Damage Control Vol 1 4 - Inferno

A flashback to the time Wolverine got a pie in the face.

Damage Control #4

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Penciler: Ernie Colon
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colorist: John Wellington
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Multiple construction sites have been raided with a large quantity of building materials stolen. The police turn to Damage Control to investigate and John Porter immediately spots a pattern so takes a team to investigate the site of the X-Mansion. John and Bart Rozum see rubble after its recent destruction but Robin Chapel, Lenny Ballinger, Gene Strausser and Albert Cleary see a mansion as normal and Robin remembers visiting before John and Bart joined the company. She remembers how Damage Control did repair work for Professor Xavier during which Gene fiddled with the electronics of the Danger Room. The members of Damage Control and the X-Men found themselves trapped in the room as a simulation of Groucho Marx led a stream of clowns in attacking them as they tried to reach the emergency controls to shut it down. Professor X declared that he had to protect knowledge of the Shi'ar technology in the Danger Room so he used his powers to remove Damage Control's memory and make them see nothing out of the ordinary at the house until their wills overcome it. Back in the present this has caused the team to not see the ruins until now. It transpires the Danger Room's systems are stealing the building materials to rebuild the mansion so they shut off the power. As the company hasn't been contracted it doesn't try to rebuild the mansion. The materials are returned and John tells the police he will maintain confidentiality, privately telling Robin the X-Men died as heroes and he wants to honour their memory.

"Inferno continues... interminably" proclaims a triangle on the cover but complicating matters is that this limited series was clearly delayed in publication with earlier issues featuring either the Avengers line-up of Dr Druid, She-Hulk, Thor and the Black Knight or the Thing in his extreme mutated "pineapple" form after both those were no longer the status quo in their own titles. Similarly here we get an Inferno issue four months after the event is over. To be honest this is more of a satire on the way some crossover events seemingly go on for ever rather than a forgotten part of the story that successive collected editions keep overlooking and I guess in 1989 this was more funny than "Secret Wars II continues in this issue" which at the time could still send people running for the hills.

Damage Control is a very tongue in cheek series, taking a serious concept such as how all the damage from superhero fights gets fixed so quickly and adding in a lot of satire. This first series starts by playing on the various conventions of superhero comics but then evolves into more general humour with the third issue poking fun at corporate publicity and stunts whilst this issue is mainly an excuse for slapstick comedy. Dwayne McDuffie would later admit one of his ambitions had been to throw a custard pie in Wolverine's face and he gets to do that here both on the cover (which wrongly depicts Wolverine in his costume from his solo series) and in the book, with Professor X declining to erase that memory. The flashback is played straight, an invariable consequence of the X-Men's current status quo that makes it difficult to do this sort of guest appearance in the present day, rather than parodying the way series often resort to this mechanism to insert extra adventures, usually emergency fill-in issues.

Overall this issue isn't trying to make any wider points about comic conventions or the industry or wider corporate practices. Even the way some characters use their powers to keep things secret for the public is played straight to force a flashback rather than explored as a means by which the illusion of the ordinary world is maintained. There's a moment where John immediately spots a pattern in the robberies that points to the site that nobody else can see which may parody contemporary amateur detective fiction that often had such moments of instant deduction but otherwise this is really just an excuse to get a pie into Wolverine's face and have him on panel with Groucho Marx. Inferno collected editions are missing nothing by not including it but it's a fun little tale nonetheless.

Avengers Annual 19 - Acts of Vengeance

Avengers Annual 19 came out the summer after "Acts of Vengeance" and contains the last word on the event. But that's only one of five stories contained within it and so first a look at the others.

Avengers Annual #19
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

"Beat Me in St. Louis..."

Writers: Roy and Dan Thomas
Penciler: Herb Trimpe
Inker: Jeff Albrecht
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Paul Becton

The lead story is the fifth part of the crossover "The Terminus Factor" which ran through four other annuals. All five are listed on the contents page but out of context this chapter is a story of both Avengers teams plus the unofficial Great Lakes Avengers and various reservists or guest stars all converging on St Louis to fight off a much-enhanced Terminus. Meanwhile Thor has lost his hammer and is floating in space. There's too much unexplained here and way too many characters for this to work on its own and it just becomes a confusing fight. Marvel had just switched from running one single crossover over all annuals to multiple ones where the books naturally overlapped but it still produced complicated stories that are near impossible to understand on their own.

