That week, another issue of AVENGERS appeared at my local 7-11, and I picked it up without even much looking at it, as the book was on my regular buy list. Which is perhaps a good thing, because I don’t know that this generic cover would have enticed me into completing the sale on its own merits. It’s perfectly fine, but doesn’t really do anything to convince the viewer about the wonders that might be waiting inside. But then, during this time AVENGERS was still suffering from some ongoing scheduling woes, and so I expect that this piece was done in a hurry, and may even have been commissioned before anyone had much of an idea what the issue would actually be about.
What the issue is actually about is untangling and changing the origins of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Assorted different bits of information had been dropped about the pair over the years, but earlier, Roy Thomas had revealed them to be the children of golden age heroes the Whizzer and Miss America. This was a profoundly Roy Thomas thing for him to do, and it’s apparent that not everybody was comfortable with this revelation. In addition, both characters had made reference to growing up in a Romani tribe in their youth, something that wasn’t really accounted for in the Whizzer revelation, so there was a bit of elbow room to maybe overturn things. That’s what the next stretch of issues would be concerned with.
Jim Shooter had started the ball rolling on this subplot when he was writing the title, but after being promoted to Editor in Chief, he typically had to leave the book to other hands, most often those of David Michelinie. Also, it’s clear that artist John Byrne and editor Roger Stern were also involved in working out this plot. Over the past several months, we’ve followed a particular old man as he journeyed to American to seek out Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Last issue, he’d found them, and summarily trapped their spirits inside a pair of special marionettes that he had crafted. And that’s where this issue picks up, with Doctor Donald Blake unable to do anything for the seemingly-comatose Pietro and Wanda.
But Jocasta is able to determine the location of Wanda and Pietro by picking up a trace energy signature on her built-in electronics. So the Avengers head off to assist their two stricken members. meanwhile, the old man, Django Maximoff, explains himself and his history to Wanda and Pietro over the course of three infodump-heavy pages. Despite the fact that they don’t remember him, he claims to have been their father, but that they were separated when their encampment was attacked and his wife was killed. Since then, he has been searching for his lost children–and having become aware of the pair as members of the Avengers, he’s made the journey to the United States in order to reunite with them. He’s also got a mystic stone that’s tied to an obscure Marvel villain from the early 1960s that allowed him to put the twins’ essences into his puppets.
The avengers, meanwhile, have found the flop house where Django is holed up. But as they move to enter, they are attacked in the manner of the cover by a gang of animated mannequins. These animatrons aren’t much of a threat to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but they do give an excuse for a brief action scene, so the story doesn’t remain too quiet. Dispatching the guards, the Avengers make their way to Django’s room. But upon opening the door, they’re ushered into a topsy-turvy psychedelic landscape of his making.
The avengers find themselves under attack by monstrous figures based upon the Toad, Princess Python and Nighthawk (even though Nighthawk is a member of the heroic Defenders). A pitched battle breaks out, but the deception is broken after the Beast hears the neighbor downstairs banging on his roof and complaining about the noise from up there. The entire encounter was a distraction to allow Django to escape with his puppet-kids in tow. But the Vision is swifter, and he’s angry about the abduction of his wife. Confronting Django, he coolly vaporizes the artifact that has been giving the old man his powers with his Thermoscopic Vision. The essences of Wanda and Pietro return to their human bodies, and Django collapses in despair, having lost his children once again.
In a one-page epilogue, we see that Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch have been restored to health. But they’re going to take a leave of absence from the team, so that they can return with Django to the old country and seek out the truth of their upbringing. This would be a plot that we’d come back to in a couple of issues. For now, though, everything is once again quiet on the Avengers front–but new dangers await next issue.
