AVENGERS. "And There Came ANOTHER Day..."

[Richard Mantle]

AVENGERS. “And There Came Another Day…”

There are some interesting threads on this forum, already covering issues of Marvel’s early series – ‘re-reading’’ of the Avengers and Journey into Mystery/Thor and so on and there was quite a good issue by issue thread on the Invaders around too, until it caught up with the present.
What is more rarely discussed are the later periods when these series were in full flow and while perhaps less iconic still number among them some classics…

I therefore present to you an issue by issue critique/discussion forum for one of these mainstay Marvel titles.
Not beginning at the very debut – as others have that covered well – but (and I hope I don’t step on anyone’s creative toes here!) – I would like to pick up the Avengers title after a watershed/bookend issue provided an opportune point at which to begin …
Issue #100 featured all Avengers to that point together in one tale and everything that goes before it is pretty well easily contained by then. The next issue launches the title into its second century of publishing and its next phase of greatness…

What has gone before…?
And so there came a Day…

The formation of the team.
The Hulk leaving. Captain America’s return. The Original members giving way to Cap’s kooky Quartet.
Goliath and Wasp returning. Hercules coming and going. The creation of Ultron. The arrival of the Vision.
Yellow jacket Hawkeye as Goliath II and then back again. The Squadron Sinister/Supreme. The Kree-Skrull War and of course…the Lady Liberators!
(I’m sure you’ll have your own highlights!)

And so there came ANOTHER Day…

[Richard Mantle]

AVENGERS  #111 (05/73)

Writer – Steve Englehart

Art – Don Heck &  Mike Esposito

Cover Art – John Romita & Joe Sinnott

“With Two Beside Them!”

In view of Englehart’s comments on the last issue not being all drawn by the advertised artists, courtesy of Jeff – I’m not convinced this cover is a Romita piece.  I’m sure he probably had a hand in it and tidied it up but it just doesn’t feel Romita-like to me.

It’s not really a great cover either, the black background doesn’t help dark costumed stars like DD and the Widow stand out very well and  they both further suffer from being in the background of the action..

Also, take a moment to consider this is an Avengers title guest-starring the X-Men and no X-Man is on the cover…they really weren’t popular were they!?

The splash page informs everyone they’d have missed a story beat if they didn’t pick up Daredevil #99 but we get a quick update on the story so far as we watch Magneto using his new-found ability to control minds by having the Scarlet Witch dance for him while the Avengers and X-men that he has at his disposal watch blankly on.

It has to be said here that the idea of Magneto toying with ‘his daughter’ in such a way grates badly to the modern reader and there is no hint of any major connection between the two of them in this adventure at all.

Yes, this is long before the father-daughter relationship was revealed….even as that tie is about to be broken again in modern continuity (yes, I may be silver-age obsessed, but I keep my ear to the ground!).

Magneto’s ability to use the flow of iron in the blood to control minds actually works in my opinion and I’m surprised it hadn’t been utilised before…or since. (?)

Of all his recent henchmen we see that the Piper, introduced last issue, has the ear of Magneto and it is he who fills the role that previously fell to the Toad.

Our catch up after the Daredevil interlude completes as we see our remaining Avengers have now been joined by the Black Widow and Daredevil as ‘guests’ to help the depleted team.

We also learn or are reminded, that Hawkeye refused to help. “He was like a burned child.”

Our heroes have no idea what Maggie’s next move may be until DD ‘reads’ a handy newspaper that announces an Atomic Energy Commission conference being held. Atomic=mutant=Magneto=plot.

It’s a clunky way of moving us into the next phase of this story but Englehart tries to disguise this by highlighting Daredevil’s ability to read–while-blind as he moves us along.

The Black Widow mopes quite ridiculously around the mansion reminiscing about her first husband the Red Guardian, her failed relationship with Hawkeye and her current love of Daredevil while we also get a cameo of Hawkeye who appears to draw a line under his life and loves and declares the world will soon see what he can actually achieve.

