Avengers 300 - Inferno

Kang manipulates the Avengers into reforming.

Avengers #300

First story: Inferno²
Writing: Walter Simonson
Layouting: John Buscema
Finishing: Tom Palmer
Lettering: Bill Oakley
Coloring: Becton & Siry
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editing in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Kang of Earth 123488.23497 is caught on a time bubble and sees the demonic invasion which he realises will alter the timelines and cause him to cease to exist. Thus he sees the importance of bringing the Avengers together again to deal with the demons and then in the future enter the time bubble as is their destiny. He timejumps into New York in the present day and starts fading out of existence. Meanwhile Mr Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, Captain America and the Forgotten One manage to free Franklin from the hold of Nanny by threatening her other helper, Orphan Maker. Nanny escapes and the Forgotten One adopts the name "Gilgamesh" that he was known by during one of his many long adventures wandering the Earth. Franklin is still trapped in the armour Nanny put him in when one of N'astirh's demons identifies him as a source of power and his master realises the boy could be useful. N'astirh captures the boy and takes him to his lair. The four heroes pursue but cannot easily trace him so as Kang finally fades away he activates the Growing Man to bring the heroes together to reform the Avengers. The heroes discover Thor returning to New York and then a disguised Growing Man gets them to pursue him to N'astirh's lair at the World Trade Center. There they fight off the demons and rescue Franklin when the portal closes up. They then see off the Growing Man, with Reed managing to reverse his power so he shrinks every time he is hit. With the demons gone the five heroes take Franklin home to the Richards' house where they agree to reform the Avengers.

And there came a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, they became The Avengers!

So runs the traditional introduction to the series. For a 25th anniversary 300th issue spectacular in the midst of Marvel's biggest crossover event to that time what could be more appropriate than the re-formation of the team to battle the menace? The arrangement is so obvious and all the pieces are in place but there's a flaw. Inferno is ultimately an X-Men event. It originated in that family of titles and will ultimately be resolved there. Other series tackle events on the periphery and the impact of the changes on their own world of characters but they aren't able to take on and defeat the main demons. At most they can deal with a back-up plan if that. So there's a clear limit here and awkward ways to resolve it.

Adding to the complications is the amount of time the events of Inferno take. When read all together the impression given is that this issue takes place over an inordinate amount of time from before N'astirh absorbed the techno organic transmode virus through to the end of the demonic invasion. That suggests the new Avengers took forever in rescuing Franklin and by the time they did so the wider threat had been averted. This was a way of explaining why they didn't make it to the main action but it also makes their rescue efforts looking exceedingly slow.

As a result it's a very small scale affair that brings them together - the kidnapping of a single child. Even more astoundingly the protection of Franklin is not the reason why Reed and Sue agree to join the team even though spending more time with their son was the reason they left the Fantastic Four. Thus rather than coming together to deal with some great emergency the Avengers are re-formed from such a small affair.

To add to the disappointment there had already been a great world-threatening emergency that a team of Avengers had formed to defeat. Avengers Annual #17 had featured a team of reservists and associates pulled together to save the world. Might that not have worked better as the story of the Avengers' re-formation? It also has a more interesting line-up. Although it's clear that the Hulk and the Beast would not have been available for the long term because of other series, the other five Avengers provide a wide mix of powers, skills and history with the team that would have made for a good ongoing line-up. Here the new team presents its own problems.

Captain America is fine. He's the quintessential Avenger and with Steve about to formally reclaim the role having him at the forefront of the team would only enhance the character. But the rest all pose problems, not least because of duplication. There are two traditional leaders. There are two mythological strong men. Duplication and conflict is built in without obvious resolution. To be blunt it feels ridiculous that half the traditional line-up of the Fantastic Four would become regular members of another superhero team. It undermines their reasons for leaving their own team and Mr Fantastic especially is just not an easily transferable hero or someone who can easily take orders from another. It's also awkward to have two strong men from mythology on the team at the same time. In general Hercules's regular membership of the team has been in periods when Thor is absent so there isn't the precedent that one might expect. It also brings up the complication that whereas Thor is presented as the character from mythology straight, the Eternals are presented as different beings who inspired the stories told about them (a point that it's not too clear the script understands when the Forgotten One recalls his friendship with Enkidu or knowing the flying horse Pegasus) which is part of the wider problem of the Eternals never really being meant to be part of the mainstream Marvel continuity. Overall this is a team that cannot really work for the long-term.

Or indeed the short-term. The letters page announces Simonson's departure from the title which he since said was in part because of editorial orders to return Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Woman to Fantastic Four. So we get an awkward team put together by a writer who won't be around the direct it. Looking back it's now clear that Avengers was now into a rut that lasted for nearly sixty issues between the departure of Roger Stern and the full-time arrival of Bob Harras with a lot of writer turnover and fill-ins combined with a massively unstable membership as new writers and/or editors kept inheriting a line-up they weren't happy with and making more changes. Simonson's whole run has been one massive deconstruction and reassembling of the team so it's a pity it all came to very little.

As a result this is a disappointing main story. It's trying to do something spectacular but constrained by the circumstances of the wider crossover and ultimately presents a small scale adventure that brings together an unworkable version of the team. The Avengers really needed their own crossover to star in but that would come another time.

(P.S. The appearance by Kang here is its own source of confusion so here's an attempt to sort it all out. Back in Avengers #267-269 Kang had encountered a small council of his counterparts from across alternate timelines and also his future incarnation Immortus. At the end of the story he appeared to be the sole surviving Kang. Issue #291 onwards featured what appeared to be the same Kang who was stated as being from the timeline designated "Earth 123488.23497" which it transpired was the regular Marvel Universe - this was before all that "Earth 616" stuff had taken off. This Kang, who took the unique name "Fred", joined the Council of Cross-Time Kangs made up of far more counterparts and others who had bested them and taken on their identity and discovered a plot by a female Kang called Nebula who was portrayed very differently from the existing Avengers villain Nebula. "Fred" Kang and two other Kangs set off to prevent Nebula's plans which tore the Avengers to pieces but in the process the three Kangs fell onto a time bubble.

The implication in the Fall of the Avengers is that "Fred" Kang is the regular Kang and there's nothing here to contradict this. However over in Fantastic Four #323 the Kang there explicitly declares that the one in Avengers is not him and it seems the real Kang has stood apart from the Council. And to add to the complications an earlier Fantastic Four story had established Kang as coming from a parallel universe that had been visited by a dimension hopping Nathaniel Richards (Reed's father) who became Kang's ancestor which makes it hard for there to be a Kang from the regular Marvel timeline. The result is a confusing mess with two different Kangs who both have a claim to be the "real" one. I lose track of just how many times Handbooks, history sagas and flashback issues have tried to untangle this one, often with different answers. But it doesn't actually affect Avengers #300 itself.)


