The Invaders #15

The Invaders #15 (April 1977)
title: "God Save the King!"
writer: Roy Thomas
penciller: Frank Robbins
inker: Frank Springer
letterer: John Costanza
colorist: Don Warfield
editor: Roy Thomas
letter column: Roy Thomas
cover: Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott

Order of Appearance: Dyna-Mite, Tommy Lightning, Captain Wings, Spirit of '76, Thunder Fist, and Ghost Girl

Guest Stars:  The Invaders (Captain America, Bucky, the Human Torch, Toro, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Spitfire) 

Supporting Characters: 

Lord Falsworth, his butler Hotchkins, King George VI

Opponents:
Alfie the Nazi spy, Adolf Hitler (behind the scenes)

Overall Summary: 
The Crusaders have been made King George VI's Royal Guard, but they have been led to believe that the Invaders are Nazis. What's worse, they are dupes of true Nazis, and King George's life is in danger!  

The Invaders #14

The Invaders #14 (March 1977)
title: "Calling....The Crusaders!"
writer: Roy Thomas
penciller: Frank Robbins
inker: Frank Springer
letterer: Joe Rosen
colorist: Marie Severin
editor: Roy Thomas
letter column: Roy Thomas
cover: Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott

Order of Appearance: Spirit of '76, Dyna-Mite, Ghost Girl, Tommy Lightning, Captain Wings, and Thunder Fist

Guest Stars:  The Invaders (Captain America, Bucky, the Human Torch, Toro, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Spitfire) 

Supporting Characters: 

Lord Falsworth, his butler Hotchkins, King George VI, Alfie the cab driver

Opponents:
unnamed Nazi spy, unnamed Nazi Luftwaffe crew, Adolf Hitler (behind the scenes)

Overall Summary: 
The All-New Almost All-British Crusaders arrive in London and help out during the Blitz. The next day, they want to take the Invaders' place as King George's personal body-guards.  

The Freedom Fighters vs. The Invaders

The Freedom Fighters vs. The Invaders! 

Hypothesis: 
The Freedom Fighters' appearance fighting Nazis in the pages of Justice League of America #s107-108 inspired Roy Thomas to create The Invaders, his World War II era Nazi-fighting super-group for Marvel. 

Please, let me present my case....

Wednesday Comics: The Invaders

I have always read comic-books. I of course love new stuff, but like new TV, movies, or music you sometimes don't enjoy it as much as you would hope. However, with OLD stuff, you can relive the joy over and over again.

This time I want to talk about a little-known but much-loved series called The Invaders. It was published by Marvel during the mid-70s (1975 ~1979 to be precise). It starred Captain America and his young partner Bucky, the Golden Age Human Torch and his young partner Toro, and the Sub-Mariner. Although it was published in the Seventies, it was actually set during the early days of World War 2...early 1942, I believe.

Daredevil by Mark Waid Vol. 1

Here Comes....DAREDEVIL

writer: Mark Waid

artists: 
Paolo Rivera & Joe Rivera (1-3)
and Marcos Martin (4-6)
editor: Stephen Wacker

Happy Birthday, Walt Simonson!

Walt with his lovely wife, Louise

Today is the 69th birthday of artist and writer extraordinaire, Walt Simonson!

Jack Kirby's 98th Birthday

Today would have been Jack "The King" Kirby's 98th birthday.

Read Comics in Public Day 8-28-2016

Tomorrow August 28 is Jack "The King" Kirby's birthday. It is therefore celebrated internationally as Read Comics In Public Day. 

On Seeing CAPTAIN AMERICA 2...

I saw CAPTAIN AMERICA 2: WINTER SOLDIER last week. There were a few reasons why I wanted to see it: Captain America is one of my favorite super-heroes, I like Chris Evans as an actor, I liked the idea of seeing his story of being "a man out of his time" explored more on screen, and I had heard that the movie was good.

