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Professor X is Dead!!! Let’s Celebrate by Finishing 1968

Posted on May 23, 2016 by GenoshaGirl85

Hello darlings!! Are you ready to cover a decent amount of ground today? I hope so, because we’re celebrating the death of the X-Men’s egotistical mentor by finishing up the rest of 1968. We’re also finishing up our Avengers reading for a little while. So, let’s start there.

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When we last left them, the Avengers were losing members left and right. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver have gone to join Magneto, Cap has quit, and now Hercules has also left to return to Olympus. This leaves us with Ant-Man/Goliath, Wasp, and Hawkeye. Since issue 51 & 52 don’t have any of our mutants in them, we’ll gloss over them quickly. Basically, the Collector kidnaps the Avengers, Thor, and Iron Man. They manage to escape but the Collector gets away. Then they get a message from Cap that he is sending the Black Panther (just called Panther at this point) to join the team as Cap’s replacement. In issue 52, Black Panther shows up to join the Avengers only to find them dead. He’s framed for their murders by Grim Reaper. (He’s Wonder Man’s brother and wants revenge on the Avengers for his brother’s death.) Panther escapes from jail, fights Grim Reaper, and then uses his scythe to revive the Avengers who aren’t actually dead, just almost dead. They then welcome Panther to the team and resolve to find Wanda & Pietro.

Not a lot happens in these two stories. Issue 53 crosses over with events that are going on in X-Men, so we’ll cover that as we go through X-Men. It’s also our last issue of Avengers for awhile. We’ll also talk more about that after we discuss the issues. That said, lets jump into X-Men starting with issue #43.

xmen43 The issue opens up with Xavier’s funeral. The kids are the only people there besides the priest. Suddenly, Pietro shows up to pay his repects. The X-Men are suspicious since they know he’s working with Magneto now, but he just wanted to say good-bye and then runs off again. The kids return to the mansion to find a secret video message from X that he left in case of his death. It basically tells us nothing new except that he’s be training Jean to “add” telepathy to her abilities. This seems really dumb to me. How could Jean just ADD a totally different power to her mutant abilities? It is seriously blowing my mind, but I’m choosing to just tell myself that by “add” he means, access a subset of her powers that she’s always had but couldn’t control/tap into. That seems to be basically what this gets retconned into later anyway. The important part is that the team still has a telepath.

Meanwhile, at Mag’s island HQ, he and Pietro are fighting because Pietro left to go to the funeral. Pietro explains that he’s still loyal to Magneto, but went to the funeral out of sadness. Wanda is physically healed from her gunshot wound, but she’s still fuzzy mentally and her powers aren’t working. Pietro wonders if they’ve made that right choice, or if the Avengers could better help Wanda, but his hatred of humans keeps him with Mags for now. It’s interesting in this issue how almost uncomfortably close the twins are. In one panel they embrace as Wanda laments being a burden on Pietro and he promises that his place will ALWAYS be at her side. And on the next page he breaks down in tears and lays with his head buried in her lap, her arms around him and him holding her around the waist. (see below). It just strikes me as an embrace of lovers, not siblings. This is something that is going to happen/come up again and again throughout the years. As far as I know, there’s never actually any hint that there’s anything incestuous going on between them in the 616. (The Ultimate universe is a whole other story. One we will not be getting into as it’s a totally separate continuity from what this blog is covering.) But it’s still a little weird and uncomfortable.

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The X-Men decide it’s time to take the fight to Magneto, so Cyke lays a trap. Mags has been attacking and robbing cargo ships in order to get supplies for his island base. The X-Men hide on a ship and then send radio communications saying it holds equipment they think Mags will try to steal. It’s actually a really well laid trap. It’s nice to see Cyke really come into his own as a leader now that X is gone. He’s sure of himself and with good reason. Something that will come up later in X-Men is that Scott’s ability to strategize and plan on a tactical level is basically on par with Captain America. In other words, it’s awesome. Anyway, they break in and fight Magneto. Quicksilver joins the fray and we get a great moment where he says to Cyke that he’s with Mags, but thinks to himself that he must try to stop the X-Men before Magneto kills them. So, obviously QS is starting to waiver in his loyalties. Anyway, the X-Men fight well, but Mags ends up capturing them.

In issue 44, QS talks Mags out of killing the X-Men, so he locks them up in special traps xmen44 he’s designed for each of them. Angel manages to break out and Cyke sends him to get the Avengers to help them. He thinks it was too easy to get out, so he doesn’t want to walk into a trap, but also wants to take advantage of Angel being free. Angel takes off, but it held up by fatigue and a storm and ends up spending the entire issue on a secret base in the middle of the ocean fighting and then listening to the life story of some guy named Red Raven. Seriously. It’s dumb. It’s a throw away issue in the middle of a story arc that feels like they were just trying to make sure this timed up with Avengers, which is also dumb because the last two issues of Avengers were throw away issues too.

xmen45 In issue 45, Cyke manages to escape his trap as well. It’s amazing!!! Scott is getting so much more powerful and so much more sure of himself. My little Cyclops loving heart is all fluttery!

Anyway, he goes to break the rest of the X-Men out of their traps, but gets into a fight with Quicksilver instead. They have a discussion about Magneto’s dream versus X’s and then fight. Cyke knocks QS unconscious with his optic blasts, and just then the Avengers show up and threaten him! While all this is happening, Mags is watching and is being REALLY REALLY violent and cruel towards Toad. It’s pretty sickening and also pretty important.

Avengers 53 is the final issue of this arc and it’s kind of exactly what you think it’s going to avengers53 be. The Avengers didn’t really trust Angel, but they came anyway. Then they found a listening devise in his feathers so they tie him up and go attack everyone without talking to anyone. Meanwhile, Mags uses the machine he’s been building to make the X-Men fight back. Because Hawkeye and Goliath totally suck always, they refuse to do anything but attack the X-Men. Black Panther is the only one who questions what is happening, but since he doesn’t know the X-Men, he defers to the rest of the Avengers. Suddenly Angel shows up and breaks Mags control of the X-Men and the fight stops. And this is where things get REALLY convoluted. See, Mags planned on Angel escaping and going to the Avengers for help. He planted the listening device knowing the Avengers would find it and then distrust him. But, if that wasn’t silly enough, the Avengers somehow figured all this out and left Angel behind on the plane on purpose to be their ace in the hole. Seriously, what the hell? This is absolutely nuts. Anyway, as the heroes recount what happened, the island begins to blow up. Toad finally snaps and takes off with SW and QS, leaving Mags behind. The Avengers and X-Men leave in the Avenger’s quinjet and Magneto is left to die.

Guys, this whole story arc was pretty awesome until the very end. It is so ridiculous how convoluted it gets. There’s no need for all of it. It’s also yet another story where two groups of heroes fight each other because no one will slow down to talk for 5 minutes. You’re all going to get sick of me complaining about these types of stories because they happen AL THE TIME.

xmen46 But, moving on. After this adventure, the X-Men return to the mansion where Fred Duncan (the FBI agent X was working with) and Foggy Nelson (from Daredevil!) show up. Foggy is there for the reading of X’s will. He, unsurprisingly, leaves everything to the X-Men with Scott as the trustee for the estate. Before they can talk to Duncan about what he wants, Juggernaut magically appears in the basement of the mansion. I know, I’m just as confused as you are! They fight him, but he won’t believe X is dead. The fight eventually leads them to Xavier’s grave. Then, Juggy suddenly disappears right back into the Ruby cosmos he was in to start with. It’s never really explained how he showed up or left again, but everyone seems to think X had something to do with it before he died. All that really matters is this was just an exercise to show us how much more powerful the kids have gotten since the last time they fought Juggy. They’ve been getting more and more powerful recently, but nothing puts that on display better then having them fight a villain they haven’t fought in a long time and who is virtually indestructible. It’s a bit of a waste of Juggernaut, but it’s effective.

Afterwards, Duncan tells them that he’s there to insist the X-Men disband and spread across the country. Without X there, the FBI thinks the kids are more at risk together and if they’re spread out, they can respond to threats more quickly. They aren’t happy, but Scott insists they do as Duncan asks. This split up means the next few issues focus on just a couple of characters at a time. It’s actually a lot of fun to see the kids interact outside of the school setting. They’re not really kids anymore. They’re adults and that becomes clear here. They’re all also more sure of themselves, their powers, and their relationships with each other. It makes these next few issues easier to read than earlier Silver Age stuff, and also allows them and the reader to move on from Xavier’s death.

These issues also introduce us to a new writer. Roy Thomas has been gone for a few issues now, but we’ve mostly had fill-in writers. Now we have Arnold Drake writing for awhile going forward. I like his writing a lot. Under him, all five heroes have much more personality and control of their powers. Even Jean seems more like a whole person with confidence and capability than she ever has before. We’ll see that more and more with each passing issue.

Issue 47 is focused on Hank & Bobby. They’re taking Vera and Zelda out before they get xmen47 their instructions on where to relocate. They go to the theater to see a guy called the Maha Yogi. Once there, the guys realize that it’s actually Warlock/Merlin who kidnapped Jean a few years ago. He’s trying to hypnotize the entire audience. The boys fight him and stop his plans, but not without upsetting the girls for disappearing yet again. It’s a nice reminder that Hank and Bobby have lives outside of the school and a great look at their awesome friendship. They fight well together and have adorable banter.

xmen48 Issue 48 focuses on Jean and Scott. They’re together in NYC. She’s started modeling and Scott is working at a radio station. They are adorable and lovey. Scott shows up at Jean’s swimsuit photo shoot to threaten the photographer for asking her out, but then he gets hit on by all the other models which makes Jeannie all jealous. It’s cute in a kinda sexist 1960’s kind of way. (See that? That’s me focusing on the silver lining instead of the shitty misogyny of the Silver Age…I know, you’re impressed with my restraint.) Anyway, some robots try to steal some expensive radio equipment being delivered to Scott’s radio station, so Marvel Girl and Cyke jump into action. They battle the robots and then track them to their HQ where they take out all the others and fight their leader, Quasimodo. He escapes, leaving the heroes to die as the underground base floods with water, but because Jean is a capable adult now, she rescues them with her telekinesis easily.

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Issue 49-51 start with Warren returning to the school for a little bit of closure. While he’s there cerebro goes off, so he contacts Jean telepathically. She and Scott are still living in NYC, but Hank & Bobby have been relocated to Cali. Jean links them all together and they decide to meet up at Hank & Bobby’s to go after this threat. That threat is Mesmero and a bunch of mutant slaves who are trying to activate and then control all the latent mutants in the world in order to carry out Magneto’s dream of mutant supremecy. One of these latent mutants is the one and only Lorna Dane, who Bobby saves from brainwashing and takes back to his apartment. The X-Men go to stop Mesmero while Iceman stays behind to protect Lorna. They’re captured and brought to another base in the desert. Here, Cyke Iceman is held captive while Mesmero activates Lorna’s latent mutant powers and they all worship her as their queen. Turns out she’s Magneto’s daughter and has the same powers as him, so they think she will lead their fight in his absence. Just then Mags shows up because he’s apparently not dead, and the X-Men fight him. Bobby is PISSED about all of this and clearly in love with Lorna. The fight turns against the X-Men and Iceman is wipped out from freezing the entire place. Cyke is grabbed and they force a helmet on him that is meant to stop his optic blasts. And this is where we get my absolute favorite moment of this arc. Cyke busts the hell out of the helmet in the most spectacular fashion. Guys, he’s getting REALLY powerful. It’s awesome!!!

Mags attacks them all and MG & Cyke are left trying to defend the rest of the team who is totally battered at this point. And we get yet another awesome Cyclops moment. As Mags fights them both, and Cyke can feel himself losing, he begins to taunt Magneto anyway and we get to see what he’s saying and thinking at the same time, letting us know just how much of a bad ass he’s being right now. While he thinks that this strain is unbearable even with Mag’s power split between Cyke and MG, what he says is this: “Is that the BEST you can do, Magneto? You must be losing your grip in your old age! Come on–Make it interesting!”

As the team looks like they’re done for, Cyke makes one last desperate play. He brings the ceiling down on Magneto, allowing them to escape in the chaos that follows. But they’re forced to leave Lorna behind. This is not okay with Bobby, and he and Scott almost come to blows about it back at the apartment. Jean tries to stop the fight but Bobby storms out. Scott lets him go saying Bobby needs to cool down and that he has a plan to stop Mags and Mesmero. Cut to the desert base where a giant figure calling himself Erik the Red is insisting on challenging Magneto.

Overall, I have to say that I absolutely loved this arc. Arnold Drake’s writing here is a breath of fresh air. And starting in issue 50, we also get a new artist. And it’s one of my favorite artists…Jim Steranko. Steranko’s art is exquisite, and a huge change from the sort of “house style” that Roth and Heck use. xmen50 His cover of Issue 50 is one of my favorites ever! The new art and writing combine here to make this feel almost like a totally different title in a really good way. This team is a functioning, competent, adult team of superheroes now. They have drama and romance and they’re starting to feel less like a group of students and more like an actual family. To me, that’s how X-Men should feel. They have sooooo much drama between themselves over the years, but no matter what they have each other’s backs because they’re family. This arc also makes Scott and Jean’s relationship actually feel like a relationship. They care about each other outwardly now. They bicker and get jealous, hold and protect each other in battles. Scott refers to Jean as Jeannie multiple times. It’s wonderful. The other wonderful part of it is that they are now being written as equals. We don’t see Scott refusing to let Jean fight out of fear for her safety. He trusts her abilities and recognizes her integral part on this team. And she’s getting stronger and stronger right along with the guys. I love it sooo much!! I’m excited to see how she progresses as we close out the ’60’s.

