The Avengers Project - Vol. 1 No. 4
Aug. 22nd, 2006 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jkcarrier
AVENGERS Vol. 1 No. 4
March, 1964
"Captain America Joins...The Avengers!"
Gloriously written by Stan Lee
Grandly illustrated by Jack Kirby
Gallantly lettered by Art Simek
The splash page shows legendary WWII hero Captain America being welcomed into the ranks of the Avengers. A caption reminds us that both Jack Kirby and Stan Lee worked on Cap's adventures back in the Golden Age of comics (Joe Simon's name is conspicuously absent). It's interesting to note that the term "Golden Age" had already caught on as a label for the comics of the 1940s by this time. Anyone know who first coined it?
The story proper picks up directly from last issue, with Namor the Sub-Mariner narrowly escaping our heroes. Angry and frustrated, Namor searches the oceans for some sign of his lost race, the Atlanteans. Hours later, he reaches the North Sea, where he spots a tribe of eskimos gathered on an ice floe. They are worshipping a strange figure, frozen in a block of ice. Spoiling for a fight, Namor hurls the frozen idol in the sea, and begins smashing apart the ice floe, as the eskimos flee in terror.
Unnoticed, the frozen figure is carried away by the currents until it reaches the warm water of the Gulf Stream and begins to thaw out. By chance, the Avengers' submarine is passing nearby. They spot the body floating in the sea and bring it aboard. With the ice completely melted, we see that the figure is a blond-haired man in tattered clothes. But beneath those clothes is a distinctive red-white-and-blue uniform, which the Wasp recognizes as the costume of the legendary Captain America. Moreover, a closer examination reveals that he is still breathing!
Suddenly, the Captain sits upright, yelling about someone named "Bucky". Seeing the Avengers, he leaps to attack them. The heroes manage to restrain him, and soon Captain America calms down. The Avengers express doubt that he could really be the famous hero of World War II, and the Captain suggests that they put him to the test. He easily dodges Thor's hammer, and even manages to throw Giant-Man for a loop, but is stymied when the Wasp appears before him; he doesn't want to hit a girl. Still, he's proven he is who he claims to be, and the Avengers wonder how he came to be here, and why he hasn't aged.
Somberly, Cap tells the tale of his final mission of the war. He and teen sidekick Bucky were guarding a new type of drone plane when it was stolen by a Nazi spy. Chasing the plane on a motorcycle, they drove up a ramp and tried to jump onto the plane. Bucky made the jump, but Cap fell short. Cap warned Bucky not to try and turn the plane around himself, because the controls might be booby-trapped. But it was too late; an explosion threw Cap into the ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, and ended the life of the brave boy named Bucky. A fluke of chance caused Cap to be frozen in ice, which kept him in suspended animation for all those years.
Soon, the submarine arrives in New York, and the Avengers are greeted by a mob of reporters, anxious to hear the results of their battle with the Hulk. Iron Man comments that they'll be disappointed to hear that the battle was inconclusive. Thor points out that there's an even bigger story -- Captain America -- waiting below decks. But before the heroes can announce the identity of their passenger, there is a blinding flash of light. When it fades, the Avengers have vanished, replaced by stone statues. The reporters assume that this is some trick the heroes pulled in order to avoid the press, and leave the scene (not exactly a bunch of Woodwards and Bernsteins -- or even Lois Lanes -- are they?).
At this point, Captain America (who had been resting below) finally climbs out of the submarine. He too wonders where the Avengers have gone, and why those statues are sculpted in such odd poses, but he shrugs it off (Hey, he's got an excuse for being oblivious -- he's been asleep for 20 years!). Cap goes for a walk to see what the world is like these days, observing the changes in fashions and automobiles. A policeman recognizes the Captain and gets a bit choked up; it's as if Cap had returned just when America needed him the most.
But as he settles down in a hotel room, Cap isn't so sure. He broods over Bucky's death, and wonders if there's any place for him in this strange modern world. Just then, a figure appears at the door. Cap thinks it's Bucky at first, but it turns out to be Rick Jones, the teen who has palled around with both the Hulk and the Avengers. Rick knows that Captain America was the last person to see the Avengers before they vanished, and demands to know what happened to them.
Seeing Rick, and hearing about the Avengers' plight, seems to re-energize Cap; perhaps he has a part to play in this era after all. He tells Rick to get copies of all the photos that were taken of the Avengers at the docks. Examining enlargements of the pictures, Cap spots a strange man hidden among the reporters, carrying what appears to be some kind of hi-tech gun. He has Rick rally all his teenage friends to canvas the city, looking for that man.
Captain America finally spots the culprit in a hotel room. He charges in, only to be attacked by a mob of gun-wielding thugs. He uses his shield to slice apart their weapons, then subdues the gang with his acrobatic combat moves. Soon only the leader with the ray-gun is left. Cap realizes that such a strange weapon couldn't have come from Earth. He pulls the mask from the man's face, revealing a green-skinned, spiky-haired alien.
