Celebrating Artist Bob Hall

Celebrating the birthday of artist Bob Hall (October 16, 1944) with a west coast party....a party of the West Coast Avengers, that is.  Due to concerns of the Vision that surfaced during the Secret Wars, he enlisted Hawkeye to form a team of Avengers on the west coast, to be better able to handle emergencies.  Hawkeye enlisted Avengers who were in the area, like Wonder Man, Tigra and Iron Man (though he didn't know to start that it was not the original Iron Man-Tony Stark, but instead James Rhodes), and Mockingbird.  This team of unsure heroes faced menaces like the Blank and Graviton in their initial mini-series.

West Coast Avengers #1 and #2 (September and October, 1984)

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West Coast Avengers #3 and #4 (November and December, 1984)

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Celebrating Artist Ed Hannigan

Celebrating the birthday of artist Ed Hannigan (August 6, 1951) with a couple of his incredible Avengers covers.

Here, with Avengers #221 (July, 1982)....spoilers...Hawkeye returns to the team after a bit of an absence, and She-Hulk joins the team as well (and, even more of these folks who really didn't fit with the Avengers would join over the next few decades...).

Avengers #223 (September, 1982) focused on Hawkeye and Ant-Man (though Scott Lang hadn't become a member, yet), as the duo faced off against the Taskmaster.

Incredible covers from an incredible artist!

Spider-Man Teams With Hawkeye And Ant-Man

A little truth in advertising.  Spider-Man didn't team up with Hawkeye AND Ant-Man in any of the 150 issues of Marvel Team-Up, but he did team up with both heroes separately (and someone related to one of them)...

...so let's take a look back at those team ups, and let you decide how much you liked them....

First Shot

Spidey and Hawkeye had worked together before, but Hawkeye first showed up to work with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #22 (June, 1974) where the two heroes faced off against "The Messiah Machine!" by writer Len Wein, penciller Sal Buscema and inkers Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt.


Hawkeye had just left the Defenders (who he briefly worked for during the Avengers/Defenders War, having just left the Avengers before that), and called on Spidey for some help with a problem he had encountered, and following the thieves back to their HQ led the heroes to a confrontation with Fantastic Four/Silver Surfer foe, Quasimodo!  With a little of Hawkeye's archery daring-do, the heroes were able to stop the villain and go back to their normal lives.

New Hero, Old Villain

Spider-Man was expecting to encounter either the Human Torch or Iceman in Marvel Team Up #59 (July, 1977) by writer Chris Claremont, penciller John Byrne and inker Dave Hunt, as "Some Say Spidey Will Die By Fire...Some Say By Ice!".

Spider-Man thought he was attacked by the Human Torch and Iceman while swinging through the city (and was saved from drowning by Hank Pym, known then as Yellowjacket).  Hank took Spider-Man back to his apartment (with his wife, Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp, who was none to happy to have their romantic night ruined), but soon recounting the details, Spidey realizes it was the villain Equinox (whom the Torch and Iceman fought in an earlier issue of MTU), and the three heroes went in search of the villain, with potentially catastrophic results for Hank Pym to end the issue... 

Thankfully, Marvel Team Up #60 (August, 1977) continued the tale of "A Matter of Love...and Death!" (also by Claremont, Byrne and Hunt), with Wasp a little upset that her husband was dead (and seemed to manifest new powers when she shrunk down).  As the heroes head to the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building (currently vacant, but able to access thanks to the Wasp's Avengers ID) with Margay Sorenson in tow (the scientist who created Equinox, and also his mother), and after defeating the Baxter Building's security, make a device to stop Equinox (and get a little help from Yellowjacket, who survived, and had not had a chance to tell his wife of improvements he made to her powers as Spidey's plight had interrupted them in the previous issue).  This also let into next issue's Spider-Man/Human Torch team-up...but that didn't involve the former Ant-Man or his wife....though it did involve someone else who could duplicate the Torch's powers!

New Villain, Old Name

Marvel Team Up #92 (April, 1980) had Spidey and Hawkeye encounter "Fear"....well, Mr. Fear (a villain who had faced Daredevil before....and died a few times facing DD....yet someone new always picked up the mantle, as it happened in this story, written by Steven Grant, pencilled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Pablo Marcos).