These scenes appear to suggest set ups for, perhaps, a solo Hawkeye (was he being considered for a title of his own at this stage, this is as close a pitch for one that we see for decades!) and indicate both the Widow and DD may be joining the Avengers as we’re learning quite a bit about them…surely there is a membership reshuffle coming at the end of this adventure?

At the conference we do indeed see the mind-controlled Avengers and X-Men attack the delegates (not really sure why Magneto couldn’t’ve defeated a group of suits alone mind you.) until our heroes arrive.

The battle royal between Avengers  vs. X-Men vs. Avengers  which would nowadays be presented as a 12 part maxi-series event lasts just long enough for puppet-Cap to divert Thor’s hammer and the hostages be taken  away in thick black smoke – which handily doesn’t affect Daredevil – but he is also shook off .

Oh, Magneto mentions Cap’s super-strength here, which he gained around  Cap #159 and he keeps for a while before …well, before the writers kind of forgot about it I think.

Magneto wins by getting puppet-Iron Man to threaten to drop puppet-Cap out the window so Thor retreats.

Nasty Maggie.

The Black Panther remembers there were dinosaurs back at the X-Mansion and everyone notices the Vision is missing.

Now, I thought this mystery was going to be a bit like the Vision-Cap-Grim Reaper ‘look-again’ mystery of #108 so I searched every panel to see when we last saw the Vision and if it gave any clues as to what was going on with him here…but it doesn’t. The Vision is not actually seen arriving at the conference location so we don’t know what happened to him.  Try it, you’ll see. Disappointing.

At last we finally learn Magneto’s plan, he wants to learn how to release all the Atomic Energy he can, to create more mutants that he can use to take over the world!

It’s a very 1960s plan isn’t it, it’s a bit silly and unscientific now isn’t it. Don’t think about it too much and let’s move on…

What makes a little more sense are the flashbacks that explain Magneto’s movements between appearances in Amazing Adventures, his Savage Land appearances in the X-Men and his intentions with the costume that he had given to the Angel before he replaced him at the mansion as the Avengers arrived.

Long story short, he’s been absorbing the Angel’s mutant energy into the costume that he then put on renewing his own depleted powers.

It’s convoluted but it just about works, what we don’t learn here is where on earth the Angel went between having his costume removed by Maggie and the Avengers arriving at the mansion….but we all know that’s  a Captain America epic down the line don’t we?

The Avengers locate Magneto’s secret cave hideout using guest Daredevil’s ability to feel…vibrations. “I know not how you perceive such things, Daredevil”…

The battle between the X-Men and half the Avengers against the Avengers and friends lasts longer this time.

I think the Black Panther against the visually white Iceman sounded better in the planning stage than it did on the printed page and the ‘Eyes got a secret,” of Daredevil versus Cyclops was cringe worthy!

All appears lost as Magneto gloats to his henchman the Piper who out of the blue knocks the evil mutant out.

We learn  - and Daredevil knew by his manner, of course – that the Piper was actually being controlled by the semi-intangible Vision in an inspired use of his powers - a genuinely surprising reveal of where the Vision had been and a refreshing end to a fight.

This ability of the Vision, much like Magneto’s new abilities is a reasonable development but similarly one I don’t remember ever being used again.

So, the evil plan thwarted, the heroes take their leave of each other.

The X-Men, rightly, worry what has happened to the Angel and we learn that there will be an answer…eventually…..

I always felt a bit cheated with that, I wanted to know, the follow up was later in Captain America but this issue didn’t even tell the reader where to look!

Finally and it falls to Cap to invite their friends to join the Avengers which of course they accept...

 Wait. No.

“Thanks Cap—we appreciate it…but we’ll have to decline.” says Daredevil and explains (to the reader) his senses would be overwhelmed in a team environment - which didn’t wash then at all, he’d just proved he can work with a team!

I wasn’t a great Daredevil fan and I didn’t see that he would have brought much that was unique to the team but I was genuinely surprised here, it seemed so obvious that DD would sign up – credit to Englehart’s writing for wrong footing the reader again.

The Widow, of course, doesn’t take lightly to DD answering for her and actually does accept - to give herself time to think her relationship with DD through. I thought she’d done that and decided he was her current love.ah fickle women!

