The Avengers Project - Vol. 1 No. 6
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jkcarrier
AVENGERS Vol. 1 No. 6
July, 1964
"Meet the 'Masters of Evil!'"
Written by the inspired typewriter of Stan Lee
Drawn by the enchanted pencil of Jack Kirby
Inked by the gifted brush of Chic Stone
Lettered by the scratchy pen of S. Rosen
En route back to New York after last issue's adventure, the Avengers stop in Chicago to refuel their helicopter. Captain America demonstrates to the others how he can control his shield via the magnets in his glove. The shield also opens up to show that it is full of electronic equipment, including a communications device (This concept was quickly dropped, in favor of having Cap rely on pure skill. Perhaps they felt that having him so reliant on gadgets made him too similar to Iron Man?). But Cap's mood turns melancholy, as he thinks about his deceased partner, Bucky. He is determined to one day find the man responsible for killing his young sidekick.
The scene shifts to South America, where a small plane is delivering supplies to a remote valley. The natives there are ruled by a mysterious masked figure named Zemo. As the pilot arrives, Zemo goes to greet him, literally walking across the backs of his prostrated subjects. In addition to supplies, the pilot has also brought the latest scientific journals and newspapers. When Zemo sees photos of the returned Captain America, he flies into a rage.
We learn that Zemo was a scientist who worked for Adolf Hitler. Zemo was so hated by the public that he had to wear a mask to hide his identity. While he was working on a new super-glue called "Adhesive X", Captain America burst into Zemo's lab, determined to foil the experiment. During the battle, Cap hurled his shield at the vat of Adhesive X, causing it to spill on Zemo. This caused his mask to become permanently stuck to his face. Zemo has been unable to find anything that could remove it. Zemo thought he had gotten his revenge by killing Captain America and Bucky, but now he knows that Cap still lives. But not for long, if Zemo has anything to say about it.
Some time later in New York, the ham radio buffs in the Teen Brigade are desperately trying to contact the Avengers to warn them of an emergency. Giant-Man's old foe the Black Knight is flying his winged steed all over the city, spraying an adhesive foam that traps everything from people to cars to ships. Meanwhile, two other villains are terrorizing the city: Iron Man's enemy the Melter (who's beam now melts any metal, thanks to improvements by Zemo), and Thor's sparring partner Radioactive Man.
The Avengers arrive on the scene. Radioactive Man's force field protects him from Thor's hammer, and he fires his Adhesive X gun, missing Thor but pinning Captain America and Giant-Man to the ground. Cap immediately recognizes Zemo's adhesive, but before he can ponder the implications, the Melter arrives. Iron Man knocks him for a loop with his magnetic repeller, and the Wasp keeps him busy while Iron Man tries to blast his allies free of the adhesive. Unable to break the glue itself, Iron Man cuts out the chunk of ground the two Avengers are standing on. Iron Man attaches chains to a nearby truck and pulls the chunk of ground behind him, with Cap and Giant-Man hanging on like a couple of water-skiers. But even this isn't enough to break the bonds of the adhesive.
The Black Knight joins the fray, racing towards the truck. Thor spots him and takes to the air to intercept. The Knight tries to tie up Thor with bolas fired from his lance, but the thunder god knocks the lance away with ease. The Avengers elect to retreat, so they can find a way to free Cap and Giant-Man from the Adhesive X. Once they're gone, Zemo arrives on the scene, and his super-villain lackeys apologize for letting the heroes escape. Zemo wonders if the heroes will actually manage to find a way to dissolve the adhesive; if so, he must steal it for himself. He begins to formulate a plan.
Back at the Avengers' headquarters, they are having no luck removing the adhesive. Then the Wasp remembers a villain named Paste-Pot Pete, an expert in pastes and adhesives who recently fought the Human Torch. She contacts him in prison, and in return for a reduced sentence, he agrees to help them. He tells them where he had hidden a barrel full of a super-dissolver; Iron Man goes to retrieve it, and sure enough, it melts away the Adhesive X. Like his opposite number Zemo, Captain America takes charge and begins to plan their strategy. Step one is to contact the Teen Brigade.
Meanwhile, Zemo is refilling his lackey's tanks of Adhesive X from the main supply in his Heli-Hovercraft. Soon they will terrorize the city again, drawing out the Avengers to their doom. What they don't know is that the Teen Brigade has snuck into their headquarters and switched the tanks of Adhesive X for tanks of the super-dissolver.
As the Black Knight flies over the city (in a gorgeous 2/3 splash page by Kirby and Stone), he is shocked to see that the foam he is spraying is actually freeing people instead of trapping them. Just then, he is attacked by Thor. The Knight fires projectiles from his lance, but Thor deflects them with his whirling hammer and closes in for hand-to-hand combat. The Knight zaps him with his stun-ray, but it only slows Thor down for a few seconds. His patience at an end, Thor renews his attack.
