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.