Category: Captain America

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Captain Marvel: The Many Lives of Carol Danvers


By Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, David Michelinie, Howard Mackie & Mark Jason, Kurt Busiek, John Jackson Miller, Brian Reed, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Gene Colan, John Buscema, Carmine Infantino, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum, Tomm Coker, George Pérez, Jorge Lucas, Paulo Siqueira, Adriana Melo, Dexter Soy & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2506-2 (TBP/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Miraculous Ascension to Marvel At… 8/10

In comic book terms, the soubriquet “Marvel” carries a lot of baggage and clout, and has been attached to a wide number of vastly differing characters over many decades. In 2014, it was inherited by comics’ first mainstream first rank Muslim superhero, albeit employing the third iteration of pre-existing designation Ms. Marvel.

Career soldier, former spy and occasional journalist Carol Danvers – who rivals Henry Pym in number of secret identities – having been Binary, Warbird, Ms. Marvel again and ultimately Captain Marvel – originated the role when her Kree-based abilities first manifested. She experienced a turbulent superhero career and was lost in space when Sharon Ventura became a second, unrelated Ms. Marvel. This iteration gained her powers from the villainous Power Broker, and after briefly joining the Fantastic Four, was mutated by cosmic ray exposure into a She-Thing…

Debuting in a sly cameo in Captain Marvel (volume 7 #14, September 2013) and bolstered by a subsequent teaser in #17, Kamala Khan was the third to use the codename. She properly launched in full fight mode in a tantalising short episode (All-New MarvelNow! Point One #1) chronologically set just after her origin and opening exploit. We’ll get to her another day soon, but isn’t it nice to see her annoying trolls on screen as well as in print?

Here we’re focusing on Carol Danvers in many of her multifarious endeavours, glimpsed via a wide set of comics snapshots spanning cover-dates March 1968 to September 2012, and comprising Marvel Super-Heroes #13, Ms. Marvel #1, 19, Avengers #183-184, Uncanny X-Men #164, Logan: Shadow Society, Avengers (1998) #4, Iron Man (1998) #85, Ms. Marvel (2006) #32-33, and Captain Marvel (2012) #1.

She began as a supporting character as the House of Ideas pounced on finally vacant property title Captain Marvel and debuted in the second instalment. Marvel Super-Heroes #13 picks up where the previous issue ended. That was ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel!’ – derived directly from Fantastic Four #64-65, wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced Sentry robot marooned on Earth by a mythical and primordial alien race the Kree. They didn’t stay mysterious for long and despatched a mission to spy on us…

Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree had to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose – Captain Mar-Vell – was a man of conscience, whilst his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was his ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una. No sooner has the dutiful operative made a tentative planet-fall and clashed with the US Army from a local missile base than the instalment – and this preamble – ends.

We begin here as Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Paul Reinman took over for ‘Where Stalks the Sentry!’ as the spy assumes the identity of recently killed scientist Walter Lawson to infiltrate that military base and immediately arouses the suspicions of security Chief Carol Danvers. He is horrified to discover the Earthlings are storing the Sentry defeated by the FF on site. Yon-Rogg, sensing an opportunity, reactivates the deadly mechanoid. As it goes on a rampage, only Mar-Vell stands in its path…

Over many months Mar-Vell and Danvers sparred and shuffled until she became a collateral casualty in a devastating battle between the now-defected alien and Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel #18 (November 1969). Caught in a climactic explosion of alien technology (latterly revealed to have altered her biology), she pretty much vanished until revived in Ms. Marvel #1 (January 1977). Crafted by Gerry Conway, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott, ‘This Woman, This Warrior!’ heralded a new chapter for the company and the industry…

Here irrepressible and partially amnesiac Danvers has relocated to New York to become editor of “Woman”: a new magazine for modern misses published by Daily Bugle owner J. Jonah Jameson. Never having fully recovered from her near-death experience, Danvers left the military and drifted into writing, slowly growing in confidence until the irascible publisher made her an offer she couldn’t refuse…

At the same time as Carol is getting her feet under a desk, a mysterious new masked “heroine” (sorry, it was the 70s!) started appearing and as rapidly vanishing, such as when she pitches up to battle the sinister Scorpion as he perpetrates a brutal bank raid.

The villain narrowly escapes to rendezvous with Professor Kerwin Korwin of Advanced Idea Mechanics. The skeevy savant promised to increase Scorpion’s powers and allow him to take long-delayed revenge on Jameson – whom the demented thug blames for his freakish condition…

Danvers has been having premonitions and blackouts since the final clash between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg and has no idea she transforms into Ms. Marvel during fugue state episodes. Her latest vision-flash occurs too late to save Jameson from abduction, but her “Seventh Sense” does allow her to track the villain before her unwitting new boss is injured, whilst her incredible physical powers and knowledge of Kree combat techniques enable her to easily trounce the maniac.

Danvers eventually reconciles her split personality to become a frontline superhero and is targeted by shape-shifting mutant Mystique in a raid on S.H.I.E.L.D. to purloin a new super-weapon. This triggers a blockbuster battle and features the beginnings of a deadly plot originating at the heart of the distant Kree Imperium…

The scheme culminates with our third tale as ‘Mirror, Mirror!’ (Chris Claremont, Carmine Infantino & Bob McLeod) sees the Kree Supreme Intelligence attempts to reinvigorate his race’s stalled evolutionary path by kidnapping Earth/Kree hybrid Carol Danvers. However, with both her and Captain Marvel hitting hard against his emissary Ronan the Accuser, eventually the Supremor and his plotters take the hint and go home empty-handed…

Avengers #183-184 from May and June 1979 then see her seconded onto the superteam by government spook Henry Peter Gyrich just in time to face ‘The Redoubtable Return of Crusher Creel!’ Courtesy of David Michelinie, John Byrne, Klaus Janson & D(iverse) Hands, a breathtaking all-action extravaganza sees Ms. Marvel replace the Scarlet Witch just as the formidable Absorbing Man decides to leave the country and quit being thrashed by heroes. Sadly, his departure plans include kidnapping a young woman “for company”, leading to a cataclysmic showdown with the heroes resulting in carnage, chaos and a ‘Death on the Hudson!’…

Carol was later attacked by young mutant Rogue, and permanently lost her powers and memory. Taken under the X-Men’s wing she went into space with The Starjammers and was eventually reborn as cosmic-powered adventurer Binary: the exact how of which can be seen in Claremont, Dave Cockrum & Bob Wiacek’s ‘Binary Star!’ from Uncanny X-Men #164 (December 1982)…

Jumping to December 1995, one-shot Logan: Shadow Society – by Howard Mackie, Mark Jason, Tomm Coker, Keith Aiken, Octavio Cariello & Christie Scheele – delves into Danvers’ early career as set pre-debut of the Fantastic Four. She links up with a sometime associate to counter a new and growing menace… something called “mutants”. She has no idea about the truth of her savagely efficient partner Logan but certainly understands the threat level of the killed called Sabretooth…

Following the Heroes Return event of 1997, a new iteration of The Avengers formed and in #4 (May 1998), Kurt Busiek, George Pérez, Al Vey & Wiacek decree there are ‘Too Many Avengers!’ prompting a paring down by the founders and admission of Carol in her newest alter ego Warbird, just in time to trounce a few old foes, whilst Iron Man #85/430 (August 2004, by John Jackson Miller, Jorge Lucas &Antonio Fabela), sees the beginning of the end in a prologue to the Avengers Disassembled event as Warbird is caught up in the breakdown…

Brian Reed, Paulo Siqueira, Adriana Melo, Amilton Santos, Mariah Benes & Chris Sotomayor then collaborate on a revelatory dip into the early life of USAF officer Major Carol Danvers as a chance encounter with boy genius Tony Stark gets her captured by the Taliban, tortured and turned into a secret agent in ‘Ascension’ and ‘Vitamin’: a brace of epic gung ho Top Gun meets Jason Bourne tales from Ms. Marvel (2006) #32-33 (December 2008 & January 2009), before this collection reaches its logical conclusion with her being officially proclaimed “Earth’s Mightiest Hero” in Captain Marvel #1 (September 2012) as Kelley Sue DeConnick, Dexter Soy & Joe Caramagna depict Carol’s embracing her past lives to accept the legacy, responsibility and rank of her universe-saving Kree predecessor…

With covers and variants by Colan, John Romita & Dick Giordano, John Romita Jr. & Joe Rubinstein, Pérez & Terry Austin, Cockrum & Wiacek, Coker & Aiken, Pérez & Tom Smith, Steve Epting & Laura Martin, David Yardin & Rain Berado, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vine, Javie Rodriguez and Adi Granov, plus dozens of sketches, layout and original art pages, this epic retrospective is a superb short cut to decades of astounding adventure.

In conjunction with sister volume Captain Marvel vs Rogue (patience!, we’ll get to that one too) these tales are entertaining, often groundbreaking and painfully patronising (occasionally at the same time), but nonetheless, detail exactly how Ms. Marvel in all her incarnations and against all odds, grew into the modern Marvel icon of affirmative womanhood we see today.

In both comics and on-screen, Carol Danvers is Marvel’s paramount female symbol and role model. These exploits are a valuable grounding of the contemporary champion but also stand on their own as intriguing examples of the inevitable fall of even the staunchest of male bastions: superhero sagas…
© 2020 MARVEL.

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Marvel Adventures Avengers: Thor and Captain America


By Paul Tobin, Scott Gray, Todd DeZago, Ronan Cliquet, Ron Lim, Lou Kang & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5584-3 (Digest PB)

In 2003 the House of Ideas instituted a Marvel Age line: an imprint updating classic original tales and characters for a newer, younger readership. The enterprise was modified in 2005, with core titles reduced to Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. The tone was very much that of the company’s burgeoning TV cartoon franchises, in delivery if not name.

Supplemental series including Super Heroes, The Avengers, Hulk and Iron Man chuntered along merrily until 2010 when they were cancelled. In their place came new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

Most of the re-imagined tales were collected in gleefully inviting digest-sized compilations and digitised; this – except for a electric version – was the case with this engaging ensemble featuring fabulous  forays starring the God of Thunder or Sentinel of Liberty and their Avenging allies: a quartet of all-ages tales from the second volume of Marvel Adventures Super Heroes (#13-16, spanning June-September 2011).

The action opens with a mythological masterpiece by Paul Tobin, Ronan Cliquet & Amilton Santos wherein plucky novice hero Nova is invited by Avenging comrades Thor and Valkyrie to accompany them on an annual errand for All-Father Odin.

