Invaders #40
I see that Miss America is settling in to her new role as damsel-in-distress, for The Invaders....just like her time with the Liberty Legion!
Creative Team: Don Glut-writer, Alan Kupperberg & Chic Stone-art, Tom Orzechowski-letters, Carl Gafford-colors, Roy Thomas-editor, Jim Shooter-out getting a bite
Synopsis: When we left things, Lady Lotus had failed to draft Golden Girl into her Axis brothel, but escaped from the Invaders, while Baron Blood turned out to be alive.....or back undead, if you prefer. He clobebred Union Jack and has Spitfire at his mercy, when Lady Lotus mind-whammies him and orders him to head stateside....
The British heroes prove that they need the Americans to get them out of trouble (just like in the war!
) and they fail to stop their uncle from heading to America, via a badly drawn airplane.
The Invaders are headed for the East Coast, in pursuit of Lady Lotus and U-Man, where they discuss adolescent crushes and horndog adults.....
Namor gets a radio call from Union Jack, telling them that Baron Blood is headed to America, with some Japanese friends. The Invader consider a Japanese agent controlling U-Man and Japanese soldiers reviving Baron Blood and bringing him to America and think, "
2 Tasu 2 wa redi rotasu ni hitoshi!Meanwhile, in New York's Chinatown, at the House of Lotus, U-Man cools his heels and rants, while Lady Lotus continues to act like the pulp stereotype she is.....
This is starting to sound like a porn parody.
Lady L's Chinese handmaidens, acting like Japanese servants, dress her in her silk kimono (with a shorter than traditional hemline) and she goes out to speak to her boy toys. Baron Blood ain't a happy camper and he tries to use his mesmerizing power's on Lady L, but finds out that hers are stronger, as she forces him to bow down to her and lick her feet clean with his tongue....
She gives her new toy some native soil to sleep in and some new duds (possibly leather leather, or rubber, if she is in that mood), so he won't embarrass her when she takes him out on a leash (and a muzzle, I'll bet).
The Invaders are putting on a show, at Ft Dix, when Captain "Happy" Sam Sawyer (shouldn't he be in the UK, ramrodding the Howling Commandos?) interrupts and briefs them on an unmarked plane, spotted by observers, which appeared to be a German model. The Invaders are dispatched to investigate, using the advanced technology of Namor's flagship.
Meanwhile, at Idlewild Airfield, Baron Blood smashes into the tower and eliminates air traffic controller Earle Bowman (possibly named for the actor, possibly for someone Roy or Don Glut knew). He then guides in a plane, which is not recorded in the CAA (Civil Aeronautics Authority) log. Two passengers get out, in the shadows and bicker in German....
They, too, speak of being compelled to be in the US and get into a vehicle, with Japanese soldiers ('cause they would be inconspicuous, in New York).
The Invaders arrive and find Baron Blood in the tower and attack him and get whooped....
Namor turns up and BB takes to the air and dumps Cap and Whizzer, so that Namor has to choose between saving Cap & Whizzer or capturing him.....
I said, Namor has to choose between saving Captain America & Whizzer or capturing Baron Blood........
Well?
Despite his natural instincts, Namor saves the pair of wing-heads. Miss America tries to go after Baron Blood; but, being the designated Damsel-in-Distress, she falls under his spell, until Torch creates a flaming cross (didn't know he was in the KKK) and BB flees the scene and Torch has to catch her. BB causes a mid-air collision between two P-40 Warhawks, coming into the field and Namor must rescue the pilots, letting BB go.
We cut to the House of Lotus, as Baron Blood returns and Lady Lotus introduces him to her guests, from a rival BDSM club......
Thoughts: Again, we get a lot of wheel-spinning and pointless fights, to get more characters on scene, so that we can get to the real story, the formation of the Super Axis, with Lady Lotus, U-Man, Baron Blood; and, now, Master Man and Warrior Woman. The Nazi Justice League is now assembled, though Marian Manhunter didn't have Lady Lotus' curves.....well, not outside the privacy of his own home and the odd Halloween and private party.
The heroes continue to act like incompetent rubes so that the villains can all be assembled, for whatever purpose, because it isn't destroying The Invaders. Any one of them could have done it at any time, from what we have seen.