This story starts out with Hawkeye attacking Spidey, not wanting to let Spidey hurt him.  After soon dealing with an unconscious, overworked Hawkeye, Spidey talks to the former Avenger, who was now working for Cross Technological Enterprises as security chief, he encountered thieves, including the new Mr. Fear, who dosed Hawkeye with his fear gas.  The two heroes face their fears and Mr. Fear, eventually defeating the villain after they realize that there are emotions more powerful than fear....

New Villain, Hero With Old Name

All this, and still no Ant-Man?  Well, new Ant-Man, Scott Lang, showed up to meet Spider-Man in Marvel Team Up #103 (March, 1981) where the two heroes faced off against the villain with the photographic reflexes, the Taskmaster, and his business, "The Assassin Academy!" by writer David Michelinie, penciller Jerry Bingham and inker Mike Esposito.

This time around, Ant-Man was busy fixing his daughter's ROM doll (but had to do it under cover, as Cassie didn't know her dad was Ant-Man), when he has an old friend of is approach him to help him find work (as someone recruits ex-cons to pull jobs, and pays for success or failure).  Since Scott gave up that life, he declines, but gets involved when he reads in the Daily Bugle his friend had died the night after approaching him.  Peter Parker is also snooping around, looking for photos to sell to J. Jonah Jameson...and the two heroes encounter the Taskmaster, and his newest scheme to train the criminal element.  Spidey and Ant-Man do defeat Taskmaster (who uses skills learned from watching Daredevil and Hawkeye against the two heroes), mostly by Ant-Man using his own powers in an unexpected way (that of enlarging an ant to attack), but while the heroes stopped the villain's plans, Taskmaster got away.

As Taskmaster duplicated Hawkeye, it was almost like having Spidey, Ant-Man and Hawkeye in an issue, and there are more related Spider-Man and Avenger member team-ups to come!

Goodbye David Letterman and Avengers Assemble

Did you know that late night talk show host David Letterman appeared in an issue of the Avengers?

Well, he did!

It was Avengers #239 in January, 1984!



Written by Roger Stern, with art and cover by Al Milgrom, Dave and Paul Shafer got to deal with a contingent of Avengers (including Hawkeye, Beast, Black Widow, Black Panther and sometime actor and stuntman Wonder Man).

This was a part of Marvel's Assistant Editor's Month, where weird and wacky things happened in all the Marvel titles, and Hawkeye was dealing with his new deafness (and new bride, Mockingbird aka Bobbi Morse!), and Dave had to take a hand in defeating the villain of the piece...the dreaded Fabian Stankowicz!

What's next, movie star Spider-Man on Saturday Night Live?  Well, that actually already happened....

Black Widow Tales of Suspense

Black Widow got her start with Iron Man in the second movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe....and she got her start with Iron Man in the comics as well!

Tales of Suspense

With Tales of Suspense #52 (April, 1964 by Stan Lee and Don Heck), the Black Widow was introduced into the world of Iron Man!  

Natasha Romanoff was sent along with Boris Turgenev to kill Anton Vanko (the original Crimson Dynamo), as well as Tony Stark and Iron Man (not knowing they were one and the same.

Boris ended up becoming the next Crimson Dynamo for a time, and Natasha had established herself as a femme fatale in Iron Man's life....though not quite as active Black Widow has been seen!

Black Widow returned in Tales of Suspense #53 (May, 1964, by Stan Lee and Don Heck) in the aptly titled "The Black Widow Strikes Again!", and was a little more active in this appearance, using an anti-gravity device to battle the Armored Avenger...

...but still not being able to defeat him!

While quite stylish, an evening gown, gloves and fur are not the best way to battle a man in armor!  Next time around (in Tales of Suspense #57, September, 1964 by Stan Lee and Don Heck), Natasha uses her feminine wiles on the battling bowman known as Hawkeye, taking a misunderstanding he had with the police in his introduction to turn Hawkeye into a criminal, and set Hawkeye and Iron Man at odds!

Natasha was there again, setting Hawkeye against Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #60 (December, 1964 by Stan Lee and Don Heck), and things just got worse for Hawkeye, but it did seem Clint Barton and Natasha were getting closer for real...so much so, that when she appeared next in Tales of Suspense #64 (April, 1965, by Stan Lee and Don Heck), Natasha had a costumed identity of her own...but she didn't appear to be as much help as one would have thought, as she had been injured (enough that she wasn't as close to Hawkeye in their next appearance in a flashback in Avengers #16...and then Hawkeye joined the Avengers!  

Black Widow didn't appear in Avengers until Avengers #29...

