Featuring: Avengers Release: September 8, 1964 Cover: November 1964 12 cents Story superbly written by: Stan Lee Art adorably drawn by: Don Heck Inked by darlin’ Dick Ayers Lettered by stalwart Sam Rosen 20 pages
The issue’s title is “The Avengers Break Up”. Yet, at no point in the issue do the Avengers appear to break up. Instead, characters go to great lengths repeatedly to explain the title via the dialogue. “Now that Thor’s over there and Iron Man’s across the room, it’s basically like they’ve broken up.”
The Heck/Ayers art looks much as it did last issue, which I see as a negative. I’ll give them credit for a couple nice panels. A trippy one of Immortus and an easy-on-the-eyes Enchantress.
We get a weirdly sexist moment in an era filled with weirdly sexist moments. I don’t know if I’m ready to claim it’s the worst, but it’s up there. Iron Man recommends giving Rick Jones a uniform and making him an official Avenger. “…why don’t we make his membership in the Avengers official, as the Wasp’s is…”
Featuring: Hulk Release: September 1, 1964 Cover: December 1964 12 cents Sensationally scripted by: Stan Lee Dynamically drawn by: Steve Ditko Impeccably inked by: George Bell Lovingly lettered by: Sam Rosen 10 pages
Even if he escapes this mess, the status quo is unsustainable. If Hulk might revert to Banner at any moment and has no control… he can’t keep that identity a secret.
In a recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man, we remarked the Enforcers were distinguished from other super-villains in that they were content to be lackeys, serving a major super-villain. Most of the super-villains are to arrogant to serve anybody, a plot point whenever two try to team up. The other “lackey” villains we’ve met are Dr. Doom’s Terrible Trio and Magneto’s Evil Mutants. The Terrible Trio tried to make the leap from lackeys to being their own bosses with limited success. Magneto’s mutants only serve him, while the Enforcers are clearly for-hire.
Chameleon is the first villain we see make the leap from super-villain to lackey. He’d teamed up twice with Kraven, but those seemed more like partnerships. Now, he works for the Leader. Chameleon has been getting around. Originally a Spider-Man foe, he recently fought the Avengers, and now faces off against Hulk.
More than the major crossovers, I like the cameos. I like that Captain America can just show up for a panel if the story calls for it. Makes the universe feel cohesive.
I’m loathe to call this the introduction of the Leader since we don’t see his face. I suspect Ditko hadn’t even finished designing him yet.
Featuring: Avengers Release: July 9, 1964 Cover: September 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee (our answer to Victor Hugo!) Illustrated by: Jack Kirby (our answer to Rembrandt!) Inked by: Dick Ayers (our answer to Automation!) Lettered by: Sam Rosen (our answer to Artie Simek!) 21 pages
This is more like it.
If you look to Amazing Spider-Man, you’ll see that Lee and Ditko introduced 6 super-villains in 7 issues (Chameleon, Vulture, Tinkerer, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard), and the pace hasn’t slowed down by issue 16. By contrast, over 7 issues Avengers introduced the Space Phantom and Zemo.
So it’s good that we’re getting a new villain at all. More than that, it’s good that this villain is plausibly a threat to the Avengers. That’s what they should be about, after all. Threats so great no single hero can stand against them. It’s also great this is an independent menace. Too much of the series was focused on internal squabbles or villains whose sole goal was to defeat the Avengers.
Kang is actually here to conquer the world. He’s tough enough that it’s going to take a team of superheroes to stop him.
Thank god Rick Jones is there for the Pentagon top priority meeting.
Technically speaking, Kang’s perhaps not a new villain. But close enough. While we’re being technical, Zemo was perhaps introduced in Sgt. Fury.
Of more personal significance, this is the oldest Avengers comic I actually own. I have a complete run of Avengers comics starting with issue 31 and going until I stopped collecting them in 2007. And then I have a handful of older issues, starting with this one.