"Media Watch"

Story: Dwayne McDuffie
Pencils: Jim Reddington
Inks: Andy Mushynsky
Letters: Jack Morelli
Colour: Ed Lazellari

This is a short little piece looking at how a part of the media react to events like Terminus. It's presented in the form of "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a satirical opinion piece from the real life 60 Minutes current affairs show. Having never heard of Rooney or his slot and being barely aware of 60 Minutes (to the best of my knowledge it's never been broadcast in my country) most of the intended effect is completely lost on me and the style is very different from This Week's "Take of the Week".

"Clowning Around"

Words: Gruesome Gary Barnum
Pencils: Starving Steve Buccellato
Inks: Mighty Mickey Ritter
Letters: Rowdy Rick Parker

This is a comedic piece as a group of Avengers visit the construction of their new mansion and a string of villains show up to attack them. The construction workers are terrified of the damage that such a battle would bring so work to take out each villain before the heroes even know they're there. As a result the visiting Avengers just assume the workers are being rather silly. It's a good fun little tale of the sort that only an annual back-up strip can do.

"The Day the Strangers Came"

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Richard Howell
Letters: Jack Morelli
Colours: Richard Howell

This is easily the highlight of the annual, telling of a young boy who lives in a Midwestern hotel and is a huge fan of the Avengers. When he spots the Sons of the Serpent are active in the area he duly reports it and soon discovers that the Avengers are in town, enjoying doing the right thing. Then he discovers who the local leader is and what he's planning to do. Written by Kurt Busiek some years before Marvels this does well to show how the heroes impact the world around them and the pain when duty demands doing the wrong thing.

"Acts of Vengeance Epilog"

Words: Mark Gruenwld
Pictures: Vince Mielcarek
Inks: Bob Downs
Letters: Janice Chiang
Colours: Dave Sampson

But this is the reason for this post. Mark Gruenwald was Marvel's keeper of continuity in this period, to the point that he wound up being depicted as the director of the Time Variance Authority which served a similar purpose in the comics, and would often write stories that would untangle major discontinuities. We've already seen Captain America #367 which sorts out the mess of Magneto's participation in the alliance in spectacular fashion and here Gruenwald takes on the central problem of "Acts of Vengeance" - the lack of a clear narrative structure to the crossover. Here we get an order, presented in the form of a debriefing by Captain America, Thor and the Vision making use of reports and testimony from the Wizard.

Questions like just where the rest of the Avengers were when Avengers Island was attacked and sunk, and again where the main team was during Freedom Force's attack, why only some of the androids help captive on the island escaped and how the Red Skull could attend the last few meetings despite having been locked away by Magneto are all explicitly answered here. There are a few additional moments added such as a battle between Captain Marvel and Klaw, or a final encounter with the remains of the villains' alliance. Though it has to be said that the depiction of the Wizard's capture differs significantly from that in Avengers Spotlight #29 which is especially surprising for a story seeking to untangle confused continuity.

This is setting out to sort out confusion first and foremost rather than tell a story in its own right and so the narrative is slightly bogged down through covering many of the individual battle sideshows. It's also over dramatic in suggesting this is the team's biggest setback when only one part-time reserve Avengers (Stingray) has been seriously injured and there have been other attacks that devastated Avengers' bases and left many injured including the referenced capture of the old mansion by the Masters of Evil. And the Vision's suggestion that the Avengers should be more proactive in future isn't taken up. The last panels see Gruenwald give Captain America the last word which is ultimately about how important co-operation is and how the villains' alliance failed because they couldn't do this. Overall this is a good attempt to fix things afterwards, but really the crossover should have been doing things better at the time.

This is a fairly typical annual for the era with the main feature really not something to be ventured into solo, but the back-up features offer a mixture of continuity, comedy, pathos and unusual takes on things around them. The "Acts of Vengeance" epilogue is only a small part of it but shows a dedication to making the big picture clear existed in at least some parts of Marvel at the time.

