Category: Avengers

By Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Dave Cockrum, Mike Vosburg & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2499-3

Until relatively recently American comics and especially Marvel had very little in the way of positive female role models and almost no viable solo stars. Although there was a woman starring in the very first comic of the Marvel Age, the Invisible Girl took years to become became a potent and independent character in her own right.

The company’s very first starring heroine was Black Fury, a leather-clad, whip-wielding crimebuster from the newspaper strips created by Tarpe Mills in April 1941. She was repackaged as a resized reprint for Timely’s funnybooks and renamed Miss Fury for a four-year run from 1942-1946 – although the tabloid strip survived until 1952. Fury was actually predated by the Silver Scorpion who debuted in Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941), but she was relegated to a minor position in the book’s line-up and a very short shelf-life.

Miss America first appeared in the anthology Marvel Mystery Comics #49 (November1943), created by Otto Binder and artist Al Gabriele and after a few more appearances won her own title in early 1944 received her own book. Miss America Comics lasted but she didn’t as with the second issue (November1944) the format was changed, becoming a combination teen comedy/fashion/domestics tips magazine, and feisty super-heroics were steadily squeezed out. The publication is most famous now for introducing virginal evergreen teen ideal Patsy Walker.

A few others appeared immediately after the War, many spin-offs and sidekicks such as female Sub-Mariner Namora (debuting in Marvel Mystery Comics #82, May 1947 and graduating to her own three issue series in 1948), the Human Torch‘s secretary Mary Mitchell who as Sun Girl starred in her own three issue 1948 series before becoming a wandering sidekick and guest star in Sub-Mariner and Captain America Comics.

Masked detective Blonde Phantom was created by Stan Lee and Syd Shores for All Select Comics #11 (Fall 1946) and sort-of goddess Venus debuted in her own title in August 1948, becoming the gender’s biggest success until the advent of the Jungle Girl fad in the mid-1950s; mostly by dint of the superb stories and art by the great Bill Everett and by ruthlessly changing genres from crime to romance to horror every five minutes…

Jann of the Jungle (by Don Rico & Jay Scott Pike) was just part of an anthology line-up in Jungle Tales #1 (September 1954), but took over the title with the eighth issue (November 1955). Jann of the Jungle continued until issue June 1957 (#17) and spawned a host of in-company imitators such as Leopard Girl, Lorna the Jungle Queen and so on…

During the costumed hero boom of the 1960s Marvel experimented with a title shot for Madame Medusa in Marvel Super-Heroes (#15, July 1968) and a solo series for the Black Widow in Amazing Adventures # 1-8 (August 1970-September 1971). Both were sexy, reformed villainesses, not wholesome girl-next-door heroines… and neither lasted alone for long.

As the costumed crazies craze began to subside in the 1970s, Stan Lee and Roy Thomas looked into creating a girl-friendly boutique of heroines written by women, beginning with Claws of the Cat by Linda Fite, Marie Severin & Wally Wood and Night Nurse by Jean Thomas and Win Mortimer (both #1’s cover-dated November 1972). A new jungle goddess Shanna the She-Devil #1, by Carole Seuling & George Tuska, debuted in December 1972; but despite these impressive creative teams none of these fascinating experiments lasted beyond a fifth issue.

Red Sonja, She-Devil with a Sword, caught every one’s attention in Conan the Barbarian #23 (February 1973) and eventually gained her own series and The Cat mutated into Tigra, the Were-Woman in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974) but the general editorial position was that books about chicks didn’t sell.

The company kept trying and eventually found the right mix at the right time with Ms. Marvel who launched in her own title cover-dated January 1977. She was followed by the equally copyright-protecting Spider-Woman in Marvel Spotlight #32 (February 1977, winning her own title 15 months later) and Savage She-Hulk (#1, February 1980) as well as the music-biz sponsored Dazzler who premiered in Uncanny X-Men #130 that same month, before inevitably graduating to her own book.

Ms. Marvel was actually Carol Danvers, a United States Air Force security officer introduced in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 (March 1968): the second episode of the saga of Kree warrior Mar-Vell, who had been dispatched to Earth as a spy after the Fantastic Four had repulsed the aliens twice in two months (see Essential Fantastic Four volume 4 and Essential Captain Marvel volume 1).

