Avengers #4

Featuring: Avengers
Release: January 3, 1964
Cover: March 1964
12 cents
Gloriously written by: Stan Lee
Grandly illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Gallantly lettered by: Art Simek
23 pages

No inker is given in the credits for some reason. The GCD suggests the inker is George Roussos, who has been doing a lot of inking lately under the pseudonym George Bell. I don’t think we’ve yet seen a single comic where Kirby has done his own finishes. Probably because he’s drawing a half dozen comics each month.

There’s something that troubles me about these credits, and it’s the type of thing that makes Stan Lee a controversial character to this day. Look to the acknowledgement on this first page. Stan notes that Jack drew the original Captain America comics. That’s true and good to point out. But that massively understates Kirby’s contribution. Kirby and Simon created Captain America. The box should say. “Jack Kirby is one of the creators of Captain America.” Now, this may have been mere thoughtlessness on Stan’s part. Kirby used to draw Captain America and now is drawing him again; Stan used to write Captain America and now is writing him again. That may be the only point he wanted to make, and perhaps no other thoughts occurred to him. But the phrasing seems careful, and reflects the longtime legal stance of the many companies that have owned Marvel, that people don’t create characters, companies do. You can read an article from Brian Cronin on a piece Stan Lee had written in 1947 crediting publisher Martin Goodman with the idea for Captain America. The piece is basically fictional. Joe Simon came up with the character independently, and Kirby helped him flesh out the details. Stan’s failure to credit them for that goes back a long ways.

This story picks up directly where Avengers #3 ends. We see the end of Namor’s battle with the Avengers and then Namor leaping into the ocean. Namor makes his way to the North Sea.

How long did it take Namor to get from Gibraltar to the North Sea, a distance of almost 2,000 miles? The fastest ship on Earth would take at least a full 24 hours of continuous travel to cover that distance. Namor might be faster, but he doesn’t seem to have gone directly. He seems to be idly exploring the depths, and then later continuing his search for his people. The phrase “hours later” in panel 5 confuses me. Hours later since what? Since Gibraltar? Panels 3 and 4 suggest a lot of time passing to me. Perhaps it just means hours since he kicked those ruins in the previous panel. I would guess that a few weeks passed between Gibraltar and the North Sea.

Eventually, Namor comes upon a tribe of Eskimos. There is dispute about whether the word “Eskimo” is ever appropriate, but the preferred terms are more specific, and Stan’s narration doesn’t really make it clear who this tribe is, so I’m going to echo Stan’s language. The North Sea lies between Britain and Norway, and there are no eskimo-like tribes there. The closest would be Inuit tribes in Greenland. I surmise that the ice floe he was brooding on made its way to Greenland or Newfoundland, more likely the latter. I don’t actually believe Greenlanders or indigenous Canadians were worshipping random figures frozen in ice in the 1960s, so the depiction may be a stereotype at play.

Randomly attacking these Eskimos is not a good look for Namor. He realizes this and feels shame and disgrace at his actions.

The story then leaves Namor behind, turning to the figure frozen in ice, who we see only in shadow. Namor flung the ice into the ocean, and it floated away, eventually reaching the gulf stream, where the ice melted. The narration informs us the person is not dead, but floating in a state of suspended animation.

It’s here in the Gulf Stream in the mid-Atlantic that we meet up with the Avengers. Let’s review their timeline up to this point.

We know from the narration at the end of Avengers #3 that the Avengers have returned to New York after the battle in Gibraltar, and before resuming the search for Namor in this issue.

We have read several solo stories featuring the Avengers. Our intention was (with caveats) to indicate that those solo adventures took place between their battle with Namor and their current voyage. It’s possible, even likely, that the Avengers have assembled to search for Namor or the Hulk in the intervening time, but that is not recorded anywhere.

Iron Man has battled Mandarin and Scarecrow.

Giant-Man and Wasp battled Porcupine, resulting in a sprained ankle for Giant-Man and perhaps delaying the search for Namor and Hulk. They have also overthrown El Toro’s regime in Santo Rico and battled Human Top. Giant-Man has at least two versions of his costume he has been alternating between. Currently, we see him with the “light vertical stripes” look he has sported in every story not drawn by Dick Ayers.

Thor’s story in this period is complicated. We’ll address it more in the next Thor story we read, and also in a post on the chronology of the period I am preparing.