Featuring: Avengers Release: June 9, 1964 Cover: August 1964 12 cents Magnificently written by: Stan Lee Majestically illustrated by: Jack Kirby Masterfully inked by: Chic Stone Meticulously lettered by: Art Simek 22 pages
In Tales of Suspense #56, Tony Stark very briefly flirted with giving up his Iron Man identity. He now faces a board of inquiry for his failure to answer an Avengers call. At that very moment, Odin is rendering judgment on Enchantress and Executioner for their part in the events of Journey Into Mystery #103. These events show the ever-tightening interconnectedness of the series.
Recall that Thor’s title went over a dozen issues without referencing or being referenced by any other series. There was no evidence it was set in the same world as that of the other heroes. Now, they are rather intertwined.
But continuity brings continuity errors, even when a single writer is nominally writing every title. The inquiry is tricky to reconcile with the details of Tales of Suspense #56 in a few ways. Thor charges Iron Man with ignoring a call. However, the Avengers didn’t really know how to contact him and never reached him. They talked to Mr. Stark’s secretary. She was able to talk to Mr. Stark, but never (as far as anyone knows) Iron Man. It would be like somebody who doesn’t know my phone number charging me with not answering my phone they didn’t call.
Secondly, they were trying to contact Iron Man to ask him to look into the Unicorn. Within a couple hours of that failed call, Iron Man did indeed find, battle, and defeat the Unicorn. So they attempted to contact Iron Man, didn’t know how to, never reached him, and thus it was, say, 2 hours between their attempt at contact and his completing the mission they sought to assign him. That hardly seems worth an inquiry.
There was no mention of this coming inquiry in the Iron Man comic. In fact, at the time, the Avengers all seemed to agree that Iron Man was in his rights to live his own life.
Featuring: Avengers Release: May 5, 1964 Cover: July 1964 12 cents Written by the inspired typewriter of: Stan Lee Drawn by the enchanted pencil of: Jack Kirby Inked by the gifted brush of: Chic Stone Lettered by the scratch pen of: S. Rosen 23 pages
As if it wasn’t hard enough trying to figure out how to fit the Avengers’ solo adventures around this title, issue 5 ended with an urgent call from the Teen Brigade to go on a mission unrelated to the Lava Men adventure they just had, which itself was unrelated to the Hulk adventure that started that issue. Leaving almost no space for solo adventures.
Here, the narration informs us they are still on the way to New York to respond to the urgent call, but needed to refuel in Chicago.
Between New York and Chicago, Iron Man and Giant-Man have gotten new costumes, and Wasp has a new hairdo and headpiece.
Captain America meanwhile has new glove magnets and miniature transistors installed in his shield that allow him to control its motion.
Iron Man designed the shield transistors. He is apparently an engineering genius on par with Tony Stark, the man nobody has ever seen him with, despite being Stark’s bodyguard.
And then Thor gives Captain America his mail. Wait? What? I thought this was a refueling stop in Chicago. Where did they get the mail? Where are they?
Not many details in the scene. Some equipment makes it look like a lab. Cap is sitting on a chair, so they seem to not be on a plane or at a refueling station.
Featuring: Avengers Release: March 3, 1964 Cover: May 1964 12 cents An epic tale told with high drama and heroic dignity by: Stan Lee Illustrated with deep sincerity and dazzling beauty by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Paul Reinman Lettered by: S. Rosen 23 pages
Rick Jones gets his name on the cover and on the opening page alongside the book’s actual stars. He i fact is given billing over Giant-Man and Wasp in both places. His placement suggests he comes with Captain America, as though they are partners.
This tale is getting closer to what I feel like a traditional Avengers tale should be. There should be some menace to the world, a threat so great that no single hero can stand against it. Mostly so far, they’ve just fought Hulk over and over again. And he just wants to be left alone.
In this issue, the Lava Men invade Earth. When last we met them, they were referred to as Lava People; not sure how the unneeded gendering crept in.
