week, we'll be skipping the Daredevil issue and moving right on to Avengers #111. 

Wedding Anniversary Break

 

1975: Art by Gil Kane, with alterations by John Romita

No Wednesday or Thursday posts this week, as this week contains both my wife's birthday and our wedding anniversary.  We need to spend this time together protecting the Earth from Dormammu.

Looking for Immortality--The Count Nefaria Trilogy, Part 3

cover art by George Perez

Avengers #166 (December 1977) brings this entertaining three-parter to a very satisfying end.  Jim Shooter's script remains strong and John Byrne gives us a truly epic fight scene.

To recap: Count Nefaria has used super-science to give him Superman-level superpowers. But now he's in a dizzy about being mortal and one day dying, despite being perhaps the most powerful person on the planet. He's curb-stomped the Avengers, demanding to have Thor brought to him. We discover that he's working on the erroneous assumption that Thor's hammer will make him immortal.

Thor shows up on the last page of the previous issue and starts whaling away on Nefaria. The Count, still new to having powers, comes near to panicking at first, but soon discovers he can go toe-to-toe with the God of Thunder.

In the meantime, Yellowjacket (who seemed to have run from the battle in the last issue) is busy trying to revive Vision (injured in a previous story arc). He succeeds and the android immediately joins in the fun. Unfortunately, Nefaria is "too charged with super-energy" for Vision's usual trick of jamming an incorporeal hand into an enemy's chest to work. Gee whiz, Viz, anyone versed in the basics of Comic Book Science could have told you that!

Most of the other Avengers revive and rejoin the tussele. With so much raw power being thrown at him, Nefaria is staggered. But he's still not going down.

The whole battle truly is epic. Byrne's art sometimes seems to jump off the page as characters drop buildings on one another and throw ultra-powerful haymakers.

But the tone of the battle changes abruptly. Nefaria thought he had killed the scientists who gave him his powers (never work for a super-villain--they have terrible benefit packages), but one of them lives long enough to show up and tell Nefaria that these powers are aging him rapidly and he'll be dead in two days.

This sends Nefaria into full blown panic mode. He finally goes down, though, when Vision simply turns his body diamond-hard and FALLS on the villain from a tremendous height.

The last few panels seem slighty deus ex machina as it turns out the scientist lived just long enough to tell Hank Pym how to take away Nefaria's powers before the villain wakes up. But there's also a neat twist. The scientist was lying about Nefaria being doomed. In fact, his new powers would have made him immortal. It's the perfect way to end the story.

Characterizations for the individual Avengers continue to be spot-on and Shooter's script adds nice character touches to the villains as well. I like, for instance, that Nefaria is close to panic at the beginning of his fight with Thor. It makes sense--he's only had super-powers for a few hours at the most and now a literal god is slugging him with a super-powered hammer. Anyone would need a few minutes to get used to that.

Next week--giant robot caretakers of a dinosaur zoo. Why this isn't a real thing is beyond me.