Picked up this next issue of INVADERS when it put in an appearance at the 7-11 which was my regular Thursday destination spot for new comic books. The title was still a favorite even though it wasn’t at its best any longer, a situation that would continue until its eventual demise in only a couple short months. This particular issue wrapped up a three-part epic guest-starring the Liberty Legion, incorporating material from a never-published LIBERTY LEGION #1 produced when writer/editor Roy Thomas was feeling bullish about the prospect of titles set during World War II.
By this point in the series’ run, creator Roy Thomas wasn’t helming it himself. Rather, he’d turned over responsibility for this storyline to Don Glut a fan and pulp fiction writer whom Roy had connected with on his travels. In place of the distinctive (and to some eyes off-putting ) artwork of industry veteran Frank Robbins, we were instead treated to the work of relative newcomer Alan Kupperberg, helped out here in what one presumes was a deadline jam by Rick Hoberg. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but Kupperberg’s lifeless, rubbery figures never appealed to me, and so there was always a pang of disappointment to find him in the credits of whatever new title I picked up.
This issue picks up where the last one left off: with the Iron Cross streaking off with his prisoner, the Professor who designed his faux Iron Man suit, leaving the Liberty Legion (the team of homefront super heroes) trapped aboard a stricken Nazi submarine. Glut and Kupperberg kill a little bit of time at the beginning of this issue with an excessive three-page recap of the events of the past two issues. It looks to my eye like these pages may have been where Hoberg helped out, and perhaps that’s why they do so little to advance the plot. On his way out, the Iron Cross smashes into Prince Namor’s flagship which is carrying the other Invaders, crippling it and causing it to crash.
Down below, the ductile Thin Man uses his body as a makeshift patch, covering the gap in the holed submarine and preventing it from flooding. He does this with his head outside of the ship in the water, which is maybe not the brightest move of all time, but he’s in luck as the Sub-Mariner breaks off his pursuit of the Iron Cross to come to the ship’s aid. Subbie hefts it on his back and brings it to the surface, where the combined Invaders and Legionnaires can take the crew into custody. Not content to wait around for alternative transport, the flying members of both teams: Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, Miss America and Red Raven, go in pursuit of the fleeing Iron Cross, determined not to permit him to get away with his captive.
But this comic is called INVADERS, and so the Iron Cross swiftly takes the two Liberty Legion members out of the fight. Also ineffectual is the Whizzer, who tries to assist while running along an ice bridge created by teammate Jack Frost. He’s able to save Miss America from a bumpy landing in the ocean, but that’s about it. Now it’s all down to the Torch and Namor, neither of whom seems to be doing all that well against him.
After a bit more skirmishing, the Iron Cross drops the Professor towards the ocean, forcing the Sub-Mariner to dive after him and rescue him. This, though, is just the sort of opening the Human Torch has been waiting for. With no innocent bystanders in the field of fire, he begins to heat up the Iron Cross’s suit, melting all of its internal apparatus and likely horribly cooking the person inside it. This is all downplayed, of course, in this Comics Code era, but you have to assume that any head hot enough to melt durable metal is going to be excruciatingly painful to human flesh. Anyway, the Iron Cross drops into the sea, his heavy armor dragging him beneath the waves. And while Namor might still be able to save him, nobody feels assed enough to try to rescue a Nazi (though, again, the Iron Cross has insisted throughout this storyline that he isn’t a Nazi, merely a loyal German.)
And on that underwhelming finale, we pretty well wrap things up. The Legionnaires and the Professor all pile into Namor’s jury-rigged flagship with the Invaders and take off for the mainland. As they go, though, we see a figure in the water watching their departure. This is U-Man, a rogue Atlantean and enemy of the team who battled them in some early issues. While U-Man wants to follow and get his revenge on Namor, he’s instead compelled to swim on in response to a telepathic summons. That summons comes from another returning Invaders foe, Lady Lotus. And on this reveal of the enemies the Invaders will be facing in forthcoming issues, this one ends.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Count me among the folks who dug Robbins’ work on the Invaders. Was his work weird and idiosyncratic? Yep! But it was also solidly drawn, distinctive, and he told a story well. He was a good fit given the period setting of the book and Frank Springer was a great inker for him. For me it was definitely when the book seemed to be at its best.
I still bought these later issues of Invaders, but they are dull comics with fairly thin stories and no one seems particularly invested. I remember having a bit of an issue that a guy in a 1940’s armored suit could hold off the Sub-mariner and the Torch so handily. I don’t think 1970’s Ironman could handle those two and win… so the Nazi’s having access to that kind of overpowered tech could use a bit of comic science hand waving to convince this nerd.