Almost what I’m looking for. Only two problems. The first is that the Lava Men/People invaded before and Thor stopped them all by himself. So it’s not clear they’re an Avengers-worthy threat. The second is that in addition to fighting the Lava Men, the Avengers also all attack Hulk again. They really should just give the guy a break. This is now their fifth battle with the Hulk, and they all end in a stalemate.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: February 11, 1964 Cover: May 1964 12 cents Unforgettably written in the grand manner by: Stan Lee Powerfully drawn in the heroic manner by: Jack Kirby Inked by: George Bell Lettered by: Art Simek 23 pages
Thing stands alone no longer.
The Avengers and Fantastic Four team up to battle the Hulk. If there’s a better issue that serves as a microcosm for what the Marvel Universe is all about, I don’t know what it is.
I think this is perhaps the best comic cover we have yet come across. It’s very atypical of the Kirby covers in a number of ways. Likely stemming from having to cram an atypical number of characters in. But we see the full figure of each character, each taking up a small amount of cover real estate. He usually likes characters on his covers to be bigger. He also shows less concern about perspective than usual, since we see neither the floor nor any overlapping characters. He allows the action to be basically 2-dimensional and each character to be small, while overlapping none of the characters. He wants us to be able to see each character and their pose clearly. I’m reminded more than anything of posing action figures.
The whole of the scene with its 11 characters still fills a small amount of the cover. Kirby gives a lot of top real estate to word balloons. He could have zoomed in more if he wanted to. He didn’t. He wanted what is probably the widest cover shot we’ve seen yet.
This concludes a two-part Fantastic Four story, the best Fantastic Four story yet, but it’s also part of a bigger saga. It’s been building since Hulk quit the Avengers in Avengers #2, carried over into the Avengers’ battles with Hulk and Namor in Avengers #3and #4 and will have an epilogue in Avengers #5, where the Avengers have one last encounter with Hulk, at least for now.
Still, it doesn’t really end there. Events at the end of Avengers #5 lead directly into issue 6, which itself ties in with Sgt. Fury #8. And the Hulk’s story continues, with the toll these events have taken on him leading indirectly to his upcoming battles with Spider-Man and Giant-Man. These two issues are at the center of a giant interconnected web of stories, which revolve around Hulk being (justifiably) upset with how the world’s been treating him.
It’s all part of the long build-up to Hulk finally getting his solo adventures again. He was the first superhero of the new Marvel Age to have his title cancelled and will be the first to be revived.
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.
Featuring: Avengers Release: November 5, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inked by: P. Reinman 25 pages
We see a new cover box. Acknowledges that Hank is now Giant-Man and that Wasp exists.
Welcome to a special Mothers Day post. What makes this a Mothers Day post? Well, today is Mothers Day. Also, my mother likes the Sub-Mariner, and this is the issue where the Avengers meet Sub-Mariner.
Sub-Mariner doesn’t show up until page 15, but still gets the issue titled after him. Good for him.
In the first issue, Loki tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
In the second issue, Space Phantom tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
This issue, the Avengers just decide to attack the Hulk.
We reach the 100th story in our Marvel reading. Quite the milestone. And what a story it is. Coincidentally, the 100th Marvel Universe story, by my count, is Avengers #1. Did I plan it that way? No. Well, at least not exactly. Six different comics came out this very same day, and it was mostly up to me what order to read them in. The 100th story could just as easily have been X-Men #1 if I’d wanted. But I made that #99. Because.
[Big asterisk on the last paragraph. I have since edited my own reading order to make this story an unexciting story #94. But it was #100 when I first posted it. Now that honor goes to Journey Into Mystery #97]
And what a day for comics. The first Fantastic Four annual had Namor find his people and declare war on the surface world. That’s cool. Sgt. Fury met Reed Richards for the first time. That’s cool. The X-Men were introduced! We read the worst story yet as Thor battled Merlin. That’s… less cool. But overall an exciting day.
Including this. Really, what it’s all been building up to. Why I’ve been intermixing Thor and Iron Man stories, acting like they’re somehow connected even though they clearly haven’t been. This is the heart of it all. Five heroes we’ve been reading about team up. Also, the Fantastic Four show up for good measure.
And, as we’ve discussed, my first comic ever was an Avengers comic. So I’m excited to have reached this milestone.