....and didn't join the team until much later..

..though she did hang around with Earth's Mightiest Heroes for a time, and met Hercules, as well as the team finding her husband, the Red Guardian...the Russian version of Captain America).

It took a while of working on and off with the Avengers, and Natasha leaving Clint Barton (now as Goliath), and a chance meeting with Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #86 (July, 1970, by Stan Lee and John Romita) for Natasha to get a new uniform, and start her own series in Amazing Adventures (that ran for 8 issues, from Amazing Adventures #1 to #8 from August, 1970 to September, 1971, sharing space with the Inhumans, no less), before moving over to Daredevil (from Daredevil #81 to #124, during which, Natasha finally joined the Avengers in Avengers #111 in May, 1973 briefly, and then moved on to a new super-hero team, the Champions).

 

Avengers History 102

We’re back with more Avengers history! The charter members were covered before, and this time, we look at the first Avenger addition…Captain America, and the rest of his kooky quartet (Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver…and a little more as well)!


You’ve seen comics advertise themselves as being the story after which you’ve read it, nothing will be the same….but, with Avengers #4 (March 1964), this was most definitely the case. The founding Avengers were looking for the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner (due to events in Avengers #3, covered last time), and Namor himself, while fleeing the team…stumbled across a frozen man worshiped by Eskimos, and freed the ice statue to land in warmer waters…to be found by the Avengers! That man was the hero of World War II…Steve Rogers, a.k.a Captain America!

A Hero Returns

After a little confusion, as he had been in the ice flow since April of 1945, Cap was welcomed by the team (who he saved from an alien menace, with some help from Rick Jones), and became a team member in this story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This issue (along with Fantastic Four #4, which reintroduced the Sub-Mariner, added the Timely Comics/Atlas Comics history to the young Marvel Comics…though this would not be explored until later…but, we’ll touch on it a little as it affects the Avengers).

Captain America (along with his partner Bucky, and seemingly eternal foe, the Red Skull), all premiered in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, where Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes began their fight against the evil Axis of World War II. Steve Rogers had been a young man not quite fit enough to serve in the armed forces, but volunteered for an experimental Super-Soldier Serum with Dr. Erskine that would allow him to be the epitome of the fighting soldier. Cap, along with young Bucky, became an elite force fighting the enemy (Cap getting his round Vibranium-Adamantium shield soon after this first appearance, then meeting up with the original android Human Torch and his young partner, Toro and the aquatic Sub-Mariner and others to fight the Nazi menace; and these Invaders were successful).

But, because you ask…why didn’t the Sub-Mariner recognize Cap? And, wasn’t there a Captain America around after World War II? Well, that’s a little advanced, but the Invaders didn’t really come into existence until the 1970s with stories set in World War II, facing foes like the vampiric Baron Blood and the Super-Axis, and the lack of memories was later explained by Sub-Mariner’s massive memory loss that had him homeless for a time until found by the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch and the trauma of Steve Rogers awakening, and those later Timely Comics were explained away as being different people being Captain America and Bucky (who also worked with the Human Torch, Toro and the Sub-Mariner, as well as the Whizzer and Miss America in the All-Winners Squad)…even though Steve Rogers and James Barnes disappeared, the President decided the USA still needed a Captain America and Bucky, and so recruited replacements, a theme that would be explored many times as well).

Avengers #4 also introduced one of Captain America’s most vile villains, Baron Zemo, but we didn’t see him until Avengers #6 (Zemo was the man responsible for the rocket launch that ended up getting Cap caught in the ice…and, to all the world, the death of Bucky; and he had an earlier WWII appearance in Sgt. Fury #8, both dated July 1964). Cap had to deal with others from the World War II era as well…both friends and foes, over the years, including the various members of the homefront heroes – the Liberty Legion (older Timely characters whose 1940s adventures together were started in the 1970s), Nick Fury and the rest of his Howling Commandos (WWII characters whose combat classics started in 1963, and Nick Fury took control of the counter-terrorist group S.H.I.E.L.D. in Strange Tales) , and villains like Baron Von Strucker, the Hate-Monger and Arnim Zola, as well as Third Reich inspired menaces such as Hydra and A.I.M., proving that, even though Captain America had cooled his heels for a time, evil was still active!