The final thing to discuss is the “Secret Origins of the X-Men” segments at the end of all the issues. We’ve seen Scotts origins already. Now we get to see Bobby’s. He’s on a date when they’re jumped by some bullies from school. He uses his powers to save his date, but the town goes crazy and he’s arrested. Scott shows up to save him, but Bobby doesn’ want to go so they fight. While they fight, a honest to god lynch mob follows and tries to catch them both. They end up catching the boys and are about to try to hang them when X finally shows up and saves them both. The Drakes consent to Bobby going to Xavier’s school, but then he erases their memories of Bobby’s powers. Ok. That is SOOO messed up. It’s bad enough when he does that to villains, but to do it to the Drakes? What is the point? Gah, I hate that plot point. But, moving on… we then get the beginning of Beast’s origin. His dad was exposed to radiation at work, which is where his mutation comes from. He was super smart and a football star in high school. He’s captured by El Conquistador who insists Hank help him with some unknown mission or he’ll kill Hank’s parents. And that’s where we leave off in issue #51.

We also get a closer explanation of Scott, Bobby, and Hanks powers in some of the issues. We learn that Scott’s optic blasts are converted solar energy that his eyes are absorbing and converting all the time. But that’s why he can run out and need to recharge. They are sheer force, no heat. He also has buttons on his gloves to lift his visor so he doesn’t always have to use the one on his temple. Bobby’s powers work by pulling moisture from the air. His body has adjusted to the colder temps so he prefers cold climates, but can get enough moisture from a cactus to survive in the desert if needed. Beast’s mutations are his hands and feet as well as his muscular frame and reflexes. These allow him to climb almost anything, absorb the impact from high falls, and use his feet as basically another set of hands. And that about covers the Origin sections of these issues.

We are now done with all of 1968! Only one year left in the 60’s guys. I’m sooooo happy. And only a few more years left until we get to Giant Size and Claremont. I’m just glad that, at least for the time being, I have Arnold Drake to make this more then bearable. We’re also done with Avengers for a little while. With Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver off the team, there’s nothing to tie it to the X-universe at this point. When this changes, I’ll add it back into the reading and give you guys a REALLY brief rundown of anything important we missed while we were away. And with that said, it’s time for this seemingly endless post to come to a close. Until next time my dears, keep searching…

We’re Losing Heroes Left & Right…

Posted on May 16, 2016 by GenoshaGirl85

Hello my darlings! It’s time for some more mutant madness. After the excitement of FCBD, and pulling myself away from my new books and my new obsession with Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, I’ve read through six more issues getting us about a quarter of the way through 1968. But things are going to be a little different now.

Recently I’ve realized that part of the reason I’ve been finding it so hard to keep consistent with these posts and my reading is that I really just hate the Silver Age. I understand why others love it but to me it is just so boring and so frustrating. So, I’m going to do my best to power through the rest of the Silver age as quickly as possible so we can get to one of my favorite X-Men periods: Claremont!!! So, these posts may be a little less detailed as far as storylines go, and much more about my thoughts and impressions along with quick recaps. (At least, I’m going to try to do that. But lets be honest, brevity is NOT my forte.)

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So with that, let’s check in on our Maximoff twins over at Avengers Mansion in issues #48-50. Er, at Garrett Castle. As you may remember, when we last left our mutants they had been captured by Magneto (!!!) who returned to Earth and wants to re-form the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Wanda and Pietro are refusing to join him. While all this is happening, Dane Whitman has woken up and broken out of the room Mags locked him in. He has apparently been improving the Black Knight (BK) armor and weapons and he plans to take up the mantle as a super-hero to make up for his uncle’s wrong doing. So, he dons the armor and takes off to get the Avengers to come rescue Wanda and Pietro. But of course all superheroes are idiots, and especially Hawkeye now that Cap is gone, so they attack BK before he can tell them why he’s there and they all fight. Eventually they stop fighting after Goliath is forced to grow to his full 25 ft. height (which will be important later) and BK tells them where the twins are, but refuses to help them since they attacked him. They get to the castle, but Mags and the Maximoffs are gone.

As the Avengers (At this point it’s just Hawkeye, Wasp, and Goliath. Cap has quit and Hercules has gone to Olympus to try and make up with Zeus. He has his own plot thread going on through all of this that I’ll talk about at the end) head back to HQ to regroup, Mags takes the twins to his secret base to try and persuade them to join him. He’s telling them that he’s changed his ways. He no longer wants to use violence, and just wants to protect mutants. He says he’s going to be addressing the UN and brings Wanda and Pietro with him. Basically, he’s insisting mutants be given their own sovereign nation with a seat on the UN Security Council or there will never be peace between mutants and humans. He’s set it up so the council HAS to say no (because it’s an insane idea) but will look like the bad guys doing it. He’s trying to play on Pietro’s bitterness towards humans. When the council says no, Mags tries to attack them but is thwarted by the just-arriving Avengers (They saw his address on TV and rushed over). During the fight, some guards aim their guns at Magneto. He uses his powers to make them fire at the mutants and then directs one of the bullets to hit Wanda’s temple, effectively sending Quicksilver into a rage strong enough to make him side with Mags and attack the Avengers. He then leaves with his unconscious sister and Magneto! This is how Wanda & Pietro’s stories tie up for now, and we spend the rest of this issue and the next one on Herc’s storyline. So lets jump in:

While all of this has been going on, Hercules has returned to Olympus to try and get his father to lift his exile. When he arrives, all the gods are gone and most of Olympus is in ruin. Hercules is attacked by a Titan named Typhon who Zeus had banished long ago. Typhon has destroyed the Temple of Promethean Flame which banished all the gods to the Land of Shadows. He and Hercules fight, and then Typhon calls forth a monster to kill Herc. Obviously, this doesn’t work, so Typhon instead banishes Herc to the same realm as the gods. Once there, Hercules finds Zeus and the others and explains what happened and who banished them. Since Herc is half mortal, Zeus is able to send him back to Earth. Meanwhile, Typhon has also gone to Earth to conquer it. He runs into the Avengers who are out looking for Herc and they fight. It’s looking bad for the Avengers until Hercules shows up and they manage to defeat Typhon. Hercules says he needs to take Typhon to Olympus to be dealt with by Zeus. Once he’s there, it becomes clear to him and to the Avengers that he will be staying in Olympus for now, and so the Avengers are down yet another member. So, our mighty team is now just Hawkeye, Wasp, and Ant-Man. I say Ant-Man because Hank Pym can no longer change into Goliath thanks to him growing to his 25 ft. height a few issues ago.

the big bang theory kaley cuoco frustrated penny facepalm

Overall, these were good stories. It’s interesting to note that Hawkeye’s temper seems to be back now that Cap has left. He’s sulking about Cap quitting and he and Hank are fighting constantly. Also, Hawkeye mentions that Natasha has taken off “on vacation” without telling him, so it seems his temper has also ruined that relationship. Janet’s costume changes twice during this arc. She wears a bright pink costume that essentially makes her look like a Playboy Bunny with wings for a second, but then it changes again to a blue and yellow outfit that’s surprisingly adorable. And, more important to our mutants, I liked this story-line about Magneto basically manipulating Quicksilver into joining him again. It was paced well, and given the seeds of bitterness we’ve seen in Pietro recently, it made sense character-wise. We’ll see how this plays out Avenger’s wise soon. But for now, it seems our twins may be headed back over to the X-men book for a bit. And speaking of X-Men books:

Issue 40 is a silly stand-alone story about Frankenstein’s monster. Basically, some explorers found him in ice in the arctic and brought him back to New York and are thawing xmen40 him out. Apparently Xavier knows the monster is real and has always thought Dr. Frankenstien must be a mutant. He also apparently gets premonions now and can project his thoughts onto the wall like a movie projector. (This is why I hate the Silver Age.)

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Anyway, they go to the museum to try and stop them from waking up the monster, but they’re too late. They fight the monster, but the Prof is being so dumb. He keeps holding Iceman back and won’t tell any of them why or what the plan is. The monster runs way and tries to go south on a ship, but again the X-Men stop him. They eventually corner him on the ship and Iceman uses his powers to try and encase him in ice again. Instead, the monster blows up because he’s not actually a monster, but an android sent to Earth all those years ago by an alien race from a tropical planet to test how humans would respond. The android went nuts and the aliens chased it to the arctic, where it jumped into the water and froze. Seriously. This is the stupidest story ever. But wait…it gets worse. After saving the day, Xavier MAKES THE SHIP’S CREW FORGET EVERYTHING. This is because according to Xavier, the X-Men don’t search for personal glory or something. I mean…come on!! There is absolutely no reason for this. In fact, it works against their whole mission. They want to protect the world and show that mutants aren’t all bad. But then every time they save the day, X makes all the witnesses forget. WTF? How is the world ever going to know the X-Men are good guys if they never take credit for the victories? Guys, I’m sooooo done with this. This is moronic. Can we just move onto the next moronic story-line? K, thanks!

Issues 41 & 42 aren’t as bad as the previous story, but they’re close. In these issues, NYC is xmen 41 attacked by Grotesk, the Sub-Human. He’s the last remaining member of an ancient race that lived under the earth. Atomic weapons testing caused all of his race to die out from radiation sickness and left him deformed. He’s here to get vengeance by stealing a machine that apparently causes man-made earthquakes and turning in all the way up to make the Earth crumble and killing everyone on it. So, Bobby and Hank learn all this when they encounter him in the subway while on dates with Vera and Zelda. They rush back to the mansion to tell the rest of the gang and find the other’s training with a VERY grouchy Xavier. He’s testing Scott, Warren, and Jean and is being a huge dick. They call him on it, but he just gets more angry and refuses to listen to Bobby and Hank when they arrive. He leaves for his office and takes Jean with him. He’s told her some secret the others don’t know and she’s helping him with secret experiments. After this useless cutaway so that the reader can learn about these secrets, he and Jean go right back out to tell the boys to go stop the Sub-Human. They go, they find his hide-out, and Angel and Iceman go back to get Jean to help while Cyke and Beast continue on and fight Grotesk.

Jean refuses to come with the boys and also refuses to let them see Xavier who is not there. Angel gets rightfully pissed off and starts yelling at Jean. Xavier shows up and says that NONE of them can go help Cyke and Beast. He orders them to stay but won’t tell them why. Cyke and Beast get totally beat up by Sub-Human and then head back to the school as well. Jean again refuses to let anyone see Xavier or leave the room, so she and Scott get into a fight. Suddenly she says that NOW the Prof wants them to meet up with him. Apparently he’s decided to stop Grotesk alone but he fails and Grotesk turns on the machine. The X-Men show up and try to help. They’re losing big time until Marvel Girl and Xavier slow down the machine. Grotesk tries to make it go faster again and it blows up, killing him! Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your feelings of the man) Xavier is also caught up in the blast. The X-Men rush to his side to save him, but he tells them that he was dying anyway from some total mystery illness that he couldn’t cure. He uses his dying breath to explain Grotesk’s motives (even though the kids already know them because like every other villain over, Grotesk told them about it at length) and then he dies.

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Guys. Seriously. This is why Professor Xavier is just a huge dick. He was dying for some time and only told Jean. First of all, that’s shitty. He should have told them all. And if he wasn’t going to, he shouldn’t have told Jean and made her keep that secret. Also, this feels so rushed. This storyline of him keeping secrets and Jean working on experiments with him just started in this arc. And secondly, him dying is not a legit reason for him trying to stop Grotesk alone. He has NO good reason for this. If he and the X-Men had attacked together from the start, and he had clued them into what Grotesk was doing, they probably could have stopped him before he even turned the stupid machine on. And X probably wouldn’t have been caught up in the explosion. It’s so frustrating and so stupid. It’s also a little on the creepy side that he only tells Jean, the only female on the team, and has her in his office working on experiments with him. Before this reveal, it would be pretty easy to assume they were having some sort of affair, which is totally gross. Scott even thinks to himself that the reason they’re spending so much time together alone is because the Professor is in love with Jean. Guys, Xavier is at LEAST in his 40’s at this point. And Jean is like, 20. And his student. Eww. I seriously hate this arc. And to be totally honest, I’m kinda psyched that X is dead for now (Come on, it’s X-Men. You already know he’s going to come back at some point.)

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But, moving on. In the back of these three issues they have continued the “Secret Origin” storyline about how Xavier met Scott. Last we saw, Scott was running away from some cops and found a cabin with a mutant inside. This is Jack Winters or “Jack O’Diamonds”. Jack has hands made of pure diamond and also can influence other mutants with his mind. (minor telepathy basically) He essentially forces Scott to help him break into the nuclear power plant he used to work at. There was an accident there that gave him his powers and he thinks that if her repeats it, he can make himself diamond all over and thus be invincible. Basically what happens is they break it, Scott refuses to kill anyone so Jack leaves him behind and starts up the machine he’s looking for. The experiment works and he’s now a “Living Diamond”. Xavier shows up and he and Scott manage to stop the Living Diamond, but Jack dies in the process. X recruits Scott to his school as his first student and tells him about the dream and the X-Men. There are more continuity issues with Xavier’s powers (he seems to be telekinetic also since he’s opening locks and such with his “mental powers”).

