Post by MWGallaher on Oct 5, 2021 17:31:01 GMT -5
Avengers #97
On Sale December 1971
Cover by Gil Kane and Bill Everett
This issue features “Godhood’s End” by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer, with Neal Adams (“consultant”).
After a few months of mostly DC comics, it was time to go back for my second helping of one of the few Marvel comics I’d sampled. I had skipped issue 96. I probably missed it on the stands, but I may have intentionally passed it up for better options. In any case, it got a second chance with me, despite my first sample having left me feeling lost. I think there were two main reasons I took another chance.
For one, this was Marvel’s answer to the JLA, with lots of superheroes for the cost of one cover. If I was serious about getting into this stuff, this was most likely to get me well acquainted with the most characters.
Second, the cover promised some intriguing looking characters I hadn’t seen or heard of, with good reason: these were obscure Golden Age Timely Comics characters like the Fin, the original Vision, and the Blazing Skull…now that was a heck of a visual for a monster fan: a superhero with a flaming skull for a head! Why weren’t they putting this guy on the stands any more?
The story opens with Rick Jones facing Annihilus in the Negative Zone. I remembered Rick and his relationship with Captain Marvel from my prior issue. Annihilus was new, and I’m pretty sure I knew how to pronounce his name from the start, since I don’t remember ever having any alternatives in mind.
A flashback does its best to fill in the gap I missed with issue 95, then returns to Rick blasting Annihilus with a beam unexpectedly firing from his forehead.
The scene shifts to the Andromeda Galaxy, where Quicksilver is demonstrating the strangest offensive style I’d ever seen, zipping around curled up like a cannonball. Is that his power? Captain Marvel is shut away in a sphere of negative energy playing with the “omni-wave” device, and even Wanda’s hex power—and I’m not sure I ever figured out exactly what that was—can’t rouse him from his single-minded efforts.
The Skrull king wants the omni-wave, and rebukes the daughter begging him to stop the attack that his army is engaging in. But Captain Marvel’s energy-sphere dissolves. He was trying to contact Rick in the Negative Zone, but it didn’t work, so now he destroys the device, since in Non-Kree hands, it can serve as a deadly weapon.
In the Zone, Rick focuses his new-found mental powers, and zaps himself to the Kree homeworld, right before the Intelligence Supreme (I thought it was Supreme Intelligence, but Rick puts the “Intelligence” first here). Whatever you call him, the big green screen machine starts yapping about Rick’s “cosmic heritage”, courtesy of the entire human race.
Before he can explain, the rebellious Ronan attacks, and Supreme urges Rick to concentrate on his childhood memories of comic book heroes from the days of old, and sure enough, the heroes materialize. Sub-Mariner, Captain America, the Fin, the Angle, the Blazing Skull, the Patriot, the Vision, and the Human Torch:
They join the fight for a few pages, and even the Fin (“nobody ever accused me of being great shakes out of water, but if Namor can squeak by…”) takes out a few Kree.
Just when it’s getting fun, these heroes dissolve, as Rick’s mental powers need a rest. Now he concentrates again, and the Skrull and Kree, at least those engaged in the immediate battle, all freeze, including Captain Marvel.
Elsewhere, the Avengers fight off more Skrull, before aiming their spaceship toward the Skrull galaxy, passing through a fleet of immobilized Skrull military.
Back to Rick and Supreme, and now Rick’s getting mental video of one H. Warren Craddock, ranting before a crowd in New York. Craddock is “the guy who ran the Avengers off the Earth”. Rick remote-mind-zaps Craddock, who is revealed to the crowd as a Skrull in disguise. The crowd, already whipped into an anti-alien frenzy, murders the alien before he can escape.
Now the Intelligence Supreme fills in the missing details: he induced Mar-Vell to construct the omni-wave to unleash Rick’s dormant powers. Well, not Rick’s specifically, turns out any human would have sufficed. It was all to, well, end the war, I guess. It’s not all that clear to me reading it even now.
Supreme transports the Avengers to his place, where they find Rick on the verge of death, after overloading his mental capacities. The only way to save him is for Captain Marvel to give him his full life-force, returning to their status quo in which only one can exist in our dimensions at one time.
Rick recovers, minus mental superpowers, the Kree and Skrull are (somehow) restored to an “uneasy peace”, and the Avengers are transported back to Earth, where Nick Fury reveals that he has the real H. Warren Craddock. The one the Avengers were dealing with was the fourth Skrull from FANTASTIC FOUR #2, the one who didn’t get turned into a cow! The real Craddock has cleared the Avengers’ names, and the story closes with an ominous observation: when all the living Avengers were summoned to space, one didn’t appear: Goliath!
