Okay, Axis, Here We Come!-The Invaders and their Friends
Jul 26, 2023 18:36:01 GMT -5
MWGallaher, Hoosier X, and 4 more like this
Post by codystarbuck on Jul 26, 2023 18:36:01 GMT -5
I meant to start this earlier today, before finding myself deep in a philosophical and ethical discussion and going down a rabbit hole of 2 years worth or Roger Stern Avengers stories.
This topic has been covered before; but, I kind of felt the authors were a bit overly dismissive of the series and they also ran out of steam before Roy did. I get that, especially since, creatively, Roy ran out of steam before the series ended. However, I still think there were good stories, even after the series hit its peak. Also, it seems that people were down on Frank Robbins' art. Iget that taste is subjective and Robbins' art at Marvel is not everyone's cup of tea. Robbins was more of the Caniff school and had written and illustrated te classic aviation adventure newspaper strip, Johnny Hazard. So, trying to do a "Marvel style," was not his forte. However, I found the style he developed to be very bold and dynamic and he captured the time period very well. You could take one look at things, even without swastikas or Stuka's and know you were in the past.
I unabashedly love this series, especially its second year, when it really hits its stride. In many ways, I think it is superior to the work Roy did on All-Star Squadron, also a period tale, since he was less beholden to past stories and mostly created the series from the ground up, inspired by the Timely covers of Alex Schomburg, which paired the feature leads together, in gonzo battles against the Axis forces....
Inside the comics, the heroes stayed on their own; but, on the covers, they were a Nazi-smashing squad! It wouldn't be until the end of the war that Timely finally jumped on the team bandwagon and paired their heroes up as the All-Winners Squad. The All-Winners (somewhat misleading, as The Whizzer isn't exactly what I would call a winner, especially with that name and a yellow costume!) only had a couple of adventures before getting their discharge papers and returning to their old lives or retirement. So, Roy had a mostly blank canvas and boy did he have fun filling it!
Before we get going, let me make one thing perfectly clear.....
I LIKE FRANK ROBBINS' ARTWORK!
Get used to it.
I'm not saying that there aren't faults with his style and that it doesn't work in some ways, in some issues or that the art lets the story down, sometimes. Roy liked it, I liked it. Roy did state, in Alter Ego (Vol 2, Number 2, the flip side of The Comic Book Artist #2) that he loved it and its Caniff influences; but, he did feel he had a tendency towards the figures looking "rubbery." To counter that, he assigned Vince Colletta to ink Robbins, to bring the art more in line with the Marvel style. Roy preferred that work to the later pairing of Robbins and Frank Springer. Personally, I liked the latter duo better.` I do think the stories were less interesting without Robbins and had more of a generic look and feel it was a major factor in the series seeming to flounder, after the climax of the battle with Master man & Warrior Woman, in Berlin (we'll get there). frank Springer, on his own, was kind of dull and stiffer. Robbins may have been "rubbery," but rubbery was more visually exciting.
The concept originated in the climax of a storyline, in Avengers, where Kang and the Grandmaster strike a bargain for a contest, with the prize being the revival of Kang's love, Ravonna, should he win their game of temporal chess. In the first part of the battle, Kang seized the Avengers to use as his pieces, while Grandmaster created the Squadron Sinister to battle them. The Squadron is made up of pastiches of the Justice League: Hyperion (Superman), Nighthawk (Batman), Whizzer (Flash), and Dr Spectrum (Green Lantern). I covered these guys in my Squadron Supreme thread, so we will move on.
During the battle with the Squadron, Iron Man, Cap, Thor and Goliath (Hawkeye, in his taller days), fight to stop the theft of various global landmarks, including Big Ben and the Clock Tower/Elizabeth Tower of the Palace of Westminster (Big Ben is the clock, itself). During that battle, The Black Knight comes to help defend the British landmark; but, Grandmaster feels that he has interfered with the game and demands a redo and whisks those Avengers away. Then, Kang sends Vision, Yellowjacket and Black Panther to 1940s Paris, during the Nazi occupation.
As if the goosesteppers weren't bad enough, the Grandmaster sends his champions to fight: Captain America, The Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch (the original).
Yeah, I'm gonna give the Battle of the Battlecries to the Avengers. Avengers Assemble has more "zip" than "Okay, Axis, here we come!" it's a bit wordy. It was actually the advertising copy from an old Timely house ad.,
Black Knight, due to his mystical link with his sword (which was in the hands of Goliath, when Kang pulled them back to his time), is able to travel to the future and release the Wasp and the others. The Avengers, in the past, are able to defeat the Grandmaster's champions and Kang wins. However, the Grandmaster can give him either the power to bring Ravonna back to life, or kill the Avengers. kang decides on the latter and, thus, better hope he never revives Ravonna, because that fact will not go over well!