Second story: The Coming of the Accursed Avengers!
Storytellers: Ralph Macchio and Walt Simonson
Letters: John E. Workman Jr
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Loki makes his annual pilgrimage to the Isle of Silence and recounts how he inadvertently created the Avengers as part of a plan to get revenge on Thor by framing the Hulk and arranging for the thunder god to receive a call for help, only for other heroes to receive it as well. Thor came to the island and subdued his brother then took him to Earth where Iron Man, the Wasp and Ant Man had found the Hulk. Loki was defeated and the five formed the Avengers. Ever since this has horrified Loki.

This is a retelling of the team's origin with the unusual perspective of the villain who caused it all to happen. It's fast paced and by focusing on Loki it manages to avoid some of the odder moments such as the Hulk disguising himself as a robotic clown in a circus. But it can't disguise the sheer awkwardness of his original plan to lure Thor to the Isle. Why did he need to go through an elaborate charade to frame the Hulk when he could have simply sent an illusion to pester Thor in his Donald Blake form and lure him in that way?

As is now known Avengers was a rush commission when the first issue of Daredevil was delayed and part of the way to get a replacement book together in a hurry was to use existing characters including the villain who would not need to be designed anew. Unfortunately the plot was also rushed and it showed. But was there anything that could be done after the event? Marvel has gone through phases of different attitudes to its continuity. There have been times when they've done major revamps with retellings of the early years that change a lot (and cause fans to scratch their heads about subsequent stories that are effectively negated with nobody seeming to notice). At other times they've held firm with the original material adhered to and relied on convoluted retcons navigating around some of the early oddness. In 1988 the existing continuity was a clear selling point at a time when DC had recently pressed a big reset switch and a back-up story in a double anniversary issue (especially one edited by Mark Gruenwald) was not the place to tell a new version of the origin that made more sense.

So this stands as a straightforward revisiting the origin for the benefit of (primarily) newer readers with the twist of viewing it through the perspective of one of the characters involved. It's an interesting perspective to take and it helps confirm Loki continues to harbour anger about the team's existence but ultimately it isn't able to sort out the mess. But that was a mess made in 1963 not 1988.

Bonus material includes some Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe style entries. There's a two page entry on Edwin Jarvis that doesn't hide his unfortunate moments though it makes him seem far weaker than he appeared in issue #298.

There's a listing of all the members of the Avengers over time and the issues they appear in but it's a bit confused. The first problem comes with the long-standing argument about whether the Avengers are a single whole divided into East Coast and West Coast teams or if the West Coast is a franchise spin-off of an operation based on the East Coast. Whilst the various members who've only joined in West Coast Avengers are shown on the chart of faces, the accompanying text list ignores all issues of the series. It also can't make up its mind if it's listing appearances as team members or almost any appearance in the title and notably ignores listing any appearances by anyone who was a member of the West Coast team at the time. In addition there are some other mistakes such as mixing up appearances by the original Iron Man and his mid 1980s replacement or skipping a substantial chunk of appearances by the Wasp when she was the team's leader. There are some characters whose precise membership status has always been a bit unclear and much debated amongst fans and this shows on the chart with Hellcat listed as "Applied Avengers #144", Jocasta has no issue number shown at all and others are displayed as "Active" whilst the list skips around. Notably Nebula is not listed at all, doubtless because of the nature of how she joined through mind control and was lost only a few pages later.

Also included is a chart of support staff with a paragraph noting Captain America is expanding the team's administration. Not everyone shown here would necessarily make it into an Avengers issue but all are pre-existing characters with their first appearances noted. There's also a page devoted to Avengers Park, the site of the original mansion with a map of the open space replacing it and the statue of the early Avengers at the centre. The Avengers annual that year was notably short on features so it's good to see the anniversary issue providing some that feel stronger as information pieces rather than humorous side tales that can be very hit or miss.

Overall this issue is trying to present a strong anniversary package with a landmark story but ultimately a crossover centred on another family of titles is not the best place to relaunch the team. It would have been better for Avengers to have left the crossover an issue earlier and done its reassembling in its own story.

Avengers 299 - Inferno

Captain America seeks help from Reed Richards but instead finds Franklin has been kidnapped.

Avengers #299

Writing: Walter Simonson
Layouting: John Buscema
Finishing: Tom Palmer
Lettering: Bill Oakley
Coloring: Max Scheele
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editing in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The real Captain America returns to New York as demons come through the portal and finds the New Mutants dealing with them so he sets off to find more help. Elsewhere in Olympia the Eternal known as "the Forgotten One" is told of the demons and sent to New York to deal with the threat. In Connecticut Nanny has detected a powerful mutant and sends the Orphan Maker to kidnap the child and kill the parents; however the child is Franklin Richards and his parents survive because of a force shield around their bed. Captain America arrives and joins them in pursuing the ship to New York. Nanny's ship is brought down in the park where all four heroes converge but Nanny has a second helper in armour - Franklin.

There is still no team of Avengers put back together and only a few steps towards one. There's a strong hint that the Eternal called "the Forgotten One" will be joining (and also taking a name that will make my prose easier) but otherwise this issue feels more like it should be billed as "Captain America Team-Up" as he briefly works with the New Mutants and then two retired members of the Fantastic Four rather than seeking out new members.

The sequence in Times Square serves to bring Cap and the reader up to speed on the basics of the Inferno crossover as well as showing just how pointless it is to pretend to be anything but Captain America with Cannonball easily working out who he is. More surprising is the sudden use of Nanny from the pages of X-Factor even though Walter Simonson was drawing that book.

Nanny continues to have an unclear motivation but also there's some strange lapses in logic. Franklin is sleeping with his parents when he's kidnapped but for some reason the Orphan Maker is able to spread a sleep dust and lift Franklin out of the bed yet when he fires a gun there's a forcefield in the way. There's nothing indicating Sue Richards has heard Franklin's cries or that it's somehow automatically triggered and the result is the Orphan Maker has done a kidnapping but failed to live up to his codename. All the problems with Nanny continue here and make for some rather uninteresting scenes. However it does result in one of my all time favourite lines in comics as the Forgotten One shouts out:

He is not my son, egg with a voice. But if he tries to slay his own parents, he is a monster! And slaying monsters is why I am here!

Nanny is not too pleased.

Overall this issue feels stunted. Nanny just isn't that interesting a villain and with both the Avengers lacking a team and New York facing a demonic invasion this whole plot feels like a needless sideshow.

Avengers Annual 17 - The Evolutionary War

The High Evolutionary's genetic bomb is ready to detonate - and the Avengers have disbanded.

