The Avengers 4

So posting will slow down a bit, moving to just on Friday's except on special occasions. I have tried to post more than once, and just can't most weeks. I apologize for not being able to, but my reviews are fairly long, and to top it off I do significant amounts of research and hunting to find the issues I feel are important. 

Anyways, The Avengers became one of the signature superhero teams, with most of the iconic and interesting heroes in the Marvel Universe eventually becoming affiliated with or members of the team. The first to join the original team of Ant-Man, the Wasp, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk was Marvel's most famous golden age creation Captain America. While originally published by Timely Comics, Marvel became the home for Captain America, and in many ways Captain America reflects the most positive aspects of the Marvel Universe, much like Superman does for DC. He is heroic, courageous, closer to a mortal than the rest of the team, and upholds positive values with few flaws, unlike Iron Man's drinking, Thor's arrogance, or Ant-Man's beating of his wife(Yes it's still a big deal in comics, and yes I will get to it eventually).

Instead of having Captain America come back in his own series, he came back as an Avenger, partnered with a popular title to help get interest in the character. The cover is pretty standard moving into an action pose with the whole team in the shot, but otherwise is pretty typical Silver Age fare. So is the plot. It is filled with weirdness and is over the top and wacky for what would now be a pretty seriously treated event. In the last issue of The Avengers 3, which is quickly recapped, the Avengers fought Namor the Sub Mariner, king of Atlantis, and overall powerhouse. Namor was forced to flee and came upon a tribe of "Eskimos" worshipping a human figure frozen in a block of ice. Angered at all of humanity he breaks the ice, and the block falls into the ocean. The Avengers are heading back to civilization, and discover the body frozen in the block of ice. 

Man frozen in Ice revived decades later. Comic book science at its finest!

Captain America wakes up in shock, and he tosses a god, a metal man, and a giant around with a single body tackle. His rage subsides quickly as he regains his bearings, and he dons his shield and mask. The other heroes are incredulous that this is the real Captain, so Thor does the best thing he can to test him by throwing his hammer at full force. If it wasn't the real captain, they would be hit full force with a hammer to the chest. Perfect test to see if he is the real deal right?

We learn that Captain America would never hit a girl when Wasp jumps in front of him, and he calms down and tells them his story. He and his young sidekick were on their way to stop a drone plane loaded with explosives from taking off. Bucky was able to get onboard as was Captain America, but they were unable to stop it from exploding, which killed off Bucky until he was brought back as the Winter Soldier in 2005, which I will try and get. He fell into the icy water of the Atlantic ocean, and thanks to the super soldier serum survived being frozen. 

As the Avengers reach land, they are photographed by a crowd of newspaper photographers, but become frozen in stone.  Captain America walks right past them after emerging out of the submarine, traveling New York and making comments about how things have changes. After Stever settles into a hotel room, he sees a figure who looks like Bucky, but learns that instead the teenager is Rick Jones, an ally of the Avengers and the Hulk. 

The look at pictures of the event, and see someone pointing a mysterious gunlike object at the Avengers in the crowd of photographers. Captain America decides to go after him, and through Rick's TEEN BRIGADE, are able to get a location of the man. Captain America goes after him, busting into his room,

Captain America takes out 7 guys with a single whirlwind attack.  

So Captain America beats them up, and learn that their master is a green skinned, yellow mop haired, alien, who was mistaken for the Gorgon of ancient Greece when his space ship crashed. If the alien turned the Avengers to stone, Namor promised to help the alien get his space ship. Captain America has the alien return the rest of the team to normal, while Namor prepares to attack the Avengers again. Thor uses the magnetism on his swiss army hammer to pull the spacecraft up, but the avengers are attacked by Namor and a squad of his troops. After much fighting, with the team holding their ground, the space ship of the alien launches, distracting the heroes from Namor and they welcome Captain America to the team, but Bruce Banner, the human side of the Hulk worries about Hulk's jealousy. 

Hulk... Not Hulk Yet. Hulk Confused

So Captain America proves he can still beat people up for justice, which I enjoyed, but the comic's fight scenes are kind of confusing, Thor's hammer can still do anything it wants, and Wasp hasn't contributed anything to the fight. The medusa alien and teen brigade really show their age in this kind of story. I like the personality and figure of Captain America but am still not sold on the Avengers as Earth's Mightiest Heroes. 

This was a tough comic for me to find. I know that Masterwork Marvel: The Avengers has the story, but had a tough time finding a copy, so I ended up purchasing it at comixology.com. This in my mind is more of a historical piece, although the quick backstory of Bucky's death and the freezing of Captain America are very useful and important bits that still resonate through the character. 