Ironcross also seemed to lean hard into “I’m not a Nazi” but Thomas never offered any explanation to what he was if wasn’t a Nazi, or why he didn’t consider himself a Nazi while fighting hard for Nazi Germany. It seems like something that would call for a dramatic reveal….but instead crickets.
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Maybe the idea was to use Iron Cross later on somehow, perhaps as a German nationalist who wanted to overthrow the Nazis. Perhaps something like the historical “Operation Valkyrie” attempt to assassinate Hitler. That “death” has all the classic hallmarks of him showing up later, explaining “I was able to get out the armor before I drowned, and a passing ship rescued me”.
The Human Torch should be absolutely terrifying in battle. All the other heroes are basically some variety of slugger. He’s a living flamethrower – “hot enough to fry any bad eggs that happen to be inside”. That’s quite scary even without thinking through the effects of melting mechanisms on skin. He’s outright talking about cooking the guy alive.
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Seth Finkelstein beat me to it, only I was going to say Iron Cross the German super-agent version of General Rommel. I to am a Frank Robbins fan. To bad Roy Thomas robbed Miss America of her Timely Comics full powers cause she is Namor’s equal in strength ( strength of a thousand men ) and in her origin survived a ground zero lab explosion that shot her out like a bullet. Plus if her x-ray vision can produce levels harmful to humans ( Google: X-Rays produce ionizing radiation thar has the potential to harm living tissue ( Making this power just as scary as the Torch’s flames if she can generate these levels ) ). Plus to bad Roy Thomas didn’t see the potential of turning the Man of Diamond ( Blue Diamond ) into a match for the golden age Superman ( First appearance powers only ).
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IIRC the full text of his first appearance shows that after the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles and the malfunctioning chaos and inflation of the Weimar Republic he saw Hitler as a strong leader who would make Germany strong again.
Unfortunately he comes off willing to support anything Hitler does in the name of Germany so he’s less an example of principled patriot than a hypocrite (“I’m not a Nazi but I’m supporting them anyway!”).
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Yeah, the Invaders died in spirit when Robbins left. Completism meant I stayed until the soporific
end but I wasn’t reading the book for pleasure. At least Thomas hadn’t gone overboard yet in stories that reconciled Golden Age comics continuity gaffes as would do much too much of later with All Star Squadron. Not that Thomas was on my ‘read anything by’ list like Englehart and Gerber anyways.
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Every time you run a piece on one of these late-in-the-run INVADERS snoozers, I wish Young Tom had had better taste.
Mind you, Not Quite As Young Kurt bought them all too, and Current Day Kurt had to study up on these issues for THE MARVELS, but such are the wages of sin.
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Oh, and Don Glut wasn’t just a “a fan and pulp fiction writer” — he’d been a comics pro since 1969 as well, starting at Warren and then mostly at publishers that weren’t Marvel or DC (though he sold a few stories there.
He was in Los Angeles, so it made sense to Roy to reach out to him for freelance help after Roy had moved out there too. Roy hired a far number of Southern California freelancers — David Cody Weiss, Scott Shaw!, Rick Hoberg, Christy Marx and others.
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I was not a fan of Frank Robbins when I started reading this book, but I came to like his style after reading the Invaders. I also had no problem with Alan Kupperberg’s art and find it quite enjoyable. As a whole I really enjoy this volume of the Invaders and wish it had continued. This storyline with the Iron Cross I thought was entertaining enough, although I prefer U-Man, Baron Blood, and the other Super Axis as villains.
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I first saw Rick Hoberg’s stuff on Roy’s later “All-Star Squadron” (“America’s A.S.S.”, as per Tom B). I had no idea he’d been working in comics for years by then, or that he’d worked w/ Roy on anything, before “A.S.S”, but seeing this makes sense. It looks like Rick’s inks only helped Alan’s drawings.
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Chic Stone inked this issue, Tim. Rick penciled a 3-page sequence early in the issue.
It’s pretty nice-looking, too. Had Rick, rather than Alan, been drawing the book at this point I’d have liked it a lot more.
kdb
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He did ink issue 35, though.
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Thanks! 🙏
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I liked what Chic did. I mean, I’ve sent worse drawing in comics than Alan’s.
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I disliked Don Glut’s writing way more than Kupperberg’s art, though I agree the latter wasn’t A-list.
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“Perils of Proteus”
love that line on p1
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This issue isn’t the only time Namor/Sub-Mariner’s ankle wings flies a submarine out of the ocean, he does that to a Russian sub in Sub-Mariner#25 ( May 1970 ) page 10 and puts down on a shore. It was his ankle wings, since he didn’t pick either sub up and walk along the ocean floor until he reached land.
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