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Avengers Re-Read: The 1980s - Part 1 10/15/2014 11:25:57 AM
[A version of this post originally appeared on thunderalleybcp.com on October 1, 2014]
The 1980s were a busy time for The Avengers. Some landmark stories took place, some of which continue to reverberate into the present day. The team’s line-up underwent nearly constant metamorphosis and the book dealt with the impact of events in members’ solo titles as best it could. It was also the dawn of the team’s first franchise expansion with the launch of The West Coast Avengers (fear not, WCA fans, a re-read for that series will appear in a separate post).
Much of the decade of Avengers has been made available in collections, many of them only very recently. So far the first and last years of the decade (give or take a few months) aren’t available in collected format. Avengers actually felt a bit adrift for much of the first year of the decade, despite some nice work from veteran creators Bill Mantlo and Gene Colan. The first collection picks up with what is arguably the most famous, and most controversial, Avengers story of the decade.
The Trial of Yellowjacket (Avengers #212-230)
Following the abrupt departures of several long-time Avengers, membership was refocused on original members Thor, Iron Man, Wasp (Janet Pym) and Hank Pym (then in Yellowjacket mode), plus “honorary” founding member Captain America (as Chairman) and wild card newcomer Tigra. Writer Jim Shooter immediately zeroed in on the Pyms and the trouble that the façade of their seemingly happy marriage covered. Hank, self-conscious over his recent unproductivity in his lab, was eager to relocate his self-esteem by taking an assertive role in his return to active duty with the team. His belligerent attitude and casual cruelty to his wife generated awkwardness, but his ill-advised attack (from behind, no less) on a grief-stricken sorceress that Cap had managed to calm down would have gotten him and the others killed, absent an 11th hour save by the Wasp. In the aftermath, Cap felt he had no choice but to institute a court martial against Hank, causing angst for all involved. A desperate Hank created a robot to pose a faux threat to his court martial and when Jan discovered it, a crazed Hank hit her across the face. After a dramatic confrontation with Cap at his court martial, Hank’s plot to use his robot went awry and once again, Jan saved the day.
Jan retreated for a bit to recover, while Hank, troubled and broke, spiraled downward. The rest of the team (along with a guest-starring Angel) faced an out-of-control Ghost Rider in the New Mexico desert and then teamed with the Silver Surfer to deal with the powerful Molecule Man. After the latter adventure, Tigra decided she wasn’t cut out for the big leagues and left the team. Jan, newly divorced, returned to the team and was elected Chairwoman. A destitute and desperate Hank allowed his old enemy Egghead to manipulate him into robbing a government facility, a crime for which Hank was arrested after a clash with his former teammates. The Avengers were shanghaied to a distant alien world, where they confronted former member Moondragon, who’d used her mental powers to subvert the natives’ free will in the name of peace. Returning home, the team rounded out its membership with a returning Hawkeye and new recruit She-Hulk, just in time to face off with Egghead’s new Masters of Evil. In an unusual twist, Jan began a romance with Tony Stark, who kept the fact that he was also Iron Man from her. That revelation ended their fling and sent Tony into an emotional tailspin that would dovetail with events in his own book. After Doctor Druid sent the team into the past to help old friend the Black Knight (who was finally restored to the present, in his own body), Hawkeye teamed up with the new Ant-Man against the Taskmaster. The new Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) came aboard as an Avengers trainee just in time for Hank’s trial. Iron Man’s absence worried his teammates, but they had bigger problems, as Egghead sent the Masters to abduct Hank from his trial, staging it to look as though Hank himself had engineered it. Egghead forced Hank to work on a special project for him, but in the end, Hank redeemed himself, using his work to take out the Masters single-handedly. Egghead almost shot Hank in the back, until a just-arrived Hawkeye fired an arrow that accidentally killed the villain. Hank and Hawkeye both found themselves in the clear and Hank and Jan had an emotional farewell before he departed for a new job in the Midwest, leaving his heroic life behind him.