Here's the skinny: I still like Cap, I still like Chris Evans, and I hated this movie. I hated this film for what it was compared to what it wasn't or what it could have been. In fact, I hate it so deeply on that level that I don't believe I will be watching any more Marvel films for the foreseeable future.

There may be spoilers in this review, but not in the traditional sense. "Spoilers" should be something revelatory, like "Rosebud is a sled!" or "The narrator is actually the murderer!" In my opinion, telling you that Cap is not a traitor should not be considered a spoiler. If you watch this film and at any time begin to actually entertain the idea that Cap might be a traitor, you're watching the wrong movie. Also, you're a super-hero idiot.

So that's my first, and most important, complaint: that the story is built around a huge fault line. The story involves the evil organization HYDRA trying to take over SHIELD. This is a fine idea for a story. However, the minute that the film tries to suggest that the heroes are part of the conspiracy, and actually want (expect?) you to consider it....? Now they're *making* the wrong film. It boils down to this, people: between Captain America, Black Widow, and Nick Fury on one side and a big-name politician and bureaucrat on the other, is it *really* a mystery as to who the traitors are? Riiiiiiiight.

However, we all know that a movie with a stupid plot can still "pass" on the "large" scale if it succeeds at all its "little" scenes. So let's move past the inanity of the basic plot to look at my second complaint: the inanities of the overall script. A few examples:

As mentioned above, HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD, setting up what you might expect as a nifty spy vs. spy scenario, right? Nope. Once it is hinted that SHIELD has been compromised, we get scenes of police officers destroying civilians' cars, SHIELD agents shooting up downtown Washington, and SHIELD agents trying to arrest/kill Black Widow and Captain America. In only *one* scene do we get even an inkling that the whole place is not a cauldron of HYDRA spies. So if you're working for an international spy agency and you don't notice that it is infested with traitors committing wanton acts of destruction, you probably need to be in another line of work. Or threaten the writers to write you a better script. SHIELD is absolutely incompetent in this film, which doesn't make me want to watch the TV series or any more Marvel films...

The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) is introduced as a trained military flier, with his own nifty jet-pack and wings. Personable and visually appealing, he's a great addition to the story. However, in his big action scene he is told to fly to one of the rogue hovercraft carriers and switch out some software to re-program the laser guidance system. You would expect him to fly in covertly, as stealthily as he could, and get the job done, maybe meeting up with some HYDRA agents and having an aerial fight of some kind as he attempted to get away. You would be wrong. He flies into the sky to draw as much attention and gun-fire as he possibly can, *then* tries to find the software portal. I guess this was supposed to be "cool," but all I could think was "one stray bullet and bye-bye Falcon!" Besides, most of this "action" featured computer graphics, so what was the point? This isn't drama, this is a computer game.

Another example is the Winter Soldier himself. He stays in the shadows during the first third of the film. As soon as Captain America sees his unmasked face, however, he discards the mask and starts standing around in the daytime, posing. This is a character who has been a "ghost" for 60+ years, but now all of a sudden he isn't shy? This doesn't make any sense. Of course, this change is because Marvel paid Sebastian Stan plenty of money to be the Winter Soldier, so we want to see his face. This is the same reason that Chris Evans tends to keep his mask off, too, and why Scarlett Johansson and Anthony Mackie are never given masks: lots of fans paid to see Chris Evan and Scarlett Johansson etc, and not just part of it behind some silly comic-book mask. That's fine for Hollywood, but it's not good Marvel story-telling. And not to beat a dead-horse, but WTH is wrong with the traditional Captain America costume? Why does Hollywood have to change it? I don't understand it.

Speaking of Winter Soldier and Captain America, their last fight is because Cap wants to change the software on the third aircraft carrier, but Soldier has been ordered to stop him. So they fight. And they fight. And they fight. Mostly in extreme close-up and at super-fast exposure. Finally (!), Cap is shot and left for dead but STILL manages to change the guidance system AT THE LAST POSSIBLE SECOND. Yes, there is countdown, and on "zero," Cap makes the switch. This isn't drama, this is comedy, and the joke is on us.