Avengers Annual #19 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers volume 3 #27 (2000) - "The Day the Strangers Came" only
• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)

Damage Control 4 - Acts of Vengeance

And so we come to "The Final Act!" as Damage Control's second limited series comes to a conclusion, with this issue featuring a prominent guest star in Nick Fury, Agent of Shield. Fury's own series was up and running at this time but notably didn't take part in the crossover, with a change of writer around this time possibly the explanation. But instead Fury and his fellow agents get used here in a showdown for the corporate wranglings that have crippled the special repair business.

Damage Control (volume 2) #4

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Penciler: Ernie Colon
Inkers: Stan Drake & Marie Severin
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colour: George Roussos
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Big Guy you don't wanna mess with: Tom DeFalco

The issue is surprisingly predictive in its revelation that Damage Control is being run into the ground by its now owner, who "is willing to gut the whole company to raise cash". Damage Control may at times allow for subtle digs at the distinguished competition, but this target would ultimately prove closer to home given the convoluted corporate manoeuvres in the 1990s that ultimately left Marvel as a whole filing for bankruptcy. Fortunately for anyone without a business education the story presents the financial situation in a sufficiently simple form to understand how the owner wound up owing the Kingpin a lot of money and had to resort to bleeding the company to death.

Elsewhere the workers are still on strike but are talked into helping stabilise a building whilst a rescue operation is carried out, reflecting the very real dilemmas often faced by striking firefighters. Placards with slogans such as "DC is grossly unfair" and "DC stinks" are surprising in that Marvel could print these and get away with them (and not have to modify the artwork for later reprints). It's not clear who exactly is responsible for them, but a glance at the credit lists for the creative shows that only some of them went on to do much work for DC comics. Perhaps the scene at the end when the Damage Control building, with a prominent "DC" marked out on the roof, is sold to a comic company who "made a great deal of extra money this summer from a movie" helped placate feelings. Meanwhile over in another DC, Anne Hoag ensures that Commission on Superhuman Activities doesn't deliver a unanimous report in favour of registration.

Steadily the management rebuild relationships and reputations, helped by Fury, and Shield leads a takeover bid. Here comes perhaps the most dated joke as a subordinate Shield agent produces a briefing on computer that will take three hours to deliver, until Fury demands a one-word recommendation on whether to buy. This predated the arrival of Power Point and the computers of the era were not the best things for presentations. Robin Chapel faces down the Kingpin to make it clear he's no more influence in the firm, something he just doesn't mind as the "Acts of Vengeance" have proved quite profitable. Finally we learn that Damage Control has now completed the clean-up after the Acts.

This is a bit of a rush around issue aiming to tie up all the threads raised by the earlier ones and wisely sets itself at the end of the crossover to allow for a clear conclusion. Still it provides a good comedic take on corporate rescue packages and company chaos and gets extra credit for doing this long before Marvel faced its own problems. This is a fun little epilogue.

Damage Control (volume 2) #3 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)
• Damage Control: The Complete Collection (2015)

Avengers Spotlight 29 - Acts of Vengeance

A handful of issues are explicit epilogues to "Acts of Vengeance" and this starts with Avengers Spotlight #29. As ever this issue contains two separate stories.

Avengers Spotlight #29

Plot/Script: Howard Mackie (first)
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie (second
Plot/Pencils: James Brock (first)
Penciler: Dwayne Turner (second)
Inks: Roy Richardson (first)
Inker: Chris Ivy (second)
Letters: Jack Morelli (first)
Letters: Rick Parker (second)
Colourist: Mike Rockwitz (all)
Editor: Mark Gruenwald (all)
Editor: Gregory Wight (second only)
Boss: Tom DeFalco (all)

The first story, written by Howard Mackie and drawn by James Brock, doesn't make any attempt to tie in with the crossover just gone but does continue with the theme of heroes battling others' villains, with Hawkeye called in to rescue Madcap from kidnappers even though everyone from Dollar Bill (the film-maker who used to hang around with the Defenders; now Madcap's television partner) through to the kidnappers is seeking Daredevil. Nevertheless Hawkeye tracks down the somewhat operation and clashes with a new set of henchmen, the Power Tools who have mechanical hands that turn into weapons based on home equipment. Madcap himself is a somewhat anarchic youth with an incredibly powerful healing factor and his own sardonic take on the pointlessness of life; he predated Deadpool by several years. The story's okay, and does manage to pull a sucker-punch with the revelation of the Power Tools' boss not being the character one instinctively expects, but Madcap is a difficult character to write because of the attitude and healing factor and this results in moments that don't know if they're trying to shock or are expecting familiarity.