The series was written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Gene Colan and the immensely competent Carol investigated the Mar-Vell’s assumed identity of Walter Lawson for months until she was caught up in a devastating battle between the now-defecting alien and his nemesis Yon-Rogg. She was caught in a climactic explosion of alien technology and pretty much vanished from sight until Gerry Conway, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott revived her for ‘This Woman, This Warrior!’ (Ms. Marvel #1, January 1977) as a new chapter began for the company and the industry…

This volume, collecting Ms. Marvel #1-23, relevant portions of Marvel Super-Heroes Magazine #10-11 and Avengers Annual #10, opens with the irrepressible and partially amnesiac Danvers moving 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 had left the military and drifted into writing, slowly growing in confidence until the irascible publisher had made her an offer she couldn’t refuse…

At the same time as Carol was getting her feet under a desk a mysterious new masked heroine began appearing, such as when she pitched up to battle the sinister Scorpion in a brutal bank raid. The villain narrowly escaped to rendezvous with Professor Kerwin Korwin of AIM (a high-tech secret society claiming to be Advanced Idea Mechanics) who had promised to increase the Scorpion’s powers and allow him to take long-delayed revenge on Jameson – whom the demented thug blamed for his freakish condition…

Danvers had been secretly having premonitions and blackouts since her involvement in the final battle between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg and had no idea she was transforming into Ms. Marvel. Her latest vision-flash occurred too late to save the publisher from abduction but her “Seventh Sense” did allow her to trace the Scorpion before her unwitting new boss is injured, whilst her incredible physical powers and knowledge of Kree combat techniques enabled her to easily trounce the maniac.

‘Enigma of Fear!’ featured a return engagement for the Scorpion as Korwin and AIM made Ms. Marvel their latest science project. Whilst the Professor turned himself into an armoured assassin codenamed Destructor, Carol’s therapist Mike Barnett made an analytical breakthrough with his patient and discovered she was a masked metahuman even before she did. Although she again felled the Scorpion Ms. Marvel was ambushed by the Destructor, but awoke in #3 (scripted by Chris Claremont) to turn the tables in ‘The Lady’s Not For Killing!’

Travelling to Cape Canaveral to interview old friend Salia Petrie for a women astronauts feature, Danvers was soon battling an old Silver Surfer foe on the edge of space and all her occluded memories returned just in time for a final confrontation with the Destructor during which she almost learnt that ‘Death is the Doomsday Man!’ (by Claremont, Jim Mooney & Sinnott).

Android Avenger the Vision guest-starred in #5 as Ms. Marvel crossed a ‘Bridge of No Return’. After Dr. Barnett revealed he knew her secret, Carol was forced to battle the Vision when AIM tricked the artificial hero into protecting a massive, mobile “dirty” bomb, before ‘…And Grotesk Shall Slay Thee!’ pitted her against a subterranean menace determined to eradicate the human race, culminating in a waking ‘Nightmare!’ when she was captured by AIM’s deadly leader Modok and all her secrets were exposed to his malign scientific scrutiny.

Grotesk returned in #8 as ‘The Last Sunset…?‘ almost dawned for the entire planet, whilst ‘Call Me Death-Bird!’ (illustrated by Keith Pollard, Sinnott & Sam Grainger) introduced a mysterious, murderous avian alien who would figure heavily in many an X-Men and Avengers saga, but who spent her early days allied to the unrelenting forces of AIM as they attacked once more in ‘Cry Murder… Cry Modok!’ (art by Sal Buscema & Tom Palmer).

Frank Giacoia inked #11’s ‘Day of the Dark Angel!’ wherein supernal supernatural menaces Hecate, the Witch-Queen and the Elementals attacked the Cape, preventing Carol from rescuing Salia Petrie and her space shuttle crew from an incredible inter-dimensional disaster…

The astonishing action continued in ‘The Warrior… and the Witch-Queen!’ (Sinnott inks) before ‘Homecoming!’ (Mooney & Sinnott) explored Carol’s blue collar origins in Boston as she battled a pair of marauding aliens and ‘Fear Stalks Floor 40’ (illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Steve Leialoha) pitted her against her construction worker, anti-feminist dad even as she was saving his business from the sinister sabotage of the Steeplejack.

Mooney & Tony DeZuniga provided the art for ‘The Shark is a Very Deadly Beast!’ as undersea villain Tiger Shark kidnapped the Sub-Mariner’s teenaged cousin Namorita and only Ms. Marvel, after a brief side trip to Avengers Mansion, was on hand to provide succour in ‘The Deep Deadly Silence!’ (inked by Frank Springer). ‘Shadow of the Gun!’ (Mooney & DeZuniga) enhanced the X-Men connection by introducing shape-shifting mutant Mystique in a raid on S.H.I.E.L.D. to purloin a new super-weapon, which saw impressive service in #18’s ‘The St. Valentine’s Day/Avengers Massacre!’ (Mooney & Ricardo Villamonte): a blockbuster battle that featured the beginning of a deadly plot from within the distant Kree Imperium.