So my darlings, that’s all for now. As I’m sure was evident, I didn’t really enjoy these arcs (at least the X-Men ones) that much. Here’s hoping it gets better now that Xavier is dead. Also, I promise I won’t ALWAYS be this negative. Just today since X-Men is being dumb. I just keep telling myself that Silver Age X-Men ends in 25 issues and I can suffer through until then. And with that my loves, I’ll end this not-at-all-shorter-like-I-said-it-would-be post. Until we meet again, keep searching….

Finally! Factor Three!! (Oh, and the Avengers did some stuff too…)

Posted on May 3, 2016 by GenoshaGirl85

Hello my darlings! I’m back, and with six freaking issues too! I have officially finished 1967! Thank Odin! These six issues are action-packed. All three of the X-Men issues are one big, Factor Three filled arc that I’m so happy to have finally gotten to, so let’s start there this time around! (And fair warning, this is going to be a LONG, LONG post. Even by my standards!!)

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The X-Men #37-39. We start with some mysterious person from F3 watching a tape of the X-Men battling Juggernaut and studying the group. We learn the F3 is somehow able to extract memories from Banshee and the Prof and that is how they’re seeing this fight. Meanwhile, our mysteriously broke teenagers (sorry, still annoyed about that waste of an issue…) are on their flight to Europe and trying to talk strategy without being overheard. But of course, F3 has been watching them, so they know which flight the kids are on and attack it! I’ll be honest, I was a little surprised they attacked a commercial flight like that. I mean, I know I SHOULDN’T be, but I still was. F3 misses the airplane luckily, but the X-Men realize what’s happening and do the stupidest thing they’ve EVER done…they jump out of the fucking plane. (apologies for the language, but seriously?!?) I WISH I were kidding. These morons open the plane door, which in the real world could have crashed the plane or at least sucked a few passengers or flight attendants out, and then jump out WITHOUT parachutes!

So, our favorite idiots are free falling through the air. Scott and Hank are clinging to Warren, but his wings are strapped in their harness, so it’s not like he’s flying right now. He’s falling just as fast as they are. Jean is using her powers to slow herself and Bobby down a bit, but they’re still falling too fast not to be killed. And then, Scott’s Ruby quartz glasses fall off and he has to keep his eyes closed so as not to kill everyone with his optic blasts.

Guys, I love this arc. I really do. But this is so, so stupid. They’re so, so stupid. But anyway, Hank and Scott almost get impaled on a mountain top, but Scott blasts it just in time. Warren get his wings free and grabs them and then flies over to Jean and Bobby. But he’s not strong enough to carry them all and they’re falling too fast for Jean to stop them. Bobby finally gets the idea to create an ice slide, and they all slide down it and land hard, but safe. Oh, and somehow, through all of this, Hank has managed to hold onto the briefcase carrying their costumes! Seriously. So, they change into costume and are attacked by some of those mechanical spiders that we met a few issues ago. (The dumb one with Spider-Man. LOL) They make a valiant attempt at escape, but our heroes are eventually caught and brought into the F3 secret base.

Once there, we see that our X-Men are being tried for “betrayal of mutant-kind” for helping humans and defeating evil mutants. It’s obviously a kangaroo court of sorts. The witnesses are Vanisher, Unus, The Blog, and Mastermind. They’re also the jury. (See what I mean?) We meet the prosecutor, a mysterious mutant named Changeling. He is running the court and is second in command to The Mutant Master, who watches from the shadows. We get a rehash from our “witnesses” of their defeats by the X-Men, and then the kids are quickly pronounced guilty and sentenced to death. But, before the sentence is carried out, Mutant Master decides to tell them his entire plan for destroying the human race so that mutants can rule the earth. Seriously guys, WHY do villains ALWAYS do this? I mean, I get that it’s the writer’s lazy way of letting the reader know what’s going to happen if the hero doesn’t pull through. But it’s dumb.

So, Mutant Master plans to start WW3 by killing a bunch of Eastern military brass, and then breaking into a US military base and launching all the nukes. Then, once the Cold War has erupted into an actual war and the planet is devastated by nuclear fallout, he and his band of Evil Mutants will rule the wasteland that is left. This is seriously the silliest plan ever, but hey…it’s 1967. This was actually a legit fear of most people. (At least, the part about a nuclear war was). MM sentences the X-Men to the Oblivo-Ray which is apparently a fate worse then death. It will make them slaves with no sense of self. But, of course, Changeling then leaves the X-Men unattended while the machine starts up, so our heroes escape thanks to some quick thinking on Cyke’s part and some great teamwork. They easily defeat a giant robot left behind to guard the base. MM sees all this, and warns them that they’ll still be too late to save the world. And this is the end of #37!

Ok, sidebar time! The way the X-Men work together here to get out of the Oblivo-Ray (OR) and escape the giant robot is awesome. These guys are no longer kids. They’re a seasoned, well trained, well led fighting team equal to any other team in the 616. Cyclops is a great leader. He keeps his cool when they’re in the OR machine, coming up with a plan to short circuit the machine. He directs Iceman to create icicles for Marvel Girl to levitate over the hot machine so that they melt and drip water all over the circuit boards. It’s a great use of everyone’s powers! I love seeing them use their powers in new ways like this. It’s a nice change from just having MG telekinetically lift Cyke’s visor and having Cyke blast everything. Or Iceman straight up freeze something. It’s interesting and shows the kids are smart, not just tough. And when they take out the giant robot? Seamless teamwork guys! Seriously. It takes them like 1/2 a page and they work together from the start to blind the thing so it can’t find them. I’m so happy. THIS is the X-Men. THIS is why I love them. They have their inner “family” drama no matter what iteration of the team it is, but at the end of the day, they fight like a well oiled machine and they have the best powers that are used in the best ways! Ok, sidebar over!

So, Issue #38 starts with them stealing some egg-pods and heading back to the school just before the base blows up. While the X-Men regroup and try to strategize back at the school, Changeling is starting to question MM. He thinks the pods the X-Men used to escape were awfully convenient and also questions why they didn’t just straight up kill them instead of leaving them alive and attached to a machine. (At least ONE of these villains is ~~smart~~ not a total moron.) They send a radio transmission to Blob and Vanisher who are “behind the Iron Curtain” to see how things are going. Cerebro picks this up for some reason, and the X-Men are able to figure out where they are. MG, Angel, and Beast take one egg pod to the Far East to stop Blob and Vanisher from killing the military leaders there, while Cyke and Iceman head to the US military base to try to protect the missiles MM said he was going to launch.

Beast sacrifices himself and gets caught so that Angel and MG can fly to the roof of the castle the secret meeting is taking place in. Once there, they meet Blob and Vanisher with a bunch of android henchmen and begin to fight. During the fight, the androids blow up and Vanisher, well, vanishes. This leaves Blob, MG, and Angel knocked out to be caught and imprisoned by the guards. They’re thrown in the same cell as Beast.

Meanwhile, Cyke and Iceman break into the military compound and try to reason with the top brass. They explain why they’re there, and that the missiles are going to be hijacked. Of course, no one believes them, and so the boys start destroying all the missiles!!! It’s kind of a bold (albeit desperate) move on Cyke’s part, and I’m sort of impressed.

The military begins to attack them, so now they’re dodging bullets and destroying government property as quickly as they can.

And, while ALL of that is going on, Changeling is also talking to Professor X. Charles is trying to convince Changeling that he’s being stupid and that MM’s plan will kill everyone, even mutants. Changeling says that MM has technology that will protect him and chosen others from the radiation. Changeling eventually loses his temper with Charles and threatens to kill Charles if he doesn’t shut up. But he is immediately rebuked by MM, who is watching and says that he alone shall decide who should die and when. This brings us to the end of #38, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance!

#39 opens back with Cyke and Iceman. They’ve given up trying to destroy all the missiles as it’s an impossible task. Instead, they fight there way into the compound and Iceman freezes over the air filtration system. MM said they planned on gassing everyone on base so that they could have control of the missiles, so our boys figure if the air is frozen over, there’s no way for the base to be gassed. Just then they’re attacked by Mastermind and Unus. As the fight goes on, the troops hunting down Cyke and Iceman are drawing closer. Cyke comes up with another brilliant idea, and he and Iceman use their powers together to create a thick, cold fog. Under this cover, they escape, as do Unus and Mastermind, leaving the base safe from MM’s plan. They take off in their egg pod to go find MM and hopefully rescue the Prof and Banshee. (TBH, I almost forgot that F3 had Banshee too!)

Meanwhile, Angel, Beast, and MG escape from their cell, leaving an unconscious Blob behind. They try to convince the military leaders that they’re in danger, but of course, no one believes them. Somehow, MG uses her powers to sense where the bomb is hidden, (don’t ask. I’m just as confused as you are…) and they attempt to steal the briefcase it’s in instead. Just then, Blob shows up, having regained consciousness. He gets the case from MG and decides to just hold it until it detonates. He reckons he can survive the blast with this mutant powers. Since she can’t get it away from him with her powers, MG decides to try and reason with Blob. She points out that MM would probably make the bomb powerful enough to kill Blob too so that Blob couldn’t be captured and reveal the plan. Blob buys her reasoning, and drops the bomb to run away. They only have seconds, so Angel flies the bomb as high as he can so the detonation doesn’t kill anyone. Our three heroes leave while the communist leaders are still to stunned to stop them, and they also head to find MM.

In a cut away to MM, we learn that he allowed the X-Men to escape in the beginning so that if anything went wrong, they would be blamed for the attacks. But they’ve made sure this doesn’t happen and are now headed for him. Cyke and Iceman get to MM’s base first, only to find themselves facing Vanisher, Blob, Mastermind, and Unus all at once. But the other three show up before the fighting starts and just as things are about to go crazy, Professor X rolls in and tells everyone to stop. He says the MM has been playing everyone and that he isn’t who he says he is. He points out that MM let the X-Men escape, and that his plan will kill EVERYTHING on Earth, not just the humans. MM freaks and sets his androids to attacking everyone. The X-Men and “Evil Mutants” fight side-by-side to destroy the androids. Banshee escapes from his cell and joins the fray. He realizes that a certain frequency will blow up the androids. He does this and then tries it one octave higher. This frequency causes MM to transform into a gross, octopus looking green alien!!! He’s attacked by Unus and can’t handle Banshee’s screams. In his agony, he hits the self destruct button on his floating chair and commits suicide! (I know, right?!?)

And just when things couldn’t get weirder, there are suddenly TWO Professors in the room! Turns out that the one who showed up and accused MM of treachery was actually Changeling. Go figure. The real prof proves himself by using telepathy. Seems Changeling can mimic voices and appearance, but doesn’t get the powers. Once everything has calmed down, the X-Men become stupid again. They decide to let all of the evil mutants go! Apparently since they all fought together to destroy MM, it means they can’t capture the bad guys. The amazing issue actually ends with the Prof going on and on about the day there are no “good” or “evil” mutants, just men fighting together against a common foe. *EYEROLL*

Oh, wait, no it doesn’t. He makes that speech and then we cut to that night in the school. Apparently before the Prof was kidnapped, he and Jean decided everyone needed new uniforms!! The guys make jokes about them not actually changing much, just the trim. It’s a nod to the last costume change that really didn’t change anything. But this time, we get costumes that make them individuals! Jean and Charles explain that, since they’re not kids anymore, they shouldn’t dress in “uniforms” like kids. They’re individual adults and are now dressed that way. Scott’s in the classic blue with yellow visor he’ll sport for years to come. Jean is in her iconic green dress with yellow mask. Angel is in yellow and red with his blonde hair coming out the top of his mask. Hank is in red and blue. It’s similar to his old costume, but better colors and more stylized. Bobby even comments that he got new boots and gloves, although he doesn’t really look all that different given his powers. See below:

New Costumes 2

So, overall this was a great arc. It was worth all the build up over that last few months of issues, and it was a well done. We got to see the kids work as an awesome team, without help or guidance from the Professor. (I should probably stop calling them “kids” now. They’re all college-age and this arc made a big point of showing that they aren’t kids anymore) They figured out a game plan on their own and executed it well. And Jean seems to be growing in her power quite a bit, and in her confidence. It’s nice to see. (The same thing seems to be happening with Wanda over at Avengers Mansion. Our girls are competent women now. They’re equal to the guys, and sure of themselves and their powers.) AND, on top of all of that, we end with them in their more iconic, colorful costumes!!!! I love it!!

There’s one more thing we have to talk about in regards to X-Men before we hop into the city and check on our Avengers. Starting in issue #38, there are special “issues” in the back that are going to chronicle “The Origins of the X-Men”. They’re fun and it’s cool to see how Charles found them all. The first installment in #38 shows us how Charles decided to start his school. He sees a news clip about a mutant that saved people, only to be attacked by an angry mob. (It’s Scott!!!) The news piece ends with the reporter saying that the FBI will be starting a special investigation into mutants. Charles heads to Washington to meet with Fred Duncan, the agent heading up the investigation. He explains who he is and gives them a demonstration of his powers. They both agree that learning about and watching young mutants would go better if they were approached by another mutant instead of FBI agents. Duncan agrees to let Charles track down the teenage mutants they’ve got info on and train them, and in return Chuck will report into the FBI periodically on their status. (?!??!)

