Featuring: Avengers
Release: May 10, 1966
Cover: July 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee: Writer
Don Heck: Artist
Frank Giacoia: Inker
Sam Rosen: Letterer
Irving Forbush: Arbitrator
20 pages
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| Amazing Spider-Man #38 | Reading order | Avengers #31 |
| Avengers #29 | Avengers | Avengers #31 |
But, the past is over now! The past is dead! You are the master no longer! I’m free of you… at last!
We just saw Galactus appear in the middle of New York. There to devour the Earth. The Avengers have a mansion in the middle of New York. Why didn’t they help out?
Well, maybe they were away. Where? Surely not just elsewhere in New York fighting Black Widow. Maybe off wherever the Collector’s castle is? Or in the middle of the Atlantic fighting Attuma? Or perhaps they were in the “Far-Off Land”, as the title suggests. It seems likely they were quite far away.
Now, the Avengers won’t make it to the titular Far-Off Land this issue, but next issue.
And Marvels will claim this is where the Avengers were when Galactus attacked. Which is good enough for me.
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver
Wasp has recently returned to the Avengers, and Scarlet Witch has decided she needs to resign. This makes sense as every 1960s Marvel team should have precisely one woman. No more, no less. See the X-Men, Masters of Evil, Fantastic Four, Frightful Four, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants…
I guess the exception is the Inhumans. They have two, Medusa and Crystal. Huh. Maybe times are changing. It is 1966 after all.
However, Scarlet Witch is still resigning. As she and Quicksilver are inseparable, he’ll have to go too.
Her reasoning is that she helped out very little in their last fight. In fairness, she’s helped out very little in most fights. But now she has a reason. Her hex power has been gradually getting weaker and now is gone. Quicksilver has similarly noticed his speed slackening.
Quicksilver speculates they are not true mutants after all, and that their powers are tied to their homeland, from which they have been away too long.
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch describe themselves as being from Europe. Most people I have met from Europe describe themselves as being from somewhere more specific.
They don’t resign from the Avengers, but are granted a leave of absence by Cap, an extended vacation. He notes the team will be fine since they have Goliath back. He neglects to mention they also have the Wasp back, so their female quota is full.
This idea that they aren’t mutants is an interesting one. It contradicts what we’ve known up to this point, which is that they were introduced to us as members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and thus probably mutants. But it weirdly ties into some revelations from 40 years in the future.
I’ll explain with a bit of context. When Marvel was doing poorly in the ’90s it licensed movie rights to a bunch of characters to a bunch of different studios. When Marvel was ready to form its own studio and after Marvel was bought by Disney, it came to regret this, as it was ready to make its own movies with its heroes. In particular, Marvel didn’t have the rights to movies with X-Men characters.
What an “X-Men character” is turned out to be a pretty legally tenuous definition, which would get solidified in contracts. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were a particularly thorny case, as they were introduced as X-Men villains, but soon joined the Avengers. So are they X-Men characters or Avengers characters?
The studios agreed they were both, and thus we saw versions of Quicksilver in both the X-Men and Avengers films. In the comics, Marvel decided to downplay the role of the characters and concepts they didn’t have film rights to. This included an ill-considered attempt to replace the concept of mutants in the Marvel Universe with the concept of Inhumans. It also involved revealing Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were never mutants, to better align them with the Avengers movies and disalign them with the X-Men movies.
This all got settled when Disney simply bought 20th Century Fox, the way Disney solves most problems.
In general, I hate it when I see the movies impact the comics in any way, and in particular when legal minutia about the movies impacts the comic story. But this one case of revealing Wanda and Pietro to not be mutants had a precedent seen in this issue. A precedent that would be ignored for a half century, but a precedent nonetheless.
Goliath
Hank had cherished Jan’s love, but doesn’t want her sympathy. He isn’t happy with his current status quo of being stuck at 10 feet tall. He wants to brood. Brooding is something lots of Marvel characters like to do. The Thing does it best.