(Once again we have an annual with a lot of creators so some of the labels are in a separate post.)

Avengers Annual #17

1st story: Prometheus Mutans!
Writing: Walter Simonson
Penciling: Mark Bright
Inking: Mike & Valerie Gustovich
Lettering Oakley, Heisler, Parker
Coloring: Evelyn Stein
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editing in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Avengers' Hydrobase receives an emergency call from the resurrected Jocasta about the imminent detonation of the High Evolutionary's genetic bomb. But the team has disbanded so the computers summon as many reserve Avengers as it can contact. Thus Captain America, the Falcon, Hercules, the Beast, the Hulk and the second Yellowjacket come to the island to deal with the emergency. First they travel to a base on Long Island where they rescue Jocasta and discover the detail of the Evolutionary's plans. They then head to the Pacific where they find a war breaking out between the undersea kingdoms of Lemuria and Atlantis due to false information supplied by the Evolutionary who sends in a weapon to sterilise the two opposing forces. Finally the three pursue the Evolutionary's submarine base to Krakatoa where the bomb will be detonated in the volcano to spread all over the world. The Avengers battle both the Evolutionary's forces and themselves but the cost is high.

As discussed when looking at Avengers #298 this was a period when the Avengers had disbanded and it would take a little time for a permanent new team to be put together. In the meantime that allowed Walter Simonson to have some fun and bring together a one-off team. Some have wished that this line-up could have become the new Avengers permanently but it's hard to see it working in the long run. For one thing no less than three of the characters were regularly appearing in other series (Captain America and the Incredible Hulk had their own titles whilst the Beast was a part of X-Factor) and if it was difficult enough to co-ordinate the appearances of traditional Avengers such as Captain America it would have been a nightmare to fit in with the continuity of the other books even if one of them was written by the Avengers' writer's spouse. But there's also a strong element of dysfunctionality built into the team. The Hulk is in his "Joe Fixit" era of an amoral mob enforcer who shows reluctance to get involved with saving the world, is no team player and also tries to steal power for himself. Yellowjacket is a criminal drawn in purely because the helmet she stole from the original picked up the summons; she was one of the Masters of Evil who occupied the Avengers Mansion beating up Hercules to an inch of his life and also torturing Captain America (although she herself was not one of the ones who directly did either of those) and both still have strong memories of that. Captain America is on the outs with the US government in this era (with a replacement using the name and costume) which would make it difficult for him to assume a role heading a formally accredited superhero team. Jocasta is highly vulnerable. Only the Falcon could easily stay around in such a line-up at this time.

There's also a question of superhero ethics. The traditions of heroes not killing were under strain by this time and some of the team have no qualms about leaving foes to go to their death or even sending them there. Others less so. But oddly this isn't dwelt on here even though the Hulk charges into the Long Island base and kills all but one of the Gatherers present (though the bodies are not shown on panel). Later the Beast and Captain America willingly implement an idea by the Falcon to set the Gatherers and New Men against each other by playing on the former's prejudices and the result is a lot of killing. Then Hercules battles the High Evolutionary until he is "discorportating". Finally the surviving Avengers flee the submarine as the self-destruct is activated but make no effort to take the surviving Gatherers and New Men with them. Superhero comics were getting ever more darker and just a few years later the regular Avengers series would see the heroes facing the question of whether or not to kill so some of these developments aren't too surprising. But it's odd that there's little acknowledgement here of what the Avengers have been forced to do.

The plot does meander a little and it's hard to escape the feeling that the scenes involving Lemuria and Atlantis were added simply to pad this story out to fill the entire annual (bar six pages for the saga chapter at the end). But it gives lots of good character moments with the Beast especially benefitting as he combines strength, science and humour. Yellowjacket has found herself dragged into all this against her will and is completely scared by the whole situation but comes to the fore first in finding the bomb and then in attacking the Evolutionary long enough to buy time for Hercules. Though unspoken it also gives her a moment of redemption for her past.

There's some dodgy science afoot. The Evolutionary's powers seem incredible here including being able to teleport the Hulk all the way out of the base to the Nevada desert and twice making special cages appear out of nowhere to hold one or more Avengers. The Avengers decide the only way to counter him is to come up with their own super being and so subject Hercules to the genetic accelerator to create their own superbeing. The two fight to destruction with the High Evolutionary blasted into particles and Hercules mutating beyond godhood and out of the plane of existence. For a story rooted around a scientist's grand vision the conclusion has at times felt almost too magical to work. There's also the continued misuse of the term "evolution" when the mutations are done to intelligent design - or intelligent accident as the case may be. Fortunately the ending feels more scientific as a dying Jocasta plugs herself into the submarine's systems and activates the self-destruct mechanism to destroy the genetic bomb before it can be detonated.

This is a harsh brutal showdown to a big event and it feels appropriate that it's a much smaller team who escape at the end compared to the one that arrived. The High Evolutionary's plans may have meandered all over the set of annuals but here the focus is all too clear and the stakes couldn't be higher. The Avengers line-up here is not one that could have lasted but makes for a good team with its own internal problems facing down a major threat to the whole world in the Marvel tradition. Although the story is overlong and could have done with the Lemuria and Atlantis element it nevertheless makes for a strong climax to what has been a rather disappointing crossover.


2nd story: The High Evolutionary: Beyond Life
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Breakdowns: Ron Lim
Finishes: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: M. Yee & J. Rosen
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Chief: Tom DeFalco

The final chapter recounts the High Evolutionary's last appearances before this event. It's a straightforward summary of how Counter-Earth was moved across space by a race of alien beings call the Beyonders and placed in a museum with the whole encounter convincing the Evolutionary that despite being the most evolutionary advanced human in existence he was not a god but merely insignificant. This led to despair as he sought to commit suicide but found himself trapped in his armour that prevented him from using his powers on himself. So he manipulated the Hulk into attacking him to rip open the armour then he devolved himself all the way down to a single celled organism. The final page shows how the armour restored both itself and its occupant, who now regained his confidence and concluded that humanity on its own would never evolve to the level of the aliens he had seen and instead the race as a whole needed a guiding hand which he would give.

This final chapter shows how the character had come back to life after what seemed to be a pretty conclusive death and uses the last stories to provide a convincing explanation as to how the character has expanded the scope of his vision to the scheme seen in the event. It also restores an element of dignity that was lacking in the final Hulk story. As a later chapter recounting ongoing comics rather than stitching together multiple backstories the result is invariably straightforward but it serves to bring readers up to date with the character and provide a springboard for the main event.


Because of the length of the main story there are no other back-ups or features in this annual. Instead the whole thing is devoted to the resolution of the big crossover. Space could have easily been found for features by trimming off the unnecessary part of the main tale but that raises the question of just what would have been contained in the features since there was no regular Avengers team at the time. Also with issue #300 on the horizon it was perhaps better to leave the features for that and instead here have an extended climax to ensure the whole event goes out with a bang.