Kang kicks their butss and is in the process of killing them, when Black Knight smites him with his sword and knocks him out, saving the Avengers, as the power transfer was temporary. Grandmaster sends everyone back home and Black Knight gets an invitation to join the Avengers and accepts.
It's pretty much the standard chess game between all-powerful masters, using humans as their chess pieces. It's been done to death at Marvel, including Contest of Champions, where they screwed up and declared a winner, when the score was actually split evenly, because the contest was done in even parts and someone forget to have a tie-breaker.
That was pretty much just a stunt for the story and not a tryout for the Invaders, as a team.
Their next appearance is in Avengers #97, the climax of the Kree-Skrull War.
Sort of......
During the fight, the Kree Supreme Intelligence unleashes the full human potential, within Rick Jones, which allows him to psionically give form to the heroes of the comic books of his youth. Apparently, Rick only read Timely Comics.....
The heroes formed are Sub-Mariner, Captain America, The Human Torch, The Vision, The Fin, The Angel, The Patriot and The Blazing Skull. The Sub-Mariner, Human Torch and Angel all appeared in Marvel Comics #1, the very first comic published by Timely Comics, created by Loyd Jacquet's Funnies, Inc studio/shop, featuring the work of Carl Burgos. The rest came along later, though apart from captain America, they were mostly third stringers, in the world of comics. Vision and Blazing Skull were a bit more unique (though Vision is largely a copy of The Spectre), but Fin and Patriot were basically copies of Sub-Mariner and Cap, respectively.
The Kree and Skrull stop fighting and the Avengers go back home and that was that.
Until Roy stepped down as EIC. he was going to try his hand at DC, when Stan offered him the first writer-editor deal, giving him complete control (subject to Stan's approval) over his work. Roy was writing Conan and didn't really want to do Cap or FF; but, needed something to boost his income up to where it had been, as the boss. He latched onto the idea of doing wartime adventures of these characters. he knew Stan would never go for the name All-Winners Squad and he thought it was corny, too. He also didn't think his other name, the Liberty Legion (derived at the age of 12, as a group of Timely characters) would fly, as it sounded "too DC." He knew that Stan had toyed with the idea of a super-team, called The Invaders, with Hulk and Sub-Mariner, to replace their adventures in Tales to Astonish, but had dropped the idea (the Roy Thinnes series was on tv and Stan liked the name). Roy knew Stan liked the Invaders name and pitched it with that and Stan loved the idea.
Thus, a concept was born. The original idea was to do a giant-sized bi-monthly series, so it would launch with Giant-Size #1. However, that idea was altered after the first issue was put together; so, Giant-Size Invaders #2 became Invaders #1-2.
We will begin the reviews next time, with Giant-Size Invaders #1
Okay, Axis, Here We Go!
This topic has been covered before; but, I kind of felt the authors were a bit overly dismissive of the series and they also ran out of steam before Roy did. I get that, especially since, creatively, Roy ran out of steam before the series ended. However, I still think there were good stories, even after the series hit its peak. Also, it seems that people were down on Frank Robbins' art. Iget that taste is subjective and Robbins' art at Marvel is not everyone's cup of tea. Robbins was more of the Caniff school and had written and illustrated te classic aviation adventure newspaper strip, Johnny Hazard. So, trying to do a "Marvel style," was not his forte. However, I found the style he developed to be very bold and dynamic and he captured the time period very well. You could take one look at things, even without swastikas or Stuka's and know you were in the past.
I unabashedly love this series, especially its second year, when it really hits its stride. In many ways, I think it is superior to the work Roy did on All-Star Squadron, also a period tale, since he was less beholden to past stories and mostly created the series from the ground up, inspired by the Timely covers of Alex Schomburg, which paired the feature leads together, in gonzo battles against the Axis forces....
Inside the comics, the heroes stayed on their own; but, on the covers, they were a Nazi-smashing squad! It wouldn't be until the end of the war that Timely finally jumped on the team bandwagon and paired their heroes up as the All-Winners Squad. The All-Winners (somewhat misleading, as The Whizzer isn't exactly what I would call a winner, especially with that name and a yellow costume!) only had a couple of adventures before getting their discharge papers and returning to their old lives or retirement. So, Roy had a mostly blank canvas and boy did he have fun filling it!
Before we get going, let me make one thing perfectly clear.....
I LIKE FRANK ROBBINS' ARTWORK!
Get used to it.
I'm not saying that there aren't faults with his style and that it doesn't work in some ways, in some issues or that the art lets the story down, sometimes. Roy liked it, I liked it. Roy did state, in Alter Ego (Vol 2, Number 2, the flip side of The Comic Book Artist #2) that he loved it and its Caniff influences; but, he did feel he had a tendency towards the figures looking "rubbery." To counter that, he assigned Vince Colletta to ink Robbins, to bring the art more in line with the Marvel style. Roy preferred that work to the later pairing of Robbins and Frank Springer. Personally, I liked the latter duo better.` I do think the stories were less interesting without Robbins and had more of a generic look and feel it was a major factor in the series seeming to flounder, after the climax of the battle with Master man & Warrior Woman, in Berlin (we'll get there). frank Springer, on his own, was kind of dull and stiffer. Robbins may have been "rubbery," but rubbery was more visually exciting.