Now, I do want to take a few minutes to talk about some of the things about the film that I *did* like. It definitely did have its share of "moments." I just wish there had been more of them. In fact, I was hoping that the film would be more intimate and personal, perhaps showing us how Steve Rogers is coping with being a man from the wrong era. Every scene where Chris Evans is with Anthony Mackie as the Falcon, trying to build a friendship away from "work," was excellent. Scenes with him and Scarlett Johansson as they work at actually becoming friends are likewise terrific. The scenes between him and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, arguing politics or grappling with their mutual trust issues, were also great. In one scene the Falcon talks to him about who Marvin Gaye is, and at the end of the conversation Cap pulls out a notebook and says, "I'll add him to the list." THIS is more of what I wanted to see. Instead we get a lot of big explosions. Boom.

Lastly, too much time is spent on the Winter Soldier and his back story without ever really resolving anything. He is the center of the entire conspiracy and history of HYDRA, but at the end...what? He doesn't get a huge dramatic "I'm broken!" scene, nor does he get a "It's too late to save me!" scene. We know or can guess what happened to him to turn him into this cyborg (?), but at the end he knocks Cap out and simply walks off, leaving us with the plot of Captain America 3. No, thanks.

The last thing I want to tell you is my favorite scene in the movie. Robert Redford as the  head of some UN Security Council organization is interviewing someone in his home. When he opens his refrigerator, we can very clearly see that he has a jar of Paul Newman pasta sauce sitting there. Great in-joke and tribute to the great actor.

Captain America

Seeing as how Wednesday Comics comes on July 3 this year, let's talk about the most patriotic character in all of comics....the one-and-only, often imitated but never duplicated CAPTAIN AMERICA.

I don't know the history of this character other than that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created him in the fall of 1940. They were against the Nazis and what was happening in Europe at the time, although the US was not yet at war. The cover of Captain America #1 (shown here) has Cap knocking Hitler in the jaw.

Think about that for a minute. It's easy to imagine this scene now, some 70 years later. However in 1940 this was Cap hitting an actual, sitting leader of a well-known country! According to Joe Simon's autobiography Marvel got complaints and for awhile he and Kirby had to have police protection at their studio. Still, the comic sold more than one million copies.

From that austere beginning Captain America has been a part of the US popular culture almost non-stop. He existed in the Fifties for a few years, but was retired when the vast majority of super-hero comics were cancelled. He returned in The Avengers #4 (1964) and has been around ever since.

One of my favorite runs on his book was during the Watergate Scandal, when Cap questioned his allegiance to the US. He actually dropped his Captain America identity for a few issues and was known as Nomad. He eventually realized that America is more than just who happens to be President at any given time and resumed his Cap identity.

Personally, one of the reasons I like Captain America is because of his origin. He was scrawny, weak Steve Rogers but he still wanted to help the war effort. He couldn't enlist (4-F) but he was determined to help out in some way. Scientists use him as a guinea pig for their Super Soldier formula, and the rest is history. The important point, however, is that he *used* to be the bullied. He wasn't one of the privileged, rich, jock types; he was the bullied kid who eventually turns the tables on the bullies.

Another good Captain America was more recent. Immediately after 9-11 he appeared in several Marvel Comics as a type of focal point. One of the best stories from this time had him come across a group of bullies who wanted to beat up on a Muslim teenager. Cap stood up for the kid and basically told the bullies, "Americans don't do that. We don't stoop to the other guys' level." THAT is why Captain America is cool.

  

National Library Week: Wednesday Comic Book Books

To mark National Library Week, this week I am writing about some of my favorite books in my chosen topics: Monday Music, TV Tuesday, Wednesday Comics, and Film Fridays. Today being Wednesday, let's talk about some of my favorite books about comics. 

