Featuring: Avengers
Release: January 11, 1966
Cover: March 1966
12 cents
Incredible script by: Stan Lee
Inconceivable art by: Don Heck
Indescribable inking by: Frank Ray
Indelible lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages
| Previous | #493 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #80 | Reading order | Avengers #27 |
| Avengers #25 | Avengers | Avengers #27 |
He endures so much– to hold the Avengers together! And yet– none can help him! He walks– alone!
A recap. Giant-Man and the Wasp left the Avengers in Avengers #16. Then in Tales to Astonish #69, they agreed it was time to retire from superheroing and work on their relationship. And presumably on Pym’s scientific interests as well. Flash forward to Tales to Astonish #77 and Hank’s experiments involve drilling into the ocean to learn the secrets of life. These experiments are wreaking havoc on Namor’s domain. This leads to conflict. Namor breaks their equipment and then decides to head to New York. In a nonsensical plot decision, Jan decides to become the Wasp once more to race Namor across the ocean to New York. But she’s the size of a wasp, and can presumably fly at about the speed of a wasp. She obviously can’t cross an ocean. But she tries anyway.
Unsurprisingly, we haven’t heard from her since. Surprisingly, we will hear from her again.
I’d like to start thinking about something as we read the next several Avengers comics. At some point very soon, the Fantastic Four are going to fight a massive global threat, one the Avengers probably should have helped them with. The Avengers do not show up to help, which implies the Avengers are busy. So let’s be on the lookout for where the Avengers might be at the time that they don’t notice a very noticeable world-ending threat.
Tony Stark has a new secure message system for the Avengers. He’s been pretty busy in his own Iron Man stories, and in the SHIELD stories, so it’s not clear where he has the time.
We pick up right where we last saw Hank and Jan. In fact, just before we last saw them. We’ve read a bit ahead in Namor’s story in the meantime. This repeats the scene where Wasp decides to fly across the ocean, and adds some context.
I’ll remind us of the original scene first:
And here’s the retelling of it:
The dialogue between the two scenes is different, though mostly similar. The big change is whose idea it was that she become the Wasp again. In the Avengers comic, Hanks tells her she needs to do it, and in the Namor story, it’s her idea.
The Avengers comic also draws attention to the fact that she shrank instantaneously by thought without wearing a cybernetic helmet or taking a pill. She notes she’s been practicing and now can apparently shrink at will for the first time.
Also, Heck’s art looks a bit stiff when compared to the energy of Colan’s art.
Jan had seemed eager to retire, but was very quick to jump back into superheroing, and deciding she could somehow race Namor across the Atlantic to warn the Avengers about him.
I think it’s a dumb plot point.
Wasp doesn’t drown en route, but does end up a prisoner of Attuma. Attuma has a machine to make the tides rise and flood the surface. Sensible. But then he wants to wipe out Namor’s entire race next. Isn’t that his own race?
Wasp warns the Avengers about Attuma. But not Namor. Wasn’t the whole point to warn them to protect New York because Namor is coming? Instead she tells them to come out to sea to fight Attuma. What about New York? What about Namor?
Yes, we know he’ll become a captive of the Puppet Master’s will, but Wasp doesn’t know that.
I guess Attuma’s threat is more urgent, but it wasn’t either or. And I guess she was low on oxygen, but a quick postscript about Namor’s rampage was surely possible. Perhaps she forgot.
The Avengers rush into action without Hawkeye, who had recently had some personality clashes with the team.
A woman in the nightclub finds Hawkeye handsome. He’s wearing his mask, so it can’t be his face that’s caught her attention.
The Avengers end up captives of Attuma. Only Hawkeye was absent, and he is now their last hope. If he gets their message. If he remembers the password for their new messaging system.
Finally we come across Tony Stark’s most useful invention ever, a device that helps you remember the thing you forgot. It has the side effect of putting you in a coma for a while. Which isn’t great if there’s an evil villain lurking nearby in the shadows. But will tell you where you left your keys. Or, in Hawkeye’s case, what the password was. (It’s 1313. Not even that hard, Hawkeye.)
Rating: ★★½, 48/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in The Avengers Epic Collection vol. 2: Once an Avenger.
Characters:
- Quicksilver/Pietro
- Scarlet Witch/Wanda
- Hawkeye
- Captain America/Steve Rogers
- Namor/Sub-Mariner
- Giant-Man/Henry
- Wasp/Janet “Jan Van Dyne”
- Attuma
Notes:
- Cap refers to Hawkeye as “William Tell”.
- “Avengers Assemble” is the phrase that means the Avengers need to gather.
- Tony Stark has developed a new, tamper-proof way for the Avengers to leave messages to each other. Simply hiding a message wasn’t good enough. Transistorized mike which will only respond to their voices. Visi-projector can reproduce message by voice command with code 1313.
- Hawkeye compares Cap to Mr. Novak.
- Quicksilver and Hawkeye fight.
- Captain America seems to threaten to fire Hawkeye.
- Namor has just left smoldering exploration ship.
- Jan is quick to suggest Henry change into Giant-Man when she pressured him to retire.
- Radio is dead and Hank has work to do, so Wasp must warn New York that Namor is coming.
- Attuma captures Wasp but doesn’t recognize her without costume; they had met in Tales to Astonish #64.
- Attuma thinks Jan is spying on him.
- Attuma’s tidal-expander slowly raising tides until he floods the world.
- After conquering sea and land, Attuma will conquer the heavens.
- Attuma wants to wipe out Sub-Mariner’s race of Atlanteans.
- Wasp can instantly become wasp-sized, seemingly by thought.
- Hank has taught Jan fundamentals of electro-communications, so she can recognize a modified short-wave transmitter.
- Wasp gets message to Avengers, warning of Attuma’s attack–but not Namor’s–and identifies location as 300 miles east of Cape Hattaras, North Carolina.
- Wasp escapes.
- Woman finds Hawkeye handsome in mask at east-side night club. He drops his signal ring while flirting with woman.
- Cap leaves Hawkeye message on new visi-projector.
- Attuma defeats Avengers.
- Attuma’s men goad him into fair combat against the Avengers.
- Hawkeye wants to see message left for him, but forgets the code. Subliminal recall-inducer can help Hawkeye remember, but it places him into a helpless coma first.
- An unseen figure looks hatefully at Hawkeye.
| Previous | #493 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #80 | Reading order | Avengers #27 |
| Avengers #25 | Avengers | Avengers #27 |
