Post by Bored Yesterday on Feb 22, 2007 0:29:36 GMT -5
Issue: 252, February 1985 “Deciding Factor!” -- an unheralded issue, couldn't be called "key" or "groundbreaking," but an excellent example of 1980s comics at their best. One piece in a long run of stories, not a chapter in an "arc," not any part of a "saga," but a link in a long chain that connects several interwoven plotlines that played out over years.
cover at www.plexico.net/avengers/covers/a251.html
Creators: Roger Stern, Bob Hall (breakdowns), Joe Sinnott (finisher), Jim Novak (letterer), Christie Scheele colorist, Mark Gruenwald editor
Active Roster: Captain America, Captain Marvel, Hercules, Scarlet Witch, Starfox, Vision (goes renegade this issue), Wasp;
guests: Doc Samson, Black Knight comes knockin to join this issue
Foes: The Blood Brothers
Summary:
This issue is a prelude to the "evil Vision" storyline where Vision tries to take over the world's computer systems.
In an opening sequence, Vision invites Doc Samson to join the Avengers, even suggesting the opening of a Midwest branch in order to accommodate Samson's residency preferences. Samson turns it down, but wouldn't we all like to see a "what if Doc Samson founded the Midwest Avengers?" This is a nice cameo that says a lot about the "scene" around the Mansion in between big fights, but nice for its brevity.
Some mutant-haters burn down Vision and Scarlet Witch’s house. Anti-mutant hysteria is getting out of hand, nice subtle tie-in with other titles of the period, without major crossover event marketing, but also giving Vision's craziness of the next few issues some believable motivation.
The next morning, Vision dispatches the Avengers to deal with some newly discovered threats. Captain Marvel is sent beyond the orbit of Pluto to investigate Thanos’s ship the Sanctuary II, which is thought to be the source of some “disturbing signals.” This is a prelude to events in issues soon to follow, events that bring Nebula into the Avengers pantheon of mega-threats and lead to the exit of Starfox from the team as well as the rise and fall of Dr. Druid. The rest of the team, except Vision, goes to Arizona, where the U.S. military has discovered an abandoned secret headquarters of Thanos. The pentagon folks are looking for new weaponry. The possibilities of Thanos’s weaponry in Earthly military hands disturbs even Captan America. It is later revealed that the Vision sent them on these missions to get them out of the Mansion so he could initiate his plans to seize control of the Earth's computers-- but all in all, things work out pretty good for the survival of the universe that the Avengers were dispatched to investigate both situations.
In Arizona, some technicians accidentally activate a teleportation device that summons the Blood Brothers. The Blood Brothers are some pretty tough guys -- brawlers, but I don't know where they first appeared or what they're all about. They put up a really great fight and are a major threat to the Avengers. Hercules and Starfox manage to defeat them by tricking them into bashing one another. It’s a terrific fight.
Back at Avengers mansion, Dane Whitman visits. He is captured by the tentacle devices referred to in earlier issues. Vision does not want to be distrubed. He's up to no good.
Rating: ****1/2 Great comic for action and even though this story could have been used as throwaway filler, subplots are skillfully used to tie everything together at a pleasurable pace of storytelling that at once includes high action and methodical suspense building.
Notes: First mention of the as-yet unformed Great Lakes Avengers. Also, Dane Whitman attempts to gain entry to the Mansion via his Avengers id card, now inactivated. But, when did he get the card? I think back in issue 64 maybe? But anyway, he becomes an active member in issue 256, for the first time. And he stays with them pretty consistently thereafter for what? Like around 10 years probably. This is also the issue where Hercules old costume is destroyed. He wears a jumpsuit for a little while before putting on the "Goliath II-style" harness in issue 256.
cover at www.plexico.net/avengers/covers/a251.html
Creators: Roger Stern, Bob Hall (breakdowns), Joe Sinnott (finisher), Jim Novak (letterer), Christie Scheele colorist, Mark Gruenwald editor
Active Roster: Captain America, Captain Marvel, Hercules, Scarlet Witch, Starfox, Vision (goes renegade this issue), Wasp;
guests: Doc Samson, Black Knight comes knockin to join this issue
Foes: The Blood Brothers
Summary:
This issue is a prelude to the "evil Vision" storyline where Vision tries to take over the world's computer systems.
In an opening sequence, Vision invites Doc Samson to join the Avengers, even suggesting the opening of a Midwest branch in order to accommodate Samson's residency preferences. Samson turns it down, but wouldn't we all like to see a "what if Doc Samson founded the Midwest Avengers?" This is a nice cameo that says a lot about the "scene" around the Mansion in between big fights, but nice for its brevity.
Some mutant-haters burn down Vision and Scarlet Witch’s house. Anti-mutant hysteria is getting out of hand, nice subtle tie-in with other titles of the period, without major crossover event marketing, but also giving Vision's craziness of the next few issues some believable motivation.
The next morning, Vision dispatches the Avengers to deal with some newly discovered threats. Captain Marvel is sent beyond the orbit of Pluto to investigate Thanos’s ship the Sanctuary II, which is thought to be the source of some “disturbing signals.” This is a prelude to events in issues soon to follow, events that bring Nebula into the Avengers pantheon of mega-threats and lead to the exit of Starfox from the team as well as the rise and fall of Dr. Druid. The rest of the team, except Vision, goes to Arizona, where the U.S. military has discovered an abandoned secret headquarters of Thanos. The pentagon folks are looking for new weaponry. The possibilities of Thanos’s weaponry in Earthly military hands disturbs even Captan America. It is later revealed that the Vision sent them on these missions to get them out of the Mansion so he could initiate his plans to seize control of the Earth's computers-- but all in all, things work out pretty good for the survival of the universe that the Avengers were dispatched to investigate both situations.
In Arizona, some technicians accidentally activate a teleportation device that summons the Blood Brothers. The Blood Brothers are some pretty tough guys -- brawlers, but I don't know where they first appeared or what they're all about. They put up a really great fight and are a major threat to the Avengers. Hercules and Starfox manage to defeat them by tricking them into bashing one another. It’s a terrific fight.
Back at Avengers mansion, Dane Whitman visits. He is captured by the tentacle devices referred to in earlier issues. Vision does not want to be distrubed. He's up to no good.
Rating: ****1/2 Great comic for action and even though this story could have been used as throwaway filler, subplots are skillfully used to tie everything together at a pleasurable pace of storytelling that at once includes high action and methodical suspense building.
Notes: First mention of the as-yet unformed Great Lakes Avengers. Also, Dane Whitman attempts to gain entry to the Mansion via his Avengers id card, now inactivated. But, when did he get the card? I think back in issue 64 maybe? But anyway, he becomes an active member in issue 256, for the first time. And he stays with them pretty consistently thereafter for what? Like around 10 years probably. This is also the issue where Hercules old costume is destroyed. He wears a jumpsuit for a little while before putting on the "Goliath II-style" harness in issue 256.
. The Brother Voodoo were an interesting foe, and at least put a good fight, but of course the big surprise was the Vision's act in the end.