The scheme swiftly culminated in ‘Mirror, Mirror!’ (Infantino & Bob McLeod) as the Kree Supreme Intelligence attempted to reinvigorate his race’s stalled evolutionary path by kidnapping the Earth/Kree hybrid Carol Danvers. However with both her and Captain Marvel hitting his emissary Ronan the Accuser eventually the plotters took the hint and went home empty handed…

Ms. Marvel #20 saw a great big makeover as Carol Danvers finally created her own look and identity in ‘The All-New Ms. Marvel’ courtesy of Claremont, Dave Cockrum & Bob Wiacek wherein the utterly re-purposed hero tackled a hidden kingdom of intelligent post-atomic dinosaurs infesting the American deserts, leading to a catastrophic clash with ‘The Devil in the Dark!’ (inked by Al Milgrom).

Now one of the most hands-on, bombastic battlers in the Marvel pantheon, she was more than ready for a return match with Death-Bird in ‘Second Chance!’ (art by Mike Vosburg & Mike Zeck), but thrown for a total loop when she was fired from Woman Magazine. All these changes came too late as the series’ sales had earmarked it for cancellation. ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’ (inked by Bruce D. Patterson) resolved the long-running disappearance of Salia Petrie in a tale guest-starring the time travelling Guardians of the Galaxy, just in time for the end of the road.

The series ended there but two more stories were in various stages of preparation and finally saw print in 1992 (the Summer and Fall issues of oversized anthology publication Marvel Super-Heroes Magazine #10-11) beginning with an untitled, ferocious fight with mutant maniac Sabretooth (by Claremont & Vosburg), followed by ‘Cry, Vengeance!’ (by Claremont, Simon Furman, Vosburg & Mike Gustovich) as Ms. Marvel, now a card-carrying Avenger, faced off against Mystique and her brotherhood of Evil Mutants. This tale features an additional section which explained how Carol was attacked by the young mutant Rogue, permanently lost her powers and memory and was eventually reborn as the cosmic being Binary: which is all well and good but somewhat takes the punch out of the last tale in this collection.

Admittedly Ms. Marvel only has a peripheral role in ‘By Friends… Betrayed!’ from Avengers Annual #10 (1981, by Claremont, Michael Golden & Armando Gil), as a powerless, amnesiac Carol Danvers was rescued from drowning by Spider-Woman, prior to Mystique and Rogue launching an all-out attack on the World’s Mightiest Heroes whilst attempting to free the Brotherhood from custody.

Spectacular and utterly compelling the tale seemed to write a satisfactory conclusion to Carol’s career but in comics nothing is forever…

This comprehensive monochrome chronicle also includes full entries on Death-Bird, Captain Marvel, the Kree and Rogue, taken from the Marvel Universe Handbook.

Always entertaining, often groundbreaking and painfully patronising (occasionally at the same time), the early Ms. Marvel, against all odds, grew into the modern Marvel icon of capable womanhood we see today. These adventures are a valuable grounding of the contemporary champion but also still stand up on their own as intriguing examples of the inevitable fall of even the staunchest of male bastions – superhero stories…

© 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1992, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Tom Palmer, Neal Adams, Barry Smith & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1485-7

The Avengers always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in on single basket paid off big-time; even when all Marvel’s all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man were absent, it merely allowed the lesser lights of the team to shine more brightly.

Of course all the founding stars regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy which meant that most issues included somebody’s fave-rave and the increasingly bold and impressive stories and artwork were no hindrance either.

This monolithic and monumental phonebook-sized fourth tome, collecting the absolute best of the Mighty Avengers‘ world-saving exploits (presenting in crisp, stylish black and white the astounding contents of issues #69-97 of their monthly comic book and the crossover Incredible Hulk #140), confirmed Roy Thomas as a major creative force in comics and consolidated John Buscema’s status as the foremost artist of Marvel’s second age.