The installment in #39 is a continuation of this arc from Scott’s side. We see him destroy a crane, causing a heavy crated to plummet towards the crowded street below. He blows it up with his optic blast just in time, but the crowd turns on him and he runs for it. Turns out this is the very first time his powers have manifested like this! He has had headaches his whole life until an optometrist gave him ruby quartz classes. They stopped the headaches but no one could explain why. (But we know, don’t we my loves!) Anyway, it was the optometrist that reported him to the FBI and so Xavier interviews him and that’s how we learn about the headaches and glasses. Meanwhile, Scott is on the run, afraid to return to the orphanage where he lives. (so sad!! Seriously guys, the Summers’ family history is TRAGIC, as you’ll see as we get further into our reading) He hops a train out of town, ends up being accosted by “hobos” and then saved by police who then immediately recognize him as the runaway they’re looking for. They remove his glasses and his uncontrollable optic blasts scare them away. He learns that he’s immune to his own powers, finds his glasses, and then runs away through the woods before the police can return with reinforcements. He stumbles across a cabin where he feels an unnatural pull to go inside. He does, and there he meets a man sitting in the shadows who tells Scott that he sensed that Scott was born to rule, just like him and that he his also a mutant! DUN DUN DUN!!!

OOOOOK…so, 3000 words later, that finishes off The X-Men for 1967 and for this post! Whew! But there’s no time to lose kiddies, because now we must check in on out mutant twins and their teammates over at Avengers Mansion!!

movie animation minions breaks minions movie

So, Avengers #45. We open with Iron Man and Thor still with the Avengers. Apparently today is “Avengers Day” in NYC to thank the Avengers for thwarting the Mandarin’s plan avengers45 for world domination (See my post here about AA #1 if you don’t remember. Which is totally fine, since I wrote that post like a month ago. I know, I suck. Moving on…) Anyway, everyone’s gathered in Central Park for the ceremony except Janet and Steve. In her ridiculous fashion, Janet shows up “fashionably late” in a brand new, expensive sports car and designer clothes. (Remember that inheritance from a few issues ago? Neither did I. But, it’s now important. Janet is loaded.) She makes a scene, Hank gets jealous, and we all move on.

Meanwhile, we learn that in the crowd is the Super Adaptoid (SA) (who we last saw in X-Men!) Crash course for those of you who weren’t around or don’t remember: He’s an android created by AIM to destroy Captain America. He can absorb and then use the powers of anyone around him. Everyone’s waiting on Cap, and some of the Avengers show off their skills to keep the crowd entertained. Thor and Iron Man have to cut out before he arrives, but not before SA absorbs their powers. So, Cap FINALLY shows, they say thanks to everyone for the support, and then Hank announces that Herc will be made a full time Avenger now!!

The Voice excited yes christina aguilera yay

Herc is shocked, but happy and honored. Just then, SA attacks! The battle is fierce and SA is totally winning and it’s bad. The battle goes on for the ENTIRE issue. It gets a little tedious, but there you go. Each Avengers tries to take SA on alone, and they all fail. Then, FINALLY, our favorite silver-haired mutant comes up with a plan. They all attack him at once, forcing him to use all of their powers at once. This is too much for SA, and he short circuits. The crowd remerges and continues the celebration, but our Avengers are morons today, so they had the super dangerous, ultra powerful robot over to the NYPD?!?! WHY DO THEY DO THIS SHIT?!?!? Ahem. Sorry. Done now.

One quick side-note: After they defeat SA, Pietro makes a comment that SA should be pitied because he is just an android created by humans to do their bidding. Wanda notes that he seems bitter, and Steve reminds him that the evil humans wanted to use SA to control humans AND mutants alike. Keep this seeming random outburst by Pietro in mind as we move forward. (Spoiler alert) It’s going to fester and build, but it’s done well, and is very indicative of Pietro’s character throughout the years.

smoke worried stressed disney 101 dalmatians

On to #46. The Avengers are hanging out with nothing to do. Hank announces that he is working on some experiments with ants because he might go back to being Ant Man instead of Goliath. He thinks to himself that now that they have Herc on the team, they avengers46 don’t need his raw Goliath power. Herc is even stronger than Goliath. But they could use Ant Man’s unique skills. Cap is sulking and preoccupied with thoughts of quitting and living as Steve Rogers. (Again…*eyeroll*) Clint and Natasha show up. She’s out of the hospital and fully recovered. Then Janet shows up with her new chauffer. Hank chides her for letting in driver into Avengers HQ, so she sends him away. But, as he leaves, we learn Hank was right. He is using Jan to get into the building and check it’s defenses.

oops glenn close movie film funny

Clint and Natasha decide to take a walk and Herc and Wanda are going to join them. First, they change into normal clothes and Herc shaves off his beard! It’s kind of a cute moment. Pietro and Cap are going to go to a baseball game, and leave Jan and Hank back to work on his ant experiments. We find out Jan’s driver Charles is actually Whirlwind, who used to be the Human Top. He’s an old villain of Giant-Man who was locked up. He’s back with more power and a new name. He breaks into the mansion, manages to shrink Hank and Jan with Hank’s equipment, and then, because he’s a dumb villain, dumps them into the colony of red ants Hank was experimenting with instead of just killing them himself. He also plants a time bomb in the laboratory. The red ants attach Jan and Hank, who don’t have their little headsets to control them. They fight them off, and Janet eventually kills the Queen ant. That makes the ants stop attacking long enough for Hank to build a mini headset with some machine that’s in the colony and they control the ants to get out.

Meanwhile, the baseball game was apparently rained out? (Even though the other four Avengers out for a walk didn’t run into rain, and there is no rain drawn in ANY panel in the entire issue, but whatevs! Plot device!) Anyway, Cap and Pietro are back just in time to fight Whirlwind! Whirlwind is actually a bit scared, since Quicksilver’s speed seems to be the only thing that could stop him. They battle and Hank climbs out of the tank, He rushes to a voice amplifier to warn Cap and Quicksilver about the bomb that’s about to go off. He tells them where it is, and Quicksilver rushes it out over the river to explode safely. But on his way back to the mansion, he hears people below. They saw him with the bomb, and are talking about not trusting him or Wanda since they’re mutants. Pietro thinks to himself that basically, humans suck, and they will eventually push him too far and he will strike back. YIKES!

supernatural no nope yikes

In the excitement, Whirlwind escapes. Cap un-shrinks Jan and Hank. Quicksilver is pissed that Whirlwind escaped, but eventually calms down so Hank can announce that now he can be both Goliath AND Ant Man depending on what the situation calls for!

Now it’s time for issue #47. Guys, before we start, I have something I have to get off my chest:

excited amy poehler tina fey happy dance exciting

Ok. I’m done. Why the happy dance you ask? Because my loves, the villain for this issue (and at least one more to follow that I haven’t read yet) is none other than MAGNETO!!!!!!!!! I’m so freaking excited! I’ve missed Mags!!

avengers47 Anyway, Mags and Toadie are still on the Stranger’s far off planet where he exiled them. But, Mags can feel “magnetic rays” coming from space. They’re getting stronger and he believes he can use them and his powers to escape. We learn the rays are coming from Garrett Castle in the US where a man named Whitman is working, He’s the nephew of the Black Knight, and wants to do something good with his experiments to try and make up for this evil uncle.

At the same time, over at Avengers Mansion, Cap has called a meeting to announce that he’s quitting the Avengers. (AGAIN!)

Hawkeye is upset and because of that gets in a fight with Natasha and takes off. Janet and Hank take off for an already planned vacation in Vegas (driven to the airport by her driver, Charles who is really Whirlwind). Herc announces that now that he’s an Avenger, there’s something he needs to take care of. He heads to Olympus to ask Zeus to lift his exile so that he can return to Earth by his choice. He climbs Mt. Olympus only to find the city totally abandoned!!

doctor who what

But, that’s apparently a story for another time. Next we see that Mags and Toadie have indeed used Whitman’s magnetic rays to escape from the Stranger and return to Earth. They lock up Whitman and his bad assistant Norris. (Norris had just knocked Whitman out before they arrived so that he could take all the glory for himself) and Mags decides to get the band back together. For whatever reason, he decides not to call Mastermind right now (probably because he’s currently caught up with F3!) He wants Wanda and Pietro back in his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. We see a flashback of how he saved their lives and thus put them in his debt. He tricks the twins into coming to the castle with a coded message. Once there, he attacks them with a giant robot to test their powers. All this time as Avengers has paid off, and they easily defeat their foe. Mags is impressed!

leonardo dicaprio oscars impressed

He invites them to join him, but they refuse, saying they’re Avengers now. Mags is obviously pissed, so he attacks them with MORE robots. They manage to destroy the robots, but when they attempt to attack Magneto, he captures them!! And that’s how the issue ends!

So, my loves, we’re done with 1967. I know this was REALLY REALLY long. I’d apologize, but I kind of feel like, if you’ve read this far, you must like SOMETHING about my writing style, so there’s no need for an apology. Hehe. Anyway, We’ll move onto 1968 soon. I’m excited now that Magneto is back in play. I’m also excited to see where this story-line with Pietro’s bitterness is leading. I think I know, and I think it’s pretty obvious, but still, it will be fun to see it play out. I’m also excited for our X-Men to start working more like an adult team with Charles as a mentor instead of like kids with a teacher!

And, one last thing before I go. As some of you may know, this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day!!!! This is my favorite weekend of the year. My shop, Carol & John’s goes all out every year! Midnight release party Friday night into Saturday morning, events all day Saturday. They highlight local artist who are there to do sketch covers, they create pieces for an art gallery. Every year all those pieces sell. They’re amazing. Cleveland has some amazingly talented artists! Every year has a theme. It’s normally tied into whichever comic movie is coming out that same weekend. So, this year it’s obviously Civil War themed. It’s going to be a crazy good time. So, any of my readers in the NEO area, come out and join us. Dan (hubby) and I will be there all night Friday and will be stopping by on Saturday with our daughter. We’ll both be in costume too! Just look for Wonderman and his companion. (Sorry guys, not revealing my costume until that night!!) And any readers not local to NEO, I really urge you guys to find a local shop in your area to go check out FCBD. Even if they’re not doing a huge event like C&J, there will be tons of FREE COMICS to check out. And while you’re there, maybe pick up some other comics (X-Men) and support your local businesses! So, between a midnight showing of CA:CW on Thursday night and FCBD activities Friday and Saturday, it’s safe to say I won’t be getting much reading done this weekend. But I’ll post pics of my awesome costume and of the event afterwards and tell you all about it! And then we’ll pick up with 1968 next week. Until then my loves, keep searching…

This is Getting Silly…(Or, Bring on Factor Three Already)

Posted on March 11, 2016 by GenoshaGirl85

Hello my dears!!

I’m back already! It felt so good to finally get back in the blogging saddle yesterday that I couldn’t help but post again today! I’m sure you won’t mind!

Today we’re going to talk about the 4 issues from August and September of 1967. AKA, Avengers 43 & 44 and The X-Men 35 & 36. Since I read the monthly titles in alphabetical order, let’s talk about them that way too. Which means….

Avengers! 43 & 44 are a two issue arc centered around Hawkeye’s attempts to rescue Natasha from the generic Asian communists that have her prisoner. It’s fun and silly, so let’s dive in. We open up with Cap & Hawk coming back from some recon mission and walking into Quicksilver freaking FLYING around the Mansion. That’s right. He’s flying. It’s AMAZING. Basically, Quicksilver has figured out that if he vibrates his legs at super speeds, he can levitate himself and “fly” for short distances. Guys, it’s so great to see our resident mutants (the whole reason we’re reading through Avengers for this enormous project) growing in their powers. This is one of the things I love about Quicksilver (and admittedly, also The Flash over at DC) and his powers. There are so many creative ways to use super speed other then just running really fast. It’s nice to see Roy Thomas exploring those other uses!

So…back to the story. Herc is being Herc, and thus fighting with everyone. Cap picks a fight with him to keep him from hurting anyone else, and then easily avoids getting trampled by out maneuvering Herc. This gains him Hercules’ respect, so now Herc is calmed. While all that is going on, a lawyer shows up to tell Jan that since she’s now 23, she can access her inheritance of more then $3 million! In the commotion of her celebrations, no one notices that Hawkeye has slipped out to follow the lead he and Cap got by himself. Hawkeye goes to a sketchy bar to find out where Natasha’s being held. But, because he’s Hawkeye, he can’t get in and our of there without getting in a fight. Seriously. He returns back to the mansion to find everyone asleep but Hercules. Herc is itching for adventure, so Hawkeye invites him to come help rescue Natasha. The unlikely duo heads out.

Meanwhile, at the secret, non-descript communist base where Black Widow is being held, we see that Colonel Ling* is showing his precious Psychotron to “Comrade General”, a generic Soviet general who is overseeing Ling’s work. He also shows the General his latest creation: Red Guardian. For those of you at home, Red Guardian is basically Commie Cap. He has all the same abilities as Captain America, but he wears red and hates capitalism.

