BHOC: INVADERS #40

Brevoort History of Comics

I was saddened to discover upon purchasing this latest issue of INVADERS that it was the final issue of the series. Which is a bit of a strange reaction given that my interest in the title had been waning for some months, pretty much coinciding with when artist Frank Robbins stepped down in favor of lesser artists, and writer/editor Roy Thomas soon thereafter did the same. But either way, I was fascinated by the history of these characters and so I loved INVADERS almost despite itself. And I especially enjoyed any time when the book would reprint an actual Golden Age story or utilize continuity in a connective fashion. I was that sort of a comic book reader.

This was another relatively lackluster issue in which, despite their best efforts, substitute creative team Don Glut and Alan Kupperberg couldn’t quite execute at the level the series had begun at. The inkwork of accomplished inker Chic Stone gave the art a bit more solidity, but his heavy line tended to reinforce the cartoonyness and rubberyness of Kupperberg’s figures. It was competent work, but really no better than competent.

The story picks up from the previous issue, in which Baron Blood had been revived by Japanese agents working for Lady Lotus. Lotus was putting together her own band of super-powered operatives and wanted Blood as a member of said group. But before their meet-up could take place, Union Jack and Spitfire had located the vampire and engaged him in combat. But Blood was more than a match for them, and as this issue opens, he’s about to make a meal of spitfire. Before that can happen, though, Blood is contacted telepathically by Lady Lotus, whose command forces him to quit the fight and head out to join her and her compatriots. Spitfire and Union Jack aren’t able to do much of anything to prevent his departure.

Union Jack and Spitfire have been separated from teh rest of the Invaders team, which has been operating Stateside for the past couple of issues, so they radio Captain America to report in about Baron Blood’s resurrection and escape. This is bad news for the Invaders, who have themselves recently lost the Atlantean villain U-Man. From there, we cut to Lady Lotus’ secret abode, where she uses her greater hypnotic powers to compel the recently-arrived Baron Blood to throw in with her forces.

In the meantime, with nothing better to do and no leads to follow up on, the Invaders have been convinced by base commander “Happy” Sam Sawyer to put on a demonstration of their super-abilities for the troops. But their display is interrupted when Sawyer brings them news of an unmarked plane having been sighted in the vicinity. You wouldn’t think that this would be enough to merit the Invaders’ time, but after some quick hand-waving, the team is off in pursuit of the aircraft, which has made a landing at Idlewild Airfield.

As it turns out, by unforgivable coincidence, Baron Blood has been dispatched to Idlewild in order to make sure the two passengers on the mysterious plane are able to elude capture and make it to Lady Lotus unmolested. So when the Invaders show up, he leaps to the attack–and all by himself, proves to be able to knock them around and maintain the upper hand. With his objective having been met, Baron Blood begins to withdraw, setting up a midair collision between enemy planes in order to divert teh pursuing Invaders from following him. The heroes are unable to prevent teh two planes from colliding, but Namor and the Human Torch are at least able to save the pilots from falling to their deaths. Still, this isn’t the best showing ever for the Invaders.

Back at Lady Lotus’ headquarters, Baron Blood arrives and is given a look at the two figures that he worked so hard to help liberate. They are Master man and Warrior Woman, two other old foes of the Invaders. With their arrival, Lotus has assembled all of the players for her proposed Super-Axis alliance. And that’s where the story is To Be Continued–although whether it would ever be completely wrapped up remained a mystery, since the series was ending. As it turned out, Marvel did release the final two chapters in an oversized INVADERS #41 about six months later, so the story did get a resolution. But that was uncertain right at this moment.

The final Okay, Axis, Here We Come! letters page included correspondence from two different future writers, Kurt Busiek and Dennis Mallonee.

Published

17 thoughts on “BHOC: INVADERS #40”

  1. I was fascinated by the fact that there were Super-Heroes that existed before the Fantastic Four/Avengers/X-Men/Defenders/Spider-Man/Hulk/etc. I became obsessed with finding out more about them plus wanting to see them in this series ( Had I know DC Comics was proudly showing off its Golden Age heroes and had ZERO PROBLEMS with 2 Supermen/Flashes/Green Lanterns/Wonder Women/Atoms/Hawkmen or thinking their readers weren’t smart enough to not get confused, my disappointment at not getting to see those HIDDEN FROM ME TIMELY COMICS CHARACTERS would have been greater ).