So it falls to new Avenger Black Widow to close out the issue with that memorable panel “Come on, teammates…we must have things to do.”

It had been back circa #45 that the Widow was ‘supposed’ to join the team that it was quite a surprise she was joining now although she was such a different character here . Another female in the team would be welcomed and presumably Englehart had some ongoing plan for her that would spin out gradually over quite a while…..?

Heck’s artwork – and yes, I’m convinced this is Heck all the way through – is as his work usually is, good but never outstanding in my mind. He does depict the mind-controlled heroes as blankly staring in a clever way that is a credit to him and the story but his Black Widow I find a disappointment, no one beats Romita’s version do they?

So, Hawkeye has underlined his being gone from the team, the Black Widow has joined – does that mean our membership is stable now? Hang on…wasn’t the Black Panther bleating about whether he should leave or not….?

 

Come back.

[Philip Portelli]

The cover looks more like Sal Buscema to me.

Daredevil has helped the Avengers several times and Thor, Cap, Iron Man and the Panther have all worked with him but they never seemed interested in DD too much. The fact that he was based in San Francisco during this period and that he kept his heightened senses and blindness a secret from his fellow heroes were better explanations as to why Ol' Hornhead turned them down. They were probably just being polite anyway because with Cap and the Panther there, the Man Without Fear adds little to the team.

Actually that's true about the Black Widow in this period as well.

Also this Magneto was not the handsome version of Cockrum/Byrne but Kirby's brutish thug with no class or tortured past.

Hawkeye made some guest appearances in Incredible Hulk, Marvel Team-Up, The Defenders and Captain America while he was out of the Avengers but Marvel never gave him a solo shot during the 70s. It seemed that writers like using him but they didn't like to use him a lot!

[Fred W. Hill]

I missed this issue as a kid and even though I eventually did get it, it's not particularly memorable. It might've seemed more interesting in 1973 with so many hints of things to come -- mainly, the Black Widow now an Avenger, Hawkeye's further solo adventures and the mystery of the missing Angel. But I knew how all that played out by the time I actually read it and the art wasn't anything to get excited about. I wonder if Englehart had particular plans while plotting this issue but changed his mind about them while plotting the next one. As in did he initially plan to have Natasha stay for far longer than two months (or did the idea that culminated in Avengers #114 come into his head before or after he had Natasha accept membership in the Avengers)? Had he already formulated a master plan to involve disappearing mutants in a future Captain America/Secret Empire story or did he originally have another plan in mind which he had to abandon? As to DD, just as with Spider-Man, he just doesn't fit in my head as someone who would really fit with a regular team on a long-term basis. Yeah, I know Spidey has been an Avenger for several years, but I haven't read any of those comics and I'm not particularly interested in catching up on the current Marvel Universe.

[John Dunbar]

For the longest time, these two issues were among the most sought after I wanted to add to my Avengers collection.  I had seen them in shops and on ebay at high prices, significantly higher than other Avengers of that era, prices I just wasn't willing to pay.  Eventually, I got to read this two-parter when Essential Avengers Volume 5 came out in 2006.  I have to say I was disappointed that the popularity of the new X-Men made these comics so expensive.  In my mind, I had hoped for a great battle with both teams against Magneto and his forces.  Instead, the X-men are barely guest stars here; they are bystanders for the most part.

Adding both DD and the Widow was odd - as you guys said, the role of costumed acrobat was full.  I was more disappointed that Captain Marvel wasn't invited to join at the end of #108.  He had already interacted with the team a few times and there was the connection with Rick Jones of course.  I think it would have helped his own book too.

One thing I found amusing was the Atomic Energy Commission sequence.  One character is called Commissioner Alfred, and another one is called Dick.  That's three characters from the Batman mythos being name checked, plus one looks like Jim Gordon and another sort of resembles Bruce Wayne.  Also a few issues earlier (#106 I think) there's some graffitti on a wall that included "Batman uses a nightlight".  Funny.

