Hello loves! Just a short post today about Avengers Annual #1. It takes place between issues 44 & 45 but it’s long (as annuals tend to be!) so I’m giving it it’s own post. So, let’s get started…

Our story begins with Tony Stark delivering new riot control tech to the state prison. Ironically, while he’s there, the Living Laser (LL) is planning his escape. Tony leaps into action as Iron Man, but the LL disappears suddenly. Iron Man rushes to tell the Avengers about his escape. As he’s arriving, so is Thor! It’s a total Avengers reunion guys!

 

Thor is there to tell the Avengers that Enchantress and Executioner have disappeared from Asgard. At just that moment, Nick Fury (head of SHIELD) calls to tell them that there have been attacks on Asia, Africa, and South America by super-villains and he needs the Avengers help since SHIELD is an American group and can’t act internationally. (Oh, how that will change. LOL)

So, it turns out the Mandarin (who everyone thinks is dead) has gathered LL, Enchantress, Executioner, Powerman, and Swordsman together to help him and they are the ones attacking all over the world. Cap splits the team up to tackle all three invasions at once, and he and Quicksilver stay behind to be liaisons for the others. At this point, the story is separated into parts. This finishes part one, so we will move on to…

Part Two: South America. Powerman and Swordsman are attacking a South American nation with a tiny group of mercenaries. They’re trying to secure diamonds for the Mandarin. It seems they have a giant sword hovering over the capital that will explode if it swings down and touches anything. Just as the nation’s officials are about to surrender, Wasp and Goliath show up to help! They battle Powerman & Swordsman but Swordsman manages to press the button to lower the giant sword. Luckily, Iron Man is waiting in the wings!! He uses all of his strength to stop the sword and throw it into the jungle before it detonates. They capture Swordsman and Powerman and rescue the city. Which brings us to…

Part Three: Asia. Enchantress and the Executioner are here using trolls to try to topple the unnamed South Asian country when Hercules and Scarlet Witch show up. Because they’re Asgardians and don’t do well taking orders from mortals, Enchantress and Executioner almost immediately abandon their mission and instead decide to battle the Avengers. Executioner wants to prove he can beat our Prince of Power (yeah, right.) while Enchantress senses that Herc may have feelings for our Scarlet Witch.

Since Enchantress apparently loves Herc, she attacks her competition. Executioner uses his axe to transport them to a realm between worlds, to the Citadel of Silence. The fights are pretty evenly matched and it’s awesome to see that Scarlet Witch’s powers have grown so much. She’s an almost equal match for Enchantress. It’s great. She’s clearly on her way to becoming the insanely powerful mutant she is in current continuity. Anyway, our Avengers succeed and they bind the Asgardians so that Thor may send them back to Asgard to be dealt with by Odin.

Part Four: Africa. The Living Laser is tearing up an unspecified part of Africa when Thor and Hawkeye show up. They take on LL until suddenly, a nearby volcano begins to erupt. Thor rushes to it to find the Mandarin’s android, Ultimo, rising from the abyss of the volcano. They battle and Thor loses his hammer. Having secured the Living Laser, Hawkeye shows up to help and manages to distract Ultimo long enough for Thor to regain Mjölnir. Thor battles Ultimo back into the volcano and plugs up the top of it, stopping the lava from escaping.

Part Five: Space. While these three battles are happening, Cap and Quicksilver get readings of something fishy going on in outer space that seems to be centered on the three battle grounds. They borrow a rocket ship (for real. It’s so silly.) and find themselves at the Mandarin’s space station. They battle Mandarin, and just when it looks like Mandy (as Hawk affectionately calls him) is going to defeat our heroes, the rest of the Avengers show up!

Mandarin explains his evil plan to them all because, of course he does. I’m pretty sure it’s in the evil super-villain handbook that you have to stop just when you have the upper hand and explain, in detail, your master plan to the hero(es).

Anyway: Mandarin has a GIANT synthetic diamond on his space station. Apparently, he wants the diamonds controlled by the nations he attacked because when he filters them through his big diamond, it creates “hate rays” (yeah, don’t ask. It’s never explained and it’s kind of dumb) that will cause the whole world to kill each other. Then, he plans to rule over the survivors as ruler of the entire planet. He turns his machine on and the Avengers are hit by the “hate rays.” They begin to fight whoever is closest to them. Luckily, the Wasp happens to be standing closest to the Mandarin, so she attacks him. She knocks him into the controls and the machine turns off. They start fighting the Mandarin but something explodes and blows a hole in the side of the space station. Mandarin is sucked out into space. Thor and Herc manage to plug the hole with the giant diamond before anyone else dies. Seriously. I mean, I love when my demi-gods save the day, but come on!!! The force of the suction into space would be insane! They ALL would have been sucked out. And while I’m pretty sure Thor can survive in space (I’m not positive that’s been established yet though, so don’t quote me!) and perhaps Iron Man’s armor would save him, the rest of them would TOTALLY be dead. There’s no Phoenix here to save the day! (OPPS! SPOILER ALERT! LOL)

But, moving on. The gods stop up the whole and then Avengers head back to Earth in their rocket, blowing the space station up behind them as they go. On the way back, they all decide that this was *so much fun* and that they should all fight together as a huge group more often.

A few things about this issue. First of all, as silly as the ending was, I loved this. It was cool to see Iron Man and Thor again. It was also cool to see the Avengers fighting in small groups. It really allowed us to see how everyone’s powers have evolved over the last few years; especially our resident mutants! Wanda and Pietro have gotten so much stronger in their powers. It’s really great to see. And speaking of Wanda’s powers: in this issue, she makes mention that she has power over the Laws of Probability.

This is the first we’ve heard about this. It’s also, apparently, the first time the creative team has as well, since there’s a note from Stan Lee stating that they’re still a little confused how her powers work. We are going to keep a close eye on this one. Wanda’s powers are some of the most dangerous, and also the most confusing powers in all of Marvel. It’s really interesting to see how those powers evolved as the decades progressed since currently, she’s kind of powerful, but seems to have generic “hex” powers. Now we learn she has power over the laws of probability. That seems totally out of left field, and yet also totally makes sense in some way. In the early days of her mutant career, her hexes sometimes seemed to make things happen that she didn’t intend to happen, but they almost always worked out in her favor. This seems to lend itself to the idea that she’s actually influencing probability unknowingly.

The last thing I want to talk about has to do with Wanda too. Can we talk about how she’s drawn on the splash page of this issue? Cause it sucks. Here’s the full page, and a blow up of the Avengers:

Wanda, despite pretty much holding her own against a freaking Asgardian and helping the Avengers defeat the Mandarin as an equal, is drawn laying down, submissive and sexualized. GRRR. Look, I know that this happens all the time in comics. It still happens today. But that doesn’t make it alright and doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. The way an artist choses to present female characters has a huge impact on the story and how they’re viewed by the reader. By drawing Wanda in this submissive position while all the male Avengers (and Wasp for that matter!) are drawn in battle poses, on their feet, ready to fight, you’re saying Wanda is beneath them. She’s not as capable, she’s a damsel in distress, etc. While this might not seem like a huge deal when it’s only one splash page, it becomes a HUGE deal when it’s repeated with almost every female superhero for the next 50 years of comics! So, my loves, I hope you’re ready to talk about this a LOT. Because it will happen a LOT, and I will point it out and talk about it a LOT.

And, on that note, it’s time to call it a day my dears! Until next time, keep searching…