Earth’s Mightiest Heroes—The Avengers Appreciation 2019

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Avengers #71 Dec 1969
"Endgame!" Part 3 of 3.
Guest-starring the Invaders (first appearance).
Black Knight summons up the spirit of his ancestor Sir Percy of Scandia,
who shows him what it was he intruded on last issue.
How Kang, ruler of the 41st Century, agreed to play a game against the Grand-Master.
If he wins he gets the power of life and death to resurrect his love Ravonna.
If he loses Earth will be obliterated from history.
He will pit his champions the Avengers against those of his opponent.

Last issue Captain America, Iron Man and Thor defeated their opponents,
but Black Knight disrupted the game by stopping Goliath's foe.
Now Sir Percy shows Kang sending Black Panther, Vision and Yellowjacket back from the future to 1941 in Nazi-occupied Paris,
where Grand-Master has brought that era's Captain America, Human Torch and Sub-Mariner to fight them in the 2nd half of the game.

The Invaders as they will later be called attack the Avengers
because they think they are Nazis responsible for teleporting them to Paris.

Last issue Goliath took Black Knight's sword with him when he was whisked back to the future.
Now Dane Whitman uses his mystic connection to the magical Ebony Blade to follow it there,
where he finds Goliath held in stasis with Cap, Iron Man and Thor.
He retrieves his sword and locates Wasp, who isn't being used in the game.
They set out to free the captive Avengers.

In Paris the battle commences with Black Panther against Cap, Yellowjacket vs Namor and Vision taking on Torch.
But then our team regroup, and Panther and Yellowjacket lure all 3 of their opponents to one place

where intangible Vision floats through them all, disrupting their bodily functions and rendering them unconscious.

Grand-Master agrees that Kang has won this round, and they bring the 3 Avengers back.
But he claims that Kang didn't fully win round 1, because of Black Knight's interferemce.
Thus Kang has only won the power of life OR death, not both.

Kang is about to choose the power of life, to revive Ravonna, when Black Knight
and the freed Avengers burst in to be reunited with the 3 just returned from WWII.
They say they won't attack Kang because he has just saved Earth
from Grand-Master, but demand to be returned to their own time.

Kang hates the idea of letting his enemies the Avengers go.
He begs Grand-Master to give him both powers, so he can kill the Avengers as well as save Ravonna.
But GM forces him to choose.

Driven by hate, and convinced that his own genius will resurrect his
love eventually, Kang chooses the power of death for the Avengers.
As he is slowly draining the life from his foes, Black Knight knocks him out with his sword.
The power of death over the Avengers didn't work on the non-Avenger BK.

Grand-Master sends the heroes back to their own time, where they vote Black Knight as an Avenger.
Dane accepts, but says he won't be a regular attendee. He'll be on call back in England.

Cameo appearances by Ravonna and the original 6th century Black Knight (aka Sir Percy).
NOTES: The plot of Avengers 71 overlaps with Invaders Annual 1 published eight years later in 1977.
The last page is a pin-up featuring the Avengers. Kang returns in Incredible Hulk 135.
This is the second appearance of the original Human Torch in Silver Age/Bronze Age continuity.

Script by Roy Thomas. Pencils by Sal Buscema. Inks by Sam Grainger.

[Nomads1]

Probably one of my most favorite Avengers rosters:

Mine too, though, unfortunately, we never got to see Herc sporting that costume. I prefer it to what Epting had him use around that time.

Peace

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 Dec 1984
"Invasion!"
Second appearance of Spider-Woman aka Julia Carpenter
With She-Hulk in danger at Doombase, the heroes gathered on Battleworld rush to her aid.
Their attack attracts the attention of the Enchantress who has been drinking since she thought Thor was
slain by Doom's minions, but sees that he is actually alive and well. However she is too drunk to join the fight.
Also hearing the commotion is Volcana who is still caring for the Molecule Man
after he was seriously wounded by Wolverine in an earlier battle. She refuses to leave his side.
While down below in the dungeon the deranged Klaw frees the Lizard from his cell.
Elsewhere still, the rest of the villains are still pounding on the She-Hulk when they hear the attack and rush off to stop it.
Before leaving, Doctor Octopus lands one more blow in the hopes of killing She-Hulk.
While in his quarters, Doctor Doom continues to try and recover after being
expelled from the Worldship of Galactus as his bodyguard Ultron guards the door.

The heroes are ambushed by the villains and during the fight Iron Man's armor is damaged by the Wrecker.
The Thing tries to tackle the Absorbing Man but suddenly reverts back to human form, forcing Spider-Woman to come to his aid.
While Thor ties up Doctor Octopus, Pile Driver tries to square off against Hawkeye,
but cowers away when the bowman manages to strike him with an arrow.
The Hulk comes crashing in on the Enchantress but is knocked out by her enchanted charms.
When she tries the same thing on Captain America, he resists her long enough to knock her out with his shield.
While Spider-Man squares off against Titania, Hawkeye and Ben Grimm run into Klaw and the Lizard and are concerned that they are outmatched.
Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Thor and Spider-Woman later locate Volcana and Molecule Man and try to attack.
Molecule Man responds by erecting an indestructible screen around them and Volcana unleashes large
fire blasts that fries Iron Man's armor, but Captain Marvel manages to pass through in her light form,
and the heroes cease their hostilities when they find out that Owen has been seriously injured.
While not far away, Spider-Man manages to get the best of Titania,
delivering her a humiliating defeat and knocking her out of the fortress.