We read in the pages of Journey Into Mystery #101-103 that the Avengers assembled to help deal with the consequences of Thor’s temper tantrum caused by his dad not approving of his girlfriend. Thor has traveled to the future to battle Zarrko and returned to Earth to face Enchantress and Executioner. We are about to read about his battle with Surtur and Skagg. Conventional wisdom places all these events way later, after Avengers #6, which will be released in May. There is evidence to both support and contradict that hypothesis. My current hypothesis is that Thor’s encounter with the Avengers and battle with Zarrko occurred prior to the events of this issue, but his battle with Enchantress and Executioner takes place later. I propose that the current issue fits in the middle of Journey Into Mystery #103, after Loki convinces Enchantress to travel to Earth, but before she actually does so.

I further hypothesize it’s been about a month since the battle on Gibraltar, and that this is not the first time the Avengers have assembled to go looking for Hulk or Namor since that encounter.

Whatever order events took place in, the Avengers are now in the Atlantic Ocean carrying on their search for Namor when they come across the figure who had been frozen in ice.

What happens next is one of the most famous scenes in the history of Marvel comics. No words of mine can do it justice.

If you were wondering why we spent the last 10 posts in the 1940s and 1950s reviewing old Captain America stories, hopefully it’s now clear.

I found the following image of the gulf stream. It will help ground the last couple pages. I’ve noted a few key places: Gibraltar, where the Avengers last battled Namor; the North Sea, where Namor caught his ice floe, where he sat and brooded as it drifted toward Greenland and Canada; Newfoundland, where I presume Namor encountered the Eskimos and the man frozen in ice. The only next marker we have is the “gulf stream”. So pretend we are picking up at a point nearish North America. The precise locations I’ve highlighted are all guesses on my part.

Captain America and the Avengers briefly fight, because that’s what superheroes do whenever they meet.

Captain America then tells his story. While it could help clear up some of the geographic discussion above, it will actually just create more confusion. Remember, what we see next is narrated by Captain America, who has been awake for a few minutes after almost 20 years in suspended animation. So his telling of the story may be imperfect, and in fact must be.

We will assume the important parts of his story are correct. An explosive-filled drone is taking off. A super-villain Captain America doesn’t name–and that the art doesn’t clearly show–is responsible. In attempting to stop it, Captain America falls from the drone into the ocean. The drone explodes with Bucky still riding it, and Bucky dies. Another of the most pivotal moments in Marvel history.

The clear implication and general interpretation is that World War II is still going on. It’s not an essential conclusion of Captain America’s present account, as America maintained an Army presence in Europe after the war, but Giant-Man did just note the war was ongoing when Captain America disappeared. Captain America says this was more than 20 years ago. 18 years is more likely.

Captain America notes that he and Bucky were security guards at an Army Base in the European Theatre of Operations. That implies the battle we see is taking place in Europe.

However, he then says he lands in the water near Newfoundland. We see clearly Captain America never got a good grip on the plane so he fell into the ocean wherever the battle is taking place. This suggests the battle is taking place in Newfoundland. That interpretation better fits with where Captain America was found anyway. It’s possible Namor rode the ice floe all the way to Canada, and that Captain America was found not far from where he first hit the water.

I think it makes more sense to conclude there are details missing in Captain America’s story. They had been working security in Europe, when the course of events brought them to Canada for this fateful final battle.

The alternative is that Captain America is speaking poorly. Captain America was in Europe, hit the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Europe, and drifted to Newfoundland over time, and he misspoke when he said he “struck the water off the coast of Newfoundland”.

As I type out that geographic analysis of the details, I fear I may be obscuring the point of the scene. I’m reminded of the famous observations on the study of owls recorded by Daniel Dreiberg in the Journal of the American Ornithological Society:

Is it possible, I wonder, to study a bird so closely, to observe and catalogue its peculiarities in such minute detail, that it becomes invisible? It is possible that while fastidiously calibrating the span of its wings or the length of its tarsus, we somehow lose sight of its poetry? That in our pedestrian descriptions of a marbled or vermiculated plumage we forfeit a glimpse of living canvases, cascades of carefully toned browns and golds that would shame Kadinsky, misty explosions of color to rival Monet?