If issue 95 had been a bad place for a new-to-Marvel reader to start, this issue was even worse. My previous experience helped a little, but this couldn’t have been a very satisfying read, quickly concluding a long and complicated epic. The pathos of Captain Marvel’s sacrifice had some emotional impact on me, I think. I know I loved seeing those Golden Age characters, but man, what a rip! DC was giving me reprints of full stories of their roster of obscure 1940’s characters, Marvel just gave me a gratuitous few pages that didn’t explain anything about any of these guys.
What I actually remember most about this issue was that I had gone to see a 3-D movie prior to picking up this issue, and when I got home, I tried out my 3-D glasses on this comic. While they didn’t quite make the comic three-dimensional, the glasses had a remarkable and somewhat psychedelic effect, and did appear to lift some segments into different planes as my eyes coped with merging two images shifted differently in color. Eleven year old Mike was tripping on this!
The “Avengers Assemble!” letter column explains that Neal Adams couldn’t meet deadlines, and was replaced by John Buscema for this issue, but then explains that this was going to be Adams’ final issue, anyway. Next issue, Barry Smith is due to take over.
All the letters praise the Kree/Skrull war saga, especially Adams’ artwork. One writer suggests an “Arkon the Magnificent” solo story, which would have meant nothing to me.
I would definitely have devoured the Bullpen Bulletins to see if there were any intriguing alerts. The item on an article in the Rolling Stone? Yawn. A reminder that TOMB OF DRACULA and WARLOCK had premiered last month. Despite my monster fandom, I seem to have had no interest in Dracula. The name “Warlock” intrigued me; I wouldn’t have guessed what that turned out to be. The Bulletins promised two debuts: MARVEL TEAM-UP with Spider-Man and the Human Torch (and the implication is indeed that these were supposed to be the ongoing co-stars) and a new series in AMAZING ADVENTURES starring the Beast. That last one sounded really interesting, and I would be picking that up when I found it available, with the third installment. The item also plugs “Warrior of Mars”, that being the same Gullivar Jones series I also sampled this month.
Next they mention John Romita appearing on a radio program in NYC that I wouldn’t have heard, obviously, and a feature by Herb Trimpe in Esquire, which I wouldn’t have read, obviously.
Stan’s Soapbox explains how to break into the comics business, but it’s discouraging stuff, saying that first you have to become a professional artist in another field. He’s saving his advice for writers for a future column, but presumably the message will be much the same.
In the Mighty Marvel Checklist, the only material that really struck my interest were the books I did buy, in some order (Werewolf by Night and Gullivar Jones) and the Beast feature I missed.
So what would my future with Marvel Comics look like in my second calendar year of comics collecting? Well, it wouldn’t be until March of ’72 that I gave them another shot, sampling Ka-Zar, thanks to the guest appearance by Man-Thing, an instant favorite. In April I’d finally get to read the Beast’s feature, and get in on the ground floor of the new Ant-Man, Ghost Rider and Dr. Strange features. In May, I was back for more Man-Thing in Ka-Zar’s book, tried out Luke Cage in his second appearance, and got my first Hulk with guest star Ant-Man, a new fave! I sampled some reprints of the FF in MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION and the X-MEN. As summer rolled in, I went back for more Ant-Man and Dr. Strange, got up to date with the modern X-Men in MARVEL TEAM-UP #4, and grabbed up the first of Man-Thing’s new feature in FEAR.
It was a slow start, but after that first year, my Marvel purchases in 1972-73 would increase dramatically, and I’d at least sample darn near every superhero, adventure, or monster title, and get hooked forever on THE DEFENDERS.
Next, I finish up with the big one, the capstone of my comics collecting in that first year of 1971.
MONSTER APPEAL: A point for the sci-fi alien imagery.
1 out of 5!
COLLECTING INSPIRATION: AVENGERS was not for me, at least not yet. I've never really loved the team or the title like so many here do, and it may be that this initial experience influenced that feeling.
0 out of 5!
ART SCHOOLING: As a reader in the 70's, I was going to get very accustomed to seeing the work of Big John Buscema, who would draw at least one issue of almost everything, from top tier titles like AVENGERS to third rate features like The Golem. The ubiquitous presence of his work was detrimental to my impression of him. I saw so much of his stuff that I got very tired of it, and very quickly picked up on his stock techniques. I can appreciate his talent, but I never developed the love for it that so many here have. "Oh, this again." Look, I felt much the same about Nick Cardy after overdosing on his covers at DC, so please don't hold it against me!
1 out of 5!
LORE: There was a lot here, obviously. Only the briefest exposure to some Golden Age not-so-greats like the Fin, but the Kree and the Skrull would be big components of the Marvel Universe.