Avengers 298 - Inferno

When all the Avengers are gone one man still stands - Edwin Jarvis!

Avengers #298

Writing: Walter Simonson
Layouting: John Buscema
Finishing: Tom Palmer
Lettering: Oakley Lopez
Coloring: Eliot R. Brown
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editing in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Avengers have disbanded and their butler Edwin Jarvis has moved back in with his mother, living off his pension. Jarvis soon notices many strange things going on in New York and realises they are connected. He rescues a young woman, Glory Garsen, from falling out of a subway train when the doors suddenly open on the move and realises he must call in help. In a darkened computer room a mysterious man finds himself under attack from his own machines and realises they are linked. Later Jarvis saves Glory from being crushed by two cars but one car then becomes a giant metallic figure to attack when a round shield is thrown.

Inferno came along at a very unusual time in the Avengers' history. Over the course of the previous seven issues the team had been ripped apart first by Marrina turning into a giant sea monster and then by a women calling herself Nebula (let's not get into that continuity minefield here) seducing Dr Druid and using him to use his mental powers to manipulate the team into travelling into a time bubble with a falling out when several members of the Council of Cross-Time Kangs intervened and released the other Avengers from the mental control. By the end the Avengers were either dead, lost in the time vortex, resigned or departed for a struggle in Asgard whilst there were no reserve members available so Thor formally dissolved the team with Jarvis locking up the base. It was quite a brutal exercise in disassembling the team though there have been some even darker ones since.

This leaves the title with no team and just one supporting cast member. And instead of rushing to put together a new team we get a nice little tale of Jarvis doing his bit in the early stages of the strange happenings in New York. Time and again the butler shows himself to be a canny observer with a strong cunning streak in finding ways to deal with the various objects that have come to life, whether threatening a payphone with bolt cutters or realising that the way to drive off to cars is not through brute strength but by smashing a headlight "eye". But he's also realistic enough to realise greater help is needed and so turns to the natural source - Captain America.

(Well strictly speaking he was going by the name "the Captain" at this stage. This was in the period when Steve Rogers had resigned from the role rather than becoming an agent of the American government, arguing that he was actually a symbol of the American people. A replacement was appointed whilst Rogers had adopted a new identity as "the Captain" with a very similar costume albeit in black. In practice a lot of his friends and allies would call him "Captain America" anyway. As his own title was showing, Cap is not a costume but an ideal rooted in one man. And so these reviews will call him "Captain America" throughout.)

This is a strong issue that makes good use of the unusual situation to bring to the forefront a character so often on the margins of the series. It also doesn't rush the recreation of the Avengers, instead merely there's just a hint that Captain America could use some friends to help him deal with the situation. And Jarvis gets the girl despite his shyness and belief that there's no comparison to Cap - but Glory wants a man of courage and gentleness and thinks she's found him.

(It's just a pity that the car that becomes a humanoid looks nothing a Transformer. Perhaps Hasbro had had a word after an earlier issue had featured robotic dinosaurs and a red tank that brought to mind the Dinobots and Warpath.)

West Coast Avengers Annual 3 - The Evolutionary War

The West Coast Avengers have split in two as the High Evolutionary's plans step up a gear.

West Coast Avengers Annual #3

This annual is unusual in that instead of one big story focused on The Evolutionary War followed by some shorter back-ups it has two separate stories from the war. This is because it came out at a point where the West Coast Avengers had split with Mockingbird, Tigra and Moon Knight leaving the others amidst the break-up of Mockingbird and Hawkeye's marriage. It's notable that all three of Steve Englehart's annuals are set very specifically between issues of the relevant ongoing titles which helps continuity and those constructing chronologies but it can also present a slightly confusing status quo. Here the details of the split are not gone into and instead we have two tales of the separate factions that both end with the same scene of Hawkeye's team discovering a hole in the Savage Land.

1st story: Head you lose --!
Story: Steve Englehart
Layouts: Al Milgrom
Finishes: Gerry Talaoc
Letters: Bill Oakley
Colors: Marc Siry
Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Chief: Tom DeFalco

The first story focuses on the High Evolutionary's attempts to steal a supply of vibranium from the Black Panther's kingdom of Wakanda. One of his technicians turns out to be Bill Foster, the former second Giant Man, who hides a note on one of the Gatherers who are easily defeated by the Wakanda forces. The note informs the Panther there is a much bigger scheme afoot and to call in Hank Pym. Pym himself is unavailable but the rump of the West Coast Avengers arrive and face down another squad of the Evolutionary's called the "Sensors" - Sight, Touch, Sound, Smell, Taste and Intuition - who battle the team whilst the vibranium is stolen.

This story is particularly notable for making use of previous chapters and we see there was a purpose to the High Evolutionary's restoration of the Savage Land back in X-Men Annual #12 as he is now operating out of a base there so it's good to see later chapters of the saga building on earlier events. It's also notable for the odd way Mantis is written with very little dialogue even in panels when she is the main focus and clearly drawn to be speaking. This was reportedly another effect of the breakdown in relations between Englehart and his editors with Mantis at the centre of the storm.

Unfortunately the short length of this story combined the initial scenes set in the Evolutionary's base and the battle between the Gatherers and the Wakandan forces means the official West Coast Avengers are only seen for eleven pages of their own annual. The split nature of the team and the story may have created such a constraint but the outcome is a rather slight contribution by one side.


2nd story: Tales you win!
Story: Steve Englehart
Layouts: Al Milgrom
Finishes: Chris Ivy
Letters: Bill Oakley
Colors: Marc Siry
Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Chief: Tom DeFalco

The breakaway team have travelled to the Savage Land for reasons not given here and spend the first part of the story meeting with Kazar and learning how the Savage Land was restored before deciding to investigate the Evolutionary and his base. They just knock on the door and are surprised to be let in and taken to the Evolutionary himself who calmly announces his plan as, "I'm building a bomb which, when detonated, will mutate everyone on Earth!" He subdues them with gas and puts them into a hi-tech maze to test their suitability for genetic experiments. All three quickly overcome the respective robot sent to deal with them but Tigra and Moon Knight seem to spend too much time interested in each other's company to advance far through the maze and so only Mockingbird reaches the Evolutionary who expands in size. But so do does Bill Foster who resumes his role of Giant Man (although not the costume despite what the cover shows). With the vibranium captured in the other story the Evolutionary opts to relocate to build his bomb and so abandons the base, blowing it up.

