Invaders #1
Another homage to the wild covers by Alex Schomburg, though a bit less "kill-happy." Also, no racial stereotypes.
Frank Robbins put the Junkers Ju 86K bombers in there. Developed in 1934, to fulfill a request for a plane that could be both a high speed airliner, for Luft Hansa and a medium bomber, for the Luftwaffe. Note the twin tails.
Creative Team: Roy Thomas-writer & editor, Frank Robbins & Vince Colletta-art, John Costanza-letters, Petra Goldberg-colors
Synopsis: It is late December (back in '63....oh, wait, 1941...sorry Four Seasons!) and the newly christened Invaders are winging their way to London, in Namor's flagship flying craft. They have arrived in the middle of an air raid, though they are too busy squabbling amongst themselves to notice, until they start taking flak. They realize that the anti-aircraft crews don't know who they are. It is only when Bucky spots the squadron of JU86Ks that they realize they they aren't being targeted with friendly fire, but just flew into the action,. They decide to lend a hand. Namor takes a quick shower and then flies out, to do some Nazi-smashing, as do Torch and Toro.
Namor has some fun by ripping open fuselages and dropping air crews out of the planes. They have parachutes, so he gives them a sporting chance, which is a bit more than they get with Torch's fireballs. They have to swerve out of the way to avoid a flight of Spitfires, rising to the attack.
Cap lands the flagship, gives the password and meets up with their British liason. Bucky is busy girlwatching....
The blond woman seems to be oblivious to the air raid and the dangers and Cap has to rescue her from falling debris. He asks if she is alright and she doesn't seem to know her name or if the weird glowing ring that she dropped is hers. Cap saw her drop it, but she seems sincere that it isn't hers and he notices her weird glowing golden eyes. A tommy gives her a coat and takes her out of danger. The others land and join Cap & Bucky. They head down into an underground bunker and the officer lets slip that they are still looking for information on the "braindrain" that the Invaders alerted them to, by radio. The woman, who says she thinks her name is Hilda, seems to recognize that name. They notice that Hilda has a slight German accent and everyone is suspicious, but they still take her into the operations room. So much for operational security. Must be a lot of sunken ships in the harbor, with those loose lips. She looks at a chart of Europe and says she thinks she was once at a location, deep inside Germany. They decide to check things out. cap leaves Bucky with the liason, because they don't need a wet nosed kid get between them and a hot blond chick. Toro gets to go, though, since he has powers, though a cold shower might be in order. They fly off in the flagship, for Germany.
Hilda's fuzzy memory leads them across the Siefried Line, to a crater, where they are knocked out of the sky by a battle axe!
They bail out, but Hilda's chute fails to open. Cap speeds his freefall, by rolling into a ball and catches up to Hilda, grabs her and pops his own chute. Thank's to Torch's help, they land safely, even with the added weight. The flagship lands automatically. The rest land and find themselves facing Teutonic legends....
Thoughts: On the letters page, Roy remarks that the story, meant for Giant Size Invaders #2, was split into 3 chapters, for here. He also remarks that the title, Ring of the Nebulas, was inspired by Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, which had recently played, with the entire four chapter saga (The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods), performed by the New York Metropolitan Opera. Roy and then-wife Jeanie and Irene Vartanoff attended the whole thing, while Gil Kane missed out on getting tickets (but later collaborated with Roy on adapting it to comics, as did P Craig Russell, in his opera works)
Roy also teases the future appearance of another super-team, The Liberty Legion (local 602). They will turn up in a future crossover between this title and Marvel Premiere (which I covered in Land of the Misfit Stories, though I will hit it again. I recall teases for them, in the little add copy they had at the bottom of the page, in their comics; but, they ended up being kind of disappointing, when I actually saw them. Roy never really did get to flesh them out much.
We get some nice Nazi-smashing action, at the start, before we veer off into Wagner (pronounced Vogner) territory (and before Bugs and Elmer stumble into things...."Kill da wabbit!") then it gets all weird and mysterious, with a whole lot of people ignoring security, due to a hot blond around the place. Such an operations room would be fileld with women, so you'd think someone sensible would speak up. no indication that anyone is under a spell.
If it sounds like Namor and the fireboys were a bit heavy handed, that was par for the course, for 1940s Timely. It was a bit of a grisly company and wartime kind of elevated things. Nobody cared about barbecuing Nazis and even less about Japanese caricatures. It looks horrible, now; but, you have to add context. it was wartime, they were the enemy and the Nazis were a nasty bunch, even without wide knowledge of the concentration camps. the conquest of Europe, alone, was enough. The Japanese had more racial overtones, but, they had conducted a sneak attack, which was considered the lowest form and they were Asians, already treated as less by society. It doesn't make it right, just explains it. Timely got pretty nasty about it, though most of the publishers were guilty of such stereotyping and it was in everything, from cartoon shorts to advertising, with such slogans as "Slap a Jap."
Gunnery Sgt John Basilone, winner of the Medal of Honor, at Guadalcanal, had a few choice (and salty) words to say about that slogan, back in the 40s...
(warning, Marine language NSFW)
To avoid this problem, Roy mostly keeps this series geared towards Europe. We won't see much about Japan until later in the series.
Frank Robbins is in his element with the air raid stuff, as he was a master of aviation adventure, with Johnny Hazard.....
He gets to indulge, with the Junkers bombers and Spitfire fighter planes, as well as Namor's ship, then he gets to draw Wagnerian figures, as well as wartime Tommies and barrage balloons, searchlights, and anti-aircraft cannons. You know you are in the 40s and Robbins sells how desperate the situation is, though Roy does let us know that the British have mostly won the Battle of Britain, by this point; but, things are still touch and go, in North Africa, until the Allies can orchestrate Operation Torch, by landing in Tunisia and then squeezing Rommel and his Italian allies between the forces coming in from the west and the British and Colonial forces coming from the east, from Egypt. Then, they will be dealing with General Patton, shooting down planes with his sidearm, while chewing out soldiers for not wearing a tie and gaiters.
At this point, the only criticism I have is Roy's tendency to overwhelm the page with verbiage and the over-explaining history. Kind of feel that would be better covered on a fottnotes page or something. Also, Roy tends to default to team bickering, a lot, and it gets downright comical, here, as Bucky threatens to ram his fist down Toro's throat, just because he agreed with his partner, in regards to names, rather than Cap. I get hero worship; but it seems a bit extreme. Namor and Torch have a history and Namor is a serious a-hole, in the best of circumstances; but, Roy lays it on thick.
Robbins' figure work gets a little out of check, mostly in extreme poses, where figures twist; but Colletta takes some of the edge off. Personally, i think he is messing with Robbins' faces too much, but, your mileage may vary. I still think Robbins really handles the action of the team well, capturing the dynamic nature of all of the characters and making them feel of the period. His Cap is an acrobat and a one-man army, while Namor is just a force of destruction. Torch burns stuff left and right and twists and turns through the sky, with toro aping his every mood. Bucky looks a bit younger than he should; but, not horribly so. It has always been a bit fluid about Toro and Bucky's ages. They weren't the worst sidekicks around, that is for sure.
Check out this sequence, to see how Robbins brings things to exciting life....
That's some heroic s@#$, there! Some panels go a bit astray, though, like this one....
Looks like Namor is checking to see if his pits stink, before hitting on Hilda.
Still good stuff, so far, with few complaints, from me.