So, Commie Cap gives the General a demonstration of his abilities, and then he and the General forget all about Ling’s Psychotron and decide what they really need to do is lure Captain America to their top secret base full of top secret military research so that Red Guardian can beat him up. When even Colonel Ling is telling you that’s a bad plan, you know it’s a bad plan. These guys are seriously stupid! But, their minds are made up and now they just need a way to lure Cap there. Enter our dynamic duo of Herc and Hawk…

Commie Cap quickly knocks Hawk out, and then tricks Herc into the Psychotron. Herc is kept busy in there battling hallucinations of hydras while Hawkeye is locked up in a glass tube right next to Natasha. When he wakes up, he (and Natasha) discover that Commie Cap is…Natasha’s husband?!?

For the end of the issue we cut back to Avenger’s HQ in New York, where Cap and the rest of the Avengers are gearing up to go rescue our intrepid rescuers and Natasha.

Before we move onto issue 44, can we just pause for a second? Guys, Quicksilver can fly!!!! I’m still not over that. It’s so freaking cool. It’s like Roy Thomas woke up the morning he wrote this issue and said, “You know, Quicksilver is actually a WAY cooler character then we’ve been giving him credit for!” and I couldn’t be happier. Also, since we talk a lot about power sets for out mutants, I think we should also talk about powers for our non-mutant Avengers since they’re such an important part of our reading. In the beginning of this issue, Cap thinks to himself that Herc probably doesn’t like being challenged by him because he has no super powers. But then, later in the issue when Commie Cap is bragging to Hawkeye and Black Widow about how he’s going to wipe the floor with original recipe Cap, he mentions that Caps powers were given to him by science (Super Soldier serum for those at home). So, I’m a bit confused as to what Cap’s story is at this point. I know his origins are that he was a scrawny kid from Brooklyn who volunteers for the Super Soldier program and is the sole success story. I thought (and it’s cannon much later on) that the serum gives him enhanced agility and strength. Like, not just enhanced from his former self, but like, super strength and agility. But in these early Avengers comics, they seem to imply Cap has no actual powers; he’s just a really well-trained fighter. We’ll have to see how that takes shape as we go forward.

So, issue 44: The Avengers find the top secret communist base in Asia very easily and get out of their Aero-car to discover it was a trap. They fight their way through all the bad guys on the base and Wanda and Jan are both given the chance to fight as equals with the guys for the first time in awhile. Wanda’s hex powers seem to not only be back up and running, but she seems to have better control of them then before. It’s nice to see her sure of her powers and not second guessing herself.

While they’re fighting outside, inside the General is insisting that Natasha be given a lie-detector to make sure she’s really a traitor because she’s still insisting she’s been on the communist side all along. Tash beats the lie detector because, of course she does. She freaking Black Widow. There was never any doubt she would be able to pass a lie detector. Meanwhile, Cap has made his way inside to find his fellow Avengers and instead finds his commie counterpart. They fight, and are fairly evenly matched. A quick cut to outside shows us that our other Avengers seem done for when the communists unveil a giant machine thing to kill them. Goliath is too worn out from the prior fighting to be able to stop it. But then, our favorite speedy mutant saves the day! He runs in circles around their foe so fast that it creates basically a mini hurricane that tears the machine apart! And, in another cut scene, we see that Hawkeye as mysteriously been freed from his glass tube (most likely by Black Widow) and goes to join Cap’s fight. That fight seems to be at a stalemate, but then Colonel Ling grows impatient and electrocutes Cap. Commie Cap is SOOO mad guys. He wants to beat his foe fair and square, but since Ling is the only communist with a brain in this arc, he insists they don’t have to play fair, and that they need to stop worrying about beating up the star-spangled Avenger and start focusing on their plan for world domination.

But at just that moment, Natasha reveals herself by trying to climb up the wall to destroy the Psychotron, which was the real purpose of her mission from SHIELD. Colonel Ling takes aim at her and tries to shoot her down, but Alexi (Red Guardian) leaps in front of the shot to save her. As Alexi falls, Ling aims at Widow again, only to be stopped by Hawkeye this time. Widow succeeds in destroying the Psychotron, but Ling’s second shot still hits her and she falls. Hawkeye catches the mortally wounded Widow just as Hercules FINALLY busts out of the stupid, and now malfunctioning Psychotron. The base is on fire, so Herc scoops up the unconscious Cap and they head for the hole Herc bust in the ceiling. The other Avengers pull them to safety, but Herc wants to go back for the commies, as he doesn’t think they deserve to die in the fire. But before he can, Colonel Ling loses what little sense he had this whole time and attempts to shoot the Avengers down. Commie Cap stops him, as this goes against his moral code of combat, and instead Ling’s shot causes the base to erupt in lava (it’s apparently on top of a dormant volcano. Don’t ask. LOL.)

The Avengers rush the wounded Natasha to the nearest hospital (in Hawaii) where she survives her surgery and tells the Avengers that Alexi, her husband, was a test pilot for the Soviets. She was told he died in a training accident, and was then recruited to become the Black Widow to honor his sacrifice. She had no idea he was actually being trained to be Red Guardian! Whew!! That was exhausting!

And, now that I’ve caught my breath (and rested my fingers!) let’s move onto X-Men! Issue 35 starts with Banshee (!!!) flying over Eastern Europe looking for Factor Three’s secret base. He seems to find it in the mountains, but he’s attacked by a mechanical spider and barely gets away. He makes it back to his base and sends a message to the X-Men telling them to beware of the spider, but can’t get anything else transmitted before he passes out and is kidnapped by F3!

Cut to Westchester where the kids are frantically trying to find any info about F3’s whereabouts so they can find Charles. They receive Banshee’s cryptic message about the spider just as Cerebro alerts them to the presence of a mutant nearby. They decide it must be evil mutants from F3, and the guys go to check it out, leaving Jean behind to keep tying to pinpoint the Prof’s location.

At the same time, we see Peter Parker riding his motorbike around Westchester Co. He stops at a stream with an old mill nearby to check it out, and suddenly sees a flying egg-shaped pod landing right where he is. He ducks into the mill to become Spider-Man and fights the mechanical spider that climbs out of the egg. Of course, this spider is what has set Cerebro off, and of course, Spider-Man defeats it before the X-Men arrive. And OF COURSE the thing self-destructs, leaving not trace it was ever there. Do you see where this is going? No? It’s telegraphed pretty openly here. Banshee told them to beware of the spider, so OF COURSE that MUST mean Spider-Man since he happens to be where Cerebro led them! And OF COURSE our boys are just going to attack him without any explanation or even asking him why he’s there. It’s soooooooo silly. I hate these story lines. Seriously, it’s like, fate has to set it all up perfectly, and everyone has to act like brainless idiots just so this plot can play out. And it really has nothing to do with finding F3 or Professor X. It’s just an excuse to have the X-Men battle Spider-Man. It’s annoying that they spent a couple REALLY GOOD issues setting up this kidnapping, just to give us useless stories before we can finish the F3 storyline. (SPOILER ALERT! I’m going to have an even bigger problem with the next issue!)

Anyway, while the boys are out being dumb, Jean is busy being the only useful person in the issue. She’s found a note in the Professor’s files about the transmitter he put in Banshee’s headband so they could contact him using Cerebro. She tries to do this and finds Banshee unresponsive. She also realizes that Cerebro stopped registering a mutant almost right away after the boys left. (Probably around the same time Spider-Men succeeded in destroying the mechanical spider, funnily enough!)She sends Cyclops a message letting him know this and he FINALLY comes to his senses and stops the fighting long enough to ask Spider-Man what he’s doing there. SM tells them about the mechanical spider and they realize this is what set Cerebro off and apologize for attacking SM. When they arrive back at the school, Jean tells them about the tracking in Banshee’s headband and that she’s used it to find his location! You go, Jeanie!!! Now they have a destination! Hurray! Progress! We’re finally going to move forward with this story-line! Oh, wait…

It’s issue 36, which I am entitling: “Dumb plot contrivance to have the kids fight another D-list bad guy with Daddy issues instead of rescuing their mentor!”

That’s right my loves! Remember our mutant superheroes? The ones that live on a giant estate in Westchester County, drive a Rolls Royce, and have their own jet? Well, they apparently have NO MONEY to buy plane tickets to Eastern Europe. I know what you’re thinking! Surely they can just take their jet? But alas, it’s out of gas and apparently the Professor doesn’t think ahead enough to have fuel on-hand in their hanger. What’s that you say? Surely the Professor MUST have some emergency cash lying around the school somewhere? Apparently not. Wait? What? Surely rich-boy Warren Worthington III can just borrow the money from his parents? Sorry guys! They’re on a cruise!

So, now our teenagers are forced to find another way to get the money. They try the welfare office, but luckily the lady there has a brain and doesn’t approve their loan. Next, they try to get construction jobs, but they’re not union, so that’s a no-go. Finally, Bobby and Hank decide to preform tricks as Iceman and Beast in Washington Square Park for loose change. (I wish I were kidding). While they’re there, a nobody of a villain named Mekano shows up. He says that Iceman and Beast are helping him by drawing the crowd so that they can all watch him destroy the new library. (for real) So, he begins to destroy it. The cops think our mutants are in on it, so they handcuff Iceman to a pole and try to arrest the rest of the X-Men. Marvel Girl disarms them and moves them to safety and then disappears for the rest of the fight because, not only are the kids magically penniless, but they’ve also reverted to treating her like a precious flower, so Cyclops orders her to stay outside.

Beast, Angel, and Cyke fight Mekano, but he escapes out the window and attempts to jump to the roof of a neighboring building. He misses and falls! Lucky for him our boys are chauvinists this month! If they weren’t, Marvel Girl might not have been sitting around outside waiting to catch him!! Just as MG lets him down, the cops close in to arrest them all. But because this whole issue is one plot contrivance after another, the man who built the library shows up just then and insists on asking Mekano to explain his reasoning. Turns out Mekano is this guy’s son, and all of this was just his way of acting on his deep-seeded Daddy issues because his dad didn’t love him enough or something. So, Daddy Mekano refuses to press any charges, and then wants to give our youngsters a reward for saving his son from falling to his death. Yay! Now they have the money for their plane tickets!! UGH! This sucks. But, they thank him for the money and then head off to the airport. While they’re there, we learn that F3 is watching their every move, even when they’re traveling under their civilian identities! (finally, a plot point that has actual ramifications to our F3 arc!!)

A few power-related notes from this issue. Apparently Bobby’s back to being able to use up his ice powers (or at least, he is when the writers need him to stay handcuffed and need an excuse as to why he doesn’t just freeze the cuffs and shatter them…) Also, apparently Cyke can use his optic blasts to “catch” heavy machinery in mid-air and lower it, unharmed, to the ground? I call bullshit on that one. Those optic blasts have been nothing but forces of destruction from day one. Why can they suddenly be used in this way? If that were the case, then every time in the past that Cyke accidently hit one of his teammates with his optic blasts and hurt them was either a plot devise or Scott being a huge dick.

Ok. I’m done for today. As I’m sure you noticed, I was a little annoyed with our X-Men this time around. Hopefully that will change in the next issue since it seems like they’re finally going to rescue Professor X and Banshee now! (I hope!!) So, until next time my loves, do what our X-Men should have been doing these two issues and keep searching!!

*In my last post, I mistakenly referred to Colonel Ling as a General. This issue makes it fairly clear that Ling is under the control of the Soviets, and thus not at the rank of a General.

Why Stan Lee is Basically George Lucas!

Posted on November 5, 2015 by GenoshaGirl85

I’m back! With most of 1967 finished now! I’m really starting to get into the reading more now, and am enjoying some of the stories more then before. I really think I just needed to get acclimated to the ’60’s style of writing. Or, I just needed to get to a point that Roy Thomas was writing everything. LOL.

In all honesty, I think that has a lot to do with my increased enjoyment. My husband, C, put it perfectly when I was trying to explain why I prefer Thomas’s writing to Stan Lee’s. He said that Stan Lee is a lot like George Lucas. He’s AMAZING at world-building, big idea stuff. But when it comes to the details and the human relationships, he’s better when he has help. I think C nailed it. Stan and Jack Kirby created an amazing world with amazing characters within the Marvel 616. But when it comes to writing the day-to-day stories of those characters, Stan is better as an editor and not the writer.

With that said, let’s talk Avengers. I’ve now read through Avengers 42, but we’re only going to talk about Avengers #39 & 40 today. Like I said earlier, I’ve read most of the way through 1967, and I think we need to break it up over multiple posts! So…here we go!

In issue 39, the Avengers are captured by the Mad Thinker and his Triumvirate of Terror (Hammerhead, Pile Driver, and Thunder Boot). Cap is still gone, and everyone thinks Black Widow is a traitor. (We knows she’s not, obvi! But poor Hawkeye isn’t too sure.) Anyway, Mad Thinker succeeds in capturing all the Avengers and is holding them prisoner in Avengers Mansion. Just when it looks like he’s won, Hercules returns from a night on the town and saves the day. Guys, I love Hercules. He’s so powerful, and so full of himself. It’s like having Thor around, but with more self-importance. Where 60’s Thor can sometimes pull his punches literally and figuratively when dealing with mortals, Herc is always Herc. He goes full boar always, demolishing anything in his way (including Goliath’s training equipment) and constantly complaining that he’s not being challenged by the mortals and super-villains he fights. It’s what I imagine hanging out with Kayne West is like. Dude is totally in love with himself, but he’s so good, you kind of can’t fault him.