I think Englehart was playing up Hawkeye mainly because he planned to use him in the Avengers / Defenders War, with the twist of the longtime Avenger siding with the Defenders.

I agree with anyone who said Daredevil 99 was terrible.  I found it a chore to get through, and Hawkeye is one of my favorites!

[Fred W. Hill]

I think my reaction when I saw that cover was, ok, Magneto has somehow taken out Cap, Iron Man, Thor and Vizh, 3 of whom are pretty powerful characters, and now a couple of glorified acrobats are going to take out Magneto???  I can imagine that as a basis for a very good, even a great cover, but this one just doesn't work.  The artwork, btw, looks to me very much in Romita's style, even if someone else did a very rough layout which he embellished and Sinnott finished. With many of the issues in this era of the Avengers, I wonder how much a really great artist who had a love of the characters might have added, as say Brunner added to Dr.Strange, or Adams did on both his runs on the X-Men and the Avengers.  That's one thing I felt that George Perez added to the mag when he came onboard -- even in his earliest efforts, he delivered a freshness and sense of joy and excitement that had been missing for some time, IMO. 

[Figserello]

Richard Mantle said:

AVENGERS  #101 (07/72)

Plot – Harlan Ellison  Script- Roy Thomas

Art – Rich Buckler & Dan Adkins

Cover Art – Rich Buckler & Frank Giacoia

“Five Dooms To Save Tomorrow!” 

I've recently read all the Thomas issues referred to in this thread and the first Englehart arc.

 

I don't have much to add to all the discussion here.

 

Regarding #101, the story adapted from Harlan Ellison, I loved that an issue told a story that didn't depend on continuity for it to work.  It's a good exercise for all concerned, including the fans.  The stakes involved were something more than just 'what happens to this long-standing character?'  I also loved that real-life-ish situations get a look-in in the story.  One of the world's chess champions appearing, and some reference to the cold war status of East-West relations.  I like comics to be about something, especially about the world the reader actually lives in, now and again.

 

It was certainly ambitious for a single-issue story.  As for the Watcher 'not interfering', he's obviously the living embodiment of the English professor's constant admonition not to take what a character says at face value.  It reminded me of a very late story in the Justice League's original run where a single not-very-special, harmless dude becomes the crux of an Earth-shattering dilemma, just by his very existence.  That story too worked to release the characters from the constraints of continuity for a bit, and to let a story be about us ordinary folk.

 

The guy in Ellison's story very much reminded me of Byrne's dull everyman early in his FF run, who had the power to change reality.

 

There is a scene where the Scarlet Witch announces her love for the Vision to Hawkeye.

Hawkeye appears shocked – I never accepted his sudden interest in Wanda, it was clearly to add a tinge of jealousy to the Vision’s story but it seemed clumsy and unnecessary to me. 

 

I thought you underplayed this scene.  I was totally shocked at Hawkeye forcing himself on Wanda like this!  If Thomas wanted to dramatise what male entitlement looked like, he couldn’t have done better than this scene. I’d even go far as to say this scene illustrates rape culture in action, in how Hawkeye easily reduces a friend and colleague into an object judged on what she can do for him sexually, and in how confident he is that society will have no objections to his actions.  He’s been encouraged along the way to think that this sort of thing is acceptable.

 

Thank God we’ve taken some steps away from this sort of society, although I’m sure there are still plenty of Hawkeyes out there who’d take advantage of a moment alone with a colleague like this, and pretend to misread the signals and depend on his colleague’s shame and embarrassment to make sure the incident wasn’t reported, or used to get them fired.

 

It was just a horrible, cringe-inducing scene.  Sexual harassment in the workplace, which  we were supposed to interpret as Hawkeye just being a bit of a harmless Jack-the-Lad!  Horrible, horrible stuff!

 

Of course, it was made worse for me because of how Wanda has been portrayed so far.  In line with that Marvel person’s outline of Wanda as a fighter who casts a spell and then faints, she hasn’t really been shown to have a strong, assertive personality, and rather in fact, seems to have a sweet and trusting one.  People coming out from lives spent under abusive parental figures like Magneto can become spiky and contentious like Quicksilver, or alternatively more dependent and introverted like Wanda.  As such Wanda has trouble asserting herself, or moving out from under the shadow of her more famous, powerful and dominant teammates. 