Elsewhere, Giant-Man is confronting the Radioactive Man. By repeatedly shrinking and growing, he confuses his foe and manuvers him into position. When the Radioactive Man fires an energy-blast, Giant-Man shrinks out of the way, letting the bolt hit a device held by Iron Man. The transistorized ejector springs to life, shooting out a spool of lead foil that wraps up Radioactive Man like a mummy. Then a balloon mechanism inflates, lifting the trapped villain into the air to dangle helplessly.
The Melter appears, and uses his ray to melt a lamp-post so that it wraps around Iron Man. Shellhead manages to fly out of the way, but the Melter blocks his escape by melting the masonry of a condemned building. Much like Giant-Man did with Radioactive Man, Iron Man draws his enemy's fire, and then ducks out of the way. The beam hits a fire hydrant, and a stream of high-pressure water knocks the Melter out.
Nearby, the shrunken Giant-Man has recovered from the strain of doing so much size-changing, and he and the Wasp decide to go see how Captain America is doing.
Back at Zemo's ship, the master villain has spotted the boys of the Teen Brigade and subdues them with his Hypno-Ray. But then Captain America arrives and lays into his old foe. Zemo surprises Cap with his fighting skill; since last they met, he has studied and mastered the art of karate. But Cap is by far the better and more experienced fighter, and he mops the floor with Zemo, angrily reminding the villain how he once sneered at freedom and democracy, claiming the Americans and their allies were too timid to fight. But Cap is living proof that compassion doesn't equal cowardice.
But just then, Zemo's pilot strikes from the shadows, firing his pistol at Captain America. The bullet only grazes him, but it's enough to take him out long enough for Zemo and the pilot to make it back to the ship. The pilot tries to shoot Cap again, but the Wasp shoves a nail into the barrel of his gun, deflecting the bullet so that it goes wide of the mark. The pilot tries to flee, but Giant-Man takes to the rooftops and quickly intercepts him.
As the police take the pilot into custody, Giant-Man sees the Black Knight's horse heading their way. But it's actually Thor in the saddle, carrying the unconscious knight. Suddenly, they see Zemo's craft taking off. It looks like he's escaped, but Cap assures them that he has not. Cap knew that Zemo would try to make off with the super-dissolver, so he had the Teen Brigade carry a decoy can -- one that was filled with tear gas. And sure enough, they see Zemo's ship coming to an awkward landing nearby, where the police will be able to pick him up.
So it looks like victory for the Avengers, but the closing caption assures us that we haven't heard the last of Zemo and his Masters of Evil...
Stan Lee's patented cornball patter is in full force on the cover: One blurb begs "Please don't frustrate us... you've got to read it!!", while another promises "More super-heroes, more super-villains, and more super-bonehead mistakes than ever". It continues on the splash page, where readers are advised "Don't tear this magazine or wrinkle the pages or get food stains on it! We have a hunch you'll want to save it...". Stan's hype somehow managed to be self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing at the same time. The combination of a serious plot with self-aware mockery is fairly commonplace today (cf. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), but at the time it was a big departure from the traditional straightlaced superhero yarn.
The inter-title continuity seen in previous issues is kicked up another notch here; not only do we see old villains from the Avengers' solo series, but the cameo by Paste-Pot Pete reinforces their ties to the Fantastic Four as well. Even Zemo (as the letters page points out) had previously appeared in an issue of Sgt. Fury. There could have been any number of ways for the Avengers to solve their Adhesive X dilemma, but bringing in a previously-established "glue expert" helps sell the idea of a shared universe. And of course, it encourages the reader to buy all of Marvel's titles, since you never knew where a familiar face might show up.
Chic Stone's inks are very distinctive; his lines tend to be bolder and cleaner than Paul Reinman's. The heavy contour line he puts around each character sometimes makes them look like cardboard cut-outs or animation cels, but overall the art has a very sharp look.
Wasp Watch: We now consistently see a few stray locks of hair slipping out from the Wasp's cowl (something seen once or twice in previous issues). Her costume is slightly modified: Before, her red vest had a v-neck, showing the black leotard underneath with a blue "W" logo on it. Now the vest is closed up, with a black "W" on the vest itself. This may just be down to Stone interpreting Kirby's pencils differently, rather than being a concscious change. She's still something of a second-class member here, but she does get a couple of moments to shine, holding off the Melter and later saving Cap's life.
The letters page announces that THE AVENGERS is now a monthly title. One of the letters is by Buddy Saunders of Arlington, Texas; Saunders went on to become a fanzine publisher (as one of the "Texas Trio"), and later a comics retailer with his "Lone Star" chain of stores. In the blurb for next issue, Stan promises not only more of Zemo and the Masters of Evil, but the return of the Hulk as well (which only turns out to be half true...).