Cap and the Avengers didn’t have much of a break, as the team headed over to help the Fantastic Four against the Hulk in Fantastic Four #25 & 26 (April & May 1964, by Lee & Kirby), then came back to their own title for Avengers #5 (May 1964) to fight the Lava Men, a race that lived under the Earth whom Thor had fought before. And, the individual team members still continued to face menaces on their own in their own titles, and other events continued to transpire across the Marvel Universe as well which would change the lives of the Avengers…

Then, Cap’s foe, Baron Heinrich Zemo returned in Avengers #6 (July 1964), and changed the course of Avengers history, bringing with him Iron Man foe-the Melter, Thor villain-the Radioactive Man and Giant-Man menace-the Black Knight, assembled as the Masters of Evil! This team would add on more members, starting with Avengers #7 (August 1964), when Asgardians Enchantress and the Executioner joined. This team continued to menace the Avengers, resulting in the creation of Wonder Man (a future Avenger, and the first member to be introduced in the Avengers) in Avengers #9 (October 1964), working with time-traveling villain Immortus in Avengers #10 (November 1964), and Captain America finally ending Baron Zemo’s life (though Zemo had brought about his own end in the jungles of South America, as Cap would have brought him to justice) in Avengers #15 (April 1965).

The Avengers also faced other foes, starting in September 1964, with the time-traveling Kang in Avengers #8 (another time traveller? And, this one was once Rama-Tut, who faced the Fantastic Four, who decided on an armored identity after meeting Dr. Doom…surely his history couldn’t get more complex…he couldn’t be related to Immortus or a member of the Fantastic Four, could he?), who returned for Avengers #11 (December 1964); Fantastic Four foes Red Ghost and the Mole Man in Avengers #12 (January 1965); head of the Maggia family of organized crime Count Nefaria in Avengers #13 (February 1965); and the alien Kallusians in Avengers #14 (March 1965). With the events of Avengers #15…the team was getting exhausted (as was the behind the scenes team, artist Jack Kirby had not been doing all the issue, Don Heck was sometimes the artist)…and ready for new members, as the members began to battle each other on occasion!

Cap's Kooky Quartet

More new members came with Avengers #16 (May 1965) in what was the biggest Avengers membership shake-up of the time. Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp all wanted to get back to their own lives (and titles…though sadly, Giant-Man and the Wasp weren’t to have Tales To Astonish as a home for much longer…), and the team added new members…Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye?


But…weren’t they all villains?

And, how would this team do against the level of threats the Avengers usually face?
Well, the answers are coming….first, though a few answers about of this team’s past!

Amazing Archer

First up is the amazing archer, Hawkeye. Hawkeye first slung his bow in Tales of Suspense #57 (in September, 1964, and, with Black Widow making her first Avengers appearance in Avengers #16, but still not joining…mostly because she was injured, and taken away, leaving Hawkeye on his own). Clint Barton had learned his trade in the circus, and wanted to be a hero, but a misunderstanding helped him miss the mark…and branded him a villain for a time, battling Iron Man under the manipulations of the Black Widow, whom he fell in love with (herself caught in a web of intrigue that would take her years to escape…with some help from Nick Fury and the Avengers!).

Still, after crossing paths with the armored Avenger (and a certain wall-crawler as well) and a little help from the Avengers’ butler, Edwin Jarvis, Hawkeye became the second new member of the Avengers, having his crimes cleared! (How ironic, since later, Hawkeye, on a break from the Avengers, worked with the Defenders, who were composed of the Hulk, Silver Surfer and Sub-Mariner – who were thought of menaces; and later, as leader of the Thunderbolts, a team whose members also tried to get past troubled pasts!). Hawkeye would leave the team to strike out on his own over the years, change to other identities, but always returned, and even led their California team, the West Coast Avengers, for a time.

Merry Mutants

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch started in X-Men #4 (March 1964, by Lee & Kirby…and, do you see four as an important number to this creative duo?) as members of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (along with the bestial Toad and aloof Mastermind). The brother and sister were mutants on the run (easier for him, with his speed powers, but not as easier for her, with a vague “hex-power” that altered probability…and an affinity for magic).

Pietro and Wanda Maximoff were gypsy orphans, saved from an angry mob by Magneto, and forced to join his Brotherhood against their wishes. The mutant twins fought the X-Men and others (and their own teammates) while struggling to find a place in a world that feared them, lacking any parental support (and, oh, how complicated their past was!). After the alien Stranger took Magneto out of the picture and the Brotherhood disbanded for a time, they were looking for a home…one that they thought the Avengers, who had just inducted Hawkeye, could provide! (and, boy, did the twins future get complicated, finding out their real parentage, as well as a marriage to an android for Wanda, and one to an Inhuman for Pietro! It seems there is no escaping family…).