The concept originated in the climax of a storyline, in Avengers, where Kang and the Grandmaster strike a bargain for a contest, with the prize being the revival of Kang's love, Ravonna, should he win their game of temporal chess. In the first part of the battle, Kang seized the Avengers to use as his pieces, while Grandmaster created the Squadron Sinister to battle them. The Squadron is made up of pastiches of the Justice League: Hyperion (Superman), Nighthawk (Batman), Whizzer (Flash), and Dr Spectrum (Green Lantern). I covered these guys in my Squadron Supreme thread, so we will move on.
During the battle with the Squadron, Iron Man, Cap, Thor and Goliath (Hawkeye, in his taller days), fight to stop the theft of various global landmarks, including Big Ben and the Clock Tower/Elizabeth Tower of the Palace of Westminster (Big Ben is the clock, itself). During that battle, The Black Knight comes to help defend the British landmark; but, Grandmaster feels that he has interfered with the game and demands a redo and whisks those Avengers away. Then, Kang sends Vision, Yellowjacket and Black Panther to 1940s Paris, during the Nazi occupation.
As if the goosesteppers weren't bad enough, the Grandmaster sends his champions to fight: Captain America, The Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch (the original).
Yeah, I'm gonna give the Battle of the Battlecries to the Avengers. Avengers Assemble has more "zip" than "Okay, Axis, here we come!" it's a bit wordy. It was actually the advertising copy from an old Timely house ad.,
Black Knight, due to his mystical link with his sword (which was in the hands of Goliath, when Kang pulled them back to his time), is able to travel to the future and release the Wasp and the others. The Avengers, in the past, are able to defeat the Grandmaster's champions and Kang wins. However, the Grandmaster can give him either the power to bring Ravonna back to life, or kill the Avengers. kang decides on the latter and, thus, better hope he never revives Ravonna, because that fact will not go over well!
Kang kicks their butss and is in the process of killing them, when Black Knight smites him with his sword and knocks him out, saving the Avengers, as the power transfer was temporary. Grandmaster sends everyone back home and Black Knight gets an invitation to join the Avengers and accepts.
It's pretty much the standard chess game between all-powerful masters, using humans as their chess pieces. It's been done to death at Marvel, including Contest of Champions, where they screwed up and declared a winner, when the score was actually split evenly, because the contest was done in even parts and someone forget to have a tie-breaker.
That was pretty much just a stunt for the story and not a tryout for the Invaders, as a team.
Their next appearance is in Avengers #97, the climax of the Kree-Skrull War.
Sort of......
During the fight, the Kree Supreme Intelligence unleashes the full human potential, within Rick Jones, which allows him to psionically give form to the heroes of the comic books of his youth. Apparently, Rick only read Timely Comics.....
The heroes formed are Sub-Mariner, Captain America, The Human Torch, The Vision, The Fin, The Angel, The Patriot and The Blazing Skull. The Sub-Mariner, Human Torch and Angel all appeared in Marvel Comics #1, the very first comic published by Timely Comics, created by Loyd Jacquet's Funnies, Inc studio/shop, featuring the work of Carl Burgos. The rest came along later, though apart from captain America, they were mostly third stringers, in the world of comics. Vision and Blazing Skull were a bit more unique (though Vision is largely a copy of The Spectre), but Fin and Patriot were basically copies of Sub-Mariner and Cap, respectively.
The Kree and Skrull stop fighting and the Avengers go back home and that was that.
Until Roy stepped down as EIC. he was going to try his hand at DC, when Stan offered him the first writer-editor deal, giving him complete control (subject to Stan's approval) over his work. Roy was writing Conan and didn't really want to do Cap or FF; but, needed something to boost his income up to where it had been, as the boss. He latched onto the idea of doing wartime adventures of these characters. he knew Stan would never go for the name All-Winners Squad and he thought it was corny, too. He also didn't think his other name, the Liberty Legion (derived at the age of 12, as a group of Timely characters) would fly, as it sounded "too DC." He knew that Stan had toyed with the idea of a super-team, called The Invaders, with Hulk and Sub-Mariner, to replace their adventures in Tales to Astonish, but had dropped the idea (the Roy Thinnes series was on tv and Stan liked the name). Roy knew Stan liked the Invaders name and pitched it with that and Stan loved the idea.
Thus, a concept was born. The original idea was to do a giant-sized bi-monthly series, so it would launch with Giant-Size #1. However, that idea was altered after the first issue was put together; so, Giant-Size Invaders #2 became Invaders #1-2.
We will begin the reviews next time, with Giant-Size Invaders #1
Okay, Axis, Here We Go!