The Avengers Assemble letters page in this issue includes another message from future AVENGERS writer Kurt Busiek, who had some criticisms of the recent fill-in issue that spotlighted the Beast. As the original X-Men were one of Kurt’s real favorites, that isn’t surprising. The page also includes the yearly Statement of Ownership, which gives us an indication of how well the title had been performing over the past year. According to the numbers, the book was selling 149,072 copies on a print run of 340,062, giving it an efficiency rating of just under 44%–less than DC’s JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, which we looked at yesterday.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
I agree with Mr. Busiek. X-Men showed Hank grew up without the angst the rest of the team did — making him an angsty Scott Summers type didn’t fit his personality at all.
I didn’t have a problem with the Whizzer As Father but this story and the ones that follow were one of the series’ most entertaining retcons. Nah, drop “one of.” And “Call of the Mountain Thing” later in the arc remains a favorite title of mine.
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I do miss Beast as an Avenger. I haven’t much like what has been done with him since he returned to the X-Men.
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What they did to him didn’t match up with what we know of the character before that. Had the Beast tried to do what the Human Torch ( Johnny Storm ) tried to do to the Inhumans ( all of Attilan ) [ Fantastic Four#99 ( June 1970 ) ] — commit genocide, then I could see him going down that road. I wish the Beast & Wonder Man’s bromance had them doing the one thing other than being Avengers they had in common — science. Why Simon Williams couldn’t be made into the male Hedy Lamarr ( a well-known actress in the 1930s and 40s, but she also invented “Frequency Hopping” — the basis for wireless technology today ) instead of just being an actor & Avenger.
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interesting Lemarr comparison. Simon’s a trained electrical engineer. I’ve known many, worked directly with several. None are dummies. You gotta be smart to be one. They can at the least fix anything with a plug. But many are inventive, explorative. It seems Simon’s education has mostly been played down, minimized, or glossed over.
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FIRST Tom, I think you meant the Vision used his Solar Jewel ( written on page 27 panel 5 ) not his Thermoscopic Vision ( He is capable of projecting energy from both ).They could have called this issue, “Django Unchained”. I know I enjoyed this issue and I noticed in the first X-Men movie they gave the Toad the ability his illusion demonstrated in this issue ( His tongue extending like a real toad ).
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I recently read Seanan McGuire’s novel What If…Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings (which I recommend: I did not expect to find myself tearing up over the death of Gwen Stacy, of all things!) and it has an important character named Django. I hadn’t known about this story, or else had forgotten it. In McGuire’s timeline he runs a restaurant in New York; and his last name is not given for reasons that now seem obvious.
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n addition to Kurt’s letter, there one from an “M. Maple”. I wonder if that was an alias used by more than one person, or if in fact this was the same “TM Maple” who wrote so many letters to different comics titles that they became a bit famous among readers…
Byrne draws maybe my fave version of the Beast. I know George Perez’s Beast is among the most popular, and yeah, it’s very good. I also like Alan Davis’s a lot, too. Byrne’s just feels right. Burly and furry, and agile. It could be said about all three artists’ takes. It might be how Byrne draws Hank’s face.
Byrne’s is helped by inkers like Austin, Green, and here, Janson. Klaus is one of my favorite inkers, adding depth and dramatic lighting to figures and faces. No exception this issue. Simon’s face, then Django’s face and hands on Page 6. Django’s and Vision’s faces on Page 27. We’re coming up on 40-year anniversaries on dozes of books that would hit high peaks and legendary runs in the 80’s. Some already recently passed, over the last few years. The 1980’s marked a real expansion in quality, innovation, and excitement in comics. I guess as the wave of creators who grew up on the comics of the 60’s, were reaching the peak of their own skills. Klaus was active through most of the 70’s, and then became part of several of my fave comics in the 80’s and 90’s.
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“But then, during this time AVENGERS was still suffering from some ongoing scheduling woes, and so I expect that this piece was done in a hurry, and may even have been commissioned before anyone had much of an idea what the issue would actually be about.”
Yeah — my guess would be that the cover was done first, with only the vaguest idea of what kind of action would be in the issue, and then the cover scene was plotted in and disposed of quickly just to match the cover. If they’d had more of an idea of what the story was going to be, they’d have made the psychedelic battle against the Toad et al longer (and likely with more opponents) and used that as the cover. It could have made for a pretty trippy cover, with an interesting visual hook.