These compelling yarns certainly enhanced the reputations of JB’s brother Sal and increased the high profile of the iconoclastic Neal Adams, whose brief stint here, on the X-Men and in a few other select places, set the industry ablaze and spawned a generation of avid artistic imitators…

Opening this epochal tome is ‘Let the Game Begin’ from Avengers #69, by writer Thomas (who wrote all the stories contained here) and illustrated by Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger, wherein the team – Captain America, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Goliath, Iron Man, Vision and Thor – were called to the hospital bedside of ailing Tony Stark just in time to prevent his abduction by the grotesque Growing Man. After battling boldly against the unbeatable homunculus the team were summarily and collectively snatched into the future by old enemy Kang the Conqueror who co-opted the team to act as pieces in a cosmic chess-game with an omnipotent alien called the Grandmaster.

If the Avengers failed the Earth would be eradicated…

Issue #70 and 71 began a fertile period for writer Thomas as he introduced two new teams who would, in the fullness of time, star in their own stellar series: Squadron Supreme and The Invaders.

‘When Strikes the Squadron Sinister!’ saw the Avengers returned to their own time to battle a team of deadly villains (mischievously based on DC’s Justice League of America) and ‘Endgame!’, guest-starring the Black Knight, found the Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket dispatched to 1941 to clash with the WWII incarnations of the Sub-Mariner, Human Torch and Captain America…

After foiling Kang’s ambitions the team victoriously returned to the present where Avengers # 72 featured a guest-appearance from Captain Marvel and Rick Jones as ‘Did You Hear the One About Scorpio?’ introduced the menace of super-mob Zodiac, after which ‘The Sting of the Serpent’ (with art by Frank Giacoia & Grainger) pitted the Panther against seditious hate-mongers determined to set New York ablaze, leading to a spectacular and shocking clash between Avengers and Sons of the Serpent in ‘Pursue the Panther!’; the first in a string of glorious issues illustrated by the dream team of John Buscema & Tom Palmer.

The long-missing mutant Avengers Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch returned in #75, desperate to stave off an extra-dimensional invasion and nuclear Armageddon by Conan prototype Arkon the Magnificent in ‘The Warlord and the Witch!’ before the staggering threat was finally thwarted in ‘The Blaze of Battle… the Flames of Love!’ after which a far more mundane and insidious menace manifested when billionaire financier Cornelius Van Lunt almost bankrupted Avengers sponsor Tony Stark, compelling the team to become his ‘Heroes for Hire!’

Sal Buscema popped in to pencil ‘The Man-Ape Always Strikes Twice!’ as the team were targeted by a coterie of vengeful villains competing to join a new league of evil, culminating in a grand clash with the aforementioned anthropoid, Swordsman, Power Man, Living Laser and Grim Reaper in ‘Lo! The Lethal Legion!’, which also heralded the artistic return of Big Brother John.

Marvel introduced its first Native American costumed hero in ‘The Coming of Red Wolf!’ as the Avengers were drawn into a highly personal and decidedly brutal clash between Cornelius Van Lunt and a tribe of Indians he was defrauding. The dramatic dilemma (heralding the team’s entry into the era of “Relevant”, socially conscious tales) divided the team and concluded with Vision, Scarlet Witch and Goliath aiding Red Wolf in ‘When Dies A Legend!’, whilst the remaining team pursued Zodiac.

Sadly the malevolent mob moved first and took the entire island of Manhattan ‘Hostage!’, leaving only the solitary vigilante Daredevil free to save the day, after which Militant Feminism raised its strident head as the Wasp, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch and Madame Medusa were seduced into joining a new team called the Lady Liberators (yes, I know, but the all-male creative team meant well…). However, the Valkyrie who declared ‘Come on in… the Revolution’s Fine!’ had her own sinister agenda that had nothing to do with justice or equality…

Avengers #84 featured part-time paladin Black Knight who was becoming addicted to the bloodthirsty hunger of his Ebony Blade, resulting in an otherworldly confrontation with Arkon and the Enchantress in ‘The Sword and the Sorceress!’ which left half the team lost on a parallel world.

In ‘The World is Not For Burning!’ (inked by Giacoia), Vision, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver found themselves trapped on an Earth where the Squadron Supreme were the World’s Greatest heroes and a solar Armageddon was only hours away…

‘Brain-Child to the Dark Tower Came…!’ (art by Sal B & Jim Mooney) saw the extremely reluctant allies unite to save a very different world after which, back home, the Black Panther reprised his origin before taking leave of his comrades to assume the throne of his hidden African nation in ‘Look Homeward, Avenger’ (Giacoia & Sal B).