…

Perhaps, instead of measuring the feathered tufts surmounting its ears, we should speculate on what those ears may have heard. Perhaps when considering the manner in which it grips its branch, with two toes in front and the reversible outer toe clutching from behind, we should allow ourselves to pause for a moment, and acknowledge that these same claws must once have drawn blood from the shoulder of Pallas.

Daniel Dreiberg

Wherever and whenever this happened, Captain America’s best friend and trusted sidekick, a teenager, died. Was Captain America wrong to ever bring a child into battle with him? The guilt will weigh on him for some time to come.

Leaving behind the emotional significance of events, and returning to the nerdy detail-mongering, there are much larger problems with Captain America’s story, and Giant-Man’s comments about Captain America being missing since the war. We just read a whole bunch of Captain America comics from the late 1940s and early 1950s. The war ended. Steve Rogers left the army and became a school teacher. Bucky got shot and ended up in a coma. Betsy Ross became Cap’s new partner, Golden Girl. Bucky recovered for a couple final adventures. Steve retired from being Captain America, started teaching college level classes, but then decided to return to being Captain America to counter the threat of Soviet spies. He was last seen in 1954. Bucky, now college-aged, was alive and well, smashing Commies alongside his old partner. These things are very hard to reconcile.

We come to the single most headache-inducing panel from a chronology perspective. The Avengers return to New York to find reporters awaiting them. Giant-Man says that the reporters know they went after the Hulk. That line, along with the fact that they are in the same bathyscaph we saw them riding in issue 3, implies to me that they had not yet returned home from the Gibraltar battle. Iron Man seems to double down on that interpretation, claiming they had a bang-up fight. Had Iron Man not said that, it would be reasonable to interpret that Giant-Man was referring to another search for Hulk they had undertaken. If a month has passed, the press already has the news about their previous match-up with Hulk.

This alternative interpretation of events, the one suggested by that dialogue, is that Namor retreated and the Avengers pursued. Namor made his way with more haste than implied to the North Sea then Canada. The Avengers picked up Captain America on the way home after perhaps a few days undersea searching. The note at the end of #3 about returning home is pointing to this very homecoming, not an earlier one. That interpretation doesn’t fit well with Namor’s wandering at the beginning, and with the fact that all the solo adventures need to go somewhere. I choose to treat Iron Man’s comments as confusing and not indicative of chronology.

It is possible there is an unrecorded fight between Hulk and the Avengers that he is referring to. We last saw Hulk in Gibraltar and will next see him in New Mexico. Who knows what happened in the meantime?

The Avengers get turned to stone in front of a whole bunch of reporters with cameras, none of whom grasp that’s what actually happened. They think the Avengers dodged their interview by running off. Captain America seems oddly unconcerned that the Avengers appear to have abandoned him, and that, unrelatedly, there are stone statues of the Avengers where he expected the Avengers to be.

The scene with the police officer is a great moment. It firmly establishes the idea of Captain America I have in my head… that he was a beloved hero. The officer talks about the impact Captain America had on him as a child, then starts to cry when he learns Captain America has returned… “just when the world has need of such a man”.

We also see the beginnings of Captain America being a “man out of time”. He’s missed the last couple decades. He’s never seen a television before and notes the cars are smaller and the fashions are different. He doesn’t know what the United Nations is. Note the UN was founded in 1946, but the building wasn’t finished until 1952. That Captain America has not heard of it is consistent with the idea he fell into the ocean in 1945, but irreconcilable with the very last story we read, from 1954, where Captain America saved the United Nations from a bomb.

Rick Jones then pays Captain America a visit. Captain America mistakes him for Bucky at first. Captain America claims they are like twins… the voice, the face.

Rick offers another insight that cements the modern image of Captain America. “He acts like a guy who’s used to being obeyed– and fast!”

What is up with Rick Jones? He’s not a member of the Avengers but he’s been in every issue so far. He’s Hulk’s partner and the leader of the Teen Brigade, so it makes sense for him to sometimes meet the Avengers. But in the coming issues, pay attention to why he’s hanging around at any given moment.

Captain America and Rick investigate, eventually finding an alien is behind the Avengers being turned to stone. Captain America battles a group of at least 7 criminals. They don’t stand a chance, particularly when Captain America throws his mighty shield. We recently read about Captain America’s very first shield toss, from Stan Lee’s first ever story.