 

Marvel Comics Index #3 THE AVENGERS, DEFENDERS, & CAPTAIN MARVEL

I'm sorry to say I don't know who wrote this book, as I no longer have it! :-( I bought it sometime in the late 70s when I was a die-hard Avengers and Defenders fan. It filled in cracks in my knowledge regarding earlier issues of these two series. If you don't know who the Avengers are, what the hell are you doing HERE!? So I'll talk about The Defenders; they were another Marvel super-hero team, founded mostly so that The Hulk could appear in another series. He started out as an Avenger but that didn't work out. Teamed up with other so-called "rebels" Doctor Strange and Namor the Sub-Mariner he found friendship. And Marvel found another hit series.

 

This book featured a photo of the cover of each issue, a credit about who worked on it, and a plot synopsis. It was quite fun to try to imagine these early issues, which to this day I haven't taken the time and money to track down.

 

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES by Paul Levitz & Steve Crow

Although this book is ostensibly a Role Playing Reference, because it was written by then-LSH writer Paul Levitz its history and character profiles are actually canon. The history of the Legion, for example, is a hugely helpful timeline of who did what when. And if there ever needed to be a guide to a group's members, the Legion is it! They are profiled chronologically in the order that they appeared and joined the Legion  (again, ostensibly so that you could pick which characters you want to use in your game). I bought this right before I went back to Japan to live, and in lieu of new comics this was a god-send.

 

For several years I didn't have any new comic-book books. I was in Japan, and if I could get real comics I was happy. I did read a few books about "manga" or Japanese comics, but none of them really made any deep impression on me. I did read Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy and many many many others) and Kenji Nakazawa (Barefoot Gen) but those were the comics, not books about them.

 

When I finally got back to the US I was again more interested in reading actual comics and not books about comics. Until I got to these few treasures....

 

The Legion Companion by Glen Cadigan

It was a good day when I discovered Two-Morrows Publishing. They write books about comics, and they do a very good job at it. They have biographies and profiles on artists and writers as well as a series of "Companion" guides, of which I have bought three. The first I found was dedicated to the Legion of Super-Heroes. If you are not a Legion fan, you probably will not understand the appeal, but this is a group that started out as a throw-away idea in some otherwise non-descript Superboy story then went on to become one of DC's greatest teams ever. That is quite the accomplishment, and with a history of more than 50 years there is a lot of space to cover.

 

This book is based on the behind-the-scenes stuff. So with the previous book telling us what happened during the year that Invisible Kid was the leader, this book tells us why Jim Shooter stopped writing the series and the editor replaced it with Supergirl. Interesting stuff for those of us who love these characters.  Plus the book features dozens and dozens of sketches and never-before-seen art by a legion of Legion artists. That's the good stuff!

Teenagers From The Future edited by Timothy Callahan

This time, it's an obscure book written *about* the Legion and their universe. I happened to find this  in a comic-book store in my original home town of University City, Missouri when I was there visiting family. (Shout out to the Star Clipper in The Loop!) There are more than a dozen chapters in this book with such titles as The Death and Resurrection of Lightning Lad, Women in the Early Legioin, Gender Identity & Homosexuality in the Legion, and The Racial Politics of the Legion. If you don't know the Legion (see note above) then you won't understand just how cool it is to read what others have to say about whether Element Lad is gay or why the second Invisible Kid is not a strong black man.

1000 Comic Books You Must Read by Tony Isabella
Full disclosure: I have met the author of this book and he is a helluva nice guy.
Still, that being said, I think that this book is probably the best historical overview of the comic-book industry. Almost all of the other books you can find are just about DC or just about Marvel or whatever; this book highlights the books that you should know if you're going to call yourself a comic-book fan. Obviously, most of them are before my time. Still, there are quite a few that I have, I have read, or that I have heard of (For example, I'm not a big horror guy, so although I was aware of Marvel's Dracula and Ghost Rider series, I never bought them.) Tony breaks them up by decades and once we get into the 80s and 90s and beyond there are plenty of books here that I would like to track down. In fact, I need to get this off the shelf and roam through my library to see if I can find any new collections to read.  