“This was a profoundly Roy Thomas thing for him to do, and it’s apparent that not everybody was comfortable with this revelation. In addition, both characters had made reference to growing up in a Romani tribe in their youth, something that wasn’t really accounted for in the Whizzer revelation, so there was a bit of elbow room to maybe overturn things.”
As I understand it, it wasn’t so much that they wanted to overturn Roy’s story because that was the goal — it was Steven Grant’s idea that Magneto should be the twins’ father, and people liked that (it’s a much better idea), and Roy’s story was in the way, so it needed to be undone.
And yeah, Roy’s story seemed to imply that Wanda and Pietro were raised by the High Evolutionary, until they got old enough to run off and fend for themselves. That didn’t get explained away so much as ignored, with the new explanation that the HE handed them over to the Maximoffs to raise.
“The Avengers Assemble letters page in this issue includes another message from future AVENGERS writer Kurt Busiek, who had some criticisms of the recent fill-in issue that spotlighted the Beast. As the original X-Men were one of Kurt’s real favorites, that isn’t surprising.”
My complaint wasn’t all that rooted in me liking the original X-Men so much as me liking the Steve Englehart Beast. Steve (and Gerry, for an issue) had Hank move on from his “I’m smart because I talk like a thesaurus” speech pattern, and made him more like, say, Robin Williams, playfully jumping among different speech patterns as the mood took him.
And yeah, I bet that “M. Maple” letter is Jim Burke/The Mad Maple. Jim Shooter had been EIC for about a year at this point, and his edict about real names (or names that looked real, at least) may have been just kicking in, at that point. Tom DeFalco is credited with coming up with the idea to shorten his name, but that’s not to say they switched in an instant — it seems natural to try dropping the “The,” and then deciding that “T.M.” sounded better than just the M.
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I’d rather have a cool interior and a lame cover… too many times the cover oversells the inside of the book. Great when you get both but it doesn’t always happen.
This was an exciting period for the Avengers for me, and this was a cool issue even if it was mostly a setup for what was to come. Love the Janson inks on Byrne here, and in subsequent issues. The next issue is even better….and the Hawkeye solo issue better than that. They were on a roll.
Byrne and Perez were such solid team book guys. With their departure unfortunately I think Avengers gets uneven to rough art wise… until Buscema and Palmer return in the mid 80s.
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I forget when Green inked Byrne on “Avengers”. But I liked that match-up, too. Both inkers prevented Byrne’s drawings from looking flat. I liked Janson’s lighting & sharper edge, best. But Green added a smooth depth.
I stayed off the series in the few years before Buscema was back. Then I filled it every issue. It suffered when Stern left. And I bailed w/ 300.
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Stern’s successors drove me off the book too. I don’t think I’ve ever read Avengers religiously since outside of the Bendis years. Buscema and Palmer weren’t appealing to me though. I later suspected it was Big John doing weaker layouts than before and preferring Palmer as a strong inker more than a finisher.
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“Avengers” got really bad for a long time after Stern. Tom Palmer was great, but stayed on too long, inking artists’ styles his inks weren’t compatible with. I wish while J.Buscema wason it that he’d done full drawing, not just breakdowns.
The finished art by Palmer was sometimes sloppy. Overall though, I was grateful they drew Stern’s stories. They brought inherent power to the characters. And the facial expressions acted out Stern’s writing PO perfectly.
The previous art team with Stern kept me off the book. And then went to the West Coast monthly. So I wouldn’t buy that. And if J.Buscema had fully drawn Avengers, then his Conan may have suffered. I liked his Conan a lot
I’d get an occasional issue of Avengers during the 90s. Adam Kubert drew one. JRJr drew another. But I didn’t come back regularly ’til Kurt & George.
i did like Bendis’s Avengers. After “Disassembled”. Some very high highs.with some solid artists. Immonen JRJr. And excellent character interaction. I was surprised Bendis’s later “Justice League” was so flat.
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