Captain America surmises the alien is the origin of the legend of Medusa. He has wavy hair that could be mistaken for snakes and a ray gun that turns people to stone. Cap may be right; he may be wrong. We have met the real Medusa, but it was a weird tale one-shot which might not be in this universe. We have also met an alien race called the Gorgons, who do claim to be the origin of the Medusa legends. Again, a one-off weird tale which may not be canon. Captain America himself fought Medusa in World War II, but that turned out to be a phony. Is there a real Medusa, or is this alien the origin of the legend? That answer will have to wait for another day, I think.

“I cannot bear physical contact with primitive beings!” Tell us how you really feel, Medusa alien. There’s a good moral to be taken away here, though I suspect it is not intentional on Stan’s part. We’ve seen the word “primitive” before in this comic. Namor used it do describe the Eskimos. The alien sees us the way we see other cultures. Perhaps everybody could stand to learn a little respect for those different from them.

I appreciate that Captain America is not surprised to meet an alien. He even suspected his enemy was not human before the unmasking. People usually act like the idea of aliens is shocking even though Earth seems to be along a major interstellar highway.

It is an odd contrast with the last Cap/Medusa story we read. There, Captain America was looking at Medusa and suspected it was a mask with a human underneath it. Now, he was looking at a human and suspected it was a mask with an alien underneath it. He was right both times, so I guess he has very good instincts.

Trying to figure out when Namor actually made a deal with the alien just adds to the chronology headaches, so let’s not worry about it.

Captain America remembers Sub-Mariner’s name from the dim past. They were actually on a team of superheroes together, the All-Winners Squad. We have not yet read their adventures. However, the All-Winners Squad formed after the end of World War II, so after Captain America fell into the sea, which suggests Captain America was never actually on the team. Prior to the end of World War II, Captain America and Sub-Mariner had never met, as far as we know. Both were pretty famous at the time, so they should definitely know of each other. After years frozen in ice, Captain America can be forgiven for a foggy memory.

Namor doesn’t particularly seem to recognize Captain America either. “The one who calls himself Captain America”, he muses. Namor is also recently recovered from amnesia, but he seems to be recovered. He should remember serving on the All-Winners Squad with Captain America. They even met at least one time later in the 1950s, as depicted in Young Men #26. Perhaps Namor does remember Captain America, but doesn’t believe this person to be him.

Notice that Namor self-describes as the most powerful mutant on Earth. This is not the first time he has referred to himself as a mutant. We then get a pretty pivotal moment in Namor’s story. For characters like Namor and Hulk who don’t currently have regular adventures, their story must advance when they make guest appearances. The last we knew, all of Namor’s people had abandoned him. He is their rightful ruler, but they found him too loyal to the surface world, particularly blinded by his affection for Sue Storm. He does not know where they are. For the first time since, he meets some remnants of the people who abandoned him. Apparently the Elite Guard remained loyal to Namor, but had lost him in the oceans. They reunite with Namor, so he is no longer alone.

The Avengers help the Medusa alien free his ship. Namor and his Guard track them down and a battle ensues.

The alien is able to return to his home planet. This definitely seems like a happy ending for the alien. Let’s just assume he lives happily ever after for the rest of his days and that no unspeakable tragedy is soon to befall his homeworld.

Captain America decides to watch the battle to learn about the Avengers. He reflects, “If there had been such men in my day, what epic battles we would have fought.”

There were such men (and women) in your day, Cap. More than I can count. In fact, Namor himself was around. Human Torch. Toro. Destroyer. Patriot. Black Widow. Blazing Skull. Whizzer. Miss America. Angel. Ka-Zar. Miss Fury. Blue Diamond. Jack Frost. Father Time… Some of them even formed a superhero team, the All-Winners Squad. You (or somebody in your costume) were there.

Captain America only joins the fight when Rick is endangered. Wait… why is Rick there? It’s good that he supports the Avengers with his ham radio. But why is he traveling with them on a mission to a strange island with an alien that turns people to stone. What good could his presence possibly do? Why are you there, Rick? He should stay with the Hulk. The Hulk actually needs his help.

At least he’s less annoying than Snapper Carr.

“But who?” asks Namor when Captain America shows up, even though he’d observed Captain America earlier with the Avengers through his monitoring devices. And he obviously knows who Captain America is.

And so it is that Captain America joins the Avengers. Rick thinks Cap wants him to be his partner. I would hope Captain America has learned something about taking children into battle. Rick then reflects that he already has a partner, the Hulk. How will Hulk react if Rick leaves him for Captain America?