Beaten, the alien tells his story. His spaceship landed on Earth centuries ago, crashing into the sea. He tried to make contact with the humans, in order to get their help retrieving his ship. But his appearance frightened them, and he was forced to use his ray-gun in self-defence, turning people to stone. Cap realizes that he must have been the inspiration for the legend of the snake-haired medusa.
Recently, the Sub-Mariner found the alien, and agreed to free his ship from the ocean floor if he would use his petrifying weapon on the Avengers. Cap tells him that he will take care of the ship, if the alien will change the Avengers back to normal. The green-skinned creature agrees, and soon the Avengers are hale and hearty once more.
Observing the scene on his undersea scanner, the Sub-Mariner knows that his plan has failed. But in a stroke of luck, he encounters a troop of Atlantean soldiers who are still loyal to him. Perhaps he can still defeat the Avengers after all...
The next day, the Avengers, the alien, and Rick Jones all travel to a remote island, near the crash site of the alien's ship. The spacecraft is buried in the ocean floor, with only the tail section visible; even Giant-Man's mighty muscles can't budge it. But Thor's hammer does the trick, generating powerful magnetic waves that pull the ship free of the muck. The alien quickly goes inside to effect repairs, while the Avengers wait topside.
At that moment, the Sub-Mariner and his troops attack, causing an explosion that scatters the heroes. Iron Man goes to confront Namor, using his magnetic repulsers at full power to knock his foe for a loop. But this depletes his energy supply, and while he's waiting for his weapons to recharge, Namor closes in and threatens to crush him. The Wasp flies circles around Namor's head, distracting him momentarily.
Then Namor hears his troops calling for help; Thor is making mincemeat of them with his spinning hammer. Even their energy-blasts are being reflected back at them. But Namor is not so easily thwarted, and he closes in to battle Thor hand-to-hand.
Meanwhile, Giant-Man is trapped underwater, having been snared in a net by the Atlantean troops. He quickly changes to ant-size, which enables him to slip through the loops of the net, and then resurfaces again in giant form. He sees Iron Man surrounded by more of the undersea soldiers, and leaps into battle, scattering them in all directions. Iron Man says he can finish off the rest, and Giant-Man goes over to help Thor subdue Namor.
Captain America has been holding back all this time, in order to watch the Avengers in action. He's definitely impressed, and likewise amazed at the power of the Sub-Mariner. He wonders what it would have been like if such men had existed in his era. (Apparently, Cap's memory is still a bit fuzzy, since the Sub-Mariner WAS around in the '40s. And of course, later stories would establish that he and Namor were teammates in the wartime group The Invaders.)
With the Avengers closing in on him, Namor pulls out his ace in the hole: His troops have taken Rick Jones hostage. This is the last straw for Cap; he springs into action, smashing into the trooper holding Rick prisoner. The Sub-Mariner grabs hold of Cap, ready to demolish this new intruder (though Cap is confident he can counter his foe's enormous strength).
But before the battle can continue, the island is rocked by a huge shockwave, which causes the land to start breaking apart. Namor orders his troops to retreat, confident that this sudden earthquake will finish off the Avengers for him. But his prediction is premature; the shockwave was caused by the alien's spaceship emerging from the sea. Once the ship flies off, the quake subsides, and the Avengers are safe.
With the immediate threat over, the Avengers turn to more pleasant business. They offer Captain America membership in the Avengers, and the living legend gratefully accepts. Everyone is all smiles, except for Rick Jones. He wonders what the Hulk will think when he finds out that Captain America has replaced him, both in the Avengers and as Rick's mentor. (And we'll soon find out, albeit in the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR, rather than AVENGERS...)
In some ways this issue is a rehash of #3, being another inconclusive skirmish with the Sub-Mariner. But the presence of the stranded alien adds an interesting twist, and of course the main attraction here is the much-ballyhooed return of Captain America. Resurrecting "Golden Age" heroes was something DC Comics had been having great success with, and Marvel's own Sub-Mariner was turning out to be a popular anti-hero/villain, so bringing back their flagship character from the 1940s must've been a no-brainer. But Stan and Jack realized that such a simplistically patriotic figure might not fly in a more complex era, and actually incorporated that ambiguity into the character. Cap's feelings of alienation, and his guilt over the death of Bucky, added a layer of nuance to his personality and set the tone for his portrayal for decades to come.
With Captain America in place, the preliminaries are finally over, and the Avengers really start to feel like a genuine team (The aforementioned crossover with the Fantastic Four, in FF #25 & 26, also goes a long way towards establishing the team's credentials). Of course, once they've settled into something of a comfortable groove, Stan & Jack start looking for ways to shake things up again. But that's still a few issues down the line...
