hawkeye – Page 3 – Coke ⊕ Comics

Avengers #17

Four Against the Minotaur!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: April 8, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Story by: Stan Lee (Who else?)
Art by: Don Heck (Why not?)
Inked by: Dick Ayers
Lettered by: S. Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#358	Next
Tales to Astonish #69, Story B	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #18
Avengers #16	Avengers	Avengers #18

Here it is, the first outing of the New Avengers. How will they measure up to the old team? Lots of differences. In terms of power level, we’ve traded in a god and a man in a powerful suit of iron armor for a guy with a bow and arrows and a guy who runs fast. In terms of character strength, we’ve traded in four people who sustained their own features for 3 years now for three who have only been side characters. In terms of ethics, we’ve traded in four superheroes for three characters who were super-villains a month ago. Two members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and one lovesick Soviet stooge.

The opening tag refers to the team as the New Avengers, which is what I have always called them. Similarly if you hear me refer to the New X-Men, I probably mean the 1975 team.

It also lets us know the Avengers have begun the search for the Hulk. I’m not convinced they look very hard at all.

Avengers #16

The Old Order Changeth!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: May 1965
12 cents
Dazzling script by: Stan Lee
Dashing layouts by: Jack Kirby
Darlin’ artwork by: Dick Ayers
Delicate lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages

Previous	#334	Next
Avengers #15	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #114
Avengers #15	Avengers	Avengers #17

“Avengers Assemble!” shouts Captain America. With quite the assemblage of heroes and villains behind him. Check out our pretty full cast list near the end.

A little annoyed with myself as I make this post. I screwed up. In the middle of a move and all my comics are in transit. I have this issue, my second oldest Avengers comic after issue 8, and I thought I had scanned this before I packed and shipped it. I remembered doing so. Apparently I only scanned the single page I used in my Wandavision post.

I considered pausing our reading for a bit until I could scan my comic, but who knows when that will be. So we’ll press forward with scans, err, found on the internet. We’ll call them temporary. I’ll come back in a month or so and replace them with my own. You probably won’t even notice the difference. I just prefer to scan my own comics when I can.

And this issue means a lot to me.

Had it since early childhood somehow. My cousin had borrowed it for an extended period of time, but I eventually got it back.

This is a pretty historic issue. For whatever reason, Heck chose this issue of all issues to take a breather, leaving Ayers to do the artwork over Kirby’s layouts… or perhaps Kirby’s loose pencils, or maybe full pencils for some of the comic.

Here’s an interesting post on the breakdown of artistic labor in this issue, including speculation that Carl Hubbell was involved: https://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-unknown-art-of-carl-hubbell.html

First, we need to wrap up the story from last issue. Captain America had just fatally defeated Zemo, and now needs to get back to New York with Rick. He’ll have some trouble with Zemo’s henchmen. Meanwhile, the battle with the Masters of Evil continues in New York.

Let’s just say the Avengers win, though Enchantress and Executioner escape. The battle’s anyway over by page 4, and we have more important things to discuss.

It turns out this was these heroes’ final battle together.

Tales of Suspense #64

Hawkeye and the New Black Widow Strike Again!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: January 12, 1965
Cover: April 1965
12 cents
Powerful script by: Stan Lee
Poignant art by: Don Heck
Punchy inking by: Chic Stone
Polite lettering by: Sam Rosen
Plenty of kibitzing by: The Bullpen Gang!
12 pages

Previous	#316	Next
X-Men #10	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #64, Story B
Tales of Suspense #63, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #64, Story B

What is this “Bullpen” they refer to?

We just met the “new” Giant-Man. It was really just Giant-Man with a new outfit and gizmo. Similarly, the “new” Black Widow is just the Black Widow with some new gimmicks.

These gimmicks make her more formidable, but still no match for Iron Man.

She can now climb walls and fire a line of suction-tipped nylon, a web of sorts. She is a spider-themed heroine, so it makes sense her gimmicks will have hints of Spider-Man.