2 out of 5!
On Sale December 1971
Cover by Gil Kane and Bill Everett
This issue features “Godhood’s End” by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer, with Neal Adams (“consultant”).
After a few months of mostly DC comics, it was time to go back for my second helping of one of the few Marvel comics I’d sampled. I had skipped issue 96. I probably missed it on the stands, but I may have intentionally passed it up for better options. In any case, it got a second chance with me, despite my first sample having left me feeling lost. I think there were two main reasons I took another chance.
For one, this was Marvel’s answer to the JLA, with lots of superheroes for the cost of one cover. If I was serious about getting into this stuff, this was most likely to get me well acquainted with the most characters.
Second, the cover promised some intriguing looking characters I hadn’t seen or heard of, with good reason: these were obscure Golden Age Timely Comics characters like the Fin, the original Vision, and the Blazing Skull…now that was a heck of a visual for a monster fan: a superhero with a flaming skull for a head! Why weren’t they putting this guy on the stands any more?
The story opens with Rick Jones facing Annihilus in the Negative Zone. I remembered Rick and his relationship with Captain Marvel from my prior issue. Annihilus was new, and I’m pretty sure I knew how to pronounce his name from the start, since I don’t remember ever having any alternatives in mind.
A flashback does its best to fill in the gap I missed with issue 95, then returns to Rick blasting Annihilus with a beam unexpectedly firing from his forehead.
The scene shifts to the Andromeda Galaxy, where Quicksilver is demonstrating the strangest offensive style I’d ever seen, zipping around curled up like a cannonball. Is that his power? Captain Marvel is shut away in a sphere of negative energy playing with the “omni-wave” device, and even Wanda’s hex power—and I’m not sure I ever figured out exactly what that was—can’t rouse him from his single-minded efforts.
The Skrull king wants the omni-wave, and rebukes the daughter begging him to stop the attack that his army is engaging in. But Captain Marvel’s energy-sphere dissolves. He was trying to contact Rick in the Negative Zone, but it didn’t work, so now he destroys the device, since in Non-Kree hands, it can serve as a deadly weapon.
In the Zone, Rick focuses his new-found mental powers, and zaps himself to the Kree homeworld, right before the Intelligence Supreme (I thought it was Supreme Intelligence, but Rick puts the “Intelligence” first here). Whatever you call him, the big green screen machine starts yapping about Rick’s “cosmic heritage”, courtesy of the entire human race.
Before he can explain, the rebellious Ronan attacks, and Supreme urges Rick to concentrate on his childhood memories of comic book heroes from the days of old, and sure enough, the heroes materialize. Sub-Mariner, Captain America, the Fin, the Angle, the Blazing Skull, the Patriot, the Vision, and the Human Torch:
They join the fight for a few pages, and even the Fin (“nobody ever accused me of being great shakes out of water, but if Namor can squeak by…”) takes out a few Kree.
Just when it’s getting fun, these heroes dissolve, as Rick’s mental powers need a rest. Now he concentrates again, and the Skrull and Kree, at least those engaged in the immediate battle, all freeze, including Captain Marvel.
Elsewhere, the Avengers fight off more Skrull, before aiming their spaceship toward the Skrull galaxy, passing through a fleet of immobilized Skrull military.
Back to Rick and Supreme, and now Rick’s getting mental video of one H. Warren Craddock, ranting before a crowd in New York. Craddock is “the guy who ran the Avengers off the Earth”. Rick remote-mind-zaps Craddock, who is revealed to the crowd as a Skrull in disguise. The crowd, already whipped into an anti-alien frenzy, murders the alien before he can escape.
Now the Intelligence Supreme fills in the missing details: he induced Mar-Vell to construct the omni-wave to unleash Rick’s dormant powers. Well, not Rick’s specifically, turns out any human would have sufficed. It was all to, well, end the war, I guess. It’s not all that clear to me reading it even now.
Supreme transports the Avengers to his place, where they find Rick on the verge of death, after overloading his mental capacities. The only way to save him is for Captain Marvel to give him his full life-force, returning to their status quo in which only one can exist in our dimensions at one time.
Rick recovers, minus mental superpowers, the Kree and Skrull are (somehow) restored to an “uneasy peace”, and the Avengers are transported back to Earth, where Nick Fury reveals that he has the real H. Warren Craddock. The one the Avengers were dealing with was the fourth Skrull from FANTASTIC FOUR #2, the one who didn’t get turned into a cow! The real Craddock has cleared the Avengers’ names, and the story closes with an ominous observation: when all the living Avengers were summoned to space, one didn’t appear: Goliath!