Another thing I love is the attention to continuity and the timelines paid in the early years. Right now, in Tales of Suspense, Cap is off chasing a lead that may take him to Bucky, and is undercover pretending to work with Red Skull. So, he’s missing from the Avenger’s adventures and they make mention of his exploits. It’s nice. It seems that so often with current comics, the timelines don’t add up, or characters are everywhere at once when stories are supposed to be taking place simultaneously. Wolverine, for example, spent years on the X-Men or Uncanny X-Force, but was also an Avenger, and had a least one current continuity solo series going on. No way he’s in all those places at once. It gets confusing…

I know it’s harder to do now that there are so many monthly on-goings. I get it. But it’s refreshing to read this older stuff and have the characters only on one adventure at a time. It grounds the 616 in a bit more reality. And that’s the end of my little rant.

Let’s talk about X-Men 31, shall we? Here, the X-Men battle Cobalt Man, and we get to see a bit more of our teenagers’ lives outside of their costumes. The Professor tries to play match-maker with Scott and Jean (You go, Chuck!!) by asking Scott to take some library books back to Jean at school on the boy’s night off. Warren offers to drive him (because, you know, dumb love triangle. GRR). Bobby and Hank head to the Village to see their girlfriends.

Meanwhile, Jean is on a date of sorts with Ted. They’ve met up with his older brother Ralph. Ralph is a scientist who is trying to create armor like Iron Man’s to give to the government. The three of them meet up with Scott and Warren for dinner, and then they go to Ralph’s labs. Warren doesn’t go, clearly seeing how into each other Scott and Jean are, and decides to go out on his own. (*insert happy dance here*)

While at the labs, Ralph, who has a concussion, tries on his suit for Ted and he loses it a bit. He goes crazy, and decides to go after Iron Man. Scott and Jean rush into action, and the Prof telepathically sends the other three to help them. They manage to stop Ralph before his suit blows up from radiation, and he comes to with no memory of what happened after he hit his head. But, in the last panel, Ted hints to Marvel Girl that he may know she’s really Jean Grey!

We’ll see how that revelation plays out going forward, especially if Ted begins to see Scott as a threat for Jean’s affections (which he should!) It’s a lot of fun to see Cyke and Marvel Girl fight together. We get to see the beginning of the spark these two grow to have on the battle field. They become a seamless pair in many ways, and this seems like a nice beginning. It’s also about time that Warren moved on from Jean, and it’s nice to see that happening. He meets up with his old friend Candy in this issue, and they seem to hit it off right away.

So, with that thought reassuring my Cyclops-loving heart, let’s head back over to NYC and Avengers Mansion, shall we? Avengers 40! Cap is still gone, “working” with Red Skull. Widow is still undercover in the “Far East”. Wanda is bed-ridden. (The Mad Thinker caused her hex power to kind of back-fire on her last issue, and it’s messed her up a bit.) The Avengers receive a message from Cap that they need to try to go find the Cosmic Cube (for those who’ve seen the Marvel movies, this is what they call the Tesseract in the MCU). They head off towards the coordinates Cap left them, but meanwhile, Namor is headed there too. It seems there have been submarines in his neck of the ocean, and he’s not happy about it. He’s headed to the naval base to destroy all the subs. When the Avengers (plus Hercules) arrive, they battle Namor thinking he’s after the cube as well. Namor manages to get his hands on the cube, and is winning the battle, when his pride kicks in. He wants to fight Hercules on even terms to prove he’s better. During the battle, the Wasp manages to get him to drop the Cosmic Cube, but it falls into a crack in the ocean floor before anyone can get it. It lands near the Earth’s core, where it is discovered by Mole Man, who just as quickly tosses it away, not realizing what it is!!

This was a fun issue. I always love seeing Namor, and it’s fun to watch he and Hercules battle. They’re basically evenly matched strength-wise, and Namor’s ego could give Herc’s a run for it’s money. This is also the last issue in this trade, so we’ll be moving on next post!

X-Men #32 is the beginning of a two-issue arc, so we’ll talk about that next time. Just know, I’m about to get really excited about the return of a certain giant bad guy!

So, until next time, my lovelies…keep searching!

More Roy Thomas is Always A Good Thing…

Posted on October 17, 2015 by GenoshaGirl85

Hello, my loves! I’m back already! I hope you all don’t get sick of me!

Anyway, I was able to do lots of reading over the last two days, so we have 6 more issues to talk about today. I’ve read The X-Men #28-30 and Avengers #36-38, which takes us through January, February, and March of 1967. At this pace, I may just reach my reading goal!

Let’s start with Avengers # 36 & 37. This first thing of note here, is that Roy Thomas is now writing the Avengers too! He actually took over in issue #35, but I didn’t notice. It was the middle of an arc, so I didn’t even think to look to see if the writer had changed. For those of you keeping track, Roy is now writing both Avengers and The X-Men. This makes me very happy! While I love Stan Lee’s ideas and vision, I prefer Roy’s writing style. His women are a little less “damsel in distress” and a little more competent and sure of themselves. He’s also just slightly less heavy-handed when it comes to having characters describe exactly what’s happening to them. (I really can’t wait to be out of that phase completely, but we’ve got a while to go before then, so I’ll take what I can get!)

Anyway, in this arc the Avengers are fighting a super computer controlled by an alien named IXAR. He lands his spaceship in Eastern Europe, kidnaps Wanda and Pietro, who are still there regaining their powers, and then lures the rest of the Avengers and Black Widow there to try and steal all of their powers. He wants to use them to power his Ultroids (Basically just fancy, super strong androids) in the war he’s fighting in space. There’s lots of fun fighting, and then Hawkeye and Black Widow save the day when Hawk figures out that the human hostage the computer has is actually IXAR, not a hostage, and then Black Widow threatens to kill him if he doesn’t release the Avengers and go back to space.

This story was kind of fun. It was nice to see Hawkeye get to save everyone for once. He’s also trying to get the Avengers to let Black Widow join. He mentions it in the beginning of the arc before they’re lured into IXAR’s trap and for some reason, Goliath is violently (*here’s my shocked face*) opposed to it. He doesn’t have time to give his reasoning for not wanting Widow on the team, but he does try to throw his weight around both metaphorically and literally when he reminds everyone he’s a founding member of the Avengers, and then threatens Hawkeye. Hank REALLY needs to turn it down a few notches. It’s bad when I’m actually siding with Hawkeye!

Dianna Agron has the BEST angry face!

I should mention that none of the Avengers know that Black Widow threatened to kill IXAR except Hawkeye. Cap specifically tells IXAR that they have a code not to harm or kill humans. But since Widow isn’t actually an Avenger, she makes the threat while everyone but Hawk is unconscious and means it so IXAR lets them go. Hawkeye doesn’t tell any of the other Avengers this, because he’s worried they won’t let her into the group if they know.

Also, I’m so happy to have our wayward mutant siblings back on the team. I didn’t realize just how much I missed them until they were back! I love Pietro and Wanda so much!

And speaking of mutants…let’s hop on over to Westchester and check in on the X-Men, shall we?

In The X-Men #28 we meet Banshee and Ogre. They are working for the mysterious Factor Three to try and kidnap Xavier. Banshee is awesome and the way Werner Roth draws him when he’s using his powers is amazing! I wish every artist drew him that way!

Seriously, look at that art!!

Anyway, Banshee and Ogre attack the X-Men. The X-Men manage to capture Banshee and save him from Ogre and Factor Three; it turns out they were controlling him and he’s actually good! (We’ll be seeing more of my favorite Irishman once we get to the ’70’s! <3)

Old costumes on top, Jean’s new designs on the bottom

This story introduces Factor Three, who will be a recurring theme for a bit. We don’t see this mysterious villain, or learn what the motive is. What we do see, is the new costumes Jean made for the team last issue, that I totally neglected to mention. They’re REALLY similar to the old ones, just with a bit more blue, red belts, and a mask for Marvel Girl instead of a cowl. Take a look:

Also, for now, Mimic is still the leader of the team, and Scott STILL hasn’t told Jean how he feels. Mimic is aggressive, and head-strong, and arrogant. It’s not going to end well friends. He’s basically the antithesis of my Scotty, so it should go without saying that I can’t stand him! And speaking of my dear Scott, let’s get to issue #29, where he gets to let loose a bit!

In issue #29 the youngsters fight the Super Adaptoid. He’s an android that was created to destroy Captain America. He is 10 feet tall and has the powers of Cap, Goliath, Hawkeye, and Wasp. He fought the Avengers before, and has now taken to hiding out in a cave in Westchester apparently. But an avalanche disturbs him, and he decides to find beings to assimilate into adaptoids like him so he can rule the world. He wants to assimilate the X-Men, but they’re unwilling, so he decides to destroy them instead. They fight, Mimic decides to be assimilated so he can keep his powers forever, changes his mind at the last minute, and then sacrifices his powers (and almost his life) to stop Super Adaptoid.

Now, the avalanche that brings the android out of hiding is started by Scott (who is looking very handsome in a turtleneck sweater instead of his normal leisure suit, BTW!). The X-Men are ice skating on a pond near the school, and Scott wanders away into the woods to be alone. He feels like he may be getting more control of his optic blasts, and wants to test his theory. Turns out, he doesn’t really have too much control. He loses his temper and REALLY lets loose, causing an avalanche. It’s awesome. I love it when Scott really lets go like that. Sometimes it’s easy to forget just HOW powerful (and dangerous) he can be when he wants to. It makes a girl’s heart get all fluttery!

Anyway…where were we? Oh yeah! So, before the adaptoid attacked, Xavier had kicked Mimic out of the X-Men because he’s ~~such a dick~~ ~~no one likes him~~ he’s a bad leader and won’t listen to Charles. But Mimic comes back to hear the Super Adaptoid’s offer of assimilation and wants to join him so he doesn’t lose the X-Men’s powers when he leaves. Scott talks him out of it, and at the last second Mimic uses the Profs telepathy to convince the SA to try and take his powers. Since Mimic has “artificial” powers, it short-circuits the android and Mimic and they both lose their abilities to replicate others powers. They begin to fall to their deaths (they’ve both lost their borrowed wings) but Angel swoops in and saves Mimic. The SA manages to land in the water and survive, vowing to continue his quest for world domination. So, there’s the Mimic story line wrapped up in a nice little bow! Thank God!! Now that he’s gone…let’s head back over to Avenger’s HQ!

Avengers #38 brings us an old foe and a new friend. And lots and lots of new story threads. In this issue, Enchantress tricks Hercules into attacking the Avengers for her so she can get revenge for the time they stopped her and Power Man from framing them. They attack the Avengers at HQ, and the Avengers eventually succeed in lifting the spell that Enchantress put on Hercules. She flees, but Zeus banishes Herc to earth for a year for disobeying a direct order. So, Herc is going to be hanging out at HQ in Thor’s old room for awhile it seems.

Also in this issue, Hawkeye and Goliath actually come to blows over Hawkeye wanting Black Widow to join the Avengers. Cap and Quicksilver have to break the two of them up. Personally, I was hoping Hawk would get off at least a couple blast arrows before the fight stopped, but no dice.

Black Widow never shows for the meeting to discuss her membership, and the Avengers head out for dinner, leaving Cap behind on watch duty. When they return, Cap is gone with no explanation, (The readers get an explanation that he’s taken off following a lead about his old WWII partner, Bucky.) which causes even more tension between Goliath and Hawk because Goliath says they can’t vote on Widow without Cap. It also causes issues between Goliath and Wasp, because, like usual, Hank is being an ass to Janet because he’s mad about something that’s totally out of her control. This causes both Hawkeye and Janet to quit the Avengers and leave. They go to dinner together, and then don’t respond right away when Goliath sends a distress signal to come help them battle Herc. It’s interesting to note that, even though neither of them are in costume, and even though Hawkeye refers to her as Janet the whole time, Jan calls him Hawkeye. So, for those keeping track, we STILL haven’t learned Hawkeye’s real name! And this is where I like Roy Thomas’s writing better than Stan Lee’s. Roy gives Janet a back-bone. His version of Janet stands up to Hank, and even walks out on him when he’s being a dick. She’s not his doormat.

The final thread being spun in this issue is centered around Black Widow. She’s late showing up at Avengers HQ because she’s kidnapped by Nick Fury! He’s sending her to the “Far East” to do a secret mission for him. We aren’t told it’s details, and she’s forbidden from telling Hawk or the rest of the Avengers anything. So, she returns to HQ to tell them she’s going back East and basically lets them all think she’s turned traitor again. She even goes so far as to tell Hawk she never loved him so that he won’t try to follow him. Poor Hawkeye!!

And, finally, we have The X-Men #30. Werner Roth was busy for this issue, so it s drawn by Jack Sparling. Guys. His artwork is GORGEOUS! Seriously. I’m obsessed! I like Werner Roth’s work, a lot. But Sparling’s looks like brushstrokes. It’s so different then most of the ’60s style art. I wish he would stick around!