This arc was very powerful and made excellent use of the characters’ tangled histories. At the outset, Wasp was still presented as something of a flighty airhead, but her strength and intelligence quickly came to the fore, especially once she took lead of the team. The domestic violence angle was controversial then and still rankles many fans three decades later. While heroic breakdowns are common in modern comics, at the time having an established hero like Hank go off the rails the way he did was pretty daring and not inconsistent with his past bouts of mental illness. No matter where the character has gone since, that one moment continues to haunt him.
It’s also interesting to revisit an era where it wasn’t common for the members to be in on one another’s secret identities. But the revelation of Thor and Iron Man’s identities during the Molecule Man story got that ball rolling and it was used to great effect in the Tony/Jan romantic plot.
Jim Shooter did some really strong character work during his stint, before handing the reins over to Roger Stern, who would settle in for a run that would last nearly six years. Bob Hall was the nominal regular artist for the first half of the arc, but frequent fill-in artists were necessary. Other guest artists came aboard after Hall’s departure, before Al Milgrom arrived to provide some stability. Milgrom’s clean, classic style suited the material without being too big a departure from Hall’s somewhat more detailed work. The art highlight, though, was a two-issue stint from the notoriously unprolific Alan Weiss, who did some stunning things with the Molecule Man tale. Even with a couple filler issues included, this is a strong overall collection and a necessary chapter in Avengers history for any fan of the team.
Absolute Vision, Book 1 (Avengers #231-241, Annuals #11-12, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, Fantastic Four #256 and Doctor Strange #60)
This collection starts off with a new Avengers/Defenders War from Annual #11, then spotlighted the origin of the new Captain Marvel from the Amazing Spider-Man Annual. Back in the regular book, Captain Marvel was promoted to full membership, following the abrupt departure of Iron Man (in his solo book, Tony Stark had succumbed to his alcoholism and handed off the Iron Man role to Jim Rhodes). The team dealt with a plot by the Plant-Man, who had taken over a S.H.I.E.L.D. base with plant-based doppelgangers in a scheme to ransom the U.S. President. Hawkeye received a serious leg injury in that fight, just as old ally Eros of Titan (brother of mega-villain Thanos) came to Earth and signed on as an Avengers trainee under the name Starfox. Cap and Jan had an unsettling confrontation with a boozing Tony, marking the start of a long absence from the book for that founding character. After Annual #12 sent the team to visit the Inhumans on the Moon, they landed in a cross-over with Fantastic Four. A mysterious energy field surrounded the FF’s headquarters, prelude to an attempt by villain Annhilus to destroy Earth’s dimension. The Avengers called in reservists Vision and Scarlet Witch. Vision used his density-controlling powers to enter the field, where he abruptly shut down. The Avengers and FF’s joint effort saved that day, but the Avengers then had to deal with a grievously damaged Vision. Scarlet Witch took a journey through her own past, revealing to her teammates for the first time that Magneto was her father, and then she and Captain Marvel assisted Doctor Strange against a vampire horde. The Witch went back on active duty after Thor left to deal with other issues, which, for the first time ever, gave the team a predominantly female membership. Spider-Man tried to join the team in a memorable two-part story that took them to Project Pegasus to repel an invasion by the Lava Men, before the villainous Moonstone led a group of other villains against the team. While the Vision’s body remained inert, his mind finally rebooted and Starfox hooked him up with ISAAC, the sentient computer than ran his homeworld. Vision began projecting a hologram of himself, with some noticeable personality tics. The rest of the team responded to an S.O.S. from Tigra, and missed the return of Hawkeye, with new wife Mockingbird in tow, plus the infamous issue that saw several Avengers guest star on David Letterman’s show. The rest of the team, with guest allies Tigra, the Shroud, Doctor Strange and Hank Pym, investigated the plight of original Spider-Woman Jessica Drew, whose spirit and body had been separated in the final issue of her own series. A clash with sorceress Morgan LeFay made Jessica whole, but at the expense of her powers.
