Avengers v.I, 26-28

[Bored Yesterday]

These issues bring us the return of Wasp and Pym, the first appearance of the Collector, an early fight with Attuma, and the end of the Kooky Quartet. Instead of my ordinary praise for classic Avengers however, I'm going to come at these just a little bit more critically.

Basically, there were some major inconsistencies in the story from issue-to-issue. It looks like the plots were being written one issue at a time and some parts of the storyline never made it to the scripted page. I think these issues reveal some of the weaknesses of the "Mavel Method." It's as if Stan didn't remember the plot he had outlined when he came to write the script.

Inconsistency 1.
In issue 26, Wasp takes off from Pym's boat to follow the Submariner and warn the Avengers.
In issue 27 and later -- no mention of Submariner. Attuma is set up as being the guy who captured the Wasp.

Inconsistency 2. It turns out that Attuma didn't capture Wasp, but in issue 28, she is shown to have been captured by the Collector. There is no explanation or smooth transition from a story about Attuma to a story about the Collector.

When I started this post, I thought I would be discussing that as a real mistake -- but now that I think about it, I think it was a bait-and-switch to deliberately give the readers a false impression that Attuma was the bad guy, but the Collector was the real bad guy. Ok, no big deal.

But still, what happened to the Submariner and why didn't he carryout the attack that the Wasp was so worried about in issue 26?

Throughout these books, Stan uses the space on the page for dialog and thought balloons about character psychology. He tends to not explain what's going on -- like how the Avengers locate the Collector's headquarters. Never explained, they just go straight to him.

Still, the characterization is great, but these are not the best told tales of the silver age. I did very much enjoy Pym's new identity as Goliath though -- and Wasp's new ability to shrink spontaneously. This appearance of the Collector was long before he joined the Elders of the Universe. His powers seem to rely on ancient magical artifacts of Terrestrial origin. At one point, he throws magical beans that turn into giants! Kind of cool to see the early incarnation of the character.

I think some of the weaknesses in the storytelling are based on the fact that these are some of the early days of multi-issue stories. Today, in the age of "writing (and waiting) for the trade," we expect multi-issue stories to be well crafted as a cohesive whole. In the mid-1960s, Stan was slowly moving toward that kind of storytelling from the old school style of self-contained stories. That's my impression any way, but of course I'm just making up an expalantion for the fun of it. I don't know anything about it, really.

[sharkar]

boredyesterday said:

Inconsistency 1.
In issue 26, Wasp takes off from Pym's boat to follow the Submariner and warn the Avengers.
In issue 27 and later -- no mention of Submariner. Attuma is set up as being the guy who captured the Wasp.

Inconsistency 2. It turns out that Attuma didn't capture Wasp, but in issue 28, she is shown to have been captured by the Collector. There is no explanation or smooth transition from a story about Attuma to a story about the Collector.

But still, what happened to the Submariner and why didn't he carryout the attack that the Wasp was so worried about in issue 26?

While not explicit, I can see the timeline of events in these issues regarding Jan's whereabouts. In #26, the Wasp is shown being captured by Attuma, she is imprisoned by him and then shrinks to escape her plastic cage. She then contacts the Avengers. A few pages later, one of Attuma's men states she has escaped. I assume after she contacted the Avengers, she left Attuma's ship. In #27, before the Avengers leave Attuma's base, Quicksilver says he searched all over and could not find the Wasp (makes sense because she had already left after contacting them). Then in #28, Hank contacts the Avengers because she hasn't shown up. So she was captured by the Collector after she left Attuma's ship. In #28, she even states that she'd reached Avengers HQ, radioed Hank, and then blacked out (due to the Collector).

As for Subby, Hank and Jan appeared in his stories in Tales to Astonish #77 and #78 (preludes to their appearance in Avengers #26). Then in TTA #79, Namor was mind-controlled by the Puppet Master...so I guess he could not carry out whatever threat he'd made previously. (I'm guessing because I have not actually read #79.)

You are right that Stan was experimenting with multi-issue stories and sub-plots at this time. These issues were published at around the same time as the famous FF Inhumans-Galactus run (FF #44-#50), which also contained stories bleeding into other stories, multiple sub-plots, etc. This sort of storytelling could be sloppy but also ultimately rewarding in that you didn't know what would happen next (as in life). It was an exciting time.

I really like Avengers #26-#28, though I wonder what prompted Stan to bring back Hank and Jan to the Avengers at that time. Why did he feel the need to add to Cap's Kooky Quartet? Was the book not doing well sales-wise? Did he just want to keep Hank and Jan in the public eye, even though they did not seem to have been popular characters back then ? Anyway, these issues established the "once an Avenger, always an Avenger" motif, and the revolving door of membership (almost more than #16 did).

[Bored Yesterday]

Thanks for clearing up the sequence of events. I read those issues over a period of several days and never had a chance to go back and double check how things went. Sounds like eveyrthing was covered in the plot area. I think it's interesting how Stan used his limited panel space. He prioritized using his limited space to give the reader information about character motivations and background rather than to talk about the basic story progression of what people were doing.

I would love to read those Tales to Astonish issues. I don't have any of those, but if I ever finish out my Avengers run, that will be next. It would be neat if they could package a set of DVDs, but instead of including all the issues of a single title, they would put everything published in a certain period of time. Especially in the silver age with all those captions like "for more information, see current issues of ..."

Don Heck's art is really amping up, and even with a different inker almost every issue, I enjoy his work. Just read issue 29 last night and I'm blown away. Should probably be its own thread though.