The other Avengers then left the team…Thor, to fight the Absorbing Man and be involved in a trial of the gods against his brother, Loki, in Journey Into Mystery #114-116, Iron Man to face Avengers’ foe, Count Nefaria, in Tales of Suspense #67, and Giant-Man and the Wasp to face the Hidden Man in Tales To Astonish #67 (though their schedule would free up soon!).

Avengers Get Busy

The new team tried to bring the Hulk back in Avengers #17 (in June 1965, with little success, he was busy in Tales To Astonish #69, fighting the Leader and reclaiming Rick Jones as his partner, and, ironically, this was the last issue of the Giant-Man and Wasp feature as well), and instead the team faced the Minotaur, then faced Major Hoy and the Commissar in Avengers #18 (July 1965), and tried for a new member…the Swordsman (after pretty much everyone mentioned above attended the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl in Fantastic Four Annual #3).

Swinging Swords

Swordsman (Jacques DuQuesne) arrived to take a shot at the Avengers (inspired by Hawkeye to don a heroic persona, as it was revealed that Swordsman was responsible for trouble at the circus Clint Barton had worked at, and Jacques had helped trained the archer…though not in archery). The sword-welding rouge first appeared in in Avengers #19 (August 1965), and joined the team briefly in Avengers #20 (September 1965) as a plot of the Mandarin’s to kill the team. Ironically, Jacques decided not to go though with the plan, but like Hawkeye, had been accused of the wrong-doing…and thus had to escape the team in disgrace, coming back to face the team and its members as a villain again and again with his trick sword that the Mandarin had provided him (as his history with the Avengers isn’t over yet!).

The Enchantress returned to face the team, bringing a new strongman, Power Man (Erik Josten, a former henchman who had been created by the same process Zemo used to create Wonder Man…and has no relation to future Avenger Luke Cage…who eventually takes his name, but Erik returns the favor and takes an Avenger’s!). Power Man premiered with Avengers #21 (in October 1965, and, worked with the Hulk foes, the Circus of Crime, in Avengers #22, November 1965). Kang faces the group in Avengers #23-24 (December 1965-January 1966), and that leads into a battle with Dr. Doom in Avengers #25 (February 1966), tying into the events of the rest of the Marvel Universe and establishing the Avengers as a force to be reckoned with, proving the worth of the new group!

The Wasp returned to the title in Avengers #26 (in March 1966, with Namor foe, Attuma, and Human Torch foe, the Beetle), and her friend Hank Pym followed along (both from the Sub-Mariner stories from Tales To Astonish #77 and #78 of 1966), changing his name from Giant-Man to Goliath, as they both rejoined the team in Avengers #28 (for May, 1966, just in time to face the new menace of the Collector, while the former Avengers kept busy in their own titles). The Collector, as well as Attuma and the Beetle, would return, separately, to cause trouble for the team….

Power Man returns with the Swordsman and Black Widow in June of 1966 with Avengers #29, and the team faces the Keeper of the Flame in Avengers #30-31 (July-August 1966), and then the villainous group of the Sons of the Serpent (as well as Hank Pym’s old friend, Bill Foster) in Avengers #32-33 (September-October 1966), deals with Spider-Man trying to be a member by sending him to check on the Hulk (but not joining yet in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3)...

...and with Avengers #34, cover-dated November 1966, faced the new villain of the Living Laser (who can manipulate light) and bids farewell to writer Stan Lee, as, starting with Avengers #35 (December, 1966), Roy Thomas takes on the writing duties.

With that, I’ll bid you farewell for a time, until we can pick up with more Avengers history!

Marvel Avengers Infinite Series 2015 Wave 1

Starting off 2015...more 3.75 goodness from Hasbro and Marvel!

Ready for order....a few Spider-Man villains like Black Cat and Sandman (with a "sandy" Sandman variant as well), a few X-Men (Bishop and the blue, furry Beast, with a grey variant), Big-Time Spider-Man (reflecting a recent storyline), and reissues of Avenger Hawkeye and soon to be on Netflix Daredevil!

Tons of action figure fun for all fans of Marvel Super-Heroes, and planned for the future..Hellcat, Northstar and more!