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    1. Black Carlo ( gypsy chief working with the Nazis ) has a magic crystal ball ( like Lady Lotus’ ) [ USA Comics#3 ( January 1942 ) Captain Terror ( Dan Kane ) story — Professor John Wolf, gypsies vs. Hans Schiller & fifth columnists ]. The Python ( Emil Cullen ) [ Sub-Mariner Comics#2 ( Summer 1941 ) Angel story ( but appears in another Angel story, then Human & Torch-Sub-Marnier team-up & Young Allies in last Appearance ] could have been a member, The Vampire ( Doctor Togu created disease bombs & is the world’s greatest master of occult medicine created a serum to turn himself into a winged vampire )[ All-Winners Comics#5 ( Summer 1942 ) Captain America story — Dr. Togu is similar to Amenhotep in The Avengers#129 ( November 1974 )] is the only Timely Comics Axis vampire.

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    2. The All-Star Squadron preview in Justice League of America#193 ( August 1981 ) with Solomon Grundy, Sky Pirate, Wotan, Professor Zodiak/The Alchemist ( Elixir of Youth ) and the Monster plus All-Star Squadron#1 ( September 1981 ) with Per Degaton & King Bee showed the differences between The Invaders and the All-Star Squadron series. I don’t know if Roy Thomas used his own Golden Age DC books ( or a friend’s ) or if DC Comics kept their Golden Age books, but had Roy had access to Timely Comics books these are the Timely Comics villains that could have taken the place of those DC Golden Age villains: The Monster ( Hans ) [ Captain America Comics#45 ( March 1945 ) Captain America 3rd story — von Kaulus ], Blackbeard ( Imperial Japanese spy wearing a Caucasian bearded mask with left eye patch, pegleg & bullet proof vest ) [ Marvel Mystery Comics#63 ( April 1945 ) Miss America story — air pirates & aircraft painted with special black paint that rendered the craft nearly invisible to the naked eye at night ], Mr. Muro ( sorcerer ) [ Daring Mystery Comics#1 ( January 1940 ), 4 ( May 1940 ) Monako stories –Tashu ( henchman ) ], Cherub ( Dr. Franz Neunmensch ) [ Miss America Magazine#5 ( December 1944 ) Miss America story — a formula that could reverse the aging process ], Grinner ( Dr. Weems ) [ Mystic Comics#7 ( December 1941 ) Black Marvel story ], Terdu the Sorcerer [ All Select Comics#7 ( Spring 1945 ) Captain America story — used his cauldron to summon from the past his Masters of Evil ( Captain Kidd, Jesse James, Frank James, Jack the Ripper, Bluebeard & Gyp-the-Blood ) teamed up with mobster Terrible Tom Garrett — comics.org says the cauldron can view events. I suggest naming the cauldron the Cauldron of Chronos ( inspired by Doctor Strange’s Cauldron of the Cosmos [ Strange Tales#147 ( May 1966 ) and The Defenders#15 ( September 1974 ) ) ] & the Butterfly ( Dr. Vitrioli ) [ Captain America Comics#3 ( May 1941 ) Captain America 3rd story — Lenny ( tall super-strong henchman dead ) ] —- All Timely Comics Time Machines are from the future, so I choose Terdu who should remain behind the scenes since he doesn’t encounter Captain America and Bucky until 1945 ( Just like Roy should have had Asbestos Lady be a name in Toro’s Roy Thomas created origin so her first encounter face to face with the Human Torch and Toro be in The Human Torch#27 ( Summer 1947 ) Human Torch 1st story ]. Plus The Monster ( Ungetum, Monstrum in German ) needs a strength and durability upgrade to be Solomon Grundy class. I accidentally erased my first attempt at this.

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      1. I just discovered that Timely Comics story isn’t the only golden age team-up of time traveling Blackbeard( Edward Teach ) & Jack the Ripper [ All Top Comics#8 ( November 1947 ) Blue Beetle story ” The Treacherous Trio!” — Sneer ( mad scientist ) & his Treacherous Trio ( Blackbeard, Dr. Crippen ( serial wife killer ) & Jack the Ripper ) ( Fox Publications ) — herogoggles.com ]. Terdu the Sorcerer ( in his cauldron ), The Dwarf ( Nazi psychiatrist with mind control powers – dies in a vat of acid ) [ Kid Komics#2 ( Summer 1943 ) Captain Wonder story ] & Khor the Black Sorcerer ( a pool of lava ) [ Marvel Mystery Comics#22 ( June 1941 ) Vision story ] could have survived the same way golden age DC Comics JSA foe the Wizard survived jumping into a vat of acid [ All-Star Comics#34 ( April-May 1947 ) & alive in #41 ( June-July 1948 ) leading the Injustice Society of the World ].

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  3. I was another reader who hung on to Invaders ’till the bitter end. It was neither the first nor last series I kept buying after I’d stopped enjoying it — hoping beyond hope that something would happen and it would “get good” again. Although looking back, I’m not sure who could’ve been brought on to save the series at that point. Maybe Peter Gillis and Carmine Infantino, who did such a nice job on that Red Skull/Hate-Monger story in Super-Villain Team-Up?