 

A character in a teambook doesn’t get much chance to become a fully rounded personality.  What with most of each issue being taken up with all the chin-punching and threats to the world as we know it.  A lot of it is just interpretation and projection on our part.  But still she seems sweet and lacking in self-confidence, which makes it all the more scumbag-gy of Hawkeye to try to force himself on her out of nowhere when he sees his chance.

 

I’ve loved Wanda since the earliest Avengers comics I read (surprise surprise!), but I’ve also liked Hawkeye too.  He’s always been a little rough and ready, but I can’t really recall him ever being shown to be such a lowlife as he is here.

At last I see why he is deserving of having the Hawkeye Initiative being set up in his honour.  Wonder how he feels about being reduced to an undignified sexual object, there just to satisfy the desires of others?  Heh, heh!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Yes, Richard, Magneto forcing Wanda to dance is disturbing, whether he knew at the time she was his daughter or not. Magneto did use his mind control on one other occasion that springs readily to mind. In the first Vision & Scarlet Witch (four-issue) limited series, he used it to glean information from Bova, the cow-woman. Regarding the Vision’s newly revealed power, I can’t recall him using that particular ability again.

Man! The discussion of [what I call] the “interim X-Men” and the Secret Empire saga makes me regret more than ever the premature cancellation of John Byrne’s X-Men: The Hidden Years. And now…

STEVE ENGLEHART ON #111:

“Meanwhile, Steve told me what he wanted DD & BW to do in Avengers and left me to do that however I wanted, so I built that into my story, while not neglecting the possibilities for good old-fashioned soap opera—because just as I wanted Hawkeye out of the book for a while, he wanted the Widow out of his. It’s interesting to see the Avengers stories start to follow individual members in their parallel lives; that’s a trait that I’ve developed quite a bit over the years. No matter how much I wanted to do Roy’s stories, I was rounding, step by step, into doing my own. I guess that’s how apprentices stop being apprentices.

“And so, in the very next issue, I created a new character called Mantis… But I suspect that’ll be the subject of a future Marvel Masterworks.”

[Luke Blanchard]

Magneto also used his mind-control ability to free the Beast from Doom's control in Super-Villain Team-Up #14/The Champions #16.

[Richard Mantle]

   Having finally collected the trades of that collection and loving the FF issues the later ones crossed with I was......somewhat dissapointed with Byrne's 'Hidden Years'. It was all a bit 'twee'. 

As for Mantis......what can I say except........

.....Come back...
 
Jeff of Earth-J said:

Man! The discussion of [what I call] the “interim X-Men” and the Secret Empire saga makes me regret more than ever the premature cancellation of John Byrne’s X-Men: The Hidden Years. And now…

STEVE ENGLEHART ON #111:

“And so, in the very next issue, I created a new character called Mantis… But I suspect that’ll be the subject of a future Marvel Masterworks.”

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Having recently re-read XM:HY in its entirety, I do see what you mean. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to reading the Secret Empire saga from the mutants’ point of view (so to speak). Also, I was curious to see how Byrne would have handled the reason behind the X-Men’s change back to their original uniforms.

Steve Englehart wrote the preface and Roy Thomas the introduction to Marvel Masterworks X-Men Vol.8, the second one collecting the “interim” X-Men. Here’s what they had to say in that volume about #110-111.