That question is not rhetorical. We’ll get an answer very soon.

Notably, this is the first Avengers comic where they don’t battle the Hulk. Don’t worry, they’ll be back to battling Hulk again next issue… as well as even sooner.

The issue begins with the Avengers hunting Namor because he got away last issue. He gets away again this issue, but there’s no evidence the Avengers ever resume the search for him. I guess they are conceding defeat. They do continue looking for the Hulk, but they eventually seem to give up on that too.

At its best, this is one of the all-time great superhero comics. The moments of the Avengers finding Captain America in the sea and of Bucky’s death are etched into the brain of every Marvel fan.

On the other hand, much of the story is about an alien. He turns people to stone with a ray gun and may have inspired the Medusa legend. A fine story. I mean, we’ve already read a story about aliens inspiring the Medusa legend. I appreciate how this one ends with the Avengers helping the alien out rather than just bashing heads. But it’s hardly on par with the comic’s most famous scenes. The other big chunk is a battle against Namor. This makes for some good action, but doesn’t offer much we didn’t see last issue. Taken together, this makes for a rather uneven story.

Very minor note. As with X-Men, I’ve decided that for this blog I’ll be abbreviating the title of this series from The Avengers to Avengers. Interestingly, the comic itself will eventually drop the “The” from its title. It will become Avengers starting with #308. Avengers #309 was my first comic ever, which explains why the “The” sounds odd to me.

Rating: ★★★★½, 89/100
Significance: ★★★★★

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers vol. 1. The scans are taken from reprints in Avengers Annual 3 (1969) and Captain America #400 (1992). The “title” attribute of the image will clarify which is which. It is also probably obvious; some scans seem to be of paper that is over 20 years older. Captain America #400 features an odd mistake, where it swaps the order of pages 6 and 7. This would confuse anybody reading the story that way. That issue is almost certainly where I first read this story, aged 11.

• 

• 

You can also find the story in Avengers Epic Collection vol.1: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Or on Kindle.

Characters:

• Giant-Man
• Wasp
• Iron Man
• Thor
• Captain America
• Rick Jones
• Medusa alien
• Sub-Mariner

Story notes:

• Captain America joins the Avengers.
• Story begins right where issue 3 leaves off.
• All the Avengers have heard of Captain America.
• Giant-Man notes Captain America has not been heard from since World War II and that Cap hasn’t aged.
• Cap describes his final mission as more than 20 years ago. It was almost certainly a little less. Maybe 18 years ago, in 1945. This comic was released in 1964, but it is more likely to still be 1963 in-universe.
• Cap describes Bucky as teenager when he died.
• Cap and Bucky out of uniform for final mission. Cap’s uniform is under his army clothes.
• Cap and Bucky providing security at an ETO (European Theater of Operations) Army Base.
• Villain responsible for Bucky’s death unseen and unnamed.
• Captain America claims he struck water off the coast of Newfoundland.
• Avengers turned to stone.
• Rick Jones looks just like Bucky, enough to confuse Cap.
• Rick asks Cap to help him find the Avengers.
• Cap and Rick use of Teen-Brigade member’s dark room.
• Captain America throws shield.
• The officer and criminals all agree Captain America was active when they were children.
• Alien from distant galaxy, name unpronounceable, ship crashed on Earth centuries earlier, stuck deep in bottom of sea.
• Stone effects last 100 hours.
• Captain America deduces the alien is the origin of the legend of Medusa.
• Sub-Mariner had told alien that he would help him if he defeated the Avengers several days earlier.
• Namor has undersea scanner in deserted imperial castle.
• Namor self-describes as most powerful mutant on Earth.
• Namor finds a troop of elite guard who remain loyal.
• Avengers attempt to recover ship near deserted isle.
• Thor rotates enchanted hammer, directing torrent of cosmic magnetic waves.
• A.A.A. reference.
• Thor refers to Namor as, “witless mutant”.
• Namor tries to lift Thor’s hammer.
• Rick Jones taken hostage.
• Rick thinks Cap wants him to be his partner; he is concerned how Hulk will react.

#171 story in reading order
Next: Fantastic Four #25
Previous post: Captain America #78, Story D
Previous in order: Tales to Astonish #55, Story B