In the distant past when Asgardians warred with Trolls, godling messenger Glane failed in his mission and was banished to the ghastly Fields of the Fallen to pay penance by continually battling the Golden Realm’s vilest enemies. Periodically, Thor has been sent to add new tasks to the sinning failure’s heavy burden, and this year – as the Thunderer and Valkyrie ready themselves for the trip – they invite starstruck neophyte Nova along.

However, as the trio war their way through horrific monsters and overwhelming odds, Nova finds himself increasingly uncomfortable with the sentence meted out to Glane. He even begins doubting the motives of his immortal mentors. All that changes once he meets and battles beside the convicted penitent…

Originating in MASH #14, ‘Out of Time!’ is by Todd DeZago, Ron Lim & Scott Koblish (inspired by Gerry Conway & Ross Andru’s tale from the original Marvel Team-Up #7). Here, the Lord of Storm intercepts Spider-Man after the wallcrawler is blasted high into the sky whilst battling raving maniac the Looter.

That happy coincidence occurs just a bizarre force freezes time around them. When the heroes discover that only they have escaped a devastating weapon deployed by Trollish tyrant Kryllk the Conqueror to paralyze and overwhelm both Asgard and the mortal plane, they must divide their strength to simultaneously smash the conqueror in Manhattan and Asgard if they are to set time running free again…

Captain America takes the spotlight in #15 as ‘Back in Time’ (Tobin, Cliquet & Santos) finds him battling Neanderthals with ray-guns in a National Forest after tracking down rogue geneticists who have stolen a huge amount of plutonium.

A mere mile away, Peter Parker’s girlfriend Sophia Sanduval is getting back to nature and chilling with her furry, scaly and feathered friends. As Chat, the mutant teen’s power to communicate with animals makes her a crucial component of the mystery-solving Blonde Phantom Detective Agency, but even she has never seen anything like the wave of extinct creatures which appear after Cap begins battling the tooled-up cavemen.

Soon Chat has been briefed on the deadly experiments of rogue technologist Jerrick Brogg. The villain’s ambition is to build an army out of revived extinct creatures, but she and helps The Star-Spangled Avenger frustrate those save all the beasts he has re-created from short painful lives of terror and brutal exploitation, before putting the maniac away for good.

Wrapping up the action comes ‘Stars, Stripes and Spiders!’ by DeZago, Lou Kang & Pat Davidson (based on Len Wein & Gil Kane’s tale from Marvel Team-Up #13). When a certain wallcrawling high-school student/occasional masked hero stumbles into Captain America tackling an AIM cadre stealing super-soldier serum, the nervous lad learns a few things about the hero game from the legendary guy who wrote the book. Sadly, not making that lesson any easier is petrifying supervillain Grey Gargoyle, whose deadly touch almost ends Spidey’s homework worries – and continued existence – forever…

Fast, furious, funny and enthralling, these riotous mini-epics are extremely enjoyable yarns, although parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the level of violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action”…
© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Iron Man Reloaded


By Stan Lee, Archie Goodwin, Mike Friedrich, Tony Isabella, Len Kaminski, Matt Fraction, Don Heck, George Tuska, Greg LaRocque, Kev Hopgood, Salvador Larroca, Carmine di Giandomenico, Nathan Fox, Haim Kano & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-529-1 (TPB)

It’s hard to encapsulate six decades of excellence but as the Golden Avenger celebrates his anniversary, here’s a rare old gem from ten years gone, still readily available, that has a pretty good go at just that…

Produced under the always intriguing Marvel Platinum/Definitive Editions umbrella, this treasury of tales gathers a some of the more impressive but happily less obvious landmarks from the Steel Sentinel’s extensive canon; this time cannily focusing on sinister mastermind, ultimate arch-enemy The Mandarin.

Contained herein are high-tech hi-jinks from Tales of Suspense #50, Iron Man volume 1, #21-22, 68-71, 291 & 500, Marvel Team-Up #146 and Iron Man volume 5 #19, (listed on Marvel’s Database as Invincible Iron Man volume 1 #19), cumulatively spanning 1964 to 2011, and offering a fair representation of what is quite frankly an over-abundance of riches to pick from…

Arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Tony Stark has changed his profile many times since debuting in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover-dated March 1963) when, as a VIP visitor in Vietnam observing the efficacy of the munitions he had designed, he was critically wounded and captured by sinister, cruel Communists.

Put to work building weapons with the dubious promise of medical assistance on completion, Stark instead created the first Iron Man suit to keep himself alive and deliver him from his oppressors. From there it was a simple jump to full time superheroics as a modern Knight in Shining Armour…

Since then the inventor/armaments manufacturer has been a liberal capitalist, eco-warrior, space pioneer, Federal politician, affirmed Futurist, Statesman and even Director of the world’s most scientifically advanced spy agency, the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate, and, of course, one of Earth’s most prominent superheroes with The Mighty Avengers…

For a popular character/concept lumbered with a decades-long pedigree, radical reboots were and are a painful but vital periodic necessity. To keep contemporary, Stark’s origin and Iron Man’s continuity have been drastically revised every so often with the crucible trigger event perpetually leapfrogging to America’s most recent conflicts. As always, change is everything but, remember, these aren’t just alterations, these are upgrades…

After a mandatory introduction from co-originator Stan Lee, the star-studded action begins with ‘The Hands of the Mandarin!’ from Tales of Suspense #50 wherein the wonderful Don Heck returned as regular penciller and occasional inker after a brief absence, and Lee introduced The Golden Avenger’s first major menace. This was a contemporary Fu Manchu who terrified the Red Chinese so much they manoeuvred him into attacking America in the hope that one threat would destroy the other. Please, if you can, remember that these were simpler, less evolved and far more casually racist times than today…

In response, the Golden Avenger invades the mastermind’s Chinese citadel where, after a ferocious but futilely inconclusive fight, he simply goes back home to the Land of the Free. The furious Mandarin holds a grudge, however, and would make himself arguably Iron Man’s greatest foe.

Of course, whilst Stark was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism – a glamorous millionaire industrialist, scientist and a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour of his alter-ego – the turbulent tone of the 1970s soon relegated his suave, “can-do” image to the dustbin of history. With ecological disaster and social catastrophe from the myriad abuses of big business manifestly the new zeitgeists of the young (and how right they were!), the Metal Marvel and Stark International were soon confronting tricky questions from their increasingly politically savvy readership. With glamour, money and fancy gadgetry not quite so cool anymore, the questing voices of a new generation of writers began posing uncomfortable questions in the pages of a series that was once the bastion of militarised America…

Iron Man #21-22 (January & February 1970, by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska & Mike Esposito-as-Joe Gaudioso) found the multi-zillionaire trying to get out of the arms business and – following a heart transplant – looking to retire from the superhero biz. African-American boxer Eddie March became ‘The Replacement!’ as Stark, free from the heart-stimulating chest-plate which had preserved him for years, was briefly tempted by a life without strife. Unknown to all, Eddie had a major health problem of his own…

As Stark pursued a romantic future with business rival Janice Cord, her chief researcher and would-be lover Alex Niven was revealed as a Russian fugitive using her resources to rebuild the deadly armour of the Crimson Dynamo. Niven easily overcame the ailing substitute Avenger and, when Soviet heavy metal super-enforcer Titanium Man resurfaced with orders to arrest the defector, a 3-way clash ensued. Stark was forced to take up his metal burden again – but not before Eddie was grievously injured and Janice killed in #22’s classic tragedy ‘From this Conflict… Death!’

Stark’s romantic liaisons always ended badly. Four years later he was ardently pursuing Roxie Gilbert, a radical pacifist and sister of his old enemy Firebrand. She, of course, had no time for a man with so much blood on his hands…

Iron Man #68-71 (June to November 1974) was the opening sortie in a multi-part epic which saw mystic menace The Black Lama foment a war amongst the World’s greatest villains with ultimate power and inner peace as the promised prize. Crafted by Mike Friedrich, Tuska & Esposito, it began in Vietnam on the ‘Night of the Rising Sun!’ as the Mandarin struggled to free his mind (at that time trapped in the dying body of Russian villain the Unicorn).

Roxie had dragged Stark to the recently “liberated” People’s Republic in search of Eddie March’s lost brother: a POW missing since the last days of the war. The Americans were soon separated when Japanese ultra-nationalist, ambulatory atomic inferno and sometime X-Man Sunfire was tricked into attacking the Yankee Imperialists. The attack abruptly ended when Mandarin shanghaied the Solar Samurai and used his mutant energies to power a mind-transfer back into his own body.

Reborn in his original form, the deranged dictator began his campaign in earnest, eager to regain his castle from rival “oriental overlord” Yellow Claw. First, though, he had to crush Iron Man who – in ‘Confrontation!’ – had tracked him down and freed Sunfire A bombastic battle ended when the Golden Avenger was rendered unconscious and thrown into space…

‘Who Shall Stop… Ultimo?’ found the reactivated giant robot-monster attacking Mandarin’s castle even as the tyrant duelled the Claw to the death, with Iron Man and Sunfire arriving too late and left to mop up the contest’s survivor in ‘Battle: Tooth and Yellow Claw!’…

‘Hometown Boy’ (September 1984, by Tony Isabella, Greg LaRocque & Esposito) comes from the period when Stark again succumbed to alcoholism and lost everything, whilst friend and bodyguard Jim Rhodes took over the role of Golden Avenger. As Stark tried to make good with a new start-up company, this engaging yarn from Marvel Team-Up #146 sees the substitute hero still finding his ferrous feet whilst battling oft-failed assassin Blacklash at a trade fair in Cleveland, as much hindered as helped by visiting hero Spider-Man…

Despite successfully rebuilding his company, Stark’s woes actually increased. Iron Man #291 (April 1993) found the turbulent technocrat trapped in total body paralysis: using a neural interface to pilot the armour like a telemetric telepresence drone. He had also utterly alienated Rhodes who had been acting as his proxy in a tailored battle suit dubbed War Machine…

Concluding an extended epic saga, ‘Judgment Day’ by Len Kaminski & Kev Hopgood explosively revealed how the feuding friends achieved a tentative rapprochement whilst battling a legion of killer robots and death dealing devices programmed to hunt down Rhodes at all costs…

From December 2009 comes Invincible Iron Man #19, courtesy of Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca. At this time, Federal initiative the Superhuman Registration Act led to Civil War between costumed heroes and Stark was appointed the American government’s Security Czar: “top cop” in sole charge of a beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom. As Director of high-tech enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D., he was also the last word in all matters involving metahumans and the USA’s vast costumed community…

However, his heavy-handed mismanagement of various crises led to the arrest and the assassination of Captain America and an unimaginable escalation of global tension and destruction, culminating in an almost-successful Secret Invasion by shape-shifting alien Skrulls.