More STEVE ENGLEHART on #110-111:

“Once upon a time, the X-Men had lost their title, but I wanted to resurrect them. The first book I ever did was Amazing Adventures, featuring the Beast on his own, and I made sure to get the other X-ers in there. Then, when the Beast was cancelled, I worked the team into my other books over the next few years. What I didn’t realize, until Masterworks editor Cory Sedlmeyer pointed it out, was that I was essentially their ‘sole standard-bearer.’ That really does come as news to me. I liked them and wanted to keep them in the public eye, but since I was ‘featuring’ them, I never thought of them the way I thought of the Avengers, the Hulk or Captain America. Those guys had titles, and I wrote those titles. The X-Men beyond the Beast were community property. I assumed the community was using them, too, but I guess not like I was…

“I just liked them, so I used them, to help tell stories about the main characters in my books. I could do this because the Marvel Universe was a coherent entity, so the X-Men continued to exist in it even if they had no comic to call their own…

“Let’s begin at the beginning. I found myself in need of an Avengers-sized villain for Avengers #110-111, and since there was no X-Men, Magneto fit the bill. Beyonf that, he had a relationship with the Scarlet Wich that stretched back to X-Men #3 (and beyond that, as it turned out), so that was all good—though I will say,I was a little uneasy about using him, because he was the prime X-Men villain. There was no X-Men comic, but still, it felt somewhat like prying the crown jewel out of a tiara because nobody was wearing it at the time. Anyway, I did, and I made sure to get the X-Men in there, and on one of the covers, to do my bit for them. So when Avengers #111 was done, we had us a little X-Men mystery brewing.”

ROY THOMAS on #110-111:

“It’s a good thing for you that Steve’s aboard, because I can’t say I recall a whole lot about Avengers #110-111, which opens this tome. Since I’d quit scripting that title after #104, at this point I was generally happy to let the writers guide their various features, while I played traffic manager and tried to keep Marvel’s series from getting in each other’s way. While I’d have been capable of suggesting to Stave that he toss the X-men into issues of Avengers, chances are he came up with that notion himself. Certainly the storyline is all his, working in concert with penciler Don Heck who’d drawn both Avengers and X-Men during his career. I contented myself mostly with coming up with cover ideas, working with an artist and photocopies of an issue’s pencils. Gil Kane and I brainstormed a particularly nice one, I think, for #110. Notice the X-Men aren’t even mentioned on the cover of #111. Can you imagine, nowadays, having the X-Men in a comic and not emblazoning that fact on the cover?”

[Fred W. Hill]

Very interesting.  And it appears that at this point no had yet considered the idea of Magneto being the father of Wanda & Pietro, unless Neal Adams was thinking along those lines when a few years earlier he drew Magneto without his helmet, revealing features that looked much like an elder Pietro several.  BTW, Englehart seems to have forgotten that the very last consecutive issue of Lee & Kirby's run on the FF featured Magneto as the villain -- and without any of the X-Men showing up at all.  Magneto would also be one of only two classic villains (Red Skull being the other) Kirby would use during his return engagement on Captain America -- in the 1977 Annual. 

[Richard Mantle]

AVENGERS  #112 (06/73)

Writer – Steve Englehart

Art – Don Heck &  Frank Bolle

Cover Art – Don Heck

“The Lion God Lives!”

In view of earlier mentions in this thread of ‘all-one-colour’ this cover nearly qualifies, as the red of the framing device and the foreground almost fills the page save for our heroes menaced in the middle.

I also wonder about how this cover was put together – by Don Heck. I can’t help but wonder if the Avengers are as they were originally planned to be, the Black Widow really doesn’t look like herself and for the newest Avengers is given a strangely hidden positioning and…Wanda looks added in by a five-year old!

Most notable I guess is the ‘Also in this ish: The End of An Avenger!” box – again strangely muted due to its black background.

The reader obviously believes this to be a reference to the Black Panther – not only because the Lion-God is painfully obviously one of his enemies but also because he’s been (as he always is!) contemplating leaving the team of late…it couldn’t possibly refer to anyone else on the team…could it?

Inside then and we get a background scene and a human sacrifice to the African Lion-God before we catch up with our Avengers in their mansion.

Everyone is trying to make the Black Widow feel at home – Iron Man even asks her for a ‘moonlight stroll’  but Natasha just mopes about calling herself ‘ homeless’ before being shown her new lodgings in the mansion.

The Widow is humbled by the opulent décor and….No No No!.

Some of Natasha’s greatest (ever!)  stories were in her shared title Amazing Adventures and it was established there that she lived in luxury – the high life – luxury she is used to! This worried me like little else as clearly the writer didn’t understand ‘my’ Widow. I’m sure it was an almost throwaway scene to bring new readers up to date with the Widow’s new boyfriendless status but whatever the motivation this scene is wrong wrong wrong!

