Soon, my limbs shall be swifter than ever before– while your hex power once again shall dazzle and defeat your enemies! All we need is patience, my sister– and an unaltering faith!
The Avengers are off to South America to save Goliath. And presumably will be here when Galactus attacks.
Hawkeye now likes Captain America, but still dislikes orders. As do I, Hawkeye. As do I.
Wasp recalls how they all used to share the command. It’s the first time they’ve really addressed this change. The original team had rotating chairs. The new team had Captain America as permanent leader. Given this, Hawkeye’s annoyance was understandable.
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
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.
Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD Release: April 12, 1966 Cover: July 1966 12 cents Far-fetched script by Stan Lee Fantastic layouts by Jack Kirby Fabulous pencilling by Don Heck Fanciful inking by Mickey Demeo Freehand lettering by Sam Rosen 12 pages
We’re dealin’ with an outfit that can turn out artificial men to do any kinda job… just like Marvel can grind out comic books!
The word of late has been Them. Them financed the Fixer. Them sent a chemical android to attack Nick Fury and Captain America. Them consists of several brilliant scientists.
Spinning right out of the Captain America adventure, Nick Fury has traced that android to this swampland.
In a bit of bravado, and a wink at the other titles, Fury notes that SHIELD agents aren’t superheroes. They don’t always win.
Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD Release: March 10, 1966 Cover: June 1966 12 cents Writer: Stan Lee Designer: Jack Kirby Penciller: Don Heck Inker: Mickey Demeo Letterer: Sam Rosen Badge polisher: Irving Forbush 12 pages
A simple smoke grenade should do the job nicely in this instance… and it won’t cost the taxpayers as much as a noisy, explosive grenade! For we guardians of the public trust must ever have the average citizen’s interests close to our hearts!
Quite the opening page. Somewhat disturbing.
Curious if it inspired images in the modern horror series, Locke & Key.
Where were we? The Druid wants to destroy SHIELD for some reason. He pretends to have mystical powers, but technology underpins everything he does. Oh, and we just met the eager new recruit, Jasper Sitwell.
Featuring: Avengers Release: April 12, 1966 Cover: June 1966 12 cents Savage script by: Stan Lee! Powerful pencilling by: Don Heck! Explosive embellishment by: Frank Giacoia! Lethargic lettering by: Sam Rosen! 20 pages
No matter what else… he’ll always be an Avenger! Just as he’ll always be… the man I love!
Frank Giacoia going by his real name for perhaps the first time. He’s usually been under the pen name Frankie Ray or similar.
Dr. Henry Pym. Ant-Man. Giant-Man. Goliath. He who can’t choose a name.
Or a status quo. His latest shtick is that he can only turn exactly 25 feet tall and only for a period of exactly 15 minutes. What happens if he exceeds 15 minutes? We’re about to find out. He did so last issue, then collapsed while shrinking, having gotten down to about 10 feet.
I think it’s cute how quickly all the Avengers have taken to calling him Goliath. There’s probably a lesson for people today to take from this.
Goliath! I like the sound of that! That’s what I’ll call myself from now on– Goliath!!
Today… Hank Pym will be infamous for having taken on too many superhero identities… but this isn’t new. This was a pretty early feature of the character. In under 5 years, he’s on 3, and sort of 4, identities.
When we met him, he wasn’t a superhero at all, just a scientist named Dr. Henry Pym. A year or so later he jumped on the superhero bandwagon as Ant-Man. Another year down and Lee decided the public wanted more powerful superheroes, so Ant-Man became Giant-Man. Those changes all somewhat made sense. But now… he’s no longer Giant-Man… he’s Goliath. That change seems gratutitous.
With the new name comes a new status quo. But he’s had a lot of status quos already. We attempted to recount in the final issue of his ongoing series, Tales to Astonish #69. The rules just keep changing. He drinks a liquid or takes a pill or uses his mind. And he can only chage size every so often or hold the new size for so often or…
Anyways, now he can grow to 25 feet and only 25 feet and remain that way for exactly 15 minutes, no more, no less.
We’ve met one other Goliath, the biblical one, in Avengers #10.
How does he get the new name anyway? It’s a bit weird. We basically learn it’s happening from the cover and title.
We are getting ahead of ourselves. The story begins with Hank Pym contacting the Avengers to help him find the Wasp. We’d last seen her attempting to escape from Attuma. Of course, they don’t know who Dr. Pym is. Because of secret identites.
Now, as secret identities go… Wasp’s costume often didn’t cover her face… she often called Giant-Man Henry or Hank in the presence of others… Giant-Man’s lab was a well known location where his fan club hung out… the kids Jan read sci/stories to knew she was the Wasp… Hank sometimes did experiments in his own house and one day he accidentally turned giant and came bursting out of his house…
Featuring: Avengers Release: February 10, 1966 Cover: April 1966 12 cents Mad, mixed-up story by Stan Lee Ickie, insane illustrations by Don Heck Daffy, dizzy delineation by Frankie Ray Loony, lampoony lettering by Artie Simek 20 pages
Only a fool– or a liar– says he’s never afraid, Wanda!
A lot of plot threads to pick up on from last issue. Namor headed to New York (though we’ve already seen how that plays out in the pages of Tales to Astonish). Dr. Pym busy with research on ship. Other Avengers captured in attempt to rescue Wasp. Attuma engaging them in trial combat to impress men, as the sea poured in. Hawkeye in a coma attempting to remember his password. A mysterious figure in the shadows. Wasp has escaped Atttuma but her fate is unknown.
The password thing is quite funny. People forget their passwords at work and need to call IT support to get it reset. No such backup here. Hawkeye must hook himself up to a fancy memory-jogging machine.
But the number he couldn’t remember was 1313. How hard is that? It’s not like the password was something actually secure like _b9<Jgu_X^TZDS.
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
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.
Featuring: Avengers Release: December 9, 1965 Cover: February 1966 12 cents Writer: Stan Lee Penciller: Don Heck Inker: Dick Ayers Letterer: Sam Rosen 20 pages
The blind fools! They do not realize that Doom cares nothing for them! He merely plays a role for purposes of his own! Truly, he is evil incarnate! If only the simple peasants could see it!
The Avengers fight Dr. Doom!
For maybe the first time, unless you count Avengers #1½–published in 1999 but set before Avengers #2–as canon: the untold first meeting of the Avengers and Dr. Doom.
Either way, it’s the first time any of these Avengers have met Dr. Doom.
Dr. Doom decides to trap the Avengers. Basically just because. His motivation shifts slightly over the course of the issue. At first, it’s because humiliating the Avengers will inspire fear in the Fantastic Four. Then it’s to take them prisoner and use them as bait for the Fantastic Four.
Featuring: Avengers Release: November 11, 1965 Cover: January 1966 12 cents Writer: Stan Lee Penciller: Don Heck Inker: Dick Ayers Letterer: Artie Simek 20 pages
Let us each meet our fate with valor– and heaven bless you all!
When we left off, Ravonna had rejected Kang’s offer of marriage, so he’s now sending his armies to invade her kingdom.
This treatment of Kang makes more sense to me than his previous appearances, and it better conveys his title of “…the Conqueror”. That he commands a legion of troops ready to invade kingdoms. His last attempt to conquer the 20th century involved sending a robot Spider-Man against the Avengers. Invading with an army just makes more sense to me.