Discredited and ostracised, Stark was replaced by rehabilitated villain and recovering split-personality Norman Osborn (the original Green Goblin), who assumed full control of the USA’s covert agencies and military resources. He disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D. and placed the nation under the aegis of his new umbrella organisation H.A.M.M.E.R.

Osborn was still a monster at heart, however, and wanted total power. Intending to appropriate all Stark’s technological assets, the “reformed” villain began hunting the fugitive former Avenger. Terrified that not only his weaponry but also the secret identities of most of Earth’s heroes would fall into a ruthless maniac’s hands, Stark began to systematically erase all his memories, effectively lobotomising himself to save everything…

‘Into the White (Einstein on the Beach)’ delivers the conclusion of that quest as Stark, little more than an animated vegetable wearing his very first suit of armour, faced his merciless adversary in pointless futile battle, whilst in America faithful aide Pepper Potts, The Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s last deputy director Maria Hill raided Osborn’s base to retrieve a disc with Tony’s last hope on it and simultaneously engineer the maniac’s ultimate defeat…

The comics portion of this winning compilation concludes with the lead tale from Iron Man #500 (March 2011) wherein a mostly recovered Stark is plagued by gaps in his mostly restored memory.

‘The New Iron Age’ by Matt Fraction, Carmine di Giandomenico, Nathan Fox, Haim Kano & Salvador Larroca, is a clever, twice-told tale beginning when Stark approaches sometime ally and employee Peter Parker in an effort to regain more of his lost past. Stark is plagued by dreams of a super-weapon he may or may not have designed, and together they track down the stolen plans for the ultimate Stark-tech atrocity which has fallen into the hands of murderous anti-progress fanatics resulting in a spectacular showdown of men versus machines…

Contiguously and interlaced throughout the tale are dark scenes of the near future where the Mandarin has conquered the world, enslaved Tony Stark and his son Howard and, with the ruthless deployment of Iron Man troopers and that long-ago-designed super weapon, all but eradicated humanity.

With Earth dying, rebel leader Ginny Stark leads the suicidal Black Widows armed with primitive weapons in one last charge against the dictator, aided by two traitors within the Mandarin’s household and guided by a message and mantra from the far forgotten past…

The book concludes with covers from Jack Kirby, Tuska, Esposito, Jim Starlin, Dave Cockrum, Ron Wilson, John Romita Sr., LaRoque, Bob Layton, Hopgood & Larroca, plus a dense and hefty 21 pages of text features, including ‘The Origin of the Mandarin’ by Mike Conroy and history, background and technical secrets of Crimson Dynamo, Justin Hammer, Happy Hogan, Mandarin, Pepper Potts, Stark Industries, Titanium Man and War Machine.

A thoroughly entertaining accompaniment tailored to the cinematic Marvel Fan, this is also a splendid device to make curious movie-goers converts to the comic incarnation: another solid sampling to entice the newcomers and charm the veteran Ferro-phile.
© 2013 Marvel. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Marvel Adventures Avengers volume 9: The Times They Are A‘Changin’


By Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, Ig Guara, Casey Jones, Christian Vecchia & Sandro Ribeiro (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3832-7 (PB/Digital edition)

Time for another anniversary shout-out, so let’s celebrate the fact that The Avengers #1 (cover-dated September 1963 but on sale from July 2nd) was sold out on newsstands all over America by today’s date…

In 2003, the House of Ideas created a Marvel Age line updating classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko before merging it with remnants of its failed manga-based Tsunami imprint, which was also intended for a junior demographic.

The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with core titles Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man carrying all-original yarns. Additional titles included Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, Power Pack, Hulk and The Avengers, which ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

This particularly light-hearted digest-sized collection re-presents issues #32-35 of Marvel Adventures Avengers (from 2009), offering stand-alone yarns to delight fans with a sense of humour and iota of wit…

What You Need To Know: this incarnation of the World’s Mightiest Superheroes operates an “open-door” policy where almost every metahuman marvel might turn up for duty. However – presumably because of their TV cartoon popularity – the Wondrous Wallcrawler and Jade Juggernaut are on scene in almost every episode…

Written throughout by Paul Tobin (No Romance in Hell, Plants vs Zombies), an avalanche of fast-paced fun begins with ‘The Big Payoff’ illustrated by Matteo Lolli & Christian Vecchia, wherein the team gets a most unpleasant visit from Special Agent Clark Harvey of the Internal Revenue Service.

This weaselling civil servant is ostensibly there to collect individual Avengers’ taxes, but it’s all a ploy to blackmail the team into forcing a bunch of defaulting villains into paying up…

Smart and deviously hilarious, the clashes between Giant-Girl, Spider-Man and Luke Cage against Whirlwind, the web-spinner and erudite philosophical monster/political activist Oog or Man-Bull versus Iron Man are entertainment enough, but Iron Man and Giant-Girl overmatched against the Absorbing Man and the childlike Hulk convincing assassin Bullseye to do his patriotic duty are utterly priceless…

When jungle king Ka-Zar visits from the Antarctic lost world, all he can think about is learning how to use a car. Sadly Wolverine, Storm, Giant-Girl, Hulk and Spidey all feel safer battling an invasion of super-saurians unleashed by Stegron the Dinosaur Man than sitting in the same vehicle as the Lord of the Savage Land in ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’, with art by Ig Guara & Sandro Ribeiro…

When ancient Egyptian magicians turn time into an out-of-control merry-go-round, ‘Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos!’ (Lolli & Vecchia) are caught up in the assorted eras of chaos, with Ant-Man, Giant-Girl, Tigra, Storm, the wallcrawler and Hulk frantically fighting just to keep up…

Rendered by Casey Jones, this titanic tiny tome concludes on a romantic note in ‘Lovers Leaper’ when all the female Avengers head off for a vacation break. They foolishly thought Captain America, Cage, Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Wolverine could handle things for a while, but boys will be slobs and soon the HQ is a ghastly mess of “man-cave” madness…

Moreover, since Hawkeye now needs a date for the Annual Archer Awards, he tries an on-line dating service, and uploads not just his but all his buddies’ information onto the site…

With seemingly every eligible lady – super-powered and not – in New York City subscribing to the Lovers Leap site, our unsuspecting heroes are soon being bombarded by an army of annoyed women who think they’ve been stood up by the utterly oblivious Avengers.

… And when they try to get the owner to remove their details, the heroes discover French former bad-guy Batroc the Leaper is in charge and unwilling to do them any favours…

Smart and fun on many levels, bright, breezy and bursting with light-hearted action and loads of solid laughs, this book offers a fabulous alternative to regular Marvel Universe angst and agony. Even with the violence toned down and “cartooned-up” these stories are superbly thrilling and beautifully depicted: a perfect introduction for kids and adults alike to the vast realm of adventure we all love…

These collected stories present an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born generations away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Invaders Classic: The Complete Collection volume 1


By Roy Thomas, Frank Robbins, Rich Buckler, Dick Ayers, Don Heck, Jim Mooney, Carl Burgos, Don Rico, Lee Elias, Alex Schomburg, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9057-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

The adage never grows stale: the best place to see American superheroes in action is in World War II, thrashing Nazis and their evil Axis allies. And yes, that includes their so-numerous copycats and contemporary legatees like Hydra, The National Southern Baptist Convention, Reclaim, The LGB Alliance and The Bullingdon Club too… whether contemporaneously or retroactively…

That was especially true in the 1970s when many guilt-free hours were devoted to portraying the worst people on Earth getting their just deserts (or just getting mocked in shows like Hogan’s Heroes and films like The Producers or To Be or Not to Be). In an era of generational backward-looking fostering cosy familiarity and with Lynda Carter on TV screens crushing the Third Reich every week in The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, admitted aficionado and irredeemable nostalgist Roy Thomas (Conan the Barbarian, X-Men, All-Star Squadron, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, Fantastic Four, Thor, Spider-Man, Daredevil ad infinitum) sought to revisit the “last good war”. Here he would back-write a super-team comprising Marvel’s (or rather Atlas/Timely’s) “Big Three” – Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch – and however many minor mystery-men as he could shoehorn in…

Long before this series debuted, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner was the hybrid offspring of a sub-sea Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer: immensely strong, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves. Created by young Bill Everett, Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics.

He first caught the public’s attention as part of the elementally electrifying “Fire vs. Water” headlining team in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939 and Marvel Mystery Comics from the next issue) alongside The Human Torch, but had debuted earlier in the year in monochrome Motion Picture Funnies, a weekly promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers.

Swiftly becoming one of the new company’s biggest draws, Namor gained his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to go at the end of the first heroic age. In 1954, as Atlas, the company briefly revived the Big Three and Everett returned for an extended run of superb fantasy tales. The time wasn’t right and the title sunk again.

When Stan Lee & Jack Kirby began reinventing comics in 1961 with Fantastic Four, they revived the forgotten amphibian as a troubled, semi-amnesiac, yet decidedly more regal and grandiose anti-hero, embittered at the loss of his sub-sea kingdom – seemingly destroyed by American atomic tests. He also became a dangerous bad-boy romantic interest: besotted with the FF’s Sue Storm.

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe, squabbling with assorted heroes like Daredevil, The Avengers and X-Men before securing his own series as half of “split-book” Tales to Astonish with fellow antisocial antihero The Incredible Hulk, eventually returning to solo stardom in 1968.

Crafted by Carl Burgos, the original Flaming Fury burst into life as a humanoid devised by troubled, greedy Professor Phineas Horton. Instantly igniting into a malfunctioning uncontrollable fireball whenever exposed to air, the artificial innocent was consigned to entombment in concrete but escaped to accidentally imperil New York City until he fell into the hands of malign mobster Sardo. His attempts to use the android as a terror weapon backfired and the hapless, modern day Frankenstein’s Monster became a misunderstood fugitive. Even his creator only saw the fiery Prometheus as a means of making money.

Gradually gaining control of his flammability, the angry, perpetually rejected android opted to make his own way in the world. Instinctively honest, he saw crime and wickedness everywhere and resolved to do something about it. Indistinguishable from human when not afire, he joined the police as Jim Hammond, tackling ordinary thugs even as his volcanic alter ego battled outlandish fiends like Asbestos Lady. Soon after, the Torch met his opposite number when the New York City Chief of Police asked him to stop the savage Sub-Mariner from destroying everything. The battles were spectacular but inconclusive, and only paused after policewoman Betty Dean brokered a tenuous ceasefire.