The second strip is the final of "Tales from the Vault", written by Dwayne McDuffie and drawn by Dwayne Turner, and sees a lot of captured villains being brought to the restored prison whilst Iron Man introduces the new Guardsmen armour with design safeguards to protect his technology from being used elsewhere. However the solution of limiting the internal power supply and instead building an external supply system into the Vault doesn't sound like the most secure of systems as one could easily capture a suit of armour and provide an alternate power supply. The returning foes include the Wizard, who finds his teleportation has been tampered with to send him back, and Klaw. Iron Man and one of the Guardsmen have to take them on, demonstrating both the abilities of the new armour and the determination of the men inside. The last few panels use exactly the same narrative captions as the opening of the first part back in Avengers Spotlight #26 to provide a clear sense of closure to the story. For the Avengers titles it is, but some of the other series have some mopping up to complete.

The first story isn't part of the crossover and doesn't try to be, but does sensibly go for a self-contained tale that doesn't rely on reader knowledge so isn't going to be impenetrable to readers arriving just because of the crossover banner. The second wraps up some of the points from earlier issues, showing Iron Man making amends on his actions in the "Armour Wars", and through use of the Guardsmen it manages to feel at home in this series rather than in Iron Man's own title. It's not an essential epilogue but it does manage to provide a good sense of closure to the overall story.

Avengers Spotlight #29 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)

Damage Control 3 - Acts of Vengeance

There are a few series notably absent from "Acts of Vengeance". We've already seen Excalibur and we'll come to Silver Surfer later, but there's some other notable absentees. Most of the titles that don't take part are set in different universes (e.g. Nth Man, What If...), licenced titles (Transformers, Alf), creator owned (Groo Chronicles, Sleeze Brothers) or reprints (Classic X-Men) so have their reasons. But also missing are Nick Fury, Agent of Shield and Sensational She-Hulk.

Damage Control (volume 2) #3

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: Ernie Colon
Letters: Rick Parker
Colour: George Roussos
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Big Guy you don't wanna mess with: Tom DeFalco

The last on the list is especially surprising as it had only recently been launched with John Byrne writing and drawing the title in a very unique fashion, with the star aware that she's a character in a comic book and having a tetchy relationship with her writer. But Byrne left the series just as "Acts of Vengeance" was getting started, leading to a sudden rush of fill-in creators (such that she began issue #9 not having a clue who the names in the credit box were) for the next few issues until Steve Gerber emerged as the permanent new writer. Amidst all this, an "Acts of Vengeance" crossover was lost.

Whether this was all a coincidence or not is unclear, as She-Hulk briefly turned up an issue early, but this issue goes some way to providing a substitute by guest starring her. The story focuses on the consequences of the new owners causing chaos, with much of the workforce on strike, managers scrambling to find replacement contractors and two disgruntled sacked employees seeking their own act of vengeance. Amidst all this She-Hulk is borrowed from the Avengers to help with the heavy work, including getting the Daily Bugle building back into position. However she's attacked by two armoured guys with no fixed names (they eventually settled on "New" and "Improved") and then has to endure a team-up with Speedball.

Surprisingly this issue contains what should be a major moment in Marvel history. The original Avengers mansion had been relocated to Hydrobase and has now been recovered from the water, with Damage Control commissioned to recover it and return it to its original location in Manhattan. Unfortunately the project falls victim to the weakest of management trying to replace the engineers, with the mansion lost in the river. It's a surprise to find such an iconic building meets its final end as a part of a joke in a comedy series, but it's fun nonetheless.

The corporate commentary is more limited in this story, merely focusing on the cluelessness of the new owners in their approach to both the strike and operations, and the result is a much more madcap comedic piece than before, reflecting She-Hulk's own series. This series continues to be a good, fun distraction.

