Tag: bill foster

Featuring: Avengers
Release: September 8, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Spellbinding story: Smilin’ Stan Lee
Awe-inspiring artwork: Dashin’ Donnie Heck
Lots of little lettering: Adorable Artie Simek
20 pages

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Tales of Suspense #86, Story B	Reading order	Avengers #35
Avengers #33	Avengers	Avengers #35

The larger the beam, the more damage I can do…

This is Stan Lee’s final credited issue of The Avengers. He may have had a hand in next issue. But starting next issue, the official scripting duties will be passed to Roy Thomas.

He leaves without much fanfare. Especially for a man so known for talking to his audience. No goodbye, no notes about it. He wrote 34 issues of one of the most beloved superhero teams of all time, and then just handed off the duties.

And he doesn’t try to go out with a bang, not really. It’s the first part of a two-part story. I wonder if he does that intentionally, thinking it’s easier for a new writer to finish off a story than come up with a new one. His final Spider-Man (comic book) story will have a similar flavor, introducing a new villain and then leaving the second part to the incoming writer.

Last issue’s blurb about this issue, went “Next: Goliath changes!”

I took that to mean he was going to finally change his clothes and wash this outfit. The blurb in the letters page hinted at more, that this would relate to Goliath’s efforts to return to normal size. It also hinted we’d see the return of Bill Foster, and of Wanda and Pietro.

We do get the return of Bill Foster, not seen since, well, last issue. But nothing else along those lines happens in this issue, and we get an editor’s note apologizing and assuring us that a big change is coming for Goliath. I think the pun is intended.

Continue reading “Avengers #34”