 

Walt Kelly The Life & Times of The Creator of POGO
by Thomas Andrae & Carsten Laqua
Wow, that's quite a mouthful of a title for such a little character! If you are not familiar with Walt Kelly's adorable (but quite political) comic-strip POGO, you owe it to yourself to go to your local library and check out something about him. This is brand new from 2012 so your library may not have this, but there should be POGO-phile or I GO POGO or other titles available. This one is an in-depth examination of Mr. Kelly himself, from his artistic work in high school to his initial career at Walt Disney to his comic-book work (he did OUR GANG/LITTLE RASCALS the comic-book) to his classic comic strip. It's fun and historically interesting stuff, so I heartily recommend it.

The Seven Scariest Super-Villains

Art by Alex Ross

BOO! 
THE SCARIEST SUPER-VILLAINS OF ALL TIME!

This being Halloween AND "Wednesday Comics" day, I figured I should tell you who *I* think are the seven scariest super-villains in comics. However, one quick note: I didn't include the Uber-Cosmic characters like Darkseid or Galactus. Yes, anybody who could show up and actually EAT Earth is pretty damn scary. Still, they are obviously "fantastic" characters and therefore not quite as scary as pseudo-real characters. For example, the shark in JAWS is infinitely more scary than Godzilla, right? Both menaces could actually get you if you enter into their reality, but one would require a step and one a whole leap to get there! Anyway, that's my logic and I'm sticking to it. Ready?!

art by Steve Ditko

7. THE GREEN GOBLIN
This is a character that has become scarier and scarier as his history has gotten longer and longer. At first he was just another weird Spider-Man villain, throwing pumpkin bombs on people while robbing banks. Then, as his back story was slowly revealed we learned that he was the father of Spider-Man's best friend. He was the victim of poison gas that made him into a schizophrenic. He was a sadist and a murderer. As we learned these things, THE GREEN GOBLIN went from being a guy in a goofy goblin costume to the one threat that Spider-Man had to stop. He was willing to hurt anyone to get to Spider-Man, including his own son. And in one of the greatest Spider-Man stories ever, he also killed Spider-Man's first girl-friend, Gwen Stacy. Now, his costume isn't so much goofy as it is chilling.

art by John Romita, Sr

art by Carmine Infantino

6. THE SCARECROW
Throw the loveable Ray Bolger "Scarecrow" image out the window, this Batman villain's main schtick is fear. He can make you fear anything, either something you really do fear or something he makes up for you. Which would be worse? He once made Superman afraid of flying, and Aquaman afraid of water. He once tried to cripple Batman by making him imagine that Robin had been killed. That's all pretty damn impressive. THE SCARECROW could read you like a cheap pulp novel and have you quivering on the floor whispering, "mommy!" in a minute. Don't mess with him.

art by Steve Lightle

5. THE FATAL FIVE 
Most super-villain groups fall into one of two categories: they are either made-up of established characters, such as The Legion of Doom on TV's SUPER FRIENDS, or they are made from whole-cloth as their own entity, such as The X-Men's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or the Legion of Super-Heroes' greatest foes, THE FATAL FIVE. They were accidentally put together by the Legion to help them defeat a menace they could not handle alone; once the menace went away, THE FIVE did not. Tharok, the evil cyborg, is the leader. Emerald Empress is like an evil and fashion-conscious Green Lantern. The Persuader owns an atomic axe that can cut through anything. Mano wields the touch of death; he destroyed his entire home-planet because he hated them so. Validus is a giant hulk of a creature who can also shoot electrical blasts out of his brain. Each of these characters are bad-asses in their own right; banded together, the fear level is FIVE and climbing.