But, enough about the art. This issue has Marvel Girl, Angel, and Professor X kidnapped by the mutant, Warlock. Warlock is actually Merlin, form King Arthur’s court. He’s refashioned himself so that Thor doesn’t find out he’s up to no good again. But he’s trying to take over the world and has decided that Marvel Girl will be his Queen. It’s a similar idea to the Avengers story with Living Laser from my last post, but way less gross. First, Warlock doesn’t harbor illusions that Marvel Girl will love him if he kills the X-Men. He gets she won’t love him and is controlling her mind. And yes, that’s a whole different kind of creepy in it’s own right, but, it’s also behavior that is treated as being bad and coming from a villain. He also doesn’t only want her as his queen because of her looks. While those obviously played a part in his decision, he also “chooses” her because of her mutant powers. It’s partially her strength that draws him to her. That’s a refreshing change, TBH. Anyway, the Prof is able to get the rest of the X-Men to them, and they battle Warlock’s army in a tournament. The X-Men win, but Warlock attempts to escape with Jean. She’s able to break free of his mental control and helps the guys defeat him. Professor X puts him back in the coma state Thor had left him in, and they save the day. And, Scott’s fury when Jean’s in trouble, and his concern for her safely finally show Jean that he cares for her!! So, hopefully these two will just kiss soon and get it over with!

Well, my loves, that’s all for now. This was some fun reading! So, until next time, keep searching!!

Finally Done with 1966!

Posted on October 15, 2015 by GenoshaGirl85

Hello my loves! I’m back!!

And I’ve FINALLY finished 1966! I really just haven’t had any time to read recently. But I think I’ve worked it out so that I can start getting my reading in more frequently, so hopefully there will be no more long hiatuses from yours truly. My goal is to get us out of the ’60’s by the end of October, but we’ll see how doable that is as we go!!

In order to finish out 1966, I read Avengers #33-35 and The X-Men #25-27. I also skimmed over Thor #134. It’s not on my list, and I’ll explain why I skimmed it when we get there! But first, lets start with Avengers!

Avengers #33 finished up the Sons of the Serpent story line from previous issues. We ended with Cap captured by the SOS, and with Goliath being a huge dick. The Avengers plus Black Widow manage to save Cap and defeat the SOS, exposing their leader as General Chen, the communist leader of an unnamed “hostile Oriental nation”. He’s basically a walking stereotype, the likes of which Avengers readers are accustomed to seeing in the villain role.

Stan Lee also lays on the patriotic rhetoric pretty thick in this one. There’s lots of talk about how democracy means anyone can think and preach anything, and it’s what makes America great. Lots of talk of freedom, and “the American Way” and the like. I mean, it’s not wrong; just laid on a little thick for my liking. And that’s not the only thing laid on thick in this issue. What else is laid on too thick for my liking, you ask? Well, my loves, that would be the over-size helping of Hank Pym’s testosterone!

Seriously, you guys. Hank is a walking, talking ball of male ego and chauvinistic, hyper masculine ideals. I can’t even deal. He’s CONSTANTLY ordering everyone around, treating Janet like she’s a child, threatening violence whenever someone makes him mad or something doesn’t go his way, and just generally trying to prove he’s the toughest and smartest guy in the room. The whole thing seems all that more nuts because he’s literally the biggest, strongest guy in the room. The man is 10 feet tall!! What could he possibly need to compensate for?!?!

On second thought…maybe that’s exactly the problem. Not to work blue, but the man is 10 feet tall. I would imagine his and Janet’s relationship isn’t quite as, um, intimate as it once was for the same reasons he has nothing to compensate for…

But, that’s enough about the Avenger’s and Goliath for now. Lets move on to the X-men!

The X-Men #25 & 26 are a fun little arc about El Tigre, a gem hunter who finds a magic pendant in South America that, when he reunites it with it’s other half in New York, gives him the powers of a Mayan god named Kukulcan. The four guys fight him in New York, and then in South America before finally defeating him (Jean is at college).

During the fight in New York, Scott is hurt. When Jean shows up at the mansion to bring the Prof books on Mayan legends, her worry for his well-being finally shows through and both Scott & Warren realize that she loves Scott. Scott vows to himself to tell Jean of his feelings when the boys return from South America. Warren begins to pout, and then spends the rest of the arc fighting with Scott. It’s soooo annoying. It’s also well done. Just as I was getting annoyed with it, as it reminded me so much of Hawkeye fighting with Cap constantly in Avengers, Roy Thomas actually has Angel say just that! He thinks to himself that he is beginning to sound like “a poor man’s Hawkeye“. It was enough to quell my annoyance and make me laugh! But then, just when I think this Angel being mad a Cyke thing is going to go away, a mishap in their battle with Kukulcan makes sure it doesn’t. Cyclops is aiming at Kuku with a full-blast optic blast, but at the last second, Kuku ducks, causing Cyke to hit Angel instead!! Angel is severely injured, and falls to the ground. In a moment of consciousness at the end of the battle, Angel accuses Cyke of hitting him deliberately, so that he can have Marvel Girl to himself! While the readers, Cyke, and Angel all KNOW that’s not what happened, Cyke begins to doubt himself. He actually starts to think that maybe, subconsciously, he did do it intentionally. So now there’s that drama…

But seriously, when are we going to get to the point where Jean and Scott are just together, and Warren’s totally over her? Are we almost there? Cause I can’t wait to be at that point. Scott and Jean are one of my favorite comic couples ever, and I’m so over this love triangle crap!

So over it, in fact, that we’re going to move back over to Avengers before I get too worked up! LOL. So…Avengers #34 & 35. Let’s go!!

Here we see the first appearance of the Living Laser. Arthur Parks is a scientist who, after falling instantly in love with Janet upon seeing her, decides to take out the Avengers to win her love. Just some fair warning, dears, but this is going to get messy. I hate this storyline, and I’m not going to pull punches talking about it. It’s icky, and it’s not an uncommon trope, which icks me out even more.

So, Living Laser (LL) attacks Goliath at home, but is defeated, and given to Hawkeye and Cap to take to Avengers HQ. He escapes, captures those two, then captures the Wasp. He topples a South American dictatorship in a single day, and means to rule the country and later the rest of the world, when the Avengers finally beat him. Goliath gets to save the day, and the Wasp, and overall, the action is a lot of fun. My issue is the motive. LL does all of this to impress the Wasp, and make her love him. He spends the entire arc repeating the thought that once he kills the Avengers, she will see that he’s the most powerful, and then she’ll HAVE to love him. Guys, this is really gross thinking. And really problematic thinking. This idea that all women will automatically love the strongest, most powerful man is a gross idea that plays into male-centric fantasies that value hyper masculinity above all else.

Why do men think that women think like this?! And before you get on me about how “it’s just a comic” and “it was the ’60’s“, just stop yourself. I know these things. I also know that this type of thought process, and these types of stories have been around forever, and that they’re problematic at best, and harmful at worst. Especially when, within this type of story, you have your only female character literally saying “I wish I understood machines…like a man” Janet seriously says that while trying to figure out which lever on the machine will save Cap and Hawkeye. She also, after being captured by LL, threatens him by saying that HANK. WILL. SAVE. HER. She went from a card-carrying member of the world’s best super-hero team, to a helpless damsel in distress in one issue! I really can’t even!

Jan, you’re an AVENGER. You don’t need your giant, angry boyfriend to beat up LL for you. Except that, apparently in this issue, you do. Because that’s exactly what happens. Goliath spends the entire arc making threats about the violence he’s going to inflict on LL for capturing Jan, and it’s almost as gross as LL thinking she’ll love him if he’s the most powerful. And then he comes to Jan’s rescue, and then also saves Cap & Hawkeye, who have been captured again, and blows up LL’s giant laser cannons, thus saving everyone.

He does all this because he’s able to shrink again. While Jan was missing, he disappears for a while, and it’s revealed at the last second that he was trying an experimental treatment to allow him to change size again. It works, and he can now go from Ant-Man tiny size, to normal size, and to Goliath size at will. And, from an Avengers stand-point, that’s pretty cool. Hopefully it will also chill him out, because I’m beginning to hate Hank Pym more then I ever hated Hawkeye.

I’ll also mention that this is where I skimmed through Thor #134. There’s a note in this arc that our missing mutants, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, make a brief appearance in Thor’s solo book, so I skimmed through to see why. I’m glad I did too! In #134, Jane Foster is in Wundagor. It’s under attack, and there’s a bright light in the sky that let’s us know that the High Evolutionary is busy creating “miracles” in his lab. I know that, most likely, none of this makes sense to you. That’s okay. We won’t be meeting the High Evolutionary just yet. What’s important is that, during this scene, we see Wanda and Pietro, and they reveal that a light just like that shone on the night of their birth, and that the name “Wundagore” comes to Pietro for unknown reasons. You see, this will become important to their backstory later! So, let’s try to remember it. And let’s also jump on over to The X-Men, where our twins make another quick appearance!

There’s a lot going on in issue #27, so let’s get to it! To sum it all up easily, Puppet Master is trying to get back at the FF, so he attempts to control Professor Xavier with the hopes of using him to force the X-Men to fight the FF. He can’t control the Prof, so instead he takes control of Mimic. (I also learned in this issue that the X-Men have met the Puppet Master before. A quick Google search told me it was in Fantastic Four #28, when the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker tried to use them to destroy the FF! Someone’s not too great at coming up with new plans, huh?) You see, Mimic has been going to Metro College with Jean, and, thanks to a chemistry accident, has regained his abilities and his memories of the X-Men. Angel is still out of commission from his injury last arc, and Mimic defeats the X-Men and leaves to fight the FF. The X-Men track Puppet Master down and save Mimic from becoming a murderer. Puppet Master escapes, but Mimic is saved. Angel joins the battle at the very end and saves the day, despite the Profs warning that he could do irreparable damage to his wings and never fly again. It’s all kind of fun, but also REALLY similar to the previous Mimic storyline.

In the midst of that story, the Prof is desperately searching for new members for the X-Men. He and Cerebro sense a growing mutant threat coming, and Charles is worried about the X-Men’s ability to face it with Angel injured and Marvel Girl away at school. He first contacts Wanda and Pietro (told you they’d be back!!). They politely turn him down, saying that they’re Avengers now, and wish to remain Avengers. He also contacts Spider-Man through Bobby and Hank, but Spidey also turns them down. Charles then announces to the team, before Puppet Master takes control of Mimic, that Scott has asked to step down as leader of the X-Men, and Mimic will take his place.

So… there will be that to deal with next issue! I’m not sure I’m going to like this too much. There are very few people who I can deal with leading the X-Men in Scott’s place, and none of them have been introduced yet! Obviously, I know this won’t last long, but I’m just letting you guys know ahead of time that I won’t take it well.

But for now, we’ve covered everything there is to cover in these issues. I learned that my list isn’t quite as complete as I would like it to be. I obviously missed FF #28, which I should have read with the other issues for July 1964! Oops!! I’ll probably read it on Marvel Unlimited now, just to be complete. But we won’t recap it more then what I did here. So…that’s all for now, my loves! Until next time, keep searching!!

Finally, a Bit of Girl Power! (And Also, Hank Pym is a Jerk)

Posted on September 21, 2015 by GenoshaGirl85

Hello, loves!!

I’m back to finish talking about all the reading I did last week! We’ve got 5 issues to talk about, so lets just jump right in, shall we?

Lets start with X-Men today! Issues #22 & 23 are a two issue arc in which Count Nefaria shows up with some super-powered henchmen to try to ransom Washington DC. Their plan is basically to capture the X-Men, and then either convince them to join the Count, or frame them. Nefaria’s henchmen are Plantman, Scarecrow, Porcupine, Eel, and Unicorn. He’s hired them to be his second-in-commands and to lead his Maggia crime gang. Anyway, they are able to kidnap the X-Men one by one as the kids leave the school for a vacation. The X-Men of course refuse to join Nefaria, so they’re held captive and framed for Nefaria’s plan.

Nefaria’s plan is this (and get ready, because it’s a little silly): He creates a giant dome around Washington DC. He then sends a projection of the X-Men to make a ransom demand for $100,000,000. It’s ridiculous. For real… But the X-Men decide to play along in order to save the city, so they go into the dome to “retrieve the ransom”. Because Nefaria doesn’t trust the X-Men, he sends his henchmen to watch them. But the henchmen decide they don’t want to work for Nefaria anymore, and attempt to double cross him by stealing the money from the X-Men once they’re outside of the dome. They fight the X-Men, and eventually Jean ends up with the money. She rushes it to Nefaria. While she’s turning it over to him, and stranger with his face covered shows up and destroys the machine that controls the dome. He also switches briefcases so that Nefaria flees without the money.

It turns out that the stranger is the Professor, who has created a device that will allow him to walk for short periods of time! I’m not even kidding. You might as well accept it now, because it’s going to be something he uses often for a little while. In the end, Jean gets a letter from home and announces she must leave the X-Men! Talk about a cliffhanger!

So, in this arc, there were some really silly plots. I mean, the idea of ransoming Washington DC in and of itself seems like something straight out of an Austin Powers movie! But it’s fun to watch the X-Men take on 5 super-villains at once and win. Everyone’s powers seem to be working exactly how they should be and no one has any weird new limits or abilities. So, that’s refreshing.

I think it’s interesting that Warren is still vying for Jean’s affections. At the beginning of the arc, as the kids are leaving for their vacations, Warren invites Jean to dinner in the city before she leaves. He is clearly asking her on a date. And she says yes!! But before my heart can break too much, she turns around and invites Scott to come with them!