[dlw66]

If you follow Marvel's 1960's books through a few years of continuity, you can often see on the Bullpen Bulletins and letters pages comments about whether readers like the "done in one" or ongoing plot lines. There seemed to be quite a bit of flux in the decade concerning what to do. I think solo books like The Amazing Spider-Man made it easier to carry subplots along.

[sharkar]

boredyesterday said:

Don Heck's art is really amping up, and even with a different inker almost every issue, I enjoy his work. Just read issue 29 last night and I'm blown away. Should probably be its own thread though.

I know he is often maligned, but Heck was at his best in these three issues, inked by Frank Giacoia. I also liked Heck's art in #20-#22, inked by Wally Wood and #23, the one-shot inked by John Romita Sr. Heck loses me when he inks himself in some of those early Avengers books; by doing both the result looks sloppy and rushed.

[sharkar]

boredyesterday said:

I would love to read those Tales to Astonish issues. I don't have any of those, but if I ever finish out my Avengers run, that will be next. It would be neat if they could package a set of DVDs, but instead of including all the issues of a single title, they would put everything published in a certain period of time. Especially in the silver age with all those captions like "for more information, see current issues of ..."

I agree. I love the Essentials, but take it from one who used to own a lot of these Avengers issues (14-105)- - you can't beat the the letter columns, Stan's Soapbox, the Mighty Marvel Checklist, house ads, etc. These features added a feeling of continuity and community that was really lacking in the DC books from the early to mid-60s.

I'd like to read the Tales of Suspense issues from this time, to see how Stan reconciled Cap's appearances in the 2 mags, the Avengers (esp. during the Kooky Quartet days) and his own feature...though from what I've heard, I guess some of those Cap Suspense tales were supposed to take place during WWII.

[dlw66]

A lot of them were. I have the Cap Masterworks, and Kirby got the chance to do some things I guess he'd regretted never finishing in the war years. Particularly of note is the Red Skull's origin.

[dlw66]

I recently read the issues in question in this thread, and I would echo some of bored's criticisms of the plot throughout the "arc". Sharkar does a nice job explaining some of it away -- thanks for the tips on the Tales to Astonish stories!

Issue #28 continues as one of my favorite Avengers books ever, due in large part to being one of the first I ever read, as a reprint in Marvel Triple Action. At the time I had no background on the Pyms, so I didn't find it insulting how Cap and the others doubted Pym when he was asking for their assistance in locating the Wasp. Re-reading it now, with all of the team's continuity in my rear-view mirror, I could see how this would have been an amazing moment for readers in 1966!

[sharkar]

dlw66 said:

At the time I had no background on the Pyms, so I didn't find it insulting how Cap and the others doubted Pym when he was asking for their assistance in locating the Wasp. Re-reading it now, with all of the team's continuity in my rear-view mirror, I could see how this would have been an amazing moment for readers in 1966!

Yes, I agree... I'm not sure, but this may have been the first time that mainstream super-heroes who had formerly operated with the requisite secret identities then "came out" and decided to heck with the secrecy.

Sometimes I think Marvel forgets the two of them once had secret identities, because, for instance, in #58, Hank is shown sans mask with Iron Man (in a flashback to the Avengers preserving Simon's brain patterns, which would have occurred shortly after #9). In #28 Cap says he would never have guessed that Giant-Man was Henry Pym, which reinforces the notion that Pym the scientist was a publicly known figure. Yet in the flashback in #58, Hank is shown without his mask in a panel with Iron Man and they are (presumably) at Pym's lab working on Simon. The flashback is IM's, and so I guess this can be chalked up to the fact that no human's recollection is 100% accurate.

But in Earth's Mightiest Heroes vol. 1, there are also pages of Hank--maskless--talking to Thor (in a scene that is supposed to take place during #14, when Jan was critically injured). While he is not addressed as Hank (by Thor), I'm surprised he was shown with his mask off since his identity was supposed to be secret at that time. I ascribe his not wearing his mask to the anguish he was feeling because of Jan's condition; his only concern at that time was her welfare.

(Jarvis got it right in #280, though; his thoughts/flashbacks to those very early days do not include references to their real names. Good old reliable Jarvis. )


At the time of Avengers #16 (their first departure from the book), Hank and Jan still had their own feature in Tales to Astonish, but within two months, that ended too --Subby's feature replaced theirs starting with TTA #70. So they were not seen for a while, until--fittingly--they made cameo appearances in the Subby stories in TTA #77-#78. This led to them coming back to the Avengers book (Avengers #26 was published at around the same time as TTA #78).

And when Hank returned, boy, it seemed like Stan and Roy (and the cover artists) were trying to make up for lost time; Hank was prominently featured on practically every cover from #28 through #42, with a few exceptions (some Herc covers). Well, I guess it's hard not to dominate a cover if you're a giant who's wearing a gaudy yellow and blue costume...

[dlw66]

And in addition to Hank dominating those covers, don't ever forget the "floating heads" covers that the Avengers have always been known for! I believe it was issue #30, with Goliath carrying a bad buy, that the first of that style was used with him as the centerpiece. Fast forward a bit to #60, and it's YJ who is featured (with Jan in peril) as the heads watch!

[sharkar]

LOL! Those floating head covers bothered me...I always felt the artist was being lazy.

One of the few times I thought the head motif was used effectively was the cover of FF #54 (a blazing Human Torch in the center, flanked by FF, Inhuman, Wyatt and T'Challa heads)- - though I can't really articulate why I find that cover so moving.