Damage Control (volume 2) #3 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)
• Damage Control: The Complete Collection (2015)

Avengers Spotlight 28 - Acts of Vengeance

It's been a recurring theme throughout these reviews that "Acts of Vengeance" as a whole hasn't made the best use of the big public debate about whether superheroes should be cheered or feared and if there should be government registration of them. By and large this has been left to one title with others only making passing reference. So it's nice to see that both stories in this issue address the themes, coming from different angles.

Avengers Spotlight #28

Writer: Howard Mackie (first)
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie (second
Penciler: Al Milgom (first)
Penciler: Dwayne Turner (second)
Inker: Don Heck (first)
Inker: Chris Ivy (second)
Letterer: Jack Morelli (all)
Colourist: Paul Becton (first)
Colourist: Mike Rockwitz (second)
Managing Editor: Gregory Wight (second only)
Editor: Mark Gruenwald (all)
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco (all)

The first, written by Howard Mackie and drawn by Al Milgrom, is a straightforward tale of Hawkeye and Mockingbird discovering that criminals are posing as them to commit a string of bank robberies in Denver at a time when superheroes are increasingly blamed for the upswing in attacks and destruction. So they fly out to the city to clear their names and discover the truth of what's going on. The resolution to the fight involves one of the best uses of Hawkeye's particular characteristics and couldn't have been done by most other heroes. All in all it's quite a simple little piece.

The second is an interesting tale of the Mad Thinker setting out to help the heroes. Invited to join the leaders' alliance (in a flashback) he declines and instead makes clear he has worked out who the mysterious stranger is - "It's obvious if one thinks about it." Indeed it does seem that way. The Thinker is more concerned with the potential backlash that could undermine his own plans, so he commissions obscure giant-sized villain Leviathan, renames him "Gargantua" and sends him to attack a rally against the proposed registration act that the Wasp and Wonder Man are about to address. Gargantua isn't the most threatening villain ever and is entirely reliant on transmitted instructions but that isn't the real aim of the attack and instead everyone else wins.

Neither tale is particularly substantial but that's in part down to the restrictive format of just eleven pages with the rotating strip not really being able to carry things forward. However at this stage it's good to see some uses of the wider situation around and variations on the formula to produce some more original stories.

Avengers Spotlight #28 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)

Damage Control 2 - Acts of Vengeance

The second issue of the second Damage Control limited series once again brings a mix of slapstick humour, political and corporate satire and gratuitous guest appearances. It starts off parodying the Punisher as he makes his way into the Damage Control building intending to investigate the files to find out who is guilty of the Kingpin's corruption... only to find the firm deluged by clients amidst the widespread destruction caused by the "Acts of Vengeance". Even the Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, has turned up.

Damage Control (volume 2) #2

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: Ernie Colon
Letters: Ricky Parker
Colour: John Wellington
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

(There's a surprisingly quick topical gag. This issue came out on October 24 1989, just six weeks after Koch had lost a primary election to David Dinkins. Koch's minders are shown here wearing Koch campaign badges with Dinkins stickers pasted over them. Koch declaring he's mayor, a handy piece of explanatory dialogue for readers far from the city in space or time, is supposed to impress how important he is but Robin Chapel, the firm's director of operations, privately thinks "Yeah? Talk to me after January 1st." It's surprising how quickly this was worked into the issue.)

The Punisher tries to assassinate Chapel in order to assert his authority but is merely confronted with yet another Doctor Doom robot, although this one has a different controller, whilst She-Hulk turns up an issue early for her guest appearance, complete with her contemporary habit of breaking the fourth wall and confusing people when she did it outside her own series. Elsewhere a team is recovering Avengers mansion from the sea, with a very annoyed Captain America still complaining about events at the Vault, whilst the new boss's assistant is more interested into getting into Chapel's underwear than learning about how the firm works. Amidst all this the new boss is implementing a radical reorganisation that isn't too popular with the staff.

Much of the humour is based on seeming madness of office and corporate politics but it's done in a way that shows all the nonsense, pettiness and absurdities of the situation without being impenetrable, resulting in some quite funny moments, especially as the Punisher tries to implement serious business and gets a very different response from the norm. The wider crossover is more a backdrop to this issue than a direct driver of events, but it works to confirm the unusual nature of the situation and add to the tensions. This mini-series continues to be a fun little side part of the overall event.