The Torch gained a similarly powered junior sidekick Toro, but both vanished in 1949: victims of organised crime and Soviet spies working in unison. They spectacularly returned in 1953’s revival, renewing their campaign against weird villains, Red menaces and an assortment of crooks and gangsters before fading again. In the sixties it was revealed that atomic radiation in the Torch’s body finally reached critical mass and Jim – realising he was about to flame out in a colossal nova – soared into the desert and went up like a supernova…

Jim Hammond was resurrected many times in the convoluted continuity that underpinned the modern House of Ideas and is with us still…

Created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in an era of national turmoil and frantic patriotic fervour, Captain America was a dynamic, emphatically visible response to the horrors of Nazism and the threat to democracy. Consequently, the concept quickly lost focus and popularity once hostilities ceased. The Sentinel of Liberty was lost during post-war reconstruction, only to briefly reappear after the Korean War: a harder, darker Cold Warrior hunting monsters, subversives and “Reds” who lurked under every American bed.

He vanished once more, until the burgeoning Marvel Age resurrected him just in time to experience the Land of the Free’s most turbulent, culturally divisive era. He became a mainstay of the Marvel Revolution in the Swinging Sixties, but arguably lost his way after that, except for a politically-fuelled, radically liberal charged period under scripter Steve Englehart.

Despite everything, Captain America evolved into a powerful symbol for generations of readers and his career can’t help but reflect that of the nation he stands for…

Devised in the fall of 1940 and on newsstands by December 20th, Captain America Comics #1 was cover-dated March 1941, and an instant monster, blockbuster smash-hit. He had boldly and bombastically launched in his own monthly title with none of the publisher’s customary caution, and instantly was the undisputed star of the Big Three. He was, however, the first to fall from popularity as the Golden Age ended.

You know the origin story like your own. Simon & Kirby depicted scrawny, enfeebled patriot and genuinely Good Man Steven Rogers – after constant rejection by the Army – is recruited by the Secret Service. Desperate to stop Nazi expansion, the passionate kid joined a clandestine experiment to create physically perfect super-soldiers.

I have no idea if the irony of American Übermenschen occurred to the two Jewish kids creating that mythology, but here we are…

When a Nazi infiltrated the project and murdered the pioneering scientist behind it all, Rogers was the only successful result and became America’s not-so-secret weapon. When he was lost, others took up the role and have periodically done so ever since. I might be wrong, but as I recall every substitute and replacement was white and male…

When Thomas was writing The Avengers, issues #69-71 featured a clash with Kang the Conqueror spanning three eras. It saw some of the team dumped in WWII Paris and manipulated into fighting in situ Allied costumed champions. When that memorable minor skirmish was expanded and extrapolated upon in 1975, history was (re)made…

Re-presenting Giant-Sized Invaders #1, The Invaders #1-22 & Annual #1, Marvel Premiere #29-30, and Avengers #71 – collectively spanning June 1975 to November 1977 – this initial foray charts the course of the team and exponentially expands Marvel lore and history, opening with an extended multi-chapter romp.

Cover-dated June 1975, and crafted by Thomas, Frank Robbins (Johnny Hazard, Batman, Superboy, The Shadow, Morbius/Adventure into Fear, Captain America, Man from Atlantis) & Vince Colletta, ‘The Coming of the Invaders!’ saw a revisionist Big Three saving British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during a US visit in December 1941…

Nazi spies and saboteurs are crushed by boy marvel Bucky and ‘A Captain Called America!’ who is then recruited by the FBI to safeguard a mystery dignitary. The duo are ordered to cooperate with another extraordinary operative in ‘Enter: the Human Torch!’.

A tale of sinister super-science unfolds, revealing how Nazi Colonel Krieghund and the enigmatic Brain Drain have bult their own super-soldier. Master Man (AKA Ubermensch) has already beaten the Fiery Fury and sidekick Toro in pursuit of the plot. Grudging associates at best, the quartet of heroes rush to Chesapeake Bay in time to see how ‘The Sub-Mariner Strikes!’ when Master Man targets Churchill’s battleship. On the clash’s conclusion, the grateful premier suggests the saviours shelve their innate animosity for the duration and work together to crush the Axis alliance.

The blockbuster origin tale is augmented here by its accompanying editorial ‘Another Agonizingly Personal Recollection by Rascally Roy Thomas’…

The launch was a huge success and The Invaders #1 (August) was rushed out. Like Giant-Size X-Men #1, an in production second issue was rapidly retooled, with the first half appearing as ‘The Ring of the Nebulas!’ and ‘From the Rhine… a Girl of Gold!’ with the new team relocated to blitz-blasted London and arriving in the middle of shattering air raid. As their flying compatriots bring down German bombers, Cap and Bucky land Namor’s Atlantean sky-sub Flagship and help clear burning buildings of casualties and rescue a strange, shellshocked woman who – although amnesiac – proves to be ‘A Valkyrie Rising!’ With “Hilda’s” help the heroes infiltrate ‘Beyond the Siegfried Line!’ and invade Brain Drain’s citadel only to be ambushed by a trio of Teutonic gods…

Following second editorial ‘Okay Axis, Here We Come!’, the saga explosively concludes in the second bimonthly issue (cover-dated October) as ‘Twilight of the Star-Gods!’ reveals the incredible truth about Hilda, Loga, Donar and Froh, the source of Brain Drain’s scientific advances and why it’s bad to abuse and exploits guest from other planets…

Action was never far away and #3 opened with the triumphant Invaders saving a convoy from U-Boats before briefly returning to America to forestall a ‘Blitzkrieg at Bermuda’. The crisis was instigated by an Atlantean traitor siding with and working for the Nazis.

Namor’s alliance with the Allies only existed because the Germans had depth-charged his undersea city to eradicate its sub-human inhabitants, but now a rogue named Merrano has artificially augmented his strength and led a cadre of Atlanteans and sea beasts against surface bases. The aquatic blockbuster was once Namor’s chief scientist and has misused Atlantean technology for his own purposes as U-Man. Regal pride stung, Namor demands to fight the traitor alone, sparking a split with his newfound comrades. In the end, he and Bucky go on without the others or any official sanction….

As the marine man-monster and his hordes head for Churchill’s secret meeting in the Caribbean, the quarrellers at last agree that ‘U-Man Must be Stopped!’ and take all necessary steps, spurred on and umpired by Namor’s human girlfriend Betty Dean.

The drama intensified with #5 (March 1976) as Thomas expanded his niche universe by creating a second squad of masked stalwarts. Pencilled by Rich Buckler and Dick Ayers, with inks from Jim Mooney. ‘Red Skull in the Sunset!’ opens a 4-issue epic which sees the Invaders captured by the ultimate fascist and turned into weapons against America. Only Bucky – disregarded as too puny to exploit – remained free. The tale continued in #6 (‘…And Let the Battle Begin!’ with art by Robbins & Colletta May) and also crossed over into Marvel Premiere #29’s ‘Lo, The Liberty Legion!’ & 30’s ‘Hey Ma,! They’re Blitzin’ the Bronx’ (April and June 1976) wherein Bucky recruited a number of new superheroes and made them into a team to defeat the Invaders and scupper the Skull’s schemes.

As delivered by Thomas, Don Heck, & Colletta the recruits – The Patriot, Whizzer, Miss Marvel, Blue Diamond, Red Raven, Jack Frost and the Thin Man – came from assorted Timely strips of the 1940s and remained state-side as Home Front heroes. A fabulously engaging primal romp, the epic is inexplicably divided, with the Marvel Premiere instalments (the second and fourth/final chapters) relegated to the back of the book along with editorial features ‘Give Me Liberty – or Give Me The Legion!’ parts 1 and 2.

With the confusion and reputations all cleared up, the liberated Invaders return to war-torn London for #7 (July 1976) to tackle ‘The Blackout Murders of Baron Blood!’, with a costumed German vampire terrorising the capital. During a nighttime assault, the Torch saves Air Raid Warden Lady Jacqueline Falsworth from the bloodsucker and is gratefully introduced to her father: a legendary “masked spy-buster of World War One”.

James Montgomery Falsworth had worked with an international group of proto-superheroes dubbed Freedom’s Five, and on hearing of the vampire, comes out of retirement to finish his duel with the Kaiser’s top secret weapon…

Meanwhile, the other Invaders have also clashed with Baron Blood and are happy that ‘Union Jack is Back!’ (inked by Frank Springer): blithely unaware that the beast is actually a member of Falsworth’s household waiting to pick them off at his leisure. It begins as Union Jack is crippled by Blood and seemingly helpless to save his daughter from being drained in #9’s ‘An Invader No More!’

With justice finally served, the need for a deadline-saving reprint sees #10 mix new framing sequence ‘The Wrath of the Reaper!’ with a remembrance amongst the heroes as they rush father and daughter to hospital: ‘Captain America Battles the Reaper!’ by Al Avison & Al Gabriele as first seen in Captain America #22 (January 1943) rowdily recounted the failure of one of Adolf Hitler’s top agents…

The new history resumed in #11 as Montgomery learns he will never walk again, and Jacqueline is saved by an emergency transfusion of the Torch’s artificial, instantly regenerating blood. However, the combination of vampiric body fluids and the Torch’s liquid fuel source transform her into something new and powerful…

In another wing of the hospital, refugee Dr Gold has been building an advanced warsuit which he inexplicably turns on the Invaders until Jacqui lends a fast and fiery hand on the ‘Night of the Blue Bullet!’

As she seeks to replace her father on the team as Spitfire, Captain America ferrets out the reason for Gold’s betrayal and orders a rescue mission ‘To the Warsaw Ghetto!’ to save the boffin’s hostage brother Jacob. The foray is a complete disaster and the squad is captured by macabre Gauleiter Eisen, but his triumph is short-lived as it provokes Jacob to summon ancient forces in #13’s ‘The Golem Walks Again!’

A new team debuted in the next issue with ‘Calling… The Crusaders!’ as a (mostly) British ensemble – comprising Spirit of ‘76, Ghost Girl, Captain Wings, Thunderfist, Tommy Lightning and Dyna-Mite – start outshining The Invaders and boosting morale. Tragically all is not as it seems and a deadly propaganda coup is barely thwarted in concluding episode ‘God Save the King!’