It’s interesting that at this early point, both Scott and Warren are in love with Jean. She loves Scott at this point, but neither of them seems to notice that. Scott is convinced that she’s in love with Warren, and Warren seems to believe he still has a shot as well. It’s a silly little love triangle, but one the writers are handling well thus far. They’re not pitting Scott and Warren against each other, or having Jean play them both. Everyone’s just really bad at expressing how they really feel, just like real teenagers. It’s fun to read and will make it so much more satisfying with Scott finally gets the girl! (oops! Spoiler! *wink*)

So, lets move on to Avengers for a bit! Issue #31 takes us to South America to find out how this story line with Goliath is going to pan out! It’s also the first issue in our next trade! I’m done with Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 2. and am now on to Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 3! Seriously, I can’t describe how good it feels when I finish one trade and move on to the next. It actually lets me know I’m making a dent in this list, even if it’s the tiniest dent ever!!

That said, lets get back to the comics! The issue starts with Cap, Wasp, and Hawkeye heading for South America to find out what happened to Goliath. Wanda and Piertro are still in Eastern Europe trying to build their powers back up. (And I still think this is a really dumb story-line…) Meanwhile, Goliath and Prince Rey are trying to save Dr. Anton and stop the Keeper from losing control of the magical fire. During this time, Goliath realizes that Rey doesn’t actually want to put out the flames, but wants them for himself! So, Goliath takes off to stop the Keeper himself.

The rest of the Avengers show up, and they’re able to stop the fire and save Dr. Anton. On their way back to New York, Goliath talks to Dr. Anton about his condition. Dr. Anton doesn’t have any ideas, but does suggest that Goliath talk to another doctor he knows. A doctor named Henry Pym! HAHA!

This issue is a little nuts, and things never really slow down. But one of the best things about it is that the guys all treat Janet like an equal in a way we haven’t seen Wanda treated. While I’d like to see Wanda treated this way when/if she returns, it’s refreshing to see at least one of the female characters treated like an equal!

Of course, then we get to issue #32 and Hank ruins it.

In issue 32, Hank is working tirelessly trying to find a cure for himself. Janet is helping him until he decides he needs another scientist’s help. He enlists the help of Bill Foster, who is an employee of Tony Starks. Meanwhile, the Sons of the Serpent (SotS) are running around New York beating up immigrants and spreading xenophobic propaganda. Black Widow comes to Hawkeye to tell him what’s happening and to try to prove she’s trustworthy again.

That night, as he’s leaving Goliath’s lab, Bill Foster is attacked by the SotS because he’s black and in a nice neighborhood. Goliath finds him afterwards and vows to take out all of the SotS. He and the rest of the Avengers start to investigate them. Cap goes to see Nick Fury to see what info S.H.I.E.L.D. has on the info. This is the first time we get to see Nick in our reading! I’m so excited. I love Nick Fury. He’s such a dick, but almost always right. Anyway, while they’re investigating, the SotS attack the UN and then capture Cap. The Avengers pretend to be in support of the SotS in order to save Cap. And that’s where the issue ends! On that cliffhanger. I hate to do this to you guys…but we’ll be talking about the second half of this arc in the next post! I know, I know, I’m evil!!

This issue was fun, but also anvil-icious! I mean seriously, Stan Lee couldn’t have hit us over the head with this month’s message any harder. Prejudice and xenophobia are bad guys! (just in case you missed it!) But there’s also lots of good in this issue. This issue marks the very first time we see Hawkeye without his mask on! He’s a handsome devil, even if he is kind of a bro.

Also, we really get to see just how awful Hank Pym’s temper can be. He completely loses his shit on Janet when she tries to take care of him or help him. It’s really awful. And since I know what it’s leading towards, it’s also a bit like seeing the beginning of a car crash and knowing it’s going to happen no matter what. There’s no way to stop it.

But it’s not just Jan that Hank is awful to, although she does get the brunt of it. He barks orders at everyone and blows up violently at the slightest provocation. It’s this anger that makes Hank so interesting. He’s the most flawed Avenger, and because of that, in some ways the most human. But it doesn’t make it any easier to read. We’ll talk more about Hank as the series goes on. But for now, we need to hop back over to X-Men for a bit!

Issue #24 brings us the Locust. He is creating giant bugs to over run the country so that he can swoop in with his insecticide and save the day. The X-Men fight his giant bugs a few times and then eventually catch him. The professor convinces him he’s doing the wrong thing, and the Locust just gives up! It’s a fun little romp, and basically seems to serve as an “adventure of the month” just to advance some personal plot points for our mutants. Plot points like the following:

Jean is leaving. Her parents have enrolled her in Metro College since they feel it’s time for her to get a college degree. Afterall, the X-Men technically “graduated” from Xavier’s a while ago. This departure allows both Scott and Warren to be sad at losing Jean, and we get to see that even now, none of these clueless teens seem to see how the others feel about them. Warren tries to cheer Jean up by letting her know that Johnny Storm goes to Metro too, but it’s an act that Jean sees right through. Meanwhile, both Jean and Scott are pouting about never having told each other their feelings.

But don’t worry my loves! Jean won’t be gone long! You see, Metro College is right in the city! So Jean can come visit whenever she likes. Which she does, just in time to help the boys out fighting Locust. Roy Thomas writes Jean so much more self-assured in her powers than Stan Lee did, and it’s a treat to read. She’s an equal in the fighting now. And she’s also the one who saves the day in this issue. (She realizes before anyone else that the Locust is using the antennae on his costume to control his giant beetles, and uses her powers to tangle them up, causing the beetles to attack the Locust instead of the X-Men.) It’s also interesting to note that Werner Roth (aka Jay Gavin) draws Jean to be dressing in a much more sophisticated way once she’s at college. It automatically makes her seem older and more mature on her return to the mansion. It will be interesting to see how she continues to progress as a character under Roy!

Well, that’s all for now my loves! I have some more reading to do!! We’re almost done with 1966. I can’t wait! Until then, keep searching…

“Life Is Hard When You’re a Superhero”, Or Why I Love Scott Summers…

Posted on September 16, 2015 by GenoshaGirl85

Hello, my loves!

So, I got a TON of reading done yesterday. Seriously. I read my way through like 10 issues (5 months of 1966!!). There’s a LOT going on in these 10 issues, and a couple different arcs, so I’m going to break them up into multiple posts, mostly for the sake of my own sanity. We’ve got some line-up changes in both books, as well as the return of some old friends and foes, so lets just dig in.

Avengers #28! This is sort of a stand-alone issue. By that, I mean that the main story doesn’t continue on into issue 29, but some of the plot points and loose threads do. This issue sees the return of Giant-Man and the Wasp to the Avengers. Hank Pym reveals his secret identity to the Avengers when he asks them to help him find Wasp, who has been missing since she warned the Avengers about Attuma in the last arc. It turns out she’s been captured by The Collector!! This is the first appearance of the Collector, and guys, I’m super excited. He’s such a creepy villain, and really interesting. (Also, I’m totally obsessed with Benicio Del Toro’s portrayal of him in the MCU!!) Anyway, Hank joins the Avengers (with a new costume and a new name! Say hello to…Goliath!) and they rescue Jan from The Collector and the Beetle. Turns out that’s who Hawkeye had tied up in the last arc. He disappeared because the Collector came and “collected him”.

The big take away from this issue is that Goliath and Wasp are back in the main Avenger’s line-up. Also, at the end of the issue, Goliath tries to shrink back down to normal size, but passes out and gets stuck at 10 feet. The issue ends with us not knowing what’s happened to Dr. Pym!

Before we find out Goliath’s fate, lets jump upstate to Xavier’s and check in on our mutants!

Issues 20 & 21 give us the return of Lucifer, as well as the story of how he and the Professor originally met, leading to the Professor becoming paralyzed at the hands of Lucifer. We learn that Lucifer is an alien, but not from where he came. He’s trying to help his race take over the Earth and enslave the human race using a super computer and robots.

The X-Men are able to stop his robots, but before they’re able to deal with Lucifer himself, the leaders of his race step in and banish him to eternal exile for failing them. It’s actually kind of messed up. Remember when we talked about the Prof erasing memories and how it’s clearly a terrible thing but everyone acts like it’s totally okay, and preferable to death? This is another one of those things. Lucifer is banished to some realm with no sense of time or space, so he’s basically going to be stuck in a hell for all eternity. How is that better then killing him? It’s not. It’s totally messed up. And the only thing that makes it a little easier to swallow is that it’s the other villains that do this to him, and not our heroes. But just slightly.

Other things of note from this arc: First off, Roy Thomas’s first arc fits in seamlessly to the world Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created. His writing style is similar enough to Lee’s but he gives the characters a tiny bit more depth, which I love! Secondly, at the beginning of the arc, Scott decides to leave the X-Men. He feels like he needs to find a doctor to fix his eyes so that he’s no longer a “danger to everyone”. Here’s the thing…this is a little annoying to me, because I know that Scott will eventually grow into the great leader he’s meant to be, but it makes sense with his character thus far, and I really like it for that reason. Cyke’s biggest flaw is his martyrdom (at least for a few decades). He doesn’t see that he’s a born leader, or that he’s a good guy at heart. He only sees what he thinks is the curse of his eyes. They’re the reason he’s so sad all the time, and the reason he feels he can’t tell Jean how he feels about her. It’s pretty heartbreaking. It’s also what makes Scott one of my favorite characters. I’ve had many discussions with many fans over the years about Cyclops. There are a LOT of people out there that don’t like Scott. They think he’s too much of a boring, vanilla boy scout type.

But I will argue for my ruby-eyed boy till I’m hoarse, because I think that analysis of him misses the whole point of Cyclops. Scott is a deeply flawed, severely scarred individual who has had a really hard, messed up life. We’ll be talking about this more as we learn more about his backstory, his family, and his relationships with Jean and especially the Professor! Just know that, if you don’t like Cyke, I will try to change your mind! And, I’m judging you! LOL. Also, that was a REALLY long paragraph all about one mutant. Whew…I’m tired!

On that note, let’s hop back over the city and check on our mutant siblings and the rest of the Avengers!

Avengers # 29 & 30 bring us some old villains, and some new loves. This is a fun arc! First, we find out that Goliath is okay, but he is stuck being 10 feet tall. If he tries to change size again, the stress it puts on his cells will kill him. This leads to Hank storming off to pout for the first (but far from the last) time. This is also our first real example of Hank’s anger issues. Those will rear their ugly heads in the near future on more then one occasion.

Anyway, the main storyline here is that the Black Widow has returned to the US to try and defeat the Avengers. (She’s showed up in Tales of Suspense before. She was a Russian spy who falls in love with Hawkeye and then is captured by her communist handlers and taken back to “The East”). She’s been brainwashed into being a communist again, and enlists the help of the Swordsman and Power Man to take out the Avengers. The three of them manage to capture all of the Avengers except the Wasp and Goliath. The couple finally show up to save the others, and in the end, our villains escape because Hawkeye can’t bare to shoot his blast arrow at Natasha. He loves her too much. Issue 29 ends with the Avengers heading back to HQ to regroup.

In issue 30, our Avengers split up a bit to take care of personal business while they wait to find where Black Widow, Swordsman, and Power Man have gone. Wanda and Pietro head off for Eastern Europe suddenly because they feel their powers are dwindling and think the answer to fixing them is at home. It’s very sudden, and not explained well. They’re mutants, so there’s no reason why their powers should be fading, but oh well.

Goliath takes off for South America to find a scientist that’s down there, who he believes can help him find a way to shrink back to normal size. Once he gets there, he learns that Dr. Anton has been kidnapped by a race of people living in a “forbidden land” who believe he’s there to steal their magic cobalt fire. Goliath attempts to rescue him and gets caught up in a war over the flames. It’s a little silly, but it IS fun to watch everyone freak out about the “giant” who has some to steal the magic fire.

And finally, Cap, Wasp, and Hawkeye track down our villains, and then Hawkeye insists on going after them on his own to make up for letting them escape. Hawkeye succeeds in defeating Power Man and Swordsman, with some last minute help from Black Widow. Apparently, her love for Hawkeye is so strong, it broke through the brainwashing! Yay!!

Notable things in this arc: Issue 29 gives us one of my favorite lines so far. Swordsman is carrying an unconscious Scarlet Witch and comments that she seems so frail and helpless. (GAG) The Black Widow immediately responds “So does an Asp…until it strikes”. I love it. On one level, Widow is reminding Swordsman not to be too relaxed about their enemies. On another level, she’s telling him (and thus the readers) that even though she’s a woman, Scarlet Witch is still a very formidable opponent. It makes this feminist happy to read. Especially in an arc where the women don’t get to do too much.

Also, Hawkeye has now decided to stop being such a dick (probably because Hank Pym is back to fill that roll *wink*). He and Cap are now all buddy-buddy, and I have to be honest, I think it might actually be more annoying then their fighting! I guess this is a classic “be careful what you wish for” moment!

Well my darlings, that’s all for now. I’ll be back soon so we can talk about what happens to Goliath in South America, as well as what’s going on at Xavier’s! Until then, my loves, keep searching…

	1969 Part 1: Let… on Professor X is Dead!!! Let…
	Finally! Factor Thre… on It’s an Annual!
	It Feels SOOO Good t… on This is How The X-Men Should…
	Tyroc on Why Stan Lee is Basically Geor…

	1969 Part 1: Let… on Professor X is Dead!!! Let…
	Finally! Factor Thre… on It’s an Annual!
	It Feels SOOO Good t… on This is How The X-Men Should…
	Tyroc on Why Stan Lee is Basically Geor…