Damage Control (volume 2) #2 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)
• Damage Control: The Complete Collection (2015)

Avengers Spotlight 27 - Acts of Vengeance

This series now returns to the usual format of two separate strips with different creative teams, though both take part in the crossover.

Avengers Spotlight #27

Writer: Howard Mackie (first)
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie (second
Penciler: Al Milgrom (first)
Penciler: Dwayne Turner (second)
Inker: Don Heck (first)
Inker: Chris Ivy (second)
Letterer: Jack Morelli (all)
Colourist: George Roussos (first)
Colourist: Mike Rockwitz (second)
Editor: Mark Gruenwald (all)
Editor II: Gregory Wight (second only)
Editor III: Tom DeFalco (all)

First up is the series's regular Hawkeye strip. This is quite a straightforward tale of Boomerang being recruited by the mysterious stranger who convinces him he can't beat Iron Man but can instead score a victory over Hawkeye. The two clash in New York with explosive results. It's interesting to note that it's the mysterious stranger who here recruits Boomerang, rather than one of the six leaders he's assembled, and given the stranger's powers such as being able to transport himself instantaneously it does raise the question as to why he even needed to assemble an alliance of leading villains, especially as they haven't yet done much together. The combination of boomerangs against arrows seems so obvious that it's a surprise that it hadn't been done before, though as Hawkeye had only had a regular solo strip since the start of this series there may not have been the opportunity. The fight results in a lot of damage from Boomerang's weapons, setting a building on fire. Hawkeye has to rescue a woman trapped on the upper level, but her reaction is a reminder that not everyone is so grateful for superheroes and all they bring. It's good to see the proposed Super Human Registration Act is having an impact beyond the Fantastic Four issues in which it's being discussed and that heroes bring trouble as well as salvation.

The second strip headlines no less than five of the reserve Avengers, Firebird, Captain Marvel (this is Monica Rambeau), Moondragon, Black Widow and Hellcat, as they struggle with the Awesome Android near the site of the sunken Avengers Island. This gives the opportunity for a lot of former female members to be seen again. It's also a good consequential story as it focuses on the continued salvage efforts, with the discovery that several androids that were held in suspended animation have escaped, making for good use of continuity and allowing for the fact that with such a disparate group drawn from different eras it's probable that some of them will have encountered the foe - indeed Captain Marvel was leading the team at the time the Android was taken down. Unfortunately with five leads plus Stingray all competing for attention in the space of eleven pages there's not a great deal of development and the resolution is totally deus ex machina as Captain Marvel shows up and immediately fishes out the right equipment to neutralise a foe against whom the use of powers is counterproductive.

The two-strip nature means both tales are relatively brief but the lead puts in a standard piece of foe switching whilst the latter takes a different angle of foes released in the action. Unfortunately there's not enough space for much development and the latter has too great a cast of heroes for the space available but otherwise these are making a good effort to build on the wider events and show the consequences.

Avengers Spotlight #27 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)

Iron Man 252 - Acts of Vengeance

The next Iron Man issue once more sees Iron Man take on a foe whose powers make for a pretty even match but whom he hasn't encountered before. Chemistro had been previously confined to battling Luke Cage in his various identities but now gets greater exposure. There's also a small power enhancement as the Wizard has turned the alchemy gun into wrist blasters, making Chemistro harder to disarm.

Iron Man #252

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Penciler: Herb Trimpe
Inker: Al Milgom
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colourist: Paul Becton
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

This is in fact the third Chemistro, brother to the first who has reformed and now works for Stark Prosthetics. Unfortunately this leads to a little confusion at times because the story isn't always certain which of the Carr brothers is Curtis and which is Calvin, with the names leaping back and forth. There's element of sibling rivalry to the tale as the younger brother and current Chemistro aims to come out from his brother's shadow by disposing of Iron Man but he's also a mercenary for hire. Indeed such is his business approach that when Iron Man gets angry about the cost of the damage to the compound, Chemistro turns a building into gold as reimbursement. The ability to change the elements in an object is a strange power but given an explanation here of being generated a form of radiation that's never been duplicated. As pseudoscience explanations go, it's far from the worst in the Marvel universe.