July, 1964
"Meet the 'Masters of Evil!'"
Written by the inspired typewriter of Stan Lee
Drawn by the enchanted pencil of Jack Kirby
Inked by the gifted brush of Chic Stone
Lettered by the scratchy pen of S. Rosen
En route back to New York after last issue's adventure, the Avengers stop in Chicago to refuel their helicopter. Captain America demonstrates to the others how he can control his shield via the magnets in his glove. The shield also opens up to show that it is full of electronic equipment, including a communications device (This concept was quickly dropped, in favor of having Cap rely on pure skill. Perhaps they felt that having him so reliant on gadgets made him too similar to Iron Man?). But Cap's mood turns melancholy, as he thinks about his deceased partner, Bucky. He is determined to one day find the man responsible for killing his young sidekick.
The scene shifts to South America, where a small plane is delivering supplies to a remote valley. The natives there are ruled by a mysterious masked figure named Zemo. As the pilot arrives, Zemo goes to greet him, literally walking across the backs of his prostrated subjects. In addition to supplies, the pilot has also brought the latest scientific journals and newspapers. When Zemo sees photos of the returned Captain America, he flies into a rage.
We learn that Zemo was a scientist who worked for Adolf Hitler. Zemo was so hated by the public that he had to wear a mask to hide his identity. While he was working on a new super-glue called "Adhesive X", Captain America burst into Zemo's lab, determined to foil the experiment. During the battle, Cap hurled his shield at the vat of Adhesive X, causing it to spill on Zemo. This caused his mask to become permanently stuck to his face. Zemo has been unable to find anything that could remove it. Zemo thought he had gotten his revenge by killing Captain America and Bucky, but now he knows that Cap still lives. But not for long, if Zemo has anything to say about it.
Some time later in New York, the ham radio buffs in the Teen Brigade are desperately trying to contact the Avengers to warn them of an emergency. Giant-Man's old foe the Black Knight is flying his winged steed all over the city, spraying an adhesive foam that traps everything from people to cars to ships. Meanwhile, two other villains are terrorizing the city: Iron Man's enemy the Melter (who's beam now melts any metal, thanks to improvements by Zemo), and Thor's sparring partner Radioactive Man.
The Avengers arrive on the scene. Radioactive Man's force field protects him from Thor's hammer, and he fires his Adhesive X gun, missing Thor but pinning Captain America and Giant-Man to the ground. Cap immediately recognizes Zemo's adhesive, but before he can ponder the implications, the Melter arrives. Iron Man knocks him for a loop with his magnetic repeller, and the Wasp keeps him busy while Iron Man tries to blast his allies free of the adhesive. Unable to break the glue itself, Iron Man cuts out the chunk of ground the two Avengers are standing on. Iron Man attaches chains to a nearby truck and pulls the chunk of ground behind him, with Cap and Giant-Man hanging on like a couple of water-skiers. But even this isn't enough to break the bonds of the adhesive.
The Black Knight joins the fray, racing towards the truck. Thor spots him and takes to the air to intercept. The Knight tries to tie up Thor with bolas fired from his lance, but the thunder god knocks the lance away with ease. The Avengers elect to retreat, so they can find a way to free Cap and Giant-Man from the Adhesive X. Once they're gone, Zemo arrives on the scene, and his super-villain lackeys apologize for letting the heroes escape. Zemo wonders if the heroes will actually manage to find a way to dissolve the adhesive; if so, he must steal it for himself. He begins to formulate a plan.
Back at the Avengers' headquarters, they are having no luck removing the adhesive. Then the Wasp remembers a villain named Paste-Pot Pete, an expert in pastes and adhesives who recently fought the Human Torch. She contacts him in prison, and in return for a reduced sentence, he agrees to help them. He tells them where he had hidden a barrel full of a super-dissolver; Iron Man goes to retrieve it, and sure enough, it melts away the Adhesive X. Like his opposite number Zemo, Captain America takes charge and begins to plan their strategy. Step one is to contact the Teen Brigade.
Meanwhile, Zemo is refilling his lackey's tanks of Adhesive X from the main supply in his Heli-Hovercraft. Soon they will terrorize the city again, drawing out the Avengers to their doom. What they don't know is that the Teen Brigade has snuck into their headquarters and switched the tanks of Adhesive X for tanks of the super-dissolver.
As the Black Knight flies over the city (in a gorgeous 2/3 splash page by Kirby and Stone), he is shocked to see that the foam he is spraying is actually freeing people instead of trapping them. Just then, he is attacked by Thor. The Knight fires projectiles from his lance, but Thor deflects them with his whirling hammer and closes in for hand-to-hand combat. The Knight zaps him with his stun-ray, but it only slows Thor down for a few seconds. His patience at an end, Thor renews his attack.