The Stern/Milgrom team really hit its stride in this stretch. Their stories embody some classic superhero action, mixed with strong interpersonal drama. Stern did some excellent work developing the characters, nailing She-Hulk’s raucous personality, building Wasp into a strong and forceful leader and developing Captain Marvel into a first rate hero. Scarlet Witch is a tad more weepy than fans more used to her assertive personality would expect, but under the circumstances it made a certain amount of sense. Starfox has his detractors, but his addition did bring a certain lightness to counterbalance some of the more dramatic aspects of the series. This collection is solid, with a lot to recommend it, but is most notable as the beginning of a long journey that would permanently transform both Vision and Scarlet Witch, with major impacts on the whole Marvel Universe.
Absolute Vision, Book 2 (Avengers #242-254 and Annual #13)
The pace didn’t let up as the Stern/Milgrom team drove the series toward the climax of the Vision epic. Captain America and Thor both returned from solo adventures in time for several Avengers to get swept off to the Secret Wars mini-series. Vision, who had regained use of his body, seized control, unnerving his wife in the process. Upon the missing members’ return, the team evolved once again. She-Hulk had joined the Fantastic Four and, along with Thor, accepted a special status that accommodated her limited availability. Vision manipulated Wasp into surrendering the Chairmanship in his favor and then dispatched Hawkeye and Mockingbird to L.A. to establish the team’s West Coast branch. Vision began acting secretive and aggressive as he led the team against the alien Dire Wraiths at a Florida rocket base. In the Annual, a team faced off against Cap’s old foe Arnim Zola, who tried to purloin some tech created by Bruce Banner (a/k/a the Hulk). Wasp and Starfox crashed a party given by Sersi, one of the Eternals, and got taken to the Eternals’ hidden city. The rest of the team (except for Cap, who once again was consumed by events in his solo book) followed. Starfox discovered that his father was an Earth Eternal who left for space; he joined with the other Eternals in forming the communal “Uni-Mind” that would help them decide their future. The villainous Maelstrom attacked and began to siphon the life forces of the temporarily helpless Eternals, but once thwarted, he seemingly chose death over capture. Former member Hercules returned as Avengers crossed over into events in Thor’s solo book, as an unnatural winter and demon horde hit New York. After that, the team discovered that Maelstrom was alive and planning to drain the Earth of its rotational force. They teamed up with the West Coast team to thwart Maelstrom. In the aftermath of that caper, Vision contemplated making use of a machine that would allow him to seize control of Earth’s computers, essentially taking over the world, but at the cost of his individuality. He wavered, but an incident of anti-mutant vandalism prompted him forward. Wasp took a vacation in the Caribbean, where she flirts with soldier of fortune Paladin while thwarting a hotel robbery. Vision sent Captain Marvel on a fake deep space mission and dispatched the rest of the team to deal with an uncovered Thanos base in the southwest, where they fought the Blood Brothers. The Black Knight returned just as Vision implemented his plan. A the team, along with Wonder Man, attempted to stop him, Vision realized he couldn’t handle the power he was siezing and almost dissipated entirely, before freeing himself and overcoming remnants of old conditioning that had driven him.
The pace never let up in this stretch. Stern did a fantastic job of pacing all the events and of depicting the Vision’s paranoia and descent into monomania. The concern of other members, especially the Scarlet Witch, provided a compelling emotional backdrop. This story set the stage for major developments with the Vision/Witch couple going forward and is a crucial part of the franchise’s history. There were some minor flaws, most glaringly a sub-plot in which Quicksilver learns that Magneto assaulted his and the Witch’s old nanny that went nowhere, but overall it’s a vital stretch. Milgrom did his usual strong, clean work, but departed after the 250th issue to launch the West Coast ongoing. Old friend Bob Hall stepped in to handle art on the final few issues of the Vision story, bringing it to a strong close. Also of note was art from the legendary Steve Ditko, with John Byrne on inks, in the Annual. Overall, a highly recommended read.