Not sure why the tower controller was given a name, unless it was meant as a tribute to someone. Seems an odd detail. Not sure how Roy has Sam Sawyer at Ft Dix. It was established in Sgt Fury #34 that sawyer had somehow finagled his way into the British Army, despite the US Neutrality Laws. Wikipedia thinks he was assigned to the British Commandos, by the US Army; but, the story is set in 1940, the US is not involved and Sawyer is in British uniform, not American. It is implied that he joined the British Army, not that he was sent as an observer or in an exchange program. There were Americans serving with the Allies, before 1941; but, usually, they joined via the Canadian Armed Forces, with phony documents and willfull ignorance on the part of the Canucks. Sam is with a commando group that is being trained to be paratroopers, by Fury and Red Bailey, both civilians from an air circus. When the Germans invade Belgium and Holland, Sawyer is sent to link up with a British agent, to get important documents out of Holland, before the Nazis overrun it (which took all of 4 days, as the Germans landed paratroops on 10 May and the Dutch surrendered on the 14th, though a contingent held out until the 17th, in Zealand). He recruits Fury and Red to help him and they meet Dum-Dum Dugan, in Holland, traveling with a circus. They succeed in getting the plans out and Fury & red go home and join the US Army and are at Pearl harbor, where Red is killed. Sawyer transfers to the US Army Rangers, after the US enters the war, but the Rangers weren't formed until June of 1942 and 50 fought with British Commandos during the Dieppe Raid, in August. Dum-Dum also ends up in the Rangers and he and Sawyer are in North Africa together. That puts them in the 1st Ranger Battalion, which would mean they also fought in Sicily and Italy. However, the 1st, 3rd and 4th Ranger battalions were almost entirely wiped out, in the Battle of Cisterna. The 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions were raised in the US and then sent to the UK to train for D-Day, where they assaulted the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. Sgt Fury says Sawyer and Dum-Dum fought in several hotspots and Sawyer was badly wounded and assigned to the desk job, which puts him in charge of the new Howling Commandos, seen formed at the end of the story. That makes it seem like they worked with the OSS and/or SOE, rather than the Rangers. Fury's missions have always been a little nebulous, in relation to timeline, other than stories that placed them in actual battles, like Operation Overlord (the Invasion of Normandy), The Battle of the Bulge, and similar. Basically, Stan, Roy, and Gary Friedrich didn't care about actual military history and used the Howlers wherever. Which is part of why Kirby hated the book and got off of it as soon as he could. He had been in the war and Sgt Fury was a fantasy of war.
The letters page has a letter, rebutting a previous one that said the revisions to Marvel history, seen in the Invaders, should not be happening and they should be more beholding to Timely history. Which would put Captain America in the All-Winner's Squad, after the war and fighting a Commie Red Skull, in the 1950s, not to mentioned paired with the original Golden Girl. That would mean all of the modern cap stuff would have to be redone. The rebuttal letter writer points out the regular inconsistencies in Timely stories, such as Miss America's powers and costume, as well as the changes that Namor and Captain America had gone through, when revived in the post-Fantastic four #1 Marvel Universe. The writer says a comics pro 30 years in the future will be able to see a more cohesive Marvel universe.
That letter writer, about 20 years ahead (well, 15 years, actually) would do just that, when he wrote the mini-series Marvels, which showcased key moments in Marvel history, as witnessed by a photo-journalist. That writer was Kurt Busiek and his letter appears in this issue.
Funny old world, innit?
The letters page also announces that the series has been canceled, in mid-storyline, due to "re-scheduling conflicts." Or just poor sales, particularly in the wake of Frank Robbins leaving the series and the overall quality of the stories declining, since the Berlin mission. Let's face it, Roy ran out of ideas and just started rehashing plots and played cutesy, with stuff like Thor and the Kid Commandos (ugh....leave the kid gangs to Simon & Kirby or Bob Haney). Now, he finally decides to combine the Nazi super agents into a group to fight the Invaders, but plots out a pretty weak story, with the meat saved for two issues yet to be published (Roy specifically states that Jim Shooter assures Roy that the material for issues #41 and 42 will see print, somehow, possibly as a Giant Size or special). Roy thanks those involved and says they will be back.
Well, it took 4 months; but, the Invaders did return for a final, double-sized issue, which is our next installment.
) and they fail to stop their uncle from heading to America, via a badly drawn airplane.