The return of Giant Man is clearly meant to be a big thing in the annual with both stories quickly summarising his origin (and his original risky name of "Black Goliath) and also how he contracted cancer but was cured by a transfusion from the original Spider-Woman; however his body could no longer stand the strain of size changing. However he infiltrated the Evolutionary's operations to use the equipment to develop a serum to restore growth and use the gained mass to cleanse his body. There's a bit too much technobabble about how it works but the result is that a real life terminal disease is cured through fantastical elements which is a bit insensitive (although up to the transfusion the detail was first shown in earlier comics rather than here).

This chapter is more focused on the series's actual characters and provides some good action scenes. Unfortunately it fails to explain just why they happen to be in the Savage Land in the first place and the way Tigra and Moon Knight seemingly hook up in the middle of the maze does neither character any favours. But it does take a strong step forward to advance the Evolutionary's plans rather than being yet another side element in the overall scheme. The split narrative allows for different elements of the story to be given equal weight but it comes at the effect of atomising the individual strands so that neither feels too satisfactory. This is an innovation in story telling that doesn't work.

3rd story: The High Evolutionary: The Final Frontier
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Ron Lim
Inks: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The saga has now reached the original stories featuring the High Evolutionary. Curiously very little of his first appearance in the pages of Thor is retold here and instead the chapter opens with the Citadel of Science launching for the stars at the end of his encounter. Then we see how out in pace the Evolutionary found a new planet and settled there with the New Men, mutating more animals to provide them with wives and leaving them to build the world whilst he continued with his experiments. But instead the New Men devolved into savagery and he had to find a being to bring order to the planet - who turned out to be the Hulk. But the Evolutionary was mortally wounded in battle and could only survive by submitting himself to the genetic accelerator becoming a being of pure thought.

There's less to say about this chapter as it's recounting mid Silver Age stories that had the same writer and a greater element of consistency compared to the massive accumulation of back story the first eight chapters had to wade through. It's a pity the Evolutionary's first appearance is not recounted in more detail as it would be interesting to see how readers first encountered him. Also omitted is an explanation as to how he managed to stay looking so young when he would have been in his 60s or even older at the time of these tales. Instead we get the first big sign that the Evolutionary has made mistakes with his New Men not proving the successful new race he hoped for and the first sign of how he would repeatedly have to turn to outside help to get the products of his experiments under control.

Also included is a pin-up gallery which takes a more whimsical approach than most. There's also the unused cover for issue #14 (which was replaced by the line-wide 25th anniversary format of a headshot of a single character in a uniform frame).

Overall this annual is aiming high but rather misses the target. It's trying a different formula for telling the story but it results in two separate chapters that each feel in substantial when a combined single tale could have felt much stronger. This also pushes out any back-up stories that could have enhanced the overall feel of the special and the result is a bit of a disappointment.

Avengers West Coast 62 - Acts of Vengeance Aftermath

And so we come to the conclusion of the long-running Scarlet Witch storyline as Immortus seeks complete mastery over time through the Scarlet Witch's enhanced powers.

Avengers West Coast #62

Writers: Roy Thomas and Dann Thomas
Penciller: Paul Ryan
Inker: Danny Bulanadi
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

It seeks to wrap up the threads and resolve Immortus's aims. As a goal, becoming the "master all of time" sounds grand, but it's never terribly clear what this actually means. As a result this degenerates into a powerful being seeking an abstract role that other, more powerful beings come to restrain him. "...did we hero types really accomplish anything in Limbo?" "Yeah -- or were we just along for the ride?" ask the Wasp and Wonder Man at the end, as though the script itself recognises the problem, with Agatha Harkness arguing that by battling Tempus they provided the distraction to allow her to reach through to the Scarlet Witch and get her to expel the excess power. But it's still a little unconvincing.

There's an actual fight here with the aforementioned Tempus which comes on both a physical and temporal level as the Avengers struggle with the giant creature, who chillingly ages Wonder Man and brings the other Avengers to their knees. But it serves a higher purpose as it allows Harkness to send her spirit to communicate with the Scarlet Witch and appeal to her feelings for her friends to make her break from her catatonic state. It's good to see that Wanda ultimately frees herself and regains independence after the way so many have manipulated her, but it then brings on a threat to the whole universe as numerous timelines are spawned. This attracts the attention of the Time Keepers, a trio of mysterious beings who are ultimately Immortus's bosses and show up to put him in his place. The ultimate irony is that he achieves what he wants but not in the form he wants it.

It's ultimately hard to find much to say about this issue given the abstract nature of the goals and final conflict. As ever it's hard to lay blame on the current creative team who are working to conclude a storyline they didn't begin or lay the basics for. And though it's gone on for probably a few months too many, that again is a consequence of the abrupt changeover and emergency fill-ins. The Avengers themselves are generally well handled and these are promising signs for the future, but for now we've a storyline that has gone all over the place and it's a relief it's now all over.

Avengers West Coast #62 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers West Coast 61 - Acts of Vengeance Aftermath

This issue sees the west coast Avengers confronting Immortus and transported to Limbo whilst back on Earth Agatha Harkness uses her magic to maintain a shade of the lord of Limbo on Earth and subject him to a magical interrogation.

Avengers West Coast #61

Writers: Roy Thomas and Dann Thomas
Penciller: Paul Ryan
Inker: Danny Bulanadi
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

For a character who's made very few appearances over the years - by my reckoning only about five substantial storylines before this one - Immortus comes with far too much baggage. It seems that many times when either he and/or his younger self Kang has been used over the years there's been a lengthy scene setting out the character's history, including some retcons to tidy things up. The result is a character whose origin and motivations keep changing with the writer, making it rather hard to keep track of it all. Continuity is not necessarily a bad thing, but if a character can't be used without a heavy infodump and a set of retcons then that character probably shouldn't be used until a writer is able to extract them from the weight of their own history. Unfortunately here we have one writer clearing up after another, as Immortus is a hangover from the Byrne run, including the revelation that the Vision wasn't the recreation of the original Human Torch and that Immortus had shown a lie.

But what also feels messy is the way the whole storyline continues to liberally copy "Inferno". Now we have the ruler of the realm of Limbo (although this appears to be a different one) seeking to utilise a woman for his goal of seeking power, as well as massive revelations about how lives have long been manipulated in order to bring about the situation whereby the woman can be used as a tool for long term conquest. Coming little over a year after such a major storyline it's hard to dismiss it as casual coincidence. Instead it feels like an attempt to set down some grand scale continuity for the Avengers on a similar scale to the X-Men.