Meanwhile, Captain America and the Human Torch are squaring off against Ultron.

Ultimately the Torch defeats the robot by unleashing his nova flame, overheating his circuits and rendering the killer robot inert.

Captain America then storms into Doom's quarters and seeing the state that Doctor Doom is in, considers Doom no threat and leaves.
With the battle over, Mister Fantastic and the others find Hawkeye and Ben Grimm playing patty-cake, thanks to the limited intellect of their foes.
Soon She-Hulk is found and is placed in the medical bay along with the defeated members of the Wrecking Crew, while the rest of the villains are locked up.
While back in the alien village, Colossus rushes the unconscious Zsaji to her room.
There he finds the bottle of mind melding gas and uses it to learn what ails her.
He discovers that the constant use of her powers to heal the various heroes have taxed her system and threaten to kill her.
Colossus then professes his love to Zsaji.
Elsewhere, Hawkeye and Captain Marvel return to discover that Zsaji pushed her powers to the limit so she could revive the Wasp.
While from their look out, the members of the X-Men notice that Galactus is getting dangerously close to completing his world devouring device.

Back at Doombase, Iron Man is impressed that Mister Fantastic seems unsurprised that an African-American is wearing the Iron Man armor.
While elsewhere Spider-Man notices that Thor got a new helmet and cape.
When Hulk tells Spider-Man that there is a device that creates costumes by thought,
he goes to check it out for himself since his own uniform is in tatters.
Finding what he believes to be the machine the Hulk was talking about,
Spider-Man thinks into it and a strange black ball comes out and lands in his hand.
Spider-Man is surprised when the blackness begins to spread up his arm and envelops his body in a new black and white costume.
As Spider-Man begins to wonder why it doesn't look like his old costume suddenly the ground begins to quake.
This is followed by a telepathic distress from Professor Xavier warning the heroes that Galactus is about to consume Battleworld.

NOTE: First in continuity appearance of Spider-Man's black costume.
This costume turns out to be an alien symbiote that will later bond with Eddie Brock and become the tenacious Spidey villain known as Venom.

Story by Jim Shooter. Art by Mike Zeck, John Beatty, Jack Abel and Mike Esposito.

[Frontier]

I just read the "War of the Realms" trade for Aaron's Avengers run...reading the FCBD issue where Tony talks about the Squadron and the infamous She-Hulk issue, Aarons seems to really like being meta even though, the more you think about the context of said meta dialogue, it makes less and less sense.

I also have to wonder how much She-Hulk he's actually read because his characterization of her and his perspective on her character seems like someone who's only skimmed her Marvel history and is treating her like a brand new character with less established history in some regards.

Coulson feels more and more like Gyrich. Like, what was the point of making this Coulson when he acts like a shady, government, tool? His fanboy character trait only gets mentioned once every several issues or so, and not in any major way, so beyond that he really doesn't feel at all like the character.

You also can't convince me the new Power Princess isn't just a recolored New 52 Wonder Woman. I'm surprised they kept Doctor Spectrum white though.

[Digifiend]

Well, the previous version of Doctor Spectrum was a woman. I'm actually surprised the current one isn't also a girl.

[Frontier]

Well, the previous version of Doctor Spectrum was a woman. I'm actually surprised the current one isn't also a girl.

I guess they wanted to make the Hal Jordan expy nature more obvious.

[Shadowcat]

Any idea who’s going to be taking over after Aaron’s run?

[Snoop Dogg]

Any idea who’s going to be taking over after Aaron’s run?

Every top writer has already done an Avengers run except Cates. I'd personally pick Ewing, since he never led the line and hasn't written too many of the big names a lot. Plus that sweet continuity.

[Captain M]

Any idea who’s going to be taking over after Aaron’s run?

hopefully jim zub. so that wanda and janet can be avengers again

[Digifiend]

I always thought his Uncanny Avengers run (which featured both of those ladies) was too short. He only did seven issues before it folded into No Surrender, and I was surprised when he didn't relaunch the title afterwards (he got Champions instead).

I guess they wanted to make the Hal Jordan expy nature more obvious.

Maybe, though another girl could've been a Jessica Cruz expy.

[Frontier]

hopefully jim zub. so that wanda and janet can be avengers again

That would be nice .

[Witchfan]

A preview of Tarot #1, which comes out next week:
https://www.buzzcomics.net/showpost....85&postcount=8

[Digifiend]

Wasn't expecting the Invaders...
spoilers:

And that means Steve was the Hulk BEFORE Bruce?

end of spoilers

[Witchfan]

A review of Avengers #43
Red Guardian Makes a Memorable Debut Against the Avengers
https://www.cbr.com/avengers-red-gua...widow-hawkeye/

Red Guardian makes his movie debut in the Black Widow movie.
I think this issue is the best issue of Avengers up to this point, where John Buscema and Roy Thomas are hitting their stride.