art by Scott Kollins

4. GORILLA GRODD
When I was a kid, I made up comic-book stories. One of my stories featured a group I called "The League of Fear." It featured characters like The Lizard, The Tarantula, Two-Face, THE SCARECROW, and this guy. He's a gorilla. Have you seen gorillas? They are f'ing HUGE. Go to a zoo and just imagine one of them getting loose. That's enough to make most people pee in their pants right there. Then make this escaped gorilla into GRODD, who has mental telepathy that puts Martian Manhunter or Saturn Girl to shame. Oh, and he has an ego the size of Africa and he thinks he's much better than us silly humans. Put it all together and we are talking absolute fear! Come on, I ask you: what is scarier than a gorilla smarter than you are?!  

art by George Perez

3. ULTRON
There are several robotic villains who are out to destroy mankind; DC's BRAINIAC comes to mind. BRAINIAC would have made this list, but his green android look had him sporting short-shorts, not the most fear-inducing clothing (unless they are worn by grossly obese people), while his later mechanical look always conjured up images of him as a SUPER POWER action figure, so...minus points for that. Besides,  no robotic villain has been shown to have the heartlessness, the ruthlessness, the sheer cold-bloodedness of Marvel's ULTRON. He has come very close to wiping out all of humanity on several occasions. It's only the power and team-work of The Avengers who keep the rest of us safe. ULTRON would destroy you in a heart-beat....yours, not his, because he doesn't have one.... so stay waaay clear of him.

Artist unknown

2. THE RED SKULL
First, his appearance is one of the creepiest you could possibly imagine. The recent CAPTAIN AMERICA film got that look right; he was down-right scary. Second, he's a Nazi. Nazis are scary; that should go without saying. And Third, he's a megalomaniac scientific genius. That can't be good. Not only has he tried to destroy the majority of the world on several occasions, THE RED SKULL has also turned Cap against his partner, The Falcon, and has killed or tried to kill the people around Cap for years. Not a nice guy (see: reference above about him being a Nazi, d'uh!)

art by Marshall Rogers

1. THE JOKER
Probably no one is surprised to see THE JOKER on this list. I mean, he was portrayed so menacingly in the recent DARK KNIGHT RETURNS movie by Heath Ledger. His over-the-top never-can-trust-him character trait is what makes THE JOKER one of the scariest villains out there. Let me try to explain it from the point of view of one of his henchmen: you get out of the pen, you need a job, you show up at the henchmen temp agency and instead of getting somebody safe like Mirror Master or The Penguin, you're told that THE JOKER is looking for people. Yikes! This is the guy who kills his henchmen like other people kill flies. In several of his appearances THE JOKER murders people simply because they are in his way. Yeah, if you are un-lucky enough to ever meet this guy, pray you survive.

art by Neal Adams

Happy Birthday, Spiderman!

On August 1, 1962 the comic-book called ADULT FANTASY #15 went on sale. It was its last issue, an anthology book that just hadn't caught on. No matter how much Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and other talents tried to make their stories interestingly similar to "Twilight Zone" or "Tales of the Unexpected," the title just wasn't selling. Issue #15 would be its last.

So Stan Lee decided to publish a story of a superhero character who, he was continually told,  wasn't worth much, anyway. He had thought of kind of an "anti-hero" character and wanted to use him. His  publisher didn't think he was commercial enough. Certainly Steve Ditko drew him as kind of creepy-looking in his mask and gangly and unattractive out of it. Stan Lee liked it, though. He didn't want another Jack Kirby "HERO." He wanted something different . He figured they had nothing to lose.

Turns out they had everything to gain. That comic presented Spider-Man to the world. When sales on that issue came in several months later, Marvel was shocked that it had sold so well. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 went on sale in March, 1963. Spider-Man eventually became Marvel's   flag-ship character. He has been on televison, cartoons, movies, rock albums, Broadway, and amusement park rides. There are millions of dollars of merchandise out there with his likeness plastered on it. He is known all over the world.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SPIDER-MAN!