March, 1964
"Captain America Joins...The Avengers!"
Gloriously written by Stan Lee
Grandly illustrated by Jack Kirby
Gallantly lettered by Art Simek
The splash page shows legendary WWII hero Captain America being welcomed into the ranks of the Avengers. A caption reminds us that both Jack Kirby and Stan Lee worked on Cap's adventures back in the Golden Age of comics (Joe Simon's name is conspicuously absent). It's interesting to note that the term "Golden Age" had already caught on as a label for the comics of the 1940s by this time. Anyone know who first coined it?
The story proper picks up directly from last issue, with Namor the Sub-Mariner narrowly escaping our heroes. Angry and frustrated, Namor searches the oceans for some sign of his lost race, the Atlanteans. Hours later, he reaches the North Sea, where he spots a tribe of eskimos gathered on an ice floe. They are worshipping a strange figure, frozen in a block of ice. Spoiling for a fight, Namor hurls the frozen idol in the sea, and begins smashing apart the ice floe, as the eskimos flee in terror.
Unnoticed, the frozen figure is carried away by the currents until it reaches the warm water of the Gulf Stream and begins to thaw out. By chance, the Avengers' submarine is passing nearby. They spot the body floating in the sea and bring it aboard. With the ice completely melted, we see that the figure is a blond-haired man in tattered clothes. But beneath those clothes is a distinctive red-white-and-blue uniform, which the Wasp recognizes as the costume of the legendary Captain America. Moreover, a closer examination reveals that he is still breathing!
Suddenly, the Captain sits upright, yelling about someone named "Bucky". Seeing the Avengers, he leaps to attack them. The heroes manage to restrain him, and soon Captain America calms down. The Avengers express doubt that he could really be the famous hero of World War II, and the Captain suggests that they put him to the test. He easily dodges Thor's hammer, and even manages to throw Giant-Man for a loop, but is stymied when the Wasp appears before him; he doesn't want to hit a girl. Still, he's proven he is who he claims to be, and the Avengers wonder how he came to be here, and why he hasn't aged.
Somberly, Cap tells the tale of his final mission of the war. He and teen sidekick Bucky were guarding a new type of drone plane when it was stolen by a Nazi spy. Chasing the plane on a motorcycle, they drove up a ramp and tried to jump onto the plane. Bucky made the jump, but Cap fell short. Cap warned Bucky not to try and turn the plane around himself, because the controls might be booby-trapped. But it was too late; an explosion threw Cap into the ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, and ended the life of the brave boy named Bucky. A fluke of chance caused Cap to be frozen in ice, which kept him in suspended animation for all those years.
Soon, the submarine arrives in New York, and the Avengers are greeted by a mob of reporters, anxious to hear the results of their battle with the Hulk. Iron Man comments that they'll be disappointed to hear that the battle was inconclusive. Thor points out that there's an even bigger story -- Captain America -- waiting below decks. But before the heroes can announce the identity of their passenger, there is a blinding flash of light. When it fades, the Avengers have vanished, replaced by stone statues. The reporters assume that this is some trick the heroes pulled in order to avoid the press, and leave the scene (not exactly a bunch of Woodwards and Bernsteins -- or even Lois Lanes -- are they?).
At this point, Captain America (who had been resting below) finally climbs out of the submarine. He too wonders where the Avengers have gone, and why those statues are sculpted in such odd poses, but he shrugs it off (Hey, he's got an excuse for being oblivious -- he's been asleep for 20 years!). Cap goes for a walk to see what the world is like these days, observing the changes in fashions and automobiles. A policeman recognizes the Captain and gets a bit choked up; it's as if Cap had returned just when America needed him the most.
But as he settles down in a hotel room, Cap isn't so sure. He broods over Bucky's death, and wonders if there's any place for him in this strange modern world. Just then, a figure appears at the door. Cap thinks it's Bucky at first, but it turns out to be Rick Jones, the teen who has palled around with both the Hulk and the Avengers. Rick knows that Captain America was the last person to see the Avengers before they vanished, and demands to know what happened to them.
Seeing Rick, and hearing about the Avengers' plight, seems to re-energize Cap; perhaps he has a part to play in this era after all. He tells Rick to get copies of all the photos that were taken of the Avengers at the docks. Examining enlargements of the pictures, Cap spots a strange man hidden among the reporters, carrying what appears to be some kind of hi-tech gun. He has Rick rally all his teenage friends to canvas the city, looking for that man.
Captain America finally spots the culprit in a hotel room. He charges in, only to be attacked by a mob of gun-wielding thugs. He uses his shield to slice apart their weapons, then subdues the gang with his acrobatic combat moves. Soon only the leader with the ray-gun is left. Cap realizes that such a strange weapon couldn't have come from Earth. He pulls the mask from the man's face, revealing a green-skinned, spiky-haired alien.
