Invaders #2



The Cover
Another one by Romita. I don't mind it, but I think it is a bit misleading. There are actually three Gods that Namor, Torch and Toro battle and I would have liked to have seen this portrayed a bit better on the cover. Plus, for added intrigue, they should have had a shadowed out face in the corner with the caption "Plus..Brain Drain revealed!" because that also happens in the issue. I think that would have made for a more dynamic and attention-grabbing cover.

The Story
Continuing from last issue, Namor and the Torches are battling with the three Gods they encountered. Meanwhile, on the ground, Cap is with the mystery girl (she thought her name was Hilda last issue) and they wander into a cave where they are captured by Nazis. Oh and for those wondering, Bucky was left behind last issue at the headquarters in England....Cap didn't think he was right for this mission.

Anyway, the Nazis take Cap and Hilda into this mountain where...gasp!...we finally meet Brain Drain! Okay...it really was a let down because this is what we get:



Not a fan...but perhaps if Cap removes the guy's hood!



Nope, still not loving it. Just who is this guy? Well apparently he was some Nazi who saw what he thought was a meteorite hit the earth. The explosion killed him (or so he thought) but he ends up waking up. He sees the three Gods in front of him and learns that they are actually from another dimension and it was their ship crashing that caused the explosion. They managed to "save" this Nazi by putting his brain and eyes in a jar and giving him an advanced robot body. These alien Gods did not think this Nazi guy a threat so they had him help try to rebuild their ship. The Gods showed him their power ring, which gave powers to any mechanical device. Well, since this Nazi was not pretty much a robot, it added to his power and he used the ring to command the four Gods. I say four because it turns out the girl, Hilda, was the fourth God. This Nazi fell in love with her and tried to control her but she escaped and wound up in England. Brain Drain senses the ring nearby and grabs it from Cap's belt, here he put it last issue.

Upon hearing all this, Hilda (or MCM-XLI, Navigator of the Nebula cruiser Tekeli-Li as she recalls her name) is angered. She takes back the ring and tosses it into some chemicals (convenient how bad guy liars always have a giant vat of unknown chemicals around eh?). She goes on about not being able to ever get home and not ever wanting to live on a planet where people would use power to hurt others. She jumps into the chemicals and, in a lover's trance, Brain Drain jumps in as well. The other 3 male Gods who were still battling outside, leave the fight and dive into the chemicals as well. Cap seems to think this will not end well, and he is right, so he grabs the gang and they get their ship into the sky just as the whole area explodes. The team silently flies back to England.

The final blurb states that next issue we will meet....U-Man! I really hope it is not a many shaped like a submarine...or wait...maybe I do hope for that

Opinions
I thought it was a sloppy end to what could have been a more interesting two part story. Basically, Brain Drain was super lame. If he was even half decent looking, I would have been happy. The whole intergalactic alien/god thing was fine and I kind of liked the ending, even if it was a simply solution to destroy themselves and their powerful ring in a vat of chemicals. One thing I noticed was how they scripting went away from using German accents. Giant Size was heavy with it, Invaders #1 had some but not much because they did not have many German characters speak. But this issue just did not use any of it, aside from calling Cap an Amerikaner. I think if you are going to ham it up and go for it, you gotta use the German accent. Don't flip back and forth on it.

Quote of the Issue
I must perish..and, dying, use such powers as still are mine to stop you from perverting any more of our star-spawned science to the glory of a new barbarism!- Hilda's last schpeal before she jumps into the chemicals.

Hmmmm...upon further review it appears that both the story from MPFW #1 and the extension of it in Marvel Comics #1 may well be in the Public Domain.  It doesn't appear that the copyright on the story was renewed at the 28 year mark.  Interesting. 

I also forgot to mention that Master Man was apparently Brain Drain's creation or dream or whatever. How he ended up in the US we don't know.....yet.

^What is that from!? If Brain Drain looked like that it would have been awesome!

Doom Patrol, back in the glory days.

Here he is in other forms:

Brave and Bold 65                                                       Doom Patrol 121        

  

I think the cover's layout were probably all Robbins, but like so many 1970s Marvel covers, Romita not only inked it, but reshaped it to align more with his dynamic style (which was the Marvel style at that point). Giant Size Invaders #1 was a case where Romita was more in guidance / touch-up mode than total reshape (as he would do with Kirby).