Iron Man finds himself battling a foe who can both easily destroy his armour and trap him with a single blast, thus requiring a lot of ingenuity to overcome and defeat the villain. He's helped by the loyalty of those around him, most notably the elder Carr brother and James "Rhodey" Rhodes, showing how far Iron Man is from the obnoxious jerk he has been portrayed as from time to time. There are also some good moments for Tony Stark out of the armour, in one case literally so when the armour is turned to lead and then destroyed with acid, resulting in Tony in just his underwear having to hitch-hike his way back to the office.

Although the action scenes mean the plot is somewhat slight, this is still a pretty solid issue that continues to show the lead character and title in a favourable light whilst finding a credible foe for him to battle. It also does a good job at explaining his absence from the other Avengers during the "Acts of Vengeance" so far.

Iron Man #252 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Iron Man Epic Collection: Doom (2018)

Iron Man 251 - Acts of Vengeance

With Iron Man having just finished an adventure against Doctor Doom it's understandable that arranging foes to fight him will be a task taken on by other members of the leading villains, even though we only briefly glimpse one of them here. But even just name-checking the Kingpin and then showing the Wizard is a helpful step away from the over dominance of Doom that we've seen so far. And the villain sent against Iron Man is an interesting choice.

Iron Man #251

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Penciler: Herb Trimpe
Inker: Al Milgom
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Paul Becton
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Wrecker and Iron Man have encountered each before, in Secret Wars, but at the time that was James Rhodes in the armour pretending to be the original Iron Man, whilst now since the events of "Armor Wars" Tony Stark is pretending to be a new Iron Man with the original supposedly having died. Nice and simple it is not. Fortunately no time is wasted in arguing over whether or not they've met before. It's actually a surprise that they haven't as the Wrecker is the sort of foe that would be a natural fit for the series.

This issue is from one of those awkward periods on a title when a creative team moves on and no successor has yet emerged. As a result it's handled by the fill-in team of writer Dwayne McDuffie and artist Herb Trimpe. Trimpe had drawn a few previous issues over the years but this is McDuffie's first work on the series. It's a pretty straightforward issue that first shows some relatively routine business first as Iron Man performs a small scale action (here rescuing a family in a car on a broken bridge) and then as Tony Stark he goes to see over some of his latest projects, here Stark Prosthetics, a special research facility to help the disabled, run by Curtis Carr who was the original Chemistro until he lost his foot. Then the Wrecker attacks.

A large chunk of the issue is given over to the fight but it's somewhat disappointing. The Wrecker is pulling up trees and using them as missiles, but it seems odd that they are strong enough to bring the lab roof down. The fight sees Iron Man struggle on despite damage to his armour, while both Rhodey and Curtis try to help in their own ways - but Curtis's efforts are unsuccessful as the Wizard has already hired his brother. This leaves Iron Man to find a way to take down his foe himself.

This is something of a slight issue, combining some character development with a lengthy action sequence, but really does live up to the "Acts of Vengeance" premise more than many so far by setting up the hero against a credible villain he hasn't fought before. Being by a fill-in team there's no attempt to set up long term developments for the series so this instead serves as a showcase piece for the title and the crossover.

Iron Man #251 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Iron Man Epic Collection: Doom (2018)

Damage Control 1 - Acts of Vengeance

The next series involved is actually quite a surprise. Today crossover events get supported by numerous limited series, but it used to be the case that there was, at most, a single series containing the core of a crossover and everything else was told in issues of ongoing titles. The idea of doing a special mini-series about a specific group of characters and tying the whole thing into a big event was years before its time. But then Damage Control has never been exactly conventional.

Damage Control (volume 2) #1

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: Ernie Colon
Letters: Rick Parker
Colours: John Wellington
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

This is the second of a number of limited series featuring perhaps the most obvious but overlooked element of the Marvel universe - the special repairs company. Damage Control are the people the authorities turn to in order to repair structures after the damaging effects of superhero battles. It's such an obvious but mundane function that the series goes for a lot of comedy and throws in the complication of changes of corporate control for added effect. Given the damage that "Acts of Vengeance" will likely generate, it's easy to see the attraction of piggybacking on it. However it also means there's an almost satirical take on the concept as part of the actual continuity (although I've seen some chronologies that try to decanonise it). Worse still this issue comes so early in the cycle that we're getting the humour before we've really had any of the main action.