We also see the first hints of a possible road to redemption for Black Widow. She has decided she wishes to stop being evil and tells Khrushchev this to his face. He shows her that her parents are his prisoners, and they will be killed unless she cooperates. That Khrushchev is a villain, indeed.

Tales of Suspense #60

Suspected of murder!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: September 8, 1864
Cover: December 1964
12 cents
Written by the king of comi-drama: Stan Lee
Illustrated by the master of panoramic spectacle: Don Heck
Inked by the prince of line design: Dick Ayers
Lettered by the sultan of shaky borders: Sam Rosen
13 pages

Previous	#273	Next
Fantastic Four #33	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #60, Story B
Tales of Suspense #59, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #60, Story B

Iron Man is suspected of murdering Anthony Stark! But how can that be when Iron Man and Stark are the same person!

The art team is Heck and Ayers. We recently saw their work on Avengers #9 and will soon see it on Avengers #10. I was not impressed with their Avengers work. They acquit themselves much better here, even when rendering the Avengers. The faces are clear and distinct. The lines are clean.

Here’s where we were. Iron Man’s heart problems have accelerated. He needs the constant flow of power from his suit to his heart. He cannot remove his suit even for a minute, lest he risk his heart giving out. This means he cannot appear as Tony Stark. He made some excuses as Iron Man for Tony’s disappearance, but Pepper and Happy are suspicious.

This story seems to take place pretty soon after the ending of last issue. Pepper and Happy are searching for Mr. Stark. We saw that Avengers #9 explicitly took place in the middle of all this, with Iron Man reflecting on Stark’s disappearance and Pepper and Happy’s suspicions.

Tales of Suspense #57

Hawkeye, the Marksman!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: June 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Smiling Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Sparkling Don Heck
Lettered by: Sterling S. Rosen
18 pages

Interestingly, this is the first Iron Man cover not drawn by Kirby. In fact, it’s the first major cover of the era not drawn or partially drawn by Kirby or Ditko. In general, Ditko has been drawing the covers of his books, and Kirby has been drawing the covers of his own and everybody else’s. For example, Kirby has drawn very few Giant-Man stories, but has drawn every cover. Since covers were often drawn before the issue, Kirby often had a hand in the creation of the new villains, by virtue of being the first to actually draw them. But not Hawkeye. Hawkeye may be the first major character we’ve met not in any way attributable to Kirby or Ditko. He seems to be entirely the creation of Stan Lee and Don Heck.

For example, Kirby is generally not credited as a creator of Black Widow, but he was involved at the beginning, having drawn her first cover appearance. Same story for Daredevil. I see none of his fingerprints on Hawkeye, but may be unaware of some behind-the-scenes work.

When we met Daredevil, I declared our cast of original stars complete. That was an admittedly arbitrary cut-off. I could have waited just a few months and claimed Hawkeye completes the package.

I said what I said because Hawkeye is not of our stars. At least not yet. He is a just a new super-villain, one of many. Like Black Widow. Like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch…

See the Our Cast So Far page to see how I’m breaking out the characters.

Why read the Marvel Universe?

In 1989, I was in Walgreens and my mother suggested I pick out a comic book from the newsstand. Thirty years and some 40,000 comics later, she has had time to regret that moment. On that day, I began a hobby which has consumed a large amount of my life’s attention and energy.

The comic was Avengers #309. I think I picked it out because I recognized some of the characters from cartoons I had seen. Thor, Captain America, Sub-Mariner. Perhaps I recognized She-Hulk. The other two characters on the cover were new to me.

The issue begins in the middle of events. Our characters stand atop a giant crater. The top reads, “Stan Lee PRESENTS: The MIGHTY AVENGERS!” Then in bolder letters, “TO FIND OLYMPIA!” Olympia is written is this cool gold font.

The story doesn’t end with this comic any more than it begins. By the final page, Thor is the only Avenger left standing and facing off against Blastaar. We get a little blurb which reads, “Next: The end of the Eternals? The end of the Avengers? You must not miss… Death in Olympia! In 30 days!!” The word ‘Death’ is written in this cool blood-dripping font.