Penciller Jim Mooney joined Thomas and inker Springer for #16 and the start of an extended epic in ‘The Short, Happy Life of Major Victory!’ It begins when US soldier Biljo White (that’s an in-joke I’m not explaining here) is snatched off London’s streets despite the best efforts of Captain America and Bucky. It transpires that the young PFC is the creator of a comic book hero whose origin so-closely mirrors the actual process that turned Steve Rogers into a living weapon that the Nazis have deduced he must have inside knowledge…

Fuelled by guilt and outrage, Cap leads the team straight to Hitler’s Berchtesgaden fortress, only to have entire team ambushed and defeated by a re-invigorated Master Man.

Biljo has been tortured by sadistic officer Frau Rätsel, but only revealed under deep hypnosis how he heard the story of a super soldier in a bar: recalling a key clue allowing her to perfect Brain Drain’s Master Man process.

At that moment a male superior reprimands her for exceeding her authority (Aryan dogma being that women were only meant for breeding and entertainment purposes) and her violent rebuttal causes an explosion that wrecks the lab and totally changes her. ‘The Making of Warrior Woman, 1942!’ consequently frees the Allied captives, but their short-lived liberty ends when Master Man and the newly-minted Krieger-Frau (Warrior Woman) double-team them. With Captain America hurled to his death and the others despatched to Berlin to provide an obscene spectacle, events take a sudden shocking turn in #18 as ‘Enter: The Mighty Destroyer!’ reintroduces another Golden Age Great by way of a complex web of family ties and debts of honour finally repaid…

When Cap was thrown off the mountain, he was saved by a mystery-man who had been fighting behind enemy lines since 1941, terrorising the Wehrmacht through a one-man war of attrition. He reveals that he was imprisoned in Hamburg where fellow inmate Professor Erich Schmitt made him swallow his own version of the super-soldier serum to keep it from the Nazis. The potion made him a veritable superman and he’s been making them pay ever since. He also reveals to Cap his real name…

As they prepare an assault to free The Invaders, in England Spitfire has met with former Crusader Dyna-Mite and discovered some painful family secrets. Ignoring orders to say out of harms way, she commandeers a plane and heads for Germany with the Tiny Titan. Insubordination is a proudly inherited trait however, and the heroes cannot prevent wheelchair-bound Lord Falsworth and his “chauffeur” Oskar joining the expeditionary force…

Bach in Berchtesgaden, the ruthless infiltration is successful but too late. Namor, Bucky, Torch and Toro have already been shipped to Berlin for public execution, before #19’s ‘War Comes to Wilhelmstrasse’ sees Captain America’s futile attempt to save them foiled and his capture, augmented by the untold tales of Falsworth’s son Brian and companion Roger Aubrey. Conscientious objectors, they had shamefully gone to Berlin before vanishing years prior to war being declared, only for one of them to suddenly return as Dyna-Mite.

Another deadline debacle allowed a brace of classic reprints to resurface in #20 and 21 with climactic conclusion ‘The Battle of Berlin!’ cleft in two. The first half sees the Allied heroes saved from death by a revitalised Union Jack and the resultant battle for freedom allow Krieger-Frau to dodge the forced marriage to Master Man that Hitler had ordered…

That issue also held a colorized reshowing of ‘The Sub-Mariner’ by Everett from Motion Picture Funnies, after which ‘The Battle of Berlin! Part Two!’ follows the traumatic flight bac to Britain and the critical injury suffered by one of the heroes…

Another Everett ‘The Sub-Mariner’ mini-masterpiece – from Marvel Mystery Comics #10 (August 1940) – then sees the sea prince targeted by murderous surface men…

Their plane ditched in the English channel, The Invaders are saved by the Navy and treatment begins for bullet-riddled Toro. Again reduced to anxious waiting, the team learn how he began his career in #22’s ‘The Fire That Died!’ (by Thomas, Mooney & Springer and adapted from The Human Torch #2: September 1940).

Ending the official chronology is Invaders Annual #1 (November 1977),which tells the other side of the originating story from Avengers #71, from the viewpoint of the 1940s heroes. Moreover, each individual chapter is crafted by a veteran who worked on the characters during the Golden Age. The mission begins with ‘Okay, Axis… Here We Come!’ by Thomas, Robbins & Springer, with the heroes separately pursuing insidious supervillains. ‘The Human Torch’ battles The Hyena as limned by Alex Schomburg; Don Rico’s ‘Captain America’ clashes with Agent Axis and ‘Sub-Mariner’ sinks The Shark thanks to Lee Elias & Springer, before the Invaders are teleported to Paris by a mysterious power.

That’s Kang and his opponent the Grandmaster meddling with time to facilitate a duel with three Avengers from 1969, and concludes here with ‘Endgame: Part II’. A semblance of sense is afforded by Thomas’ essay ‘Okay, Axis… Here We Come – Again!’

Woefully misfiled, the contents of Marvel Premiere #29 & 30 are next, before we end with the opening shot from the Avengers #71, by Thomas, Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger. ‘Endgame!’ was the final chapter in a triptych that saw the World’s Mightiest Heroes hijacked to the future to by old enemy Kang: living pieces in a cosmic chess-game with an omnipotent alien. If the Avengers fail – Earth would be eradicated from reality. the tale was significant for introducing 2/3 superteams: Squadron Supreme, Squadron Sinister and The Invaders. The saga culminated with The Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket sent to 1941 to fight the WWII incarnations of Namor, Human Torch and Captain America…

With covers by Robbins, John Romita Sr., Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Ed Hannigan, Alex Schomburg, Joe Sinnott & Frank Giacoia, this is a no-nonsense, albeit convoluted thrill-ride for continuity-addicts and fervent Fights ‘n’ Tights fans that is full of fun from first to finish.
© 1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Secret Invasion


By Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Francis Yu, Mark Morales & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3297-4 (TPB/Digital edition Marvel) 978-1-84653-405-8 (TPB Panini/Marvel UK)

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens who have threatened Earth since the second issue of Fantastic Four, and have long been a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of use and misuse the insidious invaders were made the stars of a colossal braided mega-crossover event beginning in April 2008 and running through all the company’s titles until Christmas. That landmark worlds-shaking epic has since been adapted to the company’s burgeoning, blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you were a real fan, you’d have already seen the first episode…

We, however, are all about the comics so let’s revisit the stunning and all-pervasive source material. The premise is simple enough: the everchanging, corruptive would-be conquerors have undergone a mass religious conversion and are now utterly, fanatically dedicated to taking Earth as their new homeworld. To this end they have replaced over an unspecified time a number of key Earth denizens – including many of the world’s superheroes.

When the lid is lifted on the simmering plot, no defender of the Earth truly knows who is on their side…

Moreover the cosmic charlatans have also unravelled the secrets of humanity’s magical and genetic superpowers, creating amped-up equivalents to Earth’s mightiest. They are now primed and able to destroy the heroic defenders in face-to-face confrontations.

With the conquest primed to launch, everything starts to unravel when Elektra dies in battle and is discovered to be an alien, not a ninja. Soon, two teams of Avengers (Iron Man, The Sentry, Wonder Man, Daredevil, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ronin, Echo, Cloak and Black Widow) and certain agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  are covertly investigating in discrete operations. All are painfully aware that they have no way of telling friend from foe…

Crisis and confusion are compounded when a Skrull ship crashes in the primordial Savage Land, releasing a band of missing heroes claiming to have been abducted and experimented on. Among them are another Spider-Man, Luke Cage, recently killed Captain America Steve Rogers, Phoenix/Jean Grey and Thor, plus other heroes believed gone forever. Some must be Skrull duplicates but are they the newcomers or the ones facing them…?

As the champions second guess each other, the second strand triggers. Earths space defence station S.W.O.R.D. is blown up and a virus rips through the internet shutting down crucial systems including the Starktech comprising the operating systems of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Iron Man’s armour…

Now all over Earth, Skrulls attack and heroes – and even villains such as Norman (Green Goblin) Osborn – respond and retaliate in a last ditch effort to survive: a war of survival that ends in shock, horror and unforeseen disaster…

Rather than give any more away, let me just say that if you like this sort of blockbuster saga you’ll be in seventh heaven, and a detailed familiarity is not vital to your understanding. However, for a fuller understanding, amongst the other Secret Invasion volumes accompanying this, you should particularly seek out Secret Invasion: the Infiltration, Secret War (2004), Avengers Disassembled, and Annihilation volumes 1-3, as well as the Avengers: Illuminati compilation.

This American volume contains all 8 issues of the core miniseries plus a monumental covers-&-variants gallery (31 in total) by Gabriele Dell’Otto, Steve McNiven, Leinil Yu, Mel Rubi, Frank Cho, Laura Martin and Greg Horn, and a series of chilling house ads imploring us to ‘Embrace Change’, but is just one of 22 volumes comprising the vast number of episodes in convergent storylines of the saga.

Fast-paced, complex, superbly illustrated and suitably spectacular, this twisty-turny tale and its long-term repercussions reshaped the Marvel Universe, heralding a “Dark Reign” that pushed all the envelopes. If you are a comics newcomer, and can find the British edition from Panini, it also includes one-shot spin-off Who Do You Trust? and illustrated data-book Skrulls which claims to provide a listing and biography for every shapeshifter yet encountered in the Marvel Universe (but if they left any out, could you tell?).
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Marvel Visionaries: John Romita, Sr.


By John Romita Sr., with Stan Lee, Roger Stern & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1806-4 (TPB/Digital edition)

We lost one of last giants of the industry this week when John Romita died on Monday. He was 93 and his work is inextricably woven into the Marvel canon: permeating and supporting the entire company’s output from top to tail and from the Sixties to right now… and even before the beginning of the House of Ideas actually began. 

One of the industry’s most polished stylists and a true cornerstone of the Marvel Comics phenomenon, the elder John Romita began his comics career in the late 1940s (ghosting for other artists) before striking out under his own colours. eventually illustrating horror and other anthology tales for Stan Lee at Timely/Atlas.