Elsewhere, Giant-Man is confronting the Radioactive Man. By repeatedly shrinking and growing, he confuses his foe and manuvers him into position. When the Radioactive Man fires an energy-blast, Giant-Man shrinks out of the way, letting the bolt hit a device held by Iron Man. The transistorized ejector springs to life, shooting out a spool of lead foil that wraps up Radioactive Man like a mummy. Then a balloon mechanism inflates, lifting the trapped villain into the air to dangle helplessly.
The Melter appears, and uses his ray to melt a lamp-post so that it wraps around Iron Man. Shellhead manages to fly out of the way, but the Melter blocks his escape by melting the masonry of a condemned building. Much like Giant-Man did with Radioactive Man, Iron Man draws his enemy's fire, and then ducks out of the way. The beam hits a fire hydrant, and a stream of high-pressure water knocks the Melter out.
Nearby, the shrunken Giant-Man has recovered from the strain of doing so much size-changing, and he and the Wasp decide to go see how Captain America is doing.
Back at Zemo's ship, the master villain has spotted the boys of the Teen Brigade and subdues them with his Hypno-Ray. But then Captain America arrives and lays into his old foe. Zemo surprises Cap with his fighting skill; since last they met, he has studied and mastered the art of karate. But Cap is by far the better and more experienced fighter, and he mops the floor with Zemo, angrily reminding the villain how he once sneered at freedom and democracy, claiming the Americans and their allies were too timid to fight. But Cap is living proof that compassion doesn't equal cowardice.
But just then, Zemo's pilot strikes from the shadows, firing his pistol at Captain America. The bullet only grazes him, but it's enough to take him out long enough for Zemo and the pilot to make it back to the ship. The pilot tries to shoot Cap again, but the Wasp shoves a nail into the barrel of his gun, deflecting the bullet so that it goes wide of the mark. The pilot tries to flee, but Giant-Man takes to the rooftops and quickly intercepts him.
As the police take the pilot into custody, Giant-Man sees the Black Knight's horse heading their way. But it's actually Thor in the saddle, carrying the unconscious knight. Suddenly, they see Zemo's craft taking off. It looks like he's escaped, but Cap assures them that he has not. Cap knew that Zemo would try to make off with the super-dissolver, so he had the Teen Brigade carry a decoy can -- one that was filled with tear gas. And sure enough, they see Zemo's ship coming to an awkward landing nearby, where the police will be able to pick him up.
So it looks like victory for the Avengers, but the closing caption assures us that we haven't heard the last of Zemo and his Masters of Evil...
Stan Lee's patented cornball patter is in full force on the cover: One blurb begs "Please don't frustrate us... you've got to read it!!", while another promises "More super-heroes, more super-villains, and more super-bonehead mistakes than ever". It continues on the splash page, where readers are advised "Don't tear this magazine or wrinkle the pages or get food stains on it! We have a hunch you'll want to save it...". Stan's hype somehow managed to be self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing at the same time. The combination of a serious plot with self-aware mockery is fairly commonplace today (cf. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), but at the time it was a big departure from the traditional straightlaced superhero yarn.
The inter-title continuity seen in previous issues is kicked up another notch here; not only do we see old villains from the Avengers' solo series, but the cameo by Paste-Pot Pete reinforces their ties to the Fantastic Four as well. Even Zemo (as the letters page points out) had previously appeared in an issue of Sgt. Fury. There could have been any number of ways for the Avengers to solve their Adhesive X dilemma, but bringing in a previously-established "glue expert" helps sell the idea of a shared universe. And of course, it encourages the reader to buy all of Marvel's titles, since you never knew where a familiar face might show up.
Chic Stone's inks are very distinctive; his lines tend to be bolder and cleaner than Paul Reinman's. The heavy contour line he puts around each character sometimes makes them look like cardboard cut-outs or animation cels, but overall the art has a very sharp look.
Wasp Watch: We now consistently see a few stray locks of hair slipping out from the Wasp's cowl (something seen once or twice in previous issues). Her costume is slightly modified: Before, her red vest had a v-neck, showing the black leotard underneath with a blue "W" logo on it. Now the vest is closed up, with a black "W" on the vest itself. This may just be down to Stone interpreting Kirby's pencils differently, rather than being a concscious change. She's still something of a second-class member here, but she does get a couple of moments to shine, holding off the Melter and later saving Cap's life.
The letters page announces that THE AVENGERS is now a monthly title. One of the letters is by Buddy Saunders of Arlington, Texas; Saunders went on to become a fanzine publisher (as one of the "Texas Trio"), and later a comics retailer with his "Lone Star" chain of stores. In the blurb for next issue, Stan promises not only more of Zemo and the Masters of Evil, but the return of the Hulk as well (which only turns out to be half true...).