Pym’s old colleague Dr. Anton is studying artificial growth of body cells. This sounds suspiciously relevant to Hank’s predicament. Goliath leaves on his own to seek out Dr. Anton in South America. This will begin the chain of events that lead to the Avengers being in South America when Galactus attacks in New York.
Hank refers to Tony Stark leaving town. Is this a clue to how this aligns with Iron Man’s continuity? Tony Stark had recently left town with Senator Byrd to face a hearing in DC. On the way, he was transported to Asia by the Mandarin. Perhaps this is what Hank is referring to. He had just returned from Asia at the end of the last Iron Man story we read, so perhaps this Avengers adventure is concurrent with his battle with Ultimo. Iron Man battling Ultimo in Asia would also serve to explain why he was not present to help out when Galactus attacked.
This is just one possibility though. Tony leaves town pretty often.
The air-car looks like a scooter. Hank notes its own speed recharges its generators. This isn’t so dissimilar from the concept used in hybrid cars. There, the energy of breaking is converted to energy to fuel the car. Conceptually, that’s taking the energy of acceleration and using it to fuel the car. This makes a certain sense. To accelerate or decelerate requires energy; that is it requires the transformation of energy. Speed doesn’t require energy. The motion of an object will continue indefinitely. It takes energy to change the speed. So it doesn’t really make sense to convert speed into energy. I assume Hank was using the word “speed” loosely when he meant acceleration, and that Tony Stark has invented hybrid automobiles.
Wasp is worried that Hank has disappeared. But before they can look for them, Black Widow will create problems.
Black Widow
We met Hu Chen last issue, but he is first named this issue. He has brainwashed Black Widow into serving the Reds again, and has ordered her to destroy the Avengers.
Her brainwashing convinces her the Avengers are her enemies, but she still finds Hawkeye handsome.
She is again teamed up with Power Man and the Swordsman, who fight over her.
Captain America convinces Wasp to let Goliath brood, and that they need to focus on tracking down Black Widow and her allies.
Notice Wasp is sporting a new outfit.
Hawkeye really has undergone a character change since Captain America understood his choice to let Black Widow escape. He realizes he’s been a jerk to Cap, and seems to be turning over a new leaf.
Wasp searches 10 waterfront saloons. Saloons on the waterfront are where criminals hang out. Heck does a good job illustrating the smoke-filled hangout from Wasp’s tiny perspective. The cigar is a nice touch.
They’d gone out of their way to introduce Black Widow’s spider-like powers, but Heck has rarely drawn her using them. Stan compensates for this with dialogue, having people talk about having seen her scale a building.
Hawkeye’s battle against the Swordsman is a chance to prove himself, to escape from the shadow of the man who had trained him in the carnival.
It looks like Heck makes an art mistake that Lee compensates for. Hawkeye throws his bow at Black Widow, then two panels later fires arrows from his bow. We see him pick up arrows, but not his bow. It’s reasonable to believe he then picked up his bow. But since we don’t see it, Stan adds dialogue to clarify that he picked up the bow.
Black Widow betrays Power Man to save Hawkeye. She explains to Hawkeye she’d been brainwashed, but it has worn off, because her love for him allowed her to break free. He really wants to believe her.
The ending is somewhat ambiguous as we will cut back to Goliath’s story and leave Black Widow behind for now.
The story alternated between Hawkeye’s story and Goliath’s story. We’ve covered the Hawkeye stuff. We’ll rewind a bit to see the Far-Off Land that Goliath discovers.
Far-Off Land
Goliath found Dr. Anton missing and followed him into a hidden land. There people have dwelt in secret for ages guarding the Flame of Life.
Goliath vows to never leave the Avengers again. He will not hold to this vow over the years and decades.
“You’re not wearing a moustache… and you’ve got wavy hair. So you must be a good guy!” says Goliath. Presumably he is joking, but I’m not sure.
This is a pretty common setup when superheroes travel to strange places. The find someone in charge they don’t like and meet the “rightful ruler” and aid in a rebellion. In this case, Goliath will stand with Prince Rey against the Keeper of the Flame. It remains a bold assumption that they are capable of instantly assessing the internal politics of a strange realm to the point of deciding which side of a civil war to aid.