John Victor Romita was born and bred in Brooklyn, entering the world on January 24th 1930. From Brooklyn Junior High School he moved to the famed Manhattan School of Industrial Art, graduating in 1947. After spending six months creating a medical exhibit for Manhattan General Hospital he moved into comics, in 1949, with work for Famous Funnies. A “day job” working with Forbes Lithograph was abandoned when a friend found him inking and ghosting assignments, until he was drafted in 1951. Showing his portfolio to a US army art director, after boot camp at Fort Dix New Jersey, Romita was promoted to corporal, stationed on Governors Island in New York Bay doing recruitment posters and allowed to live off-base… in Brooklyn. During that period he started doing the rounds and struck up a freelancing acquaintance with Stan Lee at Atlas Comics…

He illustrated horror, science fiction, war stories, westerns, Waku, Prince of the Bantu (in Jungle Tales), a fine run of cowboy adventures starring The Western Kid and 1954’s abortive revival of Captain America, and more, before an industry implosion derailed his – and many other – budding careers. Romita eventually found himself trapped in DC’s romance comics division – a job he hated – before making the reluctant jump again to the resurgent House of Ideas in 1965. As well as steering the career of the wallcrawler and so many other Marvel stars, his greatest influence was felt when he became Art Director in 197. He had a definitive hand in creating or shaping many key characters, such as Mary Jane Watson, Peggy Carter, The Kingpin, The Punisher, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Satana ad infinitum.

This celebratory volume from 2019 re-presents Amazing Spider-Man #39, 40, 42, 50, 108, 109, 365; Captain America & The Falcon #138; Daredevil #16-17; Fantastic Four #105-106; Untold Tales Of Spider-Man #-1; Vampire Tales #2; and material from Strange Tales #4; Menace #6, #11; Young Men #24, 26; Western Kid 12; Tales To Astonish #77; Tales Of Suspense #77 spanning cover-dates December 1951 to July 1997. It opens with a loving Introduction from John Romita Jr., sharing the golden days and anecdotal insights on the “family business”. Not only the second son but also his mother Virginia Romita were key Marvel employees: she was the highly efficient and utterly adored company Traffic Manager for decades.

A chronological cavalcade of wonders begins with official first Marvel masterwork ‘It!’. Possibly scripted by Lee and taken from Strange Tales #4 (December 1951), we share a moment of sheer terror as an alien presence tales over the newest member of a typical suburban family…

Next is verifiable Lee & Romita shocker ‘Flying Saucer!’ (Menace #6, August 1953) and a sneaky invasion attack preceding the first Romita superhero saga as seen in Young Men #24, December 1953.

In the mid-1950s Atlas tried to revive their Timely-era “Big Three” (and super-hero comics in general) on the back of a putative Sub-Mariner television series intended to cash in on the success of The Adventures of Superman show. This led to some impressively creative comics, but no appreciable results or rival in costumed dramas.

Eschewing here the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner segments – and with additional art from Mort Lawrence – ‘Captain America: Back From the Dead’ features a communist Red Skull attacking the UN, with school teacher Steve Rogers and top student Bucky coming out of retirement to tackle the crisis. The Star-Spangled Avenger gets another bite of the cherry in ‘Captain America Turns Traitor’ (Young Men Comics #26, March 1954) with guest shots for Subby and the Torch as the Sentinel of Liberty apparently goes from True Blue to a deadly shade of Red…

Latterly reimagined as one of the modern Agents of Atlas, ‘I, the Robot!’ began as a deadly threat to humanity in Menace #11, and is followed here by a yarn from Romita’s first residency as the wandering hero Tex Dawson and his dauntless dog Lightning and super steed Whirlwind survive sudden stampedes and tackle vile horse butchering killers in a tale from his own eponymous title (Western Kid #12, October 1956)…

Atlas collapsed soon after, due to market conditions when a disastrous distribution decision resulted in their output being reduced to 16 titles per month, distributed by arch rival National Comics/DC. Under those harsh conditions the Marvel revolution started small but soon snowballed, drawing Romita back from ad work and drawing romances for DC.

Romita’s return began with inking and a few short pencilling jobs for the little powerhouse publisher’s split books. Tales To Astonish #77 revealed ‘Bruce Banner is the Hulk!’ (March 1966, written by Lee, laid out by Jack Kirby and finished by the returning prodigal) with the gamma goliath trapped in the future and battling the Asgardian Executioner, whilst in his home era, Rick Jones is pressured into revealing his awful secret…

The Captain America story for May 1966’s Tales of Suspense # 77 added inker Frank Giacoia/Frank Ray to the creative mix for ‘If a Hostage Should Die!’: recounting a moment from the hero’s wartime exploits with a woman he loved and lost. These days we know her as Captain Peggy Carter…

After a brief stint in his preferred role as inker, Romita took over illustrating Daredevil with #12, following a stunning run by Wally Wood & Bob Powell. Initially Kirby provided page layouts to help Romita assimilate the style and pacing of Marvel tales, but soon “Jazzy Johnny” was in full control of his pages. He drew DD until #19, by which time he had been handed the assignment of a lifetime… The Amazing Spider-Man!

A backdoor pilot for that jump came in Daredevil #16-17 (May and June 1996) with ‘Enter… Spider-Man’ wherein criminal mastermind Masked Marauder manipulates the amazing arachnid into attacking the Man Without Fear. The schemer had big plans, the first of which was having DD and the wallcrawler kill each other, but after Spidey almost exposes Matt Murdock’s secret in ‘None are so Blind!’ they mend fences and go after the real foe…

By 1966 Stan Lee and Steve Ditko could no longer work together on their greatest creation. After increasingly fraught months Ditko resigned, leaving Marvel’s second best-selling title without an illustrator. Nervous new guy Romita was handed the ball and told to run. ‘How Green Was My Goblin!’ and ‘Spidey Saves the Day!’ – “Featuring the End of the Green Goblin!” – as it so dubiously proclaimed) was the climactic battle fans had been clamouring for since the viridian villain’s debut. It didn’t disappoint – and still doesn’t today.

Reprinted from issues #39 and 40 (August & September 1966 and inked by old DC colleague Mike Esposito as “Mickey Demeo”), this remains one of the best Spider-Man yarns ever, and heralded a run of classic sagas from the Lee/Romita team that actually saw sales rise, even after the departure of the seemingly irreplaceable Ditko. If you need further convincing, it sees the villain learn Peter Parker’s identity, capture and torture our hero and share his own origins before falling in the first of many final clashes…

Amazing Spider-Man #42 heralded ‘The Birth of a Super-Hero!’, with John Jameson (Jonah’s astronaut son) mutated by space-spores and going on a Manhattan rampage. It’s a solid, entertaining yarn that is only really remembered for the last panel of the final page.

Mary Jane Watson had been a running gag in the series for years: a prospective blind-date arranged by Aunt May who Peter had avoided – and Ditko skilfully never depicted – for the duration of time that our hero had been involved with Betty Brant, Liz Allen, and latterly Gwen Stacy.

Now, in that last frame the gobsmacked young man finally realises that for years he’s been ducking the “hottest chick in New York”! I’m sure we all know how MJ has built her place in the Marvel Universe…

Issue #50 (July 1967) featured the debut of one of Marvel’s greatest villains in the first chapter of a 3-part yarn that saw the first stirrings of romance between Parker and Gwen, the death of a cast regular, and re-established the webslinger’s war on cheap thugs and common criminals. Here it all begins with a crisis of conscience that compels him to quit in ‘Spider-Man No More!’

Romita was clearly considered a safe pair of hands and “go-to-guy” by Stan Lee. When Jack Kirby left to create his incredible Fourth World for DC, Romita was handed the company’s other flagship title – in the middle of an on-going storyline. Here we focus on Fantastic Four #105-106 (December 1970 and January 1971 and both inked with angular, brittle brilliance by John Verpoorten). and ‘The Monster’s Secret’.

Scripted by Lee, they comprise a low-key yet extremely effective suspense thriller played against a resuming subplot of Johnny Storm’s failing romance. When his Inhuman girlfriend Crystal is taken ill – preparatory to writing her out of the series – Reed Richards’ diligent examination reveals a potential method of curing the misshapen Thing of his rocky curse.

Tragically, as Ben Grimm is prepped for the radical process in ‘The Monster in the Streets!’ a mysterious energy-beast begins tearing up Manhattan. By the time ‘The Monster’s Secret!’ is exposed, the team strongman is almost dead and Crystal is gone… seemingly forever.

Romita briefly and regularly returned to the Star-Spangled Avenger in the 1970s and June 1971’s Captain America & The Falcon #138 reveals how ‘It Happens in Harlem!’ sporting a full art job by Romita, Lee’s tale sees new hero The Falcon foolishly try to prove himself by capturing the outlaw Spider-Man, only to be himself kidnapped by gang lord Stoneface. Cue a spectacular three-way team up and just desserts all round…

The Amazing Spider-Man was never far from Romita’s drawing board and in #108 the secret of high school bully Flash Thompson – freshly returned from the ongoing war in Indochina – finally unfolds ‘Vengeance from Vietnam!’ With Romita inking his own pencils, it details how our troubled war hero was connected to an American war atrocity that left a peaceful village devastated and a benign wise man comatose and near-dead. The events consequently set a vengeful cult upon the saddened soldier’s guilt-ridden heels, which all the Arachnid’s best efforts could not deflect or deter.

The campaign of terror is only concluded in #109 as ‘Enter: Dr. Strange!’ sees the Master of the Mystic Arts divine the truth and set things right… but only after an extraordinary amount of unnecessary violence…

Marvel was expanding and experimenting as always and a horror boom saw them move into mature reader monochrome magazines. In Vampire Tales #2 (October 1973), Roy Thomas scripted a short vignette of a woman apparently imperilled who turned out to be anything but. Delivered in moody line and wash, Devil’s Daughter Satana began her predations via Romita before joining the Macabre Marvel Universe. Her debut is supplanted by a house ad…

Commemorating the hero’s 30th anniversary, Amazing Spider-Man 365 (August 1992) carried a bunch of extras including sentimental reverie ‘I Remember Gwen’ (Tom DeFalco, Lee & Romita) before we close with a wild ride from Roger Stern, inked by Al Milgrom.

‘There’s a Man Who Leads a Life of Danger’ comes from July 1997’s Untold Tales Of Spider-Man #minus 1: an adventure of Peter Parker’s parents and part of the Flashback publishing event. It pits the married secret agents against deadly Baroness Adelicia von Krupp and guest-stars a pre-Weapon-X Logan/Wolverine in a delightful spy-romp.

Added extras here include Romita’s unused splash page from Young Men Comics #24, character designs for Robbie Robertson, Mary Jane, Captain Stacy and his daughter Gwen, John Jameson, The Prowler, Wolverine and The Punisher; Fan sketches and doodles; an Amazing Spider-Man poster (painted); the covers of Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1 & 2 (ditto) plus original proposal art for the Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip. There are also covers for F.O.O.M. #18, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987), New Avengers #8 and Mighty Marvel Heroes & Villains (with Alex Ross) and a vintage self-portrait.

This is absolutely one of the most cohesive and satisfactory career compilations available and one no fan should miss.
© 2019 MARVEL.