If issue 95 had been a bad place for a new-to-Marvel reader to start, this issue was even worse. My previous experience helped a little, but this couldn’t have been a very satisfying read, quickly concluding a long and complicated epic. The pathos of Captain Marvel’s sacrifice had some emotional impact on me, I think. I know I loved seeing those Golden Age characters, but man, what a rip! DC was giving me reprints of full stories of their roster of obscure 1940’s characters, Marvel just gave me a gratuitous few pages that didn’t explain anything about any of these guys.
What I actually remember most about this issue was that I had gone to see a 3-D movie prior to picking up this issue, and when I got home, I tried out my 3-D glasses on this comic. While they didn’t quite make the comic three-dimensional, the glasses had a remarkable and somewhat psychedelic effect, and did appear to lift some segments into different planes as my eyes coped with merging two images shifted differently in color. Eleven year old Mike was tripping on this!
The “Avengers Assemble!” letter column explains that Neal Adams couldn’t meet deadlines, and was replaced by John Buscema for this issue, but then explains that this was going to be Adams’ final issue, anyway. Next issue, Barry Smith is due to take over.
All the letters praise the Kree/Skrull war saga, especially Adams’ artwork. One writer suggests an “Arkon the Magnificent” solo story, which would have meant nothing to me.
I would definitely have devoured the Bullpen Bulletins to see if there were any intriguing alerts. The item on an article in the Rolling Stone? Yawn. A reminder that TOMB OF DRACULA and WARLOCK had premiered last month. Despite my monster fandom, I seem to have had no interest in Dracula. The name “Warlock” intrigued me; I wouldn’t have guessed what that turned out to be. The Bulletins promised two debuts: MARVEL TEAM-UP with Spider-Man and the Human Torch (and the implication is indeed that these were supposed to be the ongoing co-stars) and a new series in AMAZING ADVENTURES starring the Beast. That last one sounded really interesting, and I would be picking that up when I found it available, with the third installment. The item also plugs “Warrior of Mars”, that being the same Gullivar Jones series I also sampled this month.
Next they mention John Romita appearing on a radio program in NYC that I wouldn’t have heard, obviously, and a feature by Herb Trimpe in Esquire, which I wouldn’t have read, obviously.
Stan’s Soapbox explains how to break into the comics business, but it’s discouraging stuff, saying that first you have to become a professional artist in another field. He’s saving his advice for writers for a future column, but presumably the message will be much the same.
In the Mighty Marvel Checklist, the only material that really struck my interest were the books I did buy, in some order (Werewolf by Night and Gullivar Jones) and the Beast feature I missed.
So what would my future with Marvel Comics look like in my second calendar year of comics collecting? Well, it wouldn’t be until March of ’72 that I gave them another shot, sampling Ka-Zar, thanks to the guest appearance by Man-Thing, an instant favorite. In April I’d finally get to read the Beast’s feature, and get in on the ground floor of the new Ant-Man, Ghost Rider and Dr. Strange features. In May, I was back for more Man-Thing in Ka-Zar’s book, tried out Luke Cage in his second appearance, and got my first Hulk with guest star Ant-Man, a new fave! I sampled some reprints of the FF in MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION and the X-MEN. As summer rolled in, I went back for more Ant-Man and Dr. Strange, got up to date with the modern X-Men in MARVEL TEAM-UP #4, and grabbed up the first of Man-Thing’s new feature in FEAR.
It was a slow start, but after that first year, my Marvel purchases in 1972-73 would increase dramatically, and I’d at least sample darn near every superhero, adventure, or monster title, and get hooked forever on THE DEFENDERS.
Next, I finish up with the big one, the capstone of my comics collecting in that first year of 1971.
MONSTER APPEAL: A point for the sci-fi alien imagery.
1 out of 5!
COLLECTING INSPIRATION: AVENGERS was not for me, at least not yet. I've never really loved the team or the title like so many here do, and it may be that this initial experience influenced that feeling.
0 out of 5!
ART SCHOOLING: As a reader in the 70's, I was going to get very accustomed to seeing the work of Big John Buscema, who would draw at least one issue of almost everything, from top tier titles like AVENGERS to third rate features like The Golem. The ubiquitous presence of his work was detrimental to my impression of him. I saw so much of his stuff that I got very tired of it, and very quickly picked up on his stock techniques. I can appreciate his talent, but I never developed the love for it that so many here have. "Oh, this again." Look, I felt much the same about Nick Cardy after overdosing on his covers at DC, so please don't hold it against me!
1 out of 5!
LORE: There was a lot here, obviously. Only the briefest exposure to some Golden Age not-so-greats like the Fin, but the Kree and the Skrull would be big components of the Marvel Universe.
2 out of 5!