What follows is more on track, albeit a well worn track…the Black Panther suffers doubts and demonstrations designed to make him return to Africa.

The demonstration quickly (ridiculously so?) gatecrashes the mansion and there is uproar before, inexplicably, the Panther falls to his knees in homage to the demo leader.

This isn’t quite enough for  the plot though as the leader chappie transforms himself into an oversized armoured man styled  like a Lion and transports the demonstrators and the Panther away!

A few things here…the human guise of the Lion God had the Panther completely under his thrall but instead of just fading out with him he does the look at me I’m a powerful villain bit before he does go.  Why have the Panther kneel etc, if the villain can influence T’Challa so easily why resort to the violence that he does…?

Also…that’s one heck (see what I did there?) of a ‘based on a lion design’ isn’t it? Why would a Lion God have tusks or horns or whatever they are?

George Perez has earned his reputation for far too ornate and fussy character designs but Heck threatened his mantle here – that is a very complicated suit the bad guys wearing…can’t imagine why he doesn’t get used more…

There is a three panel sub-plot I’ll come back to…

In time worn tradition, the bad guy explains both his backstory and his plans to the captive hero. It seems the Lion God id the traditional enemy of the Panther God. – wasn’t that the point of the Man-Ape or whoever we’ve met before? The bad guy’s plan is not that complexes…replace the Panther and rule in his stead and if the panther doesn’t spill his secrets he’ll kill his friends with his…um…big stick

The remaining Avengers (curiously minus Captain America who Iron Man says he sent to check records, odd as that’s not a ‘busy-in-his-own-title’ continuity reference it appears just to be a reason to not have Cap join this fight.)

 - discuss their next moves and (of course) it falls to the Black Widow to nudge the team in the right direction.

“Well…I realise I’m only the junior member of this team…”

Surely we are about to see a ‘she’s the right gal for the job’ moment from the new Avenger.

The Lion God brings the fight – and the Panther – to the mansion at that point and both Thor and the Vision fight but fall valiantly.

Up steps the Black Widow, showcasing her talents against conjured up mystical lions…as Iron man says, “Beautifully done, beautiful!”

The Scarlet Witch distracts the Lion God and the Panther escapes in time to save her in turn, from a menacing lion she hadn’t noticed and the team are left facing the big bad.

Surprisingly it falls to Thor to summon the lightning and channel it into the Lion God, effectively overpowering him into oblivion and the team has won!

Mutual back-slapping ensues and Iron Man praises the new member but instead of ending on an affirmation of a new era for the team with the Widow amongst them.

She quits.

She has decided to return to Daredevil and we the readers are left with a ‘what was that all about’ question on our lips.

The Black Panther closes out the issue with, not an announcement to leave as we were expecting but a declaration of why he feels he should stay and continue his good international work in the Avengers.

…as the Lion God watches on….he’ll be back! 

So the ‘End of An Avenger’ referred to the Black Widow.

 That is a shame. She might have brought a lot to the team, but did Englehart decide he wanted more…much more…from a new female character within the Avengers mix that he couldn’t wring out of Natasha?

That brings us back to that 3 panel sub-plot…

A beautiful woman talks to a shadowed unseen man, they discuss the fact that Hawkeye has left the Avengers – and that the man knew something of him..”His ego is a fragile thing, I know.” And the woman, who refers herself as Mantis announces “…for fate has given us the means ----through which we shall join the Avengers ranks!”

At this point I don’t believe anyone guessed who the male was and we’d never met the female before – both of which would have much more of an effect on the Avengers than the Black Widow ever could.

More on those two very soon…

What should be noted here is the artistic depiction of Mantis – a very ornate dress/costume, the same colours as she’s eventually seen sporting but in a very different style …and none of those silly antenna things either….anyone know why she looks so different when she debuts properly? This is her establishing shot - why vary so far from it?

Where will Englehart take us next?

 

Come back…