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    1. In 1979 most kids at that time abhorred Infantino his artwork and sales dropped on any book he was on. Hint folks Nova was not cancelled the same month as Invaders #40 due to Wolfman’s decent story line it was Infantino’s artwork. Times changed and his art was not what it once was…

      As for SVTU #16 that remains one of the most vile disgusting comics Marvel has ever produced! From the atrocious story and it’s positive concentration camp sub-text right down to Infantino’s least effort as possible artwork. My guess is perhaps(and hopefully) Infantino was repulsed by Gillis’ story and never figured it would be published so why bother.

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      2. “I’d like to here Kurt’s and Tom’s POV on the Hate Filled SVTU16”

        I don’t think I ever read it.

        The splash page, at least, looks like Carmine was putting in effort; there’s a lot of work there.

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      3. Super-Villain Team-Up#16 ( May 1979 ) was a 2-Parter [ Super-Villain Team-Up#17 ( June 1980 ) ] with the first part set up to demoralize Yousuf Tov ( who had a device implanted in his head or neck like the one the Red Skull put in Captain America and to isolate him from his fellow prisoners who thought he was a traitor, given special treatment ) — his big escape attempt and prisoner upraising that led him directly to a faux U.S. Navy ship. Part 2 was the Red Skull’s trap for the Hate-Monger, which is how Adolf Hitler’s mind got trapped in what was suppose to be a non-functioning Cosmic Cube. If memory serves.

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  5. I lingered on to see if it could match the level established by Frank. But left not long after he did. It was eratz, but compelling & interesting. As I got older, I ranked it among my favorites. So dynamic & kinetic.

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  6. This is one of the worst Marvel issues I’ve ever seen. Kupperberg did better work than this, later in the 1980’s, but here, I don’t know if he was trying to emulate some of the rudimentary renderings from the Golden Age, but even back then this would be towards the bottom of the pile. None of the charm and inventiveness of many of those artists back then. Definitely none of the great dramatic lighting many of those artists used, from experience & even expertise in black & white strips.

    Chic Stone’s accomplished work was somewhere between Frank McLaughlin and Frank Chiaramonte. Not among my faves, though.

    The dialog’s weak, & overdone. Especially for Union Jack. Bloody Hell, mate. Pure rubbish.

    One thing I did like this series that remains this issue, was how buff Namor was drawn (just not drawn very well, but you get the idea he’s supposed to be physically powerful). Even his creator, Bill Everett, gave him a slight build. Understandable, for those times. But Robbins & subsequent artists emphasized that Namor was the muscle of the team. Even Kane’s covers made sure Namor looked buff.

    Some artists in the last 20 years drew Namor like a fish stick (Maguie in “Defenders”, maybe for percieved “comedic” efect, & Maleev in “The Cabal”- he almost resembled Frank Miller’s facial features). Byrne sometimes got him right. But appearances in “Aplha Flight” nearly 40 years ago weren’t flattering.

    The series could’ve lasted longer if a stronger creative team could’ve been assigned.

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    1. The series could’ve lasted longer if a stronger creative team could’ve been assigned.

      Agreed. Drawing 1940’s accurate belt buckles aside Thomas seemed to favor C and D list artists. He did same on All-Star Squadron with exception of the Buckler issues, Of course Ordway panned out in a huge way there but after he left it was D listers.

      BTW for purpose of this post I’m by C & D listers I’m referring to their sales potential at that point in time they were doing the work NOT their artistic abilities.

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  7. I stopped buying the Invaders regularly when Robbins left as well though I still picked it up occasionally if the cover grabbed my attention like the Thor issues. Absent Robbins and Thomas the book didn’t seem to be building towards anything. What those early issues really had going for them was the fast pacing and the new heroes and villains that got folded in.

    For whatever reason DC seemed to get more mileage out of Roy and co. handling their golden age heroes in new stories. They had an arguably deeper bench of “lesser lights” beyond Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman….where the Timely heroes drop off pretty quickly after Cap, Sub-mariner, and Torch. The golden age Flash, Hawkman, and Green Lantern have way more built-in cred than Whizzer, Red Raven, and Blazing Skull…for whatever that’s worth in books of this type.

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    1. Yeah to bad there wasn’t someone to write Timely Comics back then to suggest that just because a characters doesn’t work out is no reason not to have them guess star or how about a Fire ( Human Torch ) and Ice ( Jack Frost ) battle instead of just a Torch-Sub-Mariner Battles or bring back that bad guy. Why is the Vision fighting Kai-Mak the Shark-God and not the Sub-Mariner or Why is no other Hero fighting Namor ( Why only the Torch )? Why have you not put your heroes together in a team? Are you sure that bad guy is dead?

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