While all this information is being dumped, the Avengers face another incarnation of the Legion of the Unliving, made up of foes from the past or future. In general the foes have been chosen for their connections to the current Avengers so we get the second Black Knight, an old foe of Hank Pym and the Wasp, the Swordsman, once mentor to Hawkeye, the Grim Reaper, brother to Wonder Man, Iron Man 2020, the future counterpart of the current one, Left-Winger and Right-Winger, US Agent's former sidekicks whom he fell out with badly, Oort the Living Comet, a foe from Quicksilver's future, and Toro, the original Human Torch's partner. The last is also retconned into having taken part in the original Legion of the Unliving rather than the Torch himself, so it's a particular pity that the Torch isn't present for what could have been an interesting meeting. Similarly this is the first time that Iron Man has encountered his 2020 counterpart, and it's thus a little annoying that the script can't decide if Tony is Arno's "ancestor", "great uncle" or "uncle" (and other stories have in fact made him a first cousin once removed or, more recently, an adoptive brother). The line-up is also distorted by the lack of any specific dead foes for Quicksilver, resulting in the creation of Oort. The conflict is rather formulaic with most Avengers facing down their counterparts on an individual page before cutting to a page of Immortus's interrogation and back.

This issue is clearly aiming at taking some of the Avengers' mythology and using it to develop some great continuity for the long-term, but it just comes across as a mixture of a retread of a classic Avengers battle combined with too much of a continuity infodump. As ever, it's difficult to blame a new writing team thrust in the middle of a complicated storyline in which retcons have already been introduced but not yet explained, but the result is still rather turgid.

Avengers West Coast #61 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers West Coast 60 - Acts of Vengeance Aftermath

We return now to Avengers West Coast, skipping over issues #58 & #59. John Byrne's sudden departure clearly left the title scrambling, hence two fill-in issues by separate creative teams, neither continuing the Scarlet Witch storyline in any essential way. Issue #59 even reveals itself to have been set in an alternate timeline that Immortus soon eliminates. It's notable that collections of the "Darker than Scarlet" storyline have skipped over the two, albeit creating problems for fitting into sequential runs of the series. Hence, they can be left out here with precedent.

Avengers West Coast #60

Writers: Roy Thomas and Dann Thomas
Penciller: Paul Ryan
Inker: Danny Bulanadi
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Issue #60 opens with Immortus pruning yet another timeline. This one sees the events of the Kennedy assassination turn out differently from reality as officers stop Lee Harvey Oswald in time. However all this does is to confirm a second gunman on the grass knoll and the difference is that there is no question about a conspiracy. It's also notable that Ryan draws the car layout correctly given how misrepresentation of this has fuelled so much speculation.

The rest of the issue sees the writer first getting a grip on the characters through a protracted sequence as they deal with the aftershocks of an earthquake, then a showdown with Magneto. Although Quicksilver's real role has already been blatantly hinted at, there's a real sense of rush to these scenes as though the new writer is hurrying to remove Magneto from the storyline. In what may be another sign of the wider struggle within Marvel over the direction of the character, we get a strong suggestion that he's actually being manipulated by someone else, presumably Immortus. It may be a quick fix solution to what is already a potentially convoluted storyline, but it just serves to emphasise the mess that's been made of the character in a short space of time as different visions then multiple retcons have all piled on top of one another.

This issue also sees the return of Hawkeye to the team in a rather sudden move, having left Mockingbird with the task of refining the Great Lakes Avengers into an official team. Like a lot of things in the issue it feels slightly rushed just to get characters into place and undo some of what the previous run set up. The rest of the team are handled well, with Hank increasingly emerging as the unofficial leader of the team, in spite of US Agent's habit of barking out orders, whilst Iron Man continues to do a very poor job of hiding the fact he's really the original. The team's solution to taking down Magneto is both imaginative and well thought through.

Overall though this is an issue that shows a new pair of writings rushing to get a grip on a series, to quickly undo some recent changes and developments and to try to move an ongoing storyline towards its conclusion. It's an understandable approach but it feels over hasty in its handling of both Magneto and Hawkeye, with the result that this is a rather unsatisfactory continuation. In fairness, the Thomases may not have had access to Byrne's notes to know how things were meant to go, but it stands as a classic example of the problems when a creative team suddenly leaves a title midflow.

Avengers West Coast #60 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers West Coast 57 - Acts of Vengeance Aftermath

This issue continues the saga of the Scarlet Witch's descent story, though it would turn out to be the last one written and drawn by John Byrne. Entitled "Family Reunion", it appropriately adds her brother Quicksilver to the mix.

Avengers West Coast #57

Writer and penciller: John Byrne
Inker: Paul Ryan
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

But it's an interesting inversion of the family dynamics. Traditionally the Scarlet Witch was the most dovish of the three but here she's a hawk whereas by contrast Magneto only attacks when necessary and will not harm restrained foes. Even Quicksilver is advocating more caution than usual, though there are some hints that all is not as it seems with him. The issue continues the move towards restoring Magneto as a noble but ultimately villainous fighter for mutant rights, even recreating his Asteroid M base. Otherwise it serves to show just how powerful both he and his daughter are, able to shrug off rescue attempts by first the original Human Torch then Iron Man and later an assault on Asteroid M. Such is his power he simply returns the Avengers to Earth secure in the belief they will not attack again and also offers Iron Man the chance to leave them alone. Tony Stark has clearly learned from past encounters with Magneto to equip his armour with anti-magnetic devices and benefits from the current claims that the original Iron Man has been replaced, meaning Magneto doesn't expect a foe with experience of him.

For all the talk of Magneto having been reverted to his Silver Age portrayal by "Acts of Vengeance", here Byrne is writing a more complex character, acting as much as a father seeking to protect and nurture his daughter as anything else. He speaks of protecting mutantkind but explicitly draws a distinction from "the destruction of humanity" and only acts when attacked. This is much closer to the complex Magneto who tried to reform but found failure pushing him back and then declared he was as much seeking to become a target to take fire away from other mutants than this has often been written up as.

If anything, the problem is taking too much from the recent X-Men titles. Barely a year after "Inferno" and we have another story of a mother twisted by abandonment, loss of her children and manipulated by dark powers into going bad and unleashing dark magic, right down to attacking her erstwhile friends and playing on her brother-in-law's feelings. The story also seems to be running rather slowly and this issue could surely have been combined with the previous one and still get from the revelation of Wanda's transformation to the asteroid without repeated conflicts that ultimately do little to advance the plot.

It's a pity that John Byrne's last issue on the series is both slow and somewhat derivative as his handling of Magneto has especially shown there was a lot more to the debate about the character than merely the Claremont vs the Silver Age debate it's somewhat caricatured as. This is a storyline with good ideas but taking too long to get through them.