Beaten, the alien tells his story. His spaceship landed on Earth centuries ago, crashing into the sea. He tried to make contact with the humans, in order to get their help retrieving his ship. But his appearance frightened them, and he was forced to use his ray-gun in self-defence, turning people to stone. Cap realizes that he must have been the inspiration for the legend of the snake-haired medusa.
Recently, the Sub-Mariner found the alien, and agreed to free his ship from the ocean floor if he would use his petrifying weapon on the Avengers. Cap tells him that he will take care of the ship, if the alien will change the Avengers back to normal. The green-skinned creature agrees, and soon the Avengers are hale and hearty once more.
Observing the scene on his undersea scanner, the Sub-Mariner knows that his plan has failed. But in a stroke of luck, he encounters a troop of Atlantean soldiers who are still loyal to him. Perhaps he can still defeat the Avengers after all...
The next day, the Avengers, the alien, and Rick Jones all travel to a remote island, near the crash site of the alien's ship. The spacecraft is buried in the ocean floor, with only the tail section visible; even Giant-Man's mighty muscles can't budge it. But Thor's hammer does the trick, generating powerful magnetic waves that pull the ship free of the muck. The alien quickly goes inside to effect repairs, while the Avengers wait topside.
At that moment, the Sub-Mariner and his troops attack, causing an explosion that scatters the heroes. Iron Man goes to confront Namor, using his magnetic repulsers at full power to knock his foe for a loop. But this depletes his energy supply, and while he's waiting for his weapons to recharge, Namor closes in and threatens to crush him. The Wasp flies circles around Namor's head, distracting him momentarily.
Then Namor hears his troops calling for help; Thor is making mincemeat of them with his spinning hammer. Even their energy-blasts are being reflected back at them. But Namor is not so easily thwarted, and he closes in to battle Thor hand-to-hand.
Meanwhile, Giant-Man is trapped underwater, having been snared in a net by the Atlantean troops. He quickly changes to ant-size, which enables him to slip through the loops of the net, and then resurfaces again in giant form. He sees Iron Man surrounded by more of the undersea soldiers, and leaps into battle, scattering them in all directions. Iron Man says he can finish off the rest, and Giant-Man goes over to help Thor subdue Namor.
Captain America has been holding back all this time, in order to watch the Avengers in action. He's definitely impressed, and likewise amazed at the power of the Sub-Mariner. He wonders what it would have been like if such men had existed in his era. (Apparently, Cap's memory is still a bit fuzzy, since the Sub-Mariner WAS around in the '40s. And of course, later stories would establish that he and Namor were teammates in the wartime group The Invaders.)
With the Avengers closing in on him, Namor pulls out his ace in the hole: His troops have taken Rick Jones hostage. This is the last straw for Cap; he springs into action, smashing into the trooper holding Rick prisoner. The Sub-Mariner grabs hold of Cap, ready to demolish this new intruder (though Cap is confident he can counter his foe's enormous strength).
But before the battle can continue, the island is rocked by a huge shockwave, which causes the land to start breaking apart. Namor orders his troops to retreat, confident that this sudden earthquake will finish off the Avengers for him. But his prediction is premature; the shockwave was caused by the alien's spaceship emerging from the sea. Once the ship flies off, the quake subsides, and the Avengers are safe.
With the immediate threat over, the Avengers turn to more pleasant business. They offer Captain America membership in the Avengers, and the living legend gratefully accepts. Everyone is all smiles, except for Rick Jones. He wonders what the Hulk will think when he finds out that Captain America has replaced him, both in the Avengers and as Rick's mentor. (And we'll soon find out, albeit in the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR, rather than AVENGERS...)
In some ways this issue is a rehash of #3, being another inconclusive skirmish with the Sub-Mariner. But the presence of the stranded alien adds an interesting twist, and of course the main attraction here is the much-ballyhooed return of Captain America. Resurrecting "Golden Age" heroes was something DC Comics had been having great success with, and Marvel's own Sub-Mariner was turning out to be a popular anti-hero/villain, so bringing back their flagship character from the 1940s must've been a no-brainer. But Stan and Jack realized that such a simplistically patriotic figure might not fly in a more complex era, and actually incorporated that ambiguity into the character. Cap's feelings of alienation, and his guilt over the death of Bucky, added a layer of nuance to his personality and set the tone for his portrayal for decades to come.
With Captain America in place, the preliminaries are finally over, and the Avengers really start to feel like a genuine team (The aforementioned crossover with the Fantastic Four, in FF #25 & 26, also goes a long way towards establishing the team's credentials). Of course, once they've settled into something of a comfortable groove, Stan & Jack start looking for ways to shake things up again. But that's still a few issues down the line...