Novelist Harlan Ellison was a very vocal comics fan in the 1970s and occasionally collaborated on Marvel tales. Avengers #88 began a radical adaptation of one his best short stories, beginning with ‘The Summons of Psyklop’ (Ellison, Thomas, Sal Buscema & Mooney) wherein an experiment to cure the Hulk of his destructive nature led to the man-beast’s abduction by a preternatural entity. The saga concluded in The Incredible Hulk #140 (Ellison, Thomas, Herb Trimpe & Grainger) as ‘The Brute… That Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom!’ saw the Jade Goliath find love and peace in a sub-molecular paradise, only to lose it all…

Avengers #89 began perhaps the most ambitious saga in Marvel’s brief history: an astounding epic of tremendous scope which dumped Earth into a cosmic war the likes of which comics fans had never before seen and creating the template for all multi-part crossovers and publishing events ever since.

It all began relatively quietly as marooned Kree warrior Captain Marvel was finally freed from his prison in the Negative Zone in ‘The Only Good Alien…’ (art by Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger), inadvertently alerting the public to the panic-striking notion that extraterrestrials lurk among us, whilst awakening a long-dormant robotic Kree Sentry which promptly enacted a protocol to devolve humanity to the level of cavemen in ‘Judgment Day’.

Even with Kree heavyweight Ronan the Accuser taking personal charge the scheme was narrowly defeated in ‘Take One Giant Step… Backward!’, but the cat was out of the bag and public opinion had turned against the heroes for concealing the threat of alien incursions.

In a powerful allegory of the Communist Witch-hunts of the 1950s the epic expanded in #92 (Sal B & George Roussos) when ‘All Things Must End!’ saw riots in the streets and political demagogues capitalising on the crisis. Subpoenaed by the authorities, castigated by friends and public, the current team was ordered to disband by their founding fathers Thor, Iron Man and Captain America.

Or were they…?

The plot thickened and the art quality took an exponential leap as Neal Adams and Tom Palmer assumed the chores with the giant-sized #93’s ‘This Beachhead Earth’ as the Vision was nigh-fatally attacked and those same founding fathers evinced no knowledge of having benched the regular team. With Ant-Man forced to undertake ‘A Journey to the Center of the Android!’ to save the Vision’s artificial life, the Avengers become aware of not one but two alien presences on Earth: bellicose Kree and sneaky shape-shifting Skrulls, beginning a ‘War of the Weirds!’ on our fragile globe. Acting too late they were unable to prevent the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Captain Marvel from being abducted by the Skrulls…

‘More than Inhuman!’ in issue #94 embroiled the hidden race of advanced beings called Inhumans in the mix, disclosing that their advanced science and super-powers were the result of genetic meddling by the Kree in the depths of prehistory. Now with their king Black Bolt missing and the nefarious Maximus in charge, the aliens were calling in their ancient markers…

The second chapter ‘1971: A Space Odyssey’ (pencilled by John Buscema) focused on Captain Marvel increasingly pressured to reveal military secrets to his shape-shifting captors as the Skrulls prepared to launch a final devastating attack on their eons-old rivals, whilst on Earth ‘Behold the Mandroids!’ saw the authorities attempt to arrest all costumed heroes…

Avengers #95 ‘Something Inhuman This Way Come…!’ coalesced the disparate story strands as the aquatic Triton helped defeat the Mandroids before beseeching the beleaguered heroes to find his missing monarch and rescue his people from the press-ganging Kree. After so doing, with a solid victory under their belts the Avengers headed into space to liberate their kidnapped comrades and save Earth from becoming collateral damage in the impending Kree-Skrull War…

‘The Andromeda Swarm!’ (with additional inking from Adams and Al Weiss) was perhaps the Avenger’s finest hour, as the small, brave band held off an immense armada of starships, losing one of their number in the conflict, whilst the Kree Supreme Intelligence was revealed to have been pursuing its own clandestine agenda all along and had snatched bewildered sidekick Rick Jones to clinch its terrifyingly ambitious plans.

The astounding final episode ‘Godhood’s End!’ brought the uncanny epic (and this volume) to a perfect end with a literal deus ex machina as the master-plan was finally revealed and the war ended in a costumed hero overload-extravaganza which has never been surpassed in the annals of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.

Roy Thomas and John Buscema gloriously led Marvel’s second generation of creators who brilliantly built on and consolidated Lee, Kirby and Ditko’s initial burst of comics creativity: spearheading and constructing a logical, fully functioning wonder- machine of places and events that so many others were inspired by and could add to.

These terrific tales are perfect examples of superheroes done exactly right and also a pivotal step of the little company into the corporate colossus.

© 1967, 1968, 2001 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.