Avengers West Coast #57 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Avengers West Coast: Darker then Scarlet (Panini pocketbook, 2015)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers West Coast 56 - Acts of Vengeance Aftermath

Continuing the story of the Scarlet Witch's descent into darkness accompanied by Magneto there are actually three strips in this book. One back-up is a four-pager set during "Atlantis Attacks" and depicts the first modern meeting of the original Human Torch and Captain America, shown by reader demand. It's a straightforward piece showing the two war time comrades briefly reflecting on the old days, how things have changed and how both their partners have died. There's also a one-page strip (not always reprinted) in which John Byrne goes on panel to explain that Tigra's appearance in that year's annual was an error down to him getting muddled when he informed the writer which team members were available.

Avengers West Coast #56

Writer and penciller: John Byrne
Inker: Paul Ryan
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Howard Mackie
Ed.-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The main story focuses upon the Scarlet Witch who is changing in more ways than one. Capturing several of the other west coast Avengers she reveals how she has embraced her power and is preparing to take revenge on them. The scenes as she taunts and torments them are chilling, though it's probably for best that the editors modified half a page to avoid the implication that at one point she performs oral sex on Wonder Man. The big revelation is that her powers have changed. Rather than making the improbable happen, they now seem to be altering reality, such as recreating the house that was previously destroyed, bringing Wonder Man back to life and even, in the lab, altering the historic record of a sample piece of metal. Magneto also returns and it becomes clear the family reunion is a step towards a mutant-human war in which the Scarlet Witch will be on the mutants' side.

This quite a talkie issue, bringing various subplots up to date and re-establishing the Scarlet Witch's recent misfortunes. It's also pretty critical both for this storyline and the long-term history of the Marvel universe. Wanda's powers have long been poorly defined and so it helps to take time here to make clear just how they now work. At the same time after the crossover it's handy to catch up on the characters and subplots such as Tigra having gone feral and been shrunk down, as well as new ones such as the team's potential issue. But this doesn't detract from the chilling effects of the scenes of the Avengers suspended in air, prisoners of their own teammate and then a strong cliffhanger suggesting further darkness ahead. This continues to be a strong dark series.

Avengers West Coast #56 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Atlantis Attacks Omnibus (2011 - back-up story only)
• Avengers West Coast: Darker then Scarlet (Panini pocketbook, 2015)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers West Coast 55 - Acts of Vengeance

"Acts of Vengeance" is concluded, officially at least, in this issue. It's been quite a journey, and there are a number of aftermaths to come, but for now we reach the showdown with the mastermind of the piece.

Avengers West Coast #55

Written and pencilled: John Byrne
Inked by: Paul Ryan
Coloured by: Bob Sharen
Lettered: Bill Oakley
Edited by: Howard Mackie
Ed.-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

But one thing that immediately leaps out is just how little of the issue is devoted to ending the crossover. Of the 22 pages, ten are given over to advancing other plots in the series involving either the Scarlet Witch's continued troubles or Immortus's mission to eliminate alternate timelines. As a result the issue ends on a cliffhanger involving the former. Collected editions were only just getting going back in the late 1980s so it's probable that the idea of "writing for the trade" simply didn't exist then, but it has been a notable feature of a lot of Byrne's later work for Marvel that it hasn't been the best for collecting, either not having neat cut-off points at the end of issues or using difficult story structures such as leaping from a cliffhanger against one foe to starting against another and filling in the gap in a flashback or even telling a story in reverse chronological order. Of course here one could make the point that crossover and subplots are handled on separate pages, and so the contemporary practice of excising repetitive or extraneous material could have allowed for a coherent trade, but in modern form it feels awkward. However the subplots do mean we get to see Abraham Lincoln star in the story, a rather unexpected guest appearance. And the Scarlet Witch storyline involves Magneto, thus building on his role in the crossover, so there is a natural flow in the narrative. Still it does suggest the main event has somewhat run out of steam.

Meanwhile the Avengers finally learn the truth of who's behind the attacks whilst their prisoner, the Wizard, escapes with a teleportation device hidden under his fingernail. It's an amazing piece of miniaturisation that seems fantastic but it's a technology that goes back to the early Silver Age including the very first Hulk adventure. But his return to the committee room infuriates the mysterious stranger as it's allowed the Avengers to trace them. And the stranger now reveals himself as Loki, shocking most of the villains and prompting the Kingpin to slip away.

The Avengers come for a showdown as we discover the committee room was based on the Isle of Silence, though the dialogue here suggests the name is metaphorical. It makes sense that the villain who inadvertently caused the Avengers to be formed in the first place would try to destroy them and that he's doing so from a realm where his powers are enhanced, making him a match for the ad hoc combined team of nine who arrive. The line-up has most of the biggest names on the team such as Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, the Wasp, Hank Pym, Hawkeye and the Vision plus Mockingbird who co-founded the west coast team and the Falcon. It feels quite an appropriate line-up for a sequel to the very first adventure. And it's also appropriate that it's Thor rather than Captain America who gets to make the grand speech at the end of the battle.

However we don't get a grand all-out attack on the Avengers by the combined forces of the super-villains and their henchmen. This annoys Loki as well as his plans have descended into a quagmire of egos, but reflects some of the general problems with the crossover best saved for an overview conclusion.

As a final chapter issue, this frankly feels lacking. It's really only half an issue devoted to the conclusion and doesn't feel sufficiently grand. The remaining super-villains all retreat with the Red Skull's suggestion they take the opportunity to strike quickly dismissed. This issue really should have been completely devoted to the conclusion and it suffers as a result.

Avengers West Coast #55 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Avengers West Coast: Darker then Scarlet (Panini pocketbook, 2015)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers 313 - Acts of Vengeance

"The Ultimate Super-Villain Team-Up!" proclaims the cover. It's a phrase that many in Marvel have long wanted to use over the years, echoing the 1970s series, and here it makes an appearance in all its glory as the action heats up. But at times this is less of a team-up than a squabble.

Avengers #313

Artists: Paul Ryan and Tom Palmer
Writer: John Byrne
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Mike Rockwitz
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Ed.-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

This issue sees the Mandarin go on the direct attack. Outside of the X-Men issues, which have barely acknowledged the wider event, the Mandarin hasn't done a great deal in the crossover. For that matter the central alliance of villains hasn't made its major follow-up assault against the Avengers yet. Instead there's a lot of squabbling which comes to blows here as Doctor Doom and the Red Skull briefly fight before the Kingpin walks in and dismisses them as children. Meanwhile the Wizard has followed the Mandarin, hoping to seize the initiative. If the intended message is that super-villains ultimately can't work together for long because of their egos, conflicting interests and different ideologies then it's been presented subtly over a long period. Such is the lack of loyalty that the Mandarin thinks nothing of firing his rings at the Avengers when the Wizard will be caught in the crossfire, then fleeing to leave his ally to be captured. The Mandarin here may be dismissive of an onlooker's "petty racism", but he's coming as a modern-day wizard in armour and is much more of the traditional cackling villain here than he was in the X-Men issues.

