Avengers #22

Featuring: Avengers
Release: September 2, 1965
Cover: November 1965
12 cents
Star-studded story by: Stan Lee!
Peerless pencilling by: Don Heck!
Dazzling delineation by: Wally Wood!
Lonesome lettering by: Artie Simek!
20 pages

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I was chosen to be– keeper of the flame! But now– the torch has– gone out!

Captain America is certain there is somebody behind Power Man. Since he knows nothing about Power Man, I’m not sure where that certainty comes from.

The Avengers have been ordered to disband by the city. That’s enough for most of the team, but not for Captain America. He thinks they stand for something bigger than obeying laws.

This leads the Avengers to fight amongst themselves. They do this a lot. But this time, the fight dissolves the team.

Captain America compares this failure to his greatest failure, the death of Bucky. This is an early example of one of Marvel’s weakest tropes, where a character spends time moping about things that happened in older and better comics. This trope will almost destroy Spider-Man stories in the decades to come.

This is a Captain America filled with self-doubt.

“Perhaps I should have remained in the past–! The flesh and blood Steve Rogers can never live up to the legend that has become–Captain America!”

The other Avengers try to get jobs, but can’t because their reputations are tarnished by the Avengers’ recent mishaps. You would think their pasts as Soviet saboteurs or mutant terrorists would also come up, but no.

The Circus of Crime has apparently finished their sentence in the relatively short amount of time since they fought Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #22. This is not the first example of lenient sentencing we have seen. They are still trying to call themselves the “Masters of Menace” instead of the “Circus of Crime”. They need to stop trying to make “Masters of Menace” happen. It won’t stick. Ringmaster was kicked out of the group then, but seems to be back. They’d failed without him as a leader; may as well fail with him as a leader again.

The Avengers are easily duped by the Circus of Crime. Didn’t we see they have files on criminals? Do they not watch the news?

The Ringmaster calls the police on the Avengers for attacking him. Criminals are using that trick more and more. Power Man used it just last issue.

I love when we see fan fights. The kid with the Fantastic Four t-shirt vs. the kid wearing a t-shirt featuring the disgraced Avengers.

The question on everybody’s mind: where are the original Avengers if the new team has disbanded. Unfortunately, Stan tries to answer that question, and creates continuity headaches for me.

Because for a lot of reasons, I think this story takes place after the wedding of the Fantastic Four. And for a lot of reasons, I think Thor’s battle with Absorbing Man in Journey Into Mystery #122 takes place before the wedding. Which means this reference caused me a lot of continuity headache. I could either ignore the note here (tempting), or try to make it so this story happens before the wedding, or just argue that Thor could maybe have found a spare hour for the wedding an issue earlier in the middle of a lot of stuff. Went with the last option after much spiritual dismay.

In particular, had I decided this was before the wedding, that would have placed Iron Man’s battle with Titanium Man before the wedding, which plainly contradicts Marvels #2, which we’ll read soon.

This comic tells me that the Avengers’ battle with Power Man parallels Thor’s battle with Absorbing Man and Iron Man’s with the Awesome Android. We’ll read the Awesome Android story in the next post, and then finally be finished with what I see as the continuity fallout of the wedding.

From Stan’s point of view, this issue comes out the same time as that Thor issue. The problem is that Thor’s story has moved so fast for the last 8 months of real time that he’s barely had time to breathe. Whereas the Avengers have had sweeping changes happen, with the team disbanding, a new one forming, and now that team disbanding. 8 months ago real time, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were still members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They reformed, retired from adventuring, moved to Europe, moved back to America, joined the Avengers, had a lot of adventures, and now have resigned the Avengers.

A press agent visits Power Man to suggest that he and his associates could form a new team of Avengers. This idea might stick with Power Man, as he and the Masters of Evil decide to do something rather similar after the Avengers disband in a 1996 story. Of course, this press agent wasn’t serious. He was actually Captain America in disguise. A clever ruse.

But fast forward 20 years. Did Power Man recall that suggestion and pass it on to Baron Zemo? Is Captain America ultimately responsible for the formation of the Thunderbolts?

Enchantress is disappointed in Power Man for failing, seeming to entirely avoid responsibility for the fact that this was all her plan.

“No man may love– an immortal…!” she muses.

The Avengers have to let Power Man go, as there are no official charges against Power Man. Wait, yes there are. Just unmask him. You’ll find he’s a wanted smuggler.

The city declares Sunday to be Avengers Day. A typical symbolic gesture by politicians unwilling to actually own up to their own mistakes.

However, the victorious mood is brief. This time it’s Captain America who resigns.

See what I mean about the wedding? The next issue will pick up right here, and Captain America was clearly with the Avengers during the wedding. So if it’s after this issue, we’d need to keep pushing it further. It really had to be before this issue. But Thor just had so little time in his comic after his hammer was repaired and after he’d learned the Avengers disbanded.

The membership of the Circus of Crime has mostly stabilized. In Amazing Spider-Man #16, Cannonball referred to himself as the Great Gambino, but I think that was just a mistake. Stan mixed him up with the trapeze artists, the Great Gambonnos. The characters were more clearly named in issue 22 and then in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2. The strongman from this issue hadn’t appeared in issue 22, but may be the person Spider-Man referred to as Samson in issue 16. We’ll assume his name is Samson until we learn otherwise, though Spider-Man may have been using the name sarcastically. The internet suggests he is more generally known as Bruto. But they haven’t yet called him that, as far as I can see.

Rating: ★★★☆☆, 54/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆

I read this story in Avengers Epic Collection vol. 2: Once An Avenger...

Characters:

• Quicksilver
• Captain America
• Hawkeye
• Scarlet Witch
• Ringmaster/Ring-Master
• Princess Python
• Clown
• Cannonball
• Samson/the strongman
• Flying Gambonnos/Great gambonnos
• Iron Man
• Thor
• Awesome Android
• Giant-Man
• Wasp
• Power Man
• Enchantress

Minor characters:

• Flaherty (police officer)

Story notes:

• Captain America compares this failure to losing Bucky.
• Cap notes the team had bickering and petty jealousies, but felt they would equal the record of the original Avengers.
• Hawkeye can’t be on Ed Sullivan’s show because he’s a public menace.
• Carnival won’t hire Quicksilver because Avengers reputations are tarnished.
• Wanda claims she can sing, but is still rejected.
• Employers note the Avengers ran amok last month.
• Pietro suggests he and Wanda should return to Europe.
• Paper (perhaps Daily Star) reports on statewide manhunt for Avengers.
• Press agent (really Captain America in disguise) suggests Masters of Evil could form a new team of Avengers.
• Press agent claims to be responsible for Avengers’ downfall. Power Man insists it was him.
• Captain America realizes Power Man has duplicated Wonder Man’s powers.
• Avengers team up to finish battle after Power Man defeats Captain America.
• Sunday declared Avengers Day.
• Captain America resigns.

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