And a HUGE "thank you" to Stan Lee,

Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko for creating you in the first place!!

Magnificent Seven: The Avengers

I have seen THE AVENGERS, and I thought it was long and overly talkative. The last 1/4 was pretty good, although during most of the film I kept thinking, WHY did they pick these characters? And that got me thinking....what if YOU were in charge, and you could have picked the seven members? My guess is you would not have picked the seven that appeared in the movie!

There have literally been dozens of different Avengers, so if you were in charge, ala a government edict of some kind, mandating who would be in the group, there would be quite a lot of drama in the choice. In fact, long-term fans of the comic-book already recognize that scenario as the main plot of THE AVENGERS #181 (March 1979).

Now, I am going to go out on a limb and say that I am not going to choose any of the super-powerful characters for my Ultimate Avengers line-up. In my opinion, none of the super-powerful characters need to have "team-ups." Sure, in the AVENGERS movie they were fighting an alien invasion. On the other hand, do you really think seven people (six really, not counting Nick Fury) could have stopped it? There should have been cameos by Spider-Man, Daredevil, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four! But I get off topic. I only want to say that you won't find Thor, The Hulk, or Hercules on this list. Not only because of the power disparancy, but because I don't see these guys as "joiners."

1. CAPTAIN AMERICA
This is the obvious choice, and I don't see how anyone could question his inclusion. In a better movie, he would have had more of the Nick Fury lines and Col Fury would have been a supporting character. He's fast, he's strong, he's smart, and he's got leadership and military training. One of the scenes I really liked in the movie is when Cap (played by Chris Evans) takes it upon himself to order some of the police around, and then, after disposing of an alien or five, walks off while we hear the police chief barking those same orders at his staff. Captain America belongs to and with this group. As Stan Lee himself says, "Nuff Said."


2. IRON MAN
The friendship between Iron Man and Captain America should be the moral and emotional core of The Avengers. Although their friendship has taken some hits during the recent MARVEL event, the terrible "Civil War" storyline, I believe they really are friends. They may move apart temporarily, but there is a respect and affection there that can not be broken. Iron Man is the inventor as well as the powerhouse of the group. Plus he's their moneybags, as well in the personage of Tony Stark. So he should stay.

3. THE WASP
Janet Pym has gone through a lot of changes since her debut in the early Sixties as a partner for Ant-Man. She's now less of an airhead and more of a tactician and warrior. Yet, she still likes to go shopping! In fact, she is famous for never wanting to appear in the same outfit twice. I think this trait makes Jan even more appealing as a character. The Wasp brings power (her laser-like "stings"), intelligence, beauty, and skill to the team. Plus she was one of the original members, a fact that the movie producers shamefully ignored. I would much rather have had her than The Black Widow; sorry! 
4. THE SCARLET WITCH and
5. THE VISION
Unlike most of the other characters on this list, Wanda Maximoff and her husband, the Vision, really have nowhere else to go. The Scarlet Witch has a mutant ability to affect things; she calls these blasts of energy her "hexes." She can take down such big-name bad-guys as Ultron or change daisies to roses. She's powerful, but each hex takes its toll on her energy; she can only create so many before she has to rest. Her husband is an android who can change his body to the hardness of a diamond or the wispiness of vapor. They were once one of MARVEL's most popular couples, but John Byrne went and ret-conned some of their history, and now they are mess. If I were in charge, I would re-boot over the last 30 some years and return them as a couple and leave them the hell alone.

6. BLACK PANTHER
Every group needs a stealth character, and in The King of Wakanda the Avengers have one of the best ever created. Also, he's no slouch in the strength and speed departments or in scientific knowledge. I don't want to ask Hank Pym (aka Ant-Man/Goliath/Giant-Man/YellowJacket) to join, so Black Panther can take the scientist role in the group. T'Challa is a very well-rounded character who deserves this spot. And hey, it doesn't hurt that he isn't another Caucasian male.