For a slightly different selection, I’d advise also tracking down Marvel Masters: The art of John Romita Sr (ISBN: 978-1-84653-403-4), although that’s not available in digital formats.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks The Avengers volume 3: Among Us Walks a Goliath


By Stan Lee & Don Heck with Frank Giacoia, Wallace Wood, Dick Ayers, John Romita & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4895-5 (PB/Digital edition)

Probably Marvel’s biggest global franchise success, The Avengers celebrate their 60th anniversary in 2023, so let’s again acknowledge that landmark and offer more of the same…

These stories are timeless and have been gathered many times before but here we’re enjoying an example of The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line: designed with economy in mind and newcomers as target audience. These books are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller – like a paperback novel. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that’s no issue at all.

After a period of meteoric expansion, in 1963 the burgeoning Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the successful DC concept that had cemented the legitimacy of the Silver Age of American comics. The notion of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket had made the Justice League of America a winner and subsequently inspired the moribund Atlas outfit – primarily Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko – into conceiving “super-characters” of their own. The result – in 1961 – was The Fantastic Four…

After 18 months, the fledgling House of Ideas had generated a small successful stable of costumed leading men (but still only 2 sidekick women!), allowing Lee & Kirby to at last assemble a select handful of them into an all-star squad, moulded into a force for justice and soaring sales…

Cover dated September 1963, and on sale from early July, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men. This edition collects The Avengers #21-30 (cover-dates October 1965 to July 1966): groundbreaking tales no lover of superhero stories can do without…

Here the team consists of Captain America, Hawkeye and mutant twins Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch who had replaced big guns Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and The Wasp and were already proving a firm fan-favourite. Spectacle had been nudged aside in favour of melodrama sub-plots, leavening the action through compelling soap-opera elements which kept readers riveted.

After debuting insidious infiltrator Swordsman in the previous volume, scripter Stan Lee and illustrators Don Heck & Wally Wood launched another soon-to-be big-name villain in the form of Power Man. ‘The Bitter Taste of Defeat!’ (#21) depicted his origins and a diabolical plan hatched with evil Asgardian archfoe The Enchantress to discredit and replace the quarrelsome quartet. The scheme was only narrowly foiled in a cavalcade of cunning countermoves in concluding episode ‘The Road Back’…

An epic 2-part tale follows when the turbulent team is shanghaied into the far-future to battle against – and eventually beside – Kang the Conqueror. ‘Once an Avenger…’ (Avengers #23 with, incidentally, my vote for the best cover Jack Kirby ever drew) is inked by slick John Romita (senior), and pits the heroes against an army of fearsome future men. The yarn explosively and tragically ends in ‘From the Ashes of Defeat!’ with inker Dick Ayers backing up Lee & Heck.

The still-learning but ever-improving squad then face their greatest test yet after being lured to Latveria and captured by the deadliest man alive in #25’s ‘Enter… Dr. Doom!’ and forced to fight their way out of the tyrant’s utterly cowed, hyper-militarised kingdom…

As change is ever the watchword for this series, the next two issues combine a threat from subsea barbarian Attuma to drown the world with the epic return of some old comrades. ‘The Voice of the Wasp!’ and ‘Four Against the Floodtide!’ (pseudonymously inked by Frank Giacoia as Frank Ray) form a superlative action-romp but are merely prelude to the main event – issue #28’s revival of founding Avenger Giant-Man in a new guise. ‘Among us Walks… a Goliath!’ was an instant classic that reinvented the Master of Many Sizes whilst also introducing the villainous – and ultimately immortally alien – hobbyist dubbed The Collector whilst extending the company’s pet motif of heroic alienation. After rushing to save Wasp from the cosmic kleptomaniac and his stooge The Beetle, the team are unable to prevent Hank Pym becoming tragically trapped at a freakish ten-foot height, seemingly forever…

As Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch briefly bow out – returning to Europe to reinvigorate their fading powers – Avengers #29 features ‘This Power Unleashed!’: bringing back Hawkeye’s lost love Black Widow as a brainwashed Soviet agent tasked with destroying the team.

Despite recruiting seasoned foes Power Man and Swordsman as cannon-fodder, her plan fails due to her incompletely submerged feelings for Hawkeye…

This titanic tome terminates on a cliffhanger as ‘Frenzy in a Far-Off Land!’ sees dispirited, despondent colossus Dr. Pym heading south to consult with his old college mentor Professor Anton. He never expected to find a hidden South American civilisation or become embroiled in a high-tech civil war that threatened to destroy the entire planet…

To Be Continued…

Supplementing the narrative joys is a single behind-the-scenes treasure: a Tee-shirt design by Jack Kirby & Wally Wood…

These immortal tales defined the early Marvel experience and are still an unbounded joy no fan should deny themselves or their kids.
© 2023 MARVEL.

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The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Ultimate Collection


By Joe Casey, Scott Kolins, Will Rosado, Tom Palmer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5937-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Time for another 60th Anniversary shout out…

One of the most momentous events in Marvel Comics history occurred in 1963 when a disparate array of individual heroes banded together to stop apparently marauding monster The Incredible Hulk.

The Avengers combined most of the company’s fledgling superhero line in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package. Over decades the roster has continually changed until now almost every character in their universe has at some time numbered amongst the team’s colourful ranks…

For Marvel’s transformational rebirth in the early 1960’s, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby took their lead from a small but growing band of costumed characters debuting or reimagined and revived at the Distinguished Competition. Julie Schwartz’ retooling of DC’s Golden Age stars had paid big dividends for the industry leader, and as the decade turned Managing Editor Lee’s boss (uncle/publisher Martin Goodman) insisted his company should go where the money was.

Although National/DC achieved incredible success with revised and updated versions of the company’s old stable, the natural gambit of trying the same revivification process on characters who had dominated Timely/Atlas in those halcyon days didn’t go quite so well.

The Justice League of America-inspired Fantastic Four indeed featured a new Human Torch, but his subsequent solo series began to founder almost as soon as Kirby stopped drawing it. Sub-Mariner was soon returned too, but as a deadly vengeful villain, as yet incapable of carrying his own title…

So a procession of new costumed heroes was created, with Lee, Kirby and Steve Ditko focussing on all-original inventive and inspired “super-characters”…

Not all caught on: The Hulk folded after six issues and even Spider-Man would have failed if writer/editor Lee hadn’t really, really pushed Uncle Martin…

After nearly 18 months, during which the fledgling House of Ideas churned out a small stable of leading men (but only two sidekick women), Lee & Kirby finally had enough players to stock an all-star ensemble – the precise format which had made the JLA a commercial winner – and thus swiftly assembled a handful of them into a force for justice and higher sales…

Cover-dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men, and, despite a few rocky patches, the series grew into one of the company’s perennial best sellers.

The early Avengers yarns became a cornerstone of the company’s crucially interlinked continuity. As decades passed they were frequently revisited and re-examined, and in 2005 Joe Casey and artist Scott Kolins (with colourists Morry Hollowell & Will Quintana) took the occasional exercises in creativity a little further: offering an 8-issue modernising miniseries adding devious – some would say cynically calculating – back-writing to the original stories. The epic was packed with post-modern in-filling for a more mature readership, exposing secrets and revealing how the team actually came to hold its prominent and predominant position in the Marvel Universe…

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1-8 ran fortnightly from January to April 2005 and was successful enough to warrant a second season. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes II #1-8 repeated the gambit from January to May 2007, and with both epics gathered in this splendid, no-nonsense compilation.

Chronologically set between Avengers #1 and 2, the drama begins as industrialist Tony Stark reviews media coverage of the coalition of mystery men currently residing in his family’s townhouse. He ponders how best to keep such diverse and headstrong personalities as Ant Man, The Wasp, Thor and the Hulk together. Across town in a seedy bar, young troublemaker and pool-hustler Clint Barton can’t understand why folks are so nervous about the “masked freaks”…

Two weeks later, the team has fallen apart and the Avengers are actually hunting their gamma-fuelled former colleague. In the course of calamitous events they unexpectedly recover a legendary form from a coffin of ice floating in sea…

The gradually assimilation of partially amnesiac WWII legend Captain America into a terrifying and seemingly mad new era is not without problems, and the iconic, grimly experienced warrior is soon keenly aware of seething tensions besetting the team he has joined.

Iron Man still fervently pursues an exalted Federal status for the Avengers, but the Army are baulking: clearly set on putting the wilfully independent powerhouses under military jurisdiction. After a ferocious clash with Lava Men from Earth’s deep interior, word finally comes. The powers that be have created an all-encompassing “Avengers Priority Security Status” – but only for as long as the fickle public’s new darling and National Treasure Captain America stays with them…

Self-made scientific genius Hank Pym created the roles of Ant Man and the Wasp (AKA debutante girlfriend Janet Van Dyne) but his inherent and growing mental instability has caused him to push further and harder ever since he joined the ranks of a group that includes a patriotic living legend, an infallible metal juggernaut and an apparent god.

Now operating as Giant Man he is letting feelings of inadequacy drive a wedge between him and his lover, even as the Army ups the pressure to take over the team. Meanwhile, modern-day Rip Van Winkle Steve Rogers increasingly sinks into survivor’s guilt over the comrades he failed to save in the war. That internalised torment kicks into overdrive when Nazi war criminal and archfoe Baron Zemo comes out of hiding to attack the Avenger through his Masters of Evil…

When an invader out of time strikes, the Avengers finally and very publicly prove their worth to the nation and its government, and with Kang the Conqueror sent packing, the team at last secures favoured-but-fully-independent security clearance.

…And in the streets, a wanted vigilante dubbed Hawkeye saves Avengers butler Edwin Jarvis from muggers and they strike up a most irregular friendship…

Missions come thick and fast but the internal tensions never seem to dissipate. In far distant Balkan Transia fugitive mutants Wanda and Pietro desperately search for a place where they can feel safe, whilst in America Cap is increasingly fixated on tracking down Zemo.