When the news reports on Goliath’s scooter being found in South America, Wasp is ready to lead the Avengers to rescue them. Their search for Black Widow doesn’t explain sitting out the Galactus battle, but their journey to South America might.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 53/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Much more story and character heavy than usual. We’ll overlook the South American stereotypes. We’ll call the Keeper of the Flame a “middling” villain in our cast list. He’s a little more than “minor”, as he will show up again for some reason. We’ll put Prince Rey there as well, though it’s not yet clear if he’s a villain.
I read this story in The Avengers Epic Collection vol. 2: Once an Avenger.
Characters:
- Quicksilver/Pietro
- Scarlet Witch/Wanda
- Captain America/Steve
- Wasp/Jan
- Goliath/Hank
- Hawkeye
- Black Widow
- Hu Chen
- Power Man
- Swordsman
- Keeper of the Flame
- Dr. Franz Anton
- Prince Rey
Story notes:
- Quicksilver toys with Pym’s old cybernetic helmet.
- Scarlet Witch tells her brother she needs to resign from the Avengers.
- Wanda and Pietro decide to return home to Europe to try to regain their powers.
- Wasp reminds Hank he needs more food at 10 feet tall.
- Hank clumsy and knocks things over.
- Dr. Anton is Pym’s old college professor. Goliath thinks Anton can cure him.
- Morning News reports on new rocket to be launched in headline.
- Goliath notes Tony Stark has left town.
- Goliath takes rocket-powered air car designed by Stark.
- Car has unlimited range as its own speed recharges the generators.
- Goliath takes off by himself for South America; Wasp is worried. They don’t know where he’s gone.
- Black Widow gets instructions from Hu Chen to destroy the Avengers.
- Black Widow’s brainwashing won’t last much longer.
- Black Widow knows the Avengers are her enemies, but she finds Hawkeye handsome.
- Swordsman and Power Man fight over Black Widow.
- Swordsman uses an ultra-sonic electric bolt from his sword.
- Plan S is for separating.
- Hawkeye uses Avengers’ speedy, silent transistor-powered scout ship.
- Captain America drives around, recording on his monitor.
- Wasp overhears at bar a man who saw a woman in black climbing a building.
- Black Widow sighted by old warehouse on south corner of Bleecker Street.
- Hawkeye requests to tackle villains alone to make up for letting them escape last issue.
- Goliath finds Dr. Anton’s lab in disarray.
- Goliath attacked by costumed people who have Dr. Anton prisoner.
- Attacker describes himself as member of Sect of– but then is cut off. Says they are from a Forbidden Land.
- Swordsman wants to take Hawkeye on alone.
- Hawkeye must prove himself equal of the man who trained him.
- Cap taught Hawkeye to fall, to relax and land safely.
- Black Widow uses her “bite” on Hawkeye.
- Swordsman attacks with spinning sword.
- People have dwelt for ages in secret, guarding the Flame of Life. Until Dr. Anton discovered them. And so he must die.
- Anton’s instruments had detected a source of great power.
- Goliath describes the scene as out of H. Rider Haggard, referring to the Quatermain novels like King Solomon’s Mines.
- Adversaries have ray guns. Goliath assumed they would be more primitive.
- Goliath explains he’s looking for Anton, not the Flame, but is not believed.
- Rock Hudson reference.
- Prince Rey rescues Goliath and describes himself as the rightful ruler of the Forbidden Land.
- Prince Rey uses Black Light Activator to help Goliath escape, and so the Keeper sentences him to death.
- Black Widow betrays Power Man to rescue Hawkeye, using Widow’s Bite.
- News reports on Goliath’s scooter, clueing Wasp that he’s in South America.
- Wasp calls cycle the Air Oar.
| Previous | #522 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Amazing Spider-Man #38 | Reading order | Avengers #31 |
| Avengers #29 | Avengers | Avengers #31 |