All that said, the issue itself is a decent comedy piece. It pokes fun at the absurdities of both trying to bring quick repairs to damaged structures (in this case the George Washington Bridge) and corporate manoeuvres, whilst also showing a mess as a plea for help from the Vault accidentally gets sent to Damage Control who assume they're being asked to assess the damage and so send in a team not realising the criminals are still around. The biggest failing in the story's internal logic is the Wrecker's crowbar and Thunderball's wrecking ball being stored at the same prison as the criminals without explanation, allowing them to recover their powers in the jail break. The battle of wits to survive and escape, combined with a later arrival by Captain America, adds to the humour with the funniest scene being when the Wrecker decides to demonstrate his power by smashing through a pillar, only for John Porter (the account executive) to casually point out it's a supporting beam and this brings the roof down. The characters are a fairly typical cross section of office life, including various stereotypes such as the competent manager who fears they're out of their depth and will soon be found out, the lustful intern, the technical whiz and so forth.

Overt comedy in superhero comics is a refined taste so this issue may not be to everyone's liking. In itself it's a pretty fun piece, offering a nice take on how the consequences of all the events are dealt with. But as the second main chapter of such an important crossover (and the way it's billed on the cover leaves little doubt), it's an unfortunate interlude and it's easy to see why it's been subsequently relegated out of the main event issues and even out of continuity altogether.

Damage Control (volume 2) #1 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)
• Damage Control: The Complete Collection (2015)

Avengers Spotlight 26 - Acts of Vengeance

We now come to the first main issue of the crossover. Avengers Spotlight was originally launched under the more explicit title of Solo Avengers and consisted of two stories each issue - a regular feature with Hawkeye and a rotating featuring starring just about any Avenger going. The series was retitled a few issues before this one as part of a drive to have all three Avengers books placed side by side on shelves, boosting the franchise mentality. Structuring the year's mega crossover around the Avengers was clearly another part of this drive.

Avengers Spotlight #26

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie (all)
Penciler: Dwayne Turner (all)
Inker: Chris Ivy (all)
Letterer: Richard Starkings (first)
Letterer: Jack Morelli (second)
Colourist: Paul Becton (all)
Editor: Mark Gruenwald (all)
Managing Editor: Gregory Wight (second only)
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco (all)

This issue is a slight deviation from the norm for the title. Both slots have been given over to the same story "Tales from the Vault", presented in two chapters with only the letterer changing between the two. The first chapter doesn't actually feature any Avengers and instead focuses on the Guardsmen, an elite armoured unit who patrol the Vault, a special prison for super powered criminals, as they put away the Wizard only for him to initiate a mass jailbreak. The second chapter sees Iron Man and Hawkeye enter the Vault to mop up the criminals inside, amidst a tense relationship.

There's some good use of continuity here, building on the Iron Man story "Armor Wars" where Iron Man set out to destroy all the other armour using his technology, including the Guardsmen's and caused chaos in the Vault. Subsequently Tony Stark claimed that Iron Man had gone rogue and died, with a new Iron Man appointed to replace him but many Avengers including Hawkeye never accepted this story as they know his identity. As Iron Man has only recently returned to the Avengers it's natural that the tensions continue, making Hawkeye's suspicions feel realistic rather than tensions for the sake of it. There's also a reminder of just what a minor player the Wizard has become in the Marvel universe. Back in the 1960s he was the archenemy of the Human Torch in the latter's solo strips in Strange Tales and also headed up a team of existing villains against the Fantastic Four, a task usually handled by a major league foe. But now he's sunk into irrelevance and the guards either treat him as a joke or have never heard of him. As we'll see, his use in the storyline has almost certainly been determined by his 1960s role and is one of a number of signs of throwbacks to that era.

Otherwise the formal start to the saga is actually quite low key with the mysterious stranger's conversation with the Wizard mostly taking place out of earshot. It's a reminder of how the structure of a crossover can be distorted by the order in which the titles come out in a particular month, though the alternative can be some very bizarre issues featuring none of the regular cast (or even former cast) simply because of which chapter comes.

Avengers Spotlight #26 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)