BHOC: INVADERS #35

INVADERS was a title that I liked during its initial run in the 1970s, but for a while it had been growing progressively weaker. Ever since the departure of artist Frank Robbins, a succession of fill-in creators had taken the helm with varying results. Even Roy Thomas, who ad conceived the series as a tribute to the comics he grew up reading was absent more often than not, and those who filled in didn’t have the same fannish zeal for the material. It was a gig, and they did it professionally, but nobody seemed especially excited to be there. A bit of that turns itself around this issue, as Thomas is back on board as the regular writer again as well as the editor.

On the other hand, the artwork still remained on the weak side. I’ve spoken about never really loving Alan Kupperberg’s work, but now let’s speak about Roy, as this progression happened a lot as the 1970s gave way to the 1980s. He’d typically start off his launches with a strong artist, then lose them along the way, steadily replacing them with lesser and lesser accomplished replacements. This was definitely the pattern on Roy’s DC counterpart to INVADERS, ALL-STAR SQUADRON, and you can find it in a lot of his other runs as well. Somebody once told me that Roy’s biggest concern on the 1940s material was in getting the period details right and all of the costumes accurate to teh period–beyond that, he wasn’t especially worried about anything else. I don’t know how true that sentiment really is, but things did tend to go that was on his assorted series over the years.

This issue is actually something of a hybrid. It uses a swath of material prepared for the first issue of a proposed LIBERY LEGION series that never materialized. Apparently, riding high on the success of INVADERS and enthused about his two-issue MARVEL PREMIERE introduction of the homefront Liberty Legion (also made up of obscure Timely 1940s heroes and named after a fan-produced strip) Roy had started work on a first issue. But something changed and the project was spiked–and so here Roy incorporates the pages drawn for LIBERY LEGION #1 by Don Heck into his INVADERS narrative, both as a way of not wasting those story concepts and also recouping the costs to produce this material. It was typical for Marvel to find some way to reuse orphaned material in this fashion.

So this issue opens with Captain America, the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner having returned stateside in response to an urgent summons. They’ve been called back to deal with an armored saboteur who has been knocking out shipyards and other centers of wartime production. But before teh trip can begin their investigation, they are brought up short by the sudden arrival of the Whizzer, whom they know from the Liberty Legion. The Whizzer proceeds to tell the trio about what has recently transpired, and from there, we segue into the LIBERTY LEGION pages, beginning with an extensive recap of just who the seven Legionnaires are and their first meeting with the Invaders.

The Liberty Legion had been tasked by their government contacts with investigating several German-born Americans to make certain that they didn’t harbor any conflicting loyalties to the Nazi regime. There’s a sad bit of nonsense in here where Jack Frost makes mention of the Japanese-American internment camps and is told by the others, “That’s not in our purview.” Obviously, Roy couldn’t change the reality of that ghastly situation, but it certainly doesn’t make these heroes look very heroic in the way that they brush it off. Anyway, Miss America dons her civilian guise and as Madeline Joyce visits a bar in the German area of New York. There, she witnesses an old man scientist being hustled out by a pair of goons, and moves to follow them.

Miss America follows the abductors to a nearby park, where they are met by the Iron Cross, a gigantic figure in an armored costume. There’s what was clearly drawn and colored as an Archie cameo here that Roy writes as “Dexter” and “Marylou”, but I don’t know who anybody thought they were fooling. Anyway, Miss A steps in to clobber the Nazis and free the scientist, but the Iron Cross turns out to be more than she bargained for, and after a short battle, she’s knocked unconscious by her foe. Fortunately, this is the moment where the other members of the Liberty Legion show up, in what was likely the final page of that proposed first issue. But here, an extra pages is added to teh story by Kupperberg, one which shows the Legion get immediately trashed by the Iron Cross–all except teh Whizzer who, true to his name and his costume color, runs away.

The Whizzer had heard that the Invaders were coming back Stateside–it’s probably a bit of a “Loose Lips” situation where you warn your enemies on the radio that you’re on the way to try to tackle them, but again, we’ll give Roy a bit of a pass here. In any event, having recounted his story to the trio and them having realized that the Iron Cross must be the very menace they were summoned to face, the heroes, accompanied by the Whizzer, spring into action. And that’s where this issue is To Be Continued. Oh, and yes, the cover scene lied, there’s no moment where the Invaders need to chase the Whizzer to learn what he knows. Looks to my eye like Roy instead had cover artist Kupperberg do a riff on the cover to AVENGERS #75 where the Assemblers are attempting to catch Quicksilver–a book that was also written by Roy.