The Avengers continue to struggle with collapsing public support for super heroes, but this aspect of the story would work so much better had it been more integrated into the crossover rather than largely serving as a sideshow in a handful of issues. Thus once the Avengers arrive to tackle the Mandarin the crowds disappear and there's no comment at all as to what effect this has on public opinion. Instead it's largely an action piece with the Mandarin and Wizard using their powers and weapons to provide a strong challenge.

The issue also sees Magneto capturing the Scarlet Witch, stealing an entire wooden house in the process. Although he's been part of the main alliance, that effectively ended with his attack on the Red Skull and these events are more progressing a storyline that will come to a climax in later issues of Avengers West Coast. Though having writer co-ordination between the two Avengers team books is a good idea, they're still by definition set in different locations and attempts to tell a single story across them don't work well outside of formal crossovers. And this is very much looking beyond the end of the event.

It's not the only one. The issue sees Doctor Doom shot by the Red Skull and eventually explode, revealing him to have been a Doombot, perhaps all along. This is a very well-established practice of Doom, with more than one writer retconning appearances of Doom into robots (making for difficulties in constructing a chronology, though it gets much worse with Kang), but it also neatly takes Doom out of the equation, as though he's bored of the whole thing. It's slightly surprising that the Red Skull is shocked given the recent revelation that he too has an army of identical robots.

There's a real sense of things hotting up with this issue, and not just the Doombot. It's easy to forget that "Acts of Vengeance" ran over only three months, as the large number of issues can make it seem so much longer, but here in the core of the crossover things are now heading for what looks like a spectacular climax.

Avengers #313 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers West Coast 54 - Acts of Vengeance

It had to happen. With John Byrne both writing and drawing the series and with the original Human Torch having returned, it was inevitable that there would be a cover homage to Fantastic Four #1. And this in turn drives the villains with the Mole Man appearing, accompanied by monsters such as Giganto (seen of the cover), Tricephalous and other beasts underground.

Avengers West Coast #54

Written and pencilled: John Byrne
Inked by: Paul Ryan
Coloured by: Bob Sharen
Lettered: Bill Oakley
Edited by: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Of course this brings up the slight problem that the Mole Man has actually fought the Avengers at least twice in the past, with first Iron Man and then the Scarlet Witch on the team. One could rationalise it that the alliance of super-villains regard the west coast Avengers as a separate team from the Avengers (for some members that would be a more hurtful blow than anything else), or that as the Scarlet Witch is comatose and Iron Man is publicly a replacement for the original then it's still an original encounter. It's notable that neither of these heroes actually get to meet the Mole Man himself. And the cover scene doesn't appear in the issue, but then again neither did that of Fantastic Four #1.

The story is based around an attack on Los Angeles by the Mole Man's creatures, with the west coast Avengers quickly scattered into several groups. Thus Iron Man sets out to remove Giganto to a safe distance, determined not to harm the creature despite the urgings of US Agent. Wonder Man and the original Human Torch investigate underground to meet with the Mole Man. And the Wasp and Hank Pym seek to protect the comatose Scarlet Witch whilst their qunijet is attacked by Tricephalous. Meanwhile Magneto observes events, unaware that he in turn is being monitored by the mysterious stranger. There's a slight twist on the regular approach of the crossover in that rather than approaching the Mole Man and offering him a trade of enemies, the leading super villains (or perhaps one amongst them) have instead provoked an attack by staging an assault on the Mole Man's Monster Island pretending to be the west coast Avengers, thus pushing him into reprisals.

This is a relatively straightforward chapter of the crossover that manages a good bit of variety to the structure of foes whilst staying true to the core concept. However this the fourth of the six issues of the two main Avengers titles and only the final page seems to advance the main storyline as the two Avengers teams compare notes and deduce that everything else is a distraction but they're under direct attack. This doesn't feel like the major step forward that the crossover needs at this stage.

Avengers West Coast #54 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Avengers West Coast: Darker then Scarlet (Panini pocketbook, 2015)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers 312 - Acts of Vengeance

With this issue of Avengers we see the central core of the crossover pulling together ever more. Significantly most of the Avengers seen here are from the west coast team (the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision and Hank Pym) or reservists called up (the Falcon), a sign of how the attacks are continuing to occupy and cripple the Avengers' operational ability. So now would be a good time for a major attack by the alliance of leading villains.

Avengers #312

Artists: Paul Ryan and Tom Palmer
Writer: John Byrne
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Christie Scheele
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Instead the alliance is squabbling. With this issue we get to see a meeting of the alliance in depth for the first time. And it's not going too well. One of the biggest criticisms of the whole alliance is that it is composed of villains with huge egos and some very different perspectives on the world. The panel showing the opening of the meeting is a glorious piece that conveys just how little the six like each other, with only the mysterious stranger holding them together, and there's a particularly nice touch in the way Magneto is staring at the Skull with undisguised hatred. Here the tensions spill over with the Red Skull and Magneto especially showing their hatred of each other and contempt for everyone else and most of the others pile in to refute the Skull's dismissal of them as "common criminals". Only Doctor Doom stands above it all. But the meeting is also a wonderful parody of the real-life world of organisations and corporations where everyone is expected to gather together in person merely to receive reports they could have been sent in writing. Absolutely nothing is achieved in this meeting though later in the issue we see the alliance watching the Avengers on monitors where it's confirmed they had nothing to do with an attack by Freedom Force and suggest taking a more active role. Luckily, we don't witness the processes of someone coming up with a motion, formally tabling it, entering in a row because of the very different meaning of the term "to table" in meetings on either side of the Atlantic, then eventually discussing the proposal etc... But overall the implication is that the limited central action is largely because of squabbling egos.

Consequently the Avengers face a group of villains who have been manipulated by the mysterious stranger without his allies' knowledge. The Blob, Pyro and Avalanche have actually fought the Avengers before in the annual that introduced Rogue and both the Vision and Scarlet Witch were on the team at the time but there's no acknowledgement of that here and instead the Avengers react like these three are an unknown quantity. Given the high profiles disagreements between the creators, one does have to wonder if John Byrne simply blanked out anything written by Chris Claremont. What should be a simple fight proves anything but, with the three villains a strong match and clearly well briefed, forcing the Avengers to find some unusual ways to take them down, especially the Blob. And all the time the fight is leading to ever greater debate amongst the public about the value of super-heroes.

This issue works well in bringing the core threads of the crossover together with the leading villains' committee meeting an especial highlight. However the clues to the mysterious stranger's identity are extremely obvious.

Avengers #312 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)