After a battle with crime syndicate leader Count Nefaria leaves the Wasp near death, Giant Man also edges closer to a complete breakdown. With a surgeon battling to save her, Pym swears he’s going to quit and take her away from all the madness. Before that can happen, Zemo returns, abducting the Sentinel of Liberty’s teenaged friend Rick Jones…

In response, the team acrimoniously divides, with Cap trailing the monomaniac to Bolivia whilst the majority of Avengers remain for a final battle against the Masters of Evil. Meanwhile below stairs, Jarvis and Clint are concocting a sneaky scheme of their own…

As the death-duel in Bolivia concludes, in Germany two restless young mutants orchestrate their return to America and – with some collusion from Jarvis – Hawkeye “auditions” for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes…

As Cap and Rick wearily and so slowly make their way back to civilisation, Iron Man deals with Government fallout after learning that their Red, White and Blue poster boy is missing. Soon news leaks out that the rest of the team are quitting and that Stark has lined up a wanted vigilante and two outlaw mutants to replace them…

The initial secret history lesson concludes with astounded Captain America’s re-emergence and reluctant accession to leadership: riding herd on a team of obnoxious, arrogant young felons he is expected to mould into true champions…

The rest is history…

The second bite of the cherry (by Casey, Will Rosado, Tom Palmer & Quintana) focuses on a later time when the Avengers are in resurgent form. The Founders have all returned at a time when Pym (now calling himself Goliath), The Wasp and Hawkeye are joined by enigmatic African monarch The Black Panther. The action commences immediately following the expanded team’s being attacked by an android called The Vision – whom they promptly signed up (in Avengers #58, if you’re keeping count). Apparently the density-shifting “synthezoid” was created by robotic nemesis Ultron – a murderous AI created by Pym whilst suffering one of his frequent psychotic breaks – before switching allegiances…

We open as the highly-suspect new Avenger is impounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. for investigation and clearance. Their ostensible reason is that another autonomous murder mechanism – Super-Adaptoid – has escaped from custody and humanity can’t be too careful…

In the Philippines, the real cause of all the anti-technology tension and overweening suspicion are busy. Science terrorists Advanced Idea Mechanics have secretly stolen the Adaptoid and are seeing how they can improve an already ultimate killing machine…

At a clandestine S.H.I.E.L.D. base, interrogator Jasper Sitwell has met his match in The Vision, but perseveres in trying to dig out dirt on the android and its “master” Ultron. The Panther meanwhile has foregone his status as a VIP dignitary to teach at an inner city school under the alias Luke Charles. What he finds there is a true education…

Hawkeye too is under pressure as his lover The Black Widow reveals she’s going back into the spy-game. With Pym close to apoplexy at the government’s quasi-legal rendition of the Vision, nobody is in a particularly good mood when S.H.I.E.L.D.  supremo Nick Fury (the white one who fought in WWII) demands the team head to the Philippines to investigate A.I.M.’s latest enterprise.

With Fury’s carrot-&-stick pep talk ringing in their ears the heroes – rejoined by the just released Vision – jet away, unaware that in Manhattan an assassination plot against King T’Challa/Mr. Charles has brought one of Panther’s greatest enemies to America…

The heroes are challenged over the Pacific skies by a mass-produced army of Super-Adaptoids and are soon engaged in the fight of their lives…

Overwhelmed, they are in danger of being swamped before Goliath valiantly turns himself into as colossal human rampart to stem the tide and save the endangered island population whilst his comrades rush to destroy A.I.M.’s superbase…

Left all alone, Pym fights in maddened frenzy and becomes increasingly obsessed with how human the things he is incessantly slaughtering seem to be. By the time the triumphant team get Goliath home, he is a deeply traumatised shell of a man…

Luke Charles returns to school in time to be deeply embroiled in a bullying case that will inevitably end in gunplay and tragedy. And then the apparently recuperating Hank Pym goes missing…

Soon after, a new, excessively brutal hero named Yellowjacket is making news even as Agent Sitwell again targets the Vision for further debriefing: specifically, Pym’s “massacre” of mechanical lifeforms on A.I.M. Island. This time he’s brought in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top psychologist Agent Carver to try and get under the subject’s artificial skin…

The spies are in heated argument with Hawkeye when Yellowjacket breaks in, claiming to have murdered the Man of Many Sizes and demanding to take Goliath’s place on the team…

Nobody is fooled. Everyone recognises the abrasive stranger as Pym gone far off the deep end, but Carver prevents them from saying anything. She advises that he is clearly inches from being utterly incurable and devises a treatment to cure him which basically comprises “play along and don’t do anything to upset the crazy man”…

That even includes allowing Yellowjacket to kidnap the Wasp and agreeing to let him marry his hostage…

The wedding is held at Avengers Mansion and includes a Who’s Who of heroes along for the ride (The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, The Black Knight and Doctor Strange) but the scheme spirals out of control when The Circus of Crime – not privy to the details of the service – use the gathering as an opportunity to kill all America’s costumed champions in one go…

With Hawkeye and the blushing bride hostages and the first to be despatched, the deadly dilemma shocks Pym back to his rightest senses, but in the aftermath many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are butchered as Wakandan assassin Death Tiger gets ever closer to fulfilling his own mission of murder…

To cap off all the chaos, the still-at-large Super-Adaptoid also attacks, determined to expunge “race-traitor” The Vision who has perpetrated the ultimate betrayal by siding with inferior humanity and denying the innate superiority and inevitable ascension of mechanical and artificial lifeforms…

Politically savvy, wryly trenchant and compellingly action-packed, this extremely impressive Fights ‘n’ Tights chronicle is a superb addition/codicil to the annals of The Avengers and would serve as perfect comics vehicle for movie fans in search of a print-fix for their costumed crusader cravings…
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis volume 1


By Brian Michael Bendis, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Tom Palmer& various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4500-4 (HB/Digital Edition) 978-0-7851-4501-1 (TPB/ Digital Edition)

Probably Marvel’s biggest global franchising success, The Avengers celebrate their 60th anniversary in September 2023, so let’s again acknowledge and anticipate that landmark event with another glorious past triumph…

Once upon a time Norman Osborn was America’s Security Czar: an untouchable “top-cop” in sole charge of a beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom, especially in regard to the USA’s costumed and metahuman community.

When the former-but-still-deranged Green Goblin at last but inevitably overplayed his hand, a coalition of outlawed champions united to defeat him, and his fall from grace was staggering and total.

The chaos and carnage led to a new Age of Heroes, and as part of that resurgence, original Captain America Steve Rogers was appointed Supreme Commander of US metahuman resources. He promptly set about redefining the what, who and how of the World’s Mightiest Heroes which launched a flotilla of new teams and titles, with Avengers volume 4 being the official spine of the comic book franchise.

Available in a number of formats, this initial collection gathers issues #1-6 as written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by John Romita Jr. with inkers Klaus Janson & Tom Palmer colourist Dean White and letterer (VC’s) Cory Petit adding to the spectacle and wonderment. The book spans cover-dates July to December 2010) and opens with a peek at a terrifying future before skipping back to Now where a triumphant, reunited army of heroes is trying to democratically decide just who goes where and does what…

Those deliberations are rudely interrupted in ‘Next Avengers Part One’ when time-tyrant Kang the Conqueror beams in with a frantic warning. He barely opens his mouth before he’s blasted across the city by the wary, twice-shy heroes, but as they converge to press their attack the Conqueror stops all hostilities by brandishing an ultimate weapon.

Iron Man Tony Stark prevents his comrades from finishing off Kang as he recognises the Dark Matter Accelerator. It’s something he thought up and swore never to build. The only way the future Fuhrer can have it is if Stark made it and gave it to him…

In the cautious ceasefire that follows, Kang explains he’s come to beg the aid of the Avengers. In his current future he is one of a team that includes the children of the Avengers, united to stop life-loathing Artificial Intelligence Ultron from exterminating humanity.

They have at last succeeded in destroying the mechanoid marauder but the children are now an even greater menace. Moreover, Kang’s attempts to stop them have resulted in time itself shredding… and all of reality is now collapsing…

The arrogant time-terrorist expects the Avengers to stop their errant offspring, but as Rogers heads off all debate to arbitrarily assemble teams, back in the future Kang and his hidden allies make preparations to carry out their true scheme…

Not every past Avenger is keen to answer the call to reassemble. Simon Williams has come to believe the team has done more harm than good and threatens to stop them if they start up again. ‘Wonder Man Attacks?!!’ sees him make good on his warning whilst a small squad locate Kree outcast Noh-Varr The Protector to request his expertise in time travel.

As the alien and Stark’s efforts finally bear fruit, Wonder Man brutally engages the entire team. In the resultant blockbusting battle, something goes terribly wrong, and an alternate Apocalypse and his horrendous Horsemen materialise, intent on ending mankind.

As the embattled titans swiftly mobilise to tackle the next crisis, a ‘Menace from Beyond Time’ manifests as various time-streams and realities begin to coalesce and overlap in New York City. With All of Everything endangered, a unit of heroes heads into the unhappy future leaving their harried comrades to hold back a tidal wave of time-tossed menaces – and the occasional misplaced hero such as Killraven and Devil Dinosaur…

Far away from now, Iron Man, Wolverine, replacement Captain America James “Bucky” Barnes and Noh-Varr witness first-hand the cataclysmic war against Ultron before being ambushed by the next generation in ‘Only the Good Die Young’.

Back in their home era, a multitude of past menaces – from cavemen to cowboys to cosmic devourer Galactus – are keeping the majority of Avengers busy, whilst in the foredoomed tomorrow the questing quartet are painfully discovering they’ve been played by Kang yet again…

Full explanations are promised by an incredibly aged Tony Stark and the architect of the chronal rescue plan: Bruce Banner in his gamma-charged arch-villain persona of ‘The Maestro’…

With two Starks, an incredibly sagacious and experienced Banner and new element Noh-Varr all intent on fixing the problem, the sorry story soon comes out. All of creation’s future is stuck in a temporal loop: a cosmic “Groundhog Day” with Kang interminably trapped battling Ultron. Now, with the odds altered by the historical Avengers, there’s a real chance to make things right in one final ‘Battle for the Future’…

Tragically, as Thor’s clash with Galactus escalates and the assembled Avengers resolutely resist Apocalypse and his minions in the now, there may not be a past to return to…

Layers of murderous duplicity are peeled back in ‘Next Avengers Part 6: Conclusion’ as a cunning solution to the Ultron-Kang impasse is conceived. However, even as reality reasserts itself and four weary heroes return home, old man Stark takes the risky chance of giving his younger self a deadly device and a portentous warning from the future…

Epic in scale, vast in scope and overflowing with action, this a magnificently rendered tale that might bewilder new readers looking for a post-movie fix, but will delight dyed-in-the-wool Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics. It comes with a gallery of covers-&-variants by Romita Jr., Janson & Dean White, John Romita Sr., Greg Land & Morry Hollowell, Jim Cheung & Justin Ponsor, Alan Aldridge, Phil Jimenez & D’Armata, plus a massive combined variant cover by Marko Djurdjevic.
© 2018 MARVEL.