The Avengers 1

I was planning on continuing Captain America but the Silver Age Cap is intrinsically linked to the Avengers: Earths Mightiest Superheroes! Captain America became leader of the Avengers in his very first appearance in the silver age, but he didn't start on the team. So here is the introduction to the Avengers. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought together many of their creations. The first team included Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man, Wasp and Iron Man, all characters not part of a team and all of them very new.

Badass cover ... Silly comic

The Avengers 1 begins with Loki, trickster god of the Norse, and Thor's nemesis on the Dreaded Isle of Silence which is punishment for something that is not explained in the comic. So Loki is stuck there but can interact with the world of mankind through mystic power. He spots Thor as his civilian self, Doctor Donald Blake, and decides to manipulate him into turning into Thor. He scours the world in search of someone to threaten the world. Loki finds the Hulk and manipulates him by making a railroad bridge appear to have dynamite on it. Hulk dives onto the tracks planning to stop the dynamite, but instead wrecks the bridge. An oncoming train goes there. The Hulk will be blamed, and he even though he saves the train by lifting the tracks, Loki has begun his plan. Hours later the newspapers all report of Hulk's attack on the train, and that they need to go after him. Rick Jones a boy who befriended the Hulk in his first appearance (which I will get to soon.) Jones has his newly created Teen Brigade, a group of amateur ham radio operators who happen to be teens, broadcast a message of help throughout the world. Iron Man(Tony Stark), Donald Blake(Thor), Hank Pym (Ant Man), and The Wasp (Whose Full name isn't used but is Janet Van Dyne). They meet up with the Teen Brigade as the Fantastic Four is currently busy on another case.

While this is of course fascinating, the rest of the comic isn't really helpful in using them to do interesting things. Thor goes after the Hulk by himself, but the Hulk is actually an illusion. Thor figures out that Loki is the only one capable of such an illusion and goes to meet with Odin. Back on Earth the heroes are trying to figure out where the Hulk is. Hulk turns out to be at a circus in makeup billed as Mechano the most life-like robot in existence. Ignoring the tons of robotic creations that will appear in comics, anyone who thinks that a giant green man in eyeshadow and white lipstick is a robot is a bit of an idiot. Ant-man learns of this through his telepathic connection with every ant everywhere(seriously?) so they go after him and cause a a cave in to slow the hulk down. Ignoring the stupidity of the hulk being injured by a cave in caused by ants, they then attempt to trap the hulk in a steel cylinder. The audience, being in a comic book, doesn't run screaming and instead they cheer and hoot. The hulk catches the Wasp, who is then saved by Iron Man, before the Hulk gets away.

We then get a break in the action after Hulk gets away, as Thor travels to find Loki. Thor is attacked by trees and a volcano, but manages to escape them and he confronts Loki who has the Island trapped with a Troll who attempts to drag him under before Thor uses his hammer to create lightning. As a side not Thor fixes every problem with his hammer in this comic. This is called by tvtropes.org When All You have is When All You Have Is a Hammer. Thor eventually captures Loki with the magnetic power of his hammer. Iron Man is still following the Hulk, they go into a tire factory where Iron Man and the Hulk fight. I would point out that at this point in Comics, Iron Man isn't that powerful, while Hulk can pick up and throw tanks! Thor finally flies in with Loki and ... turns radioactive. Really? Ok I didn't know people could just turn themselves lethally radioactive with having all of their cells not be dead, but sure whatever.

Hulk is immune to radiation, and Thor is a God!

They are rendered helpless by radiation, but Ant-Man and the Wasp create a trap door that lets Loki fall. He falls into a conveniently places truck made to contain radioactive waste, and they drop him in. They celebrate their victory, with Ant-Man and Wasp saying they should become a super team. Hulk reluctantly joins to avoid being hunted, and Wasp names them the Avengers.

Wow I don't like this comic. Besides the random subplots that are long and tedious, making this a 22 paged comic, they also don't really fight as a team. If Thor can beat up Loki, why take him to Earth? Why the heck can Ant-Man talk to every ant on the planet to spy on people? I would have liked to see them bond as a Team. To do that, they need Captain America. Next week I will review Avengers Issue 4, which has Captain America become part of the Silver Age, and continues with the Silver Age wackiness.

This comic is not a good read, and not that important in terms of understanding the modern day team. I do not recommend this issue, as you need to have backstory on Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and the Wasp to really understand what's going on in the comic, such as why Hulk is not trusted, why Loki is on the Isle of Silence, and how they got their powers. I got my copy in Marvel Firsts: The 1960's.