7. OPEN CHAIR aka TO BE ROTATED
Unlike almost all other super-hero groups, the Avengers seems to thrive on having a rotating membership. The Hulk quit in issue #3. All the remaining original members quit in #16. The Black Widow once joined the group just to quit it in the very next issue! Hawkeye comes back swearing to stay forever, only to get pissed-off about something and quit in a huff. She-Hulk seems to love avenging until the writer leaves and the new guy doesn't want her to stay. Ms. Marvel is everybody's choice for replacement, until she gets a government job and has to leave. And of course, new characters and/or new members are always popping up and in and then out again! Goliath, The Vision, The Beast, Tigra, Firestar, and Triad are just a few of the characters who showed up and stayed!
So my 7th Member is "All of the Above." Personally, I always liked The Falcon. However, in his introduction he was portrayed as not really wanting to be a member, so unless something happens to change that I have to assume he is still not a joiner.

So...who would YOU pick?

Happy Birthday Steve E & Paul N

Today I want to celebrate two classic comic book creators whose birthdays are this week. April 22 is Steve Englehart's 65th birthday, and April 26, 1914 is Paul Norris' birthday. He passed away in 2007; he would have been 98 years old.

Paul Norris worked with editor Mort Weisinger to create a new back-up character for MORE FUN COMICS #73 (Sep 1941). Together they came up with Aquaman who, while being thematically similar to Marvel's Sub-Mariner,  (created by Bill Everett in 1939), was unique enough to still be well-known today, more than 70 years later. In the current AQUAMAN series, which made its debut this past fall, there has finally been a creator's credit added to his logo. So now people will be able to recognize Paul Norris' name in the same breath as geniuses like Bill Everett, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bob Kane & Bill Finger, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Steve Ditko, and Gardner Fox. Thank you for creating my favorite super-hero, Mr. Norris!

Happy Birthday, Paul Norris! 

As for Steve Englehart, for years he was my favorite comic book writer. He was a major creative presence at Marvel during the early 1970s. He wrote CAPTAIN AMERICA (the classic Watergate-era "Nomad" storyline), THE DEFENDERS, and, most famously, fifty issues of THE AVENGERS. His run on that series (105-151, plus 5 Giant Sized issues) ranks as one of the most classic-runs of that group. It was his writing on this title that turned me on to the Marvel Universe. He juggled the "biggies" like Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, along with dozens of others I had never heard of before, AND he made them interesting!

The Avengers meet the Marvel version of
the Justice League; art by George Perez

After his successes at Marvel he moved to DC, where he wrote Batman in DETECTIVE COMICS and the entire JLA in JUSTICE LEAGUE. He brought his talent for high-adventure stories and well-defined characterizations to both titles. His work on DETECTIVE, in particular, where he was teamed with super artists Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin, is considered one of the greatest Batman series of all-time. If you haven't read this series and like Batman, you are definitely missing out. Check your library for Batman: Strange Apparitions. Or Legends of the Dark Knight is still in print; buy yourself a copy.
Englehart's JLA work (JLA 139~150, skipping 144-145) has not been collected in trade paperback yet, but hopefully one day it will be. While he was JLA writer he took The Atom from being a self-conscious self-doubting nobody into a self-confident specialist. He re-interpreted the relationships between Wonder Woman and the male members, facing "Women's Lib" straight in the face. He not only added characterization to a dozen or more super-heroes who tended to be cardboard cut-outs, he added a married couple to the group (Hawkwoman joined her husband Hawkman) and he re-booted (?) Red Tornado. Even though it only lasted about one year, it is still known as a classic run of stories.
 


The Hawks confront sexism in the DCU; click to enlarge

Since the Seventies he has bounced back and forth between DC and Marvel, handling series like GREEN LANTERN CORPS and AVENGERS WEST COAST for both.

Happy Birthday, Steve Englehart!

Paul Norris' creation with words by
Steve Englehart (JLA 150)