Avengerous Tales 2.1 - Avengers #72-#73

 To read Avengerous Tales 1.38, click here!

Hello, all, and welcome to Avengerous Tales 2.0!  We’ve already covered the swinging sixties (here’s the masterpost if you want to get caught up), so now let’s dive right into the sensational seventies and see what this brand new decade has in store for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

***The second half of this review contains depictions and discussions of racism and racially-motivated violence.  If you’d prefer to skip all that, stop at “We get a new artist for the next issue.”

We begin, oddly enough, with a blast from the past.

 

Yup, Replacement Bucky is back!  Only by now, my derogatory nickname for Cap’s unofficial sidekick is much more appropriate.  Back in Captain America #110, the Hulk accidentally knocked Rick unconscious while fighting Captain America.  Cap takes the boy in and agrees to let him be his sidekick again.  They even recreate that scene from Avengers #7 when Rick Jones put on Bucky’s costume with the expectation that Cap would welcome him with open arms, only with a different ending.

 

Before:

After:

 

Because CLEARLY Captain America was WRONG for scolding an insensitive prick who thinks it’s okay to snoop in other people’s closets and put on their dead friend’s clothes without permission, TWICE.

In any event, Rick Jones was now finally, officially the new Bucky, costume and all.  I’m guessing that didn’t go down so well, because six issues later, Red Skull took over Cap’s body just long enough to give Replacement Bucky the boot.

In the present, Rick says he has business with the Avengers, but Cap tells him to put it on hold since he himself just called an emergency meeting: several city officials have turned up missing.  Cap also called up SHIELD to see if they know anything.  SHIELD calls him back just as the meeting starts, but instead of Nick Fury making the call, it’s his second-in-command, Dum Dum Dugan.

 

Must be Tuesday.

Dugan relates the details of Fury’s “death” at the hands of Bullseye, as well as the fact that all three missing officials were taken by Fury’s nemesis, Scorpio.

Rick of all people then chimes in with the reason he sought out the Avengers, which just happens to be related to all of this.  After Not!Cap kicked him out, Rick went to see if Nick Fury wanted a sidekick instead… by breaking into his apartment.  That’ll endear you to him.  Please, keep breaking into people’s things.  You’re on a roll!

As Rick climbs in through the window, he sees that someone else has already broken into Fury’s apartment, and it’s none other than Scorpio.  Scorpio tries to escape, but Rick’s got a trick up his sleeve… literally.

 

 I know nothing about this version of Captain Marvel, but from what I can tell, Rick’s basically his sidekick now.  (So why did he want to hang out with Fury?)  All he has to do is bang his wrist braces together and he’s able to switch places with Marvel, who is otherwise trapped in the Negative Zone at the moment.

Rick doesn’t tell any of that to the Avengers—he plays it off as Marvel just happening to pass by at the right moment—and gives them a list that Scorpio dropped during the fight before escaping.  It just so happens to be a list of the missing officials.  I fail to see how that’s significant, since we already knew who was missing AND that they were taken by Scorpio.  What is Rick even doing here except being redundant?

Anyway, Scorpio chooses this moment to take over the Avengers’ transceiver, making the viewscreen blow up with his magic key thing somehow.  3D television is finally here!  He then takes all the unconscious Avengers plus Rick to his hideout, where we are introduced to Scorpio’s criminal allies, the Zodiac.  I’m sure you could figure out on your own how many of them there are and what their costumes look like.

 

Scorpio should probably invest in some stronger sunblock.

Yellowjacket and Wasp use their “mental impulses” to summon an army of ants to the scene to sabotage the Avengers’ mechanical restraints.  It works and the battle begins, during which Scorpio is revealed as Nick Fury in disguise for reasons we’ll get to in a second.  For now, Aries tries to use the Zodiac key against the Avengers, but Rick pounces on him and forces him to use all the key’s energy by shooting a hole in the wall.  Said hole becomes a convenient escape route for Zodiac, and the Avengers let them go in favor of listening to Fury ‘splain himself. 

Long story short, the real Scorpio was Fury’s brother Jake, who disappeared in SHIELD #5.  Nick then took on his identity to infiltrate Zodiac.

 

Fury leaves to angst alone and, after rejecting Cap’s offer to be reinstated as his partner, so does Rick Jones.

There’s a lot of holes in this issue.  Rick was only here to tie up some loose ends left by Captain America.  More pressingly, um… what happened to those three kidnapped officials?  Did Fury ACTUALLY kidnap them?  Or did he just order them to hide in their basements until this was all over?  Also, it was stated that the kidnapping was all a ruse to get the Avengers to come beat up Zodiac, but if that’s the case, why didn’t Fury or Dugan (assuming he was in on it) just call up the team and say “yo, do us a solid and back Nick up here, would you?”

So yeah, this plot makes no sense.  And Zodiac were pretty weak bad guys.  I like the concept, but when all twelve of you are foiled by ants and a teenager with grabby hands, you should probably reevaluate your life.  I mean you should anyway because you’re bad guys, but really.  Step up your game, fellas.

We get a new artist for the next issue—Frank Giacoia, who was primarily an inker.  We begin with T’Challa returning to America after hanging out in Wakanda for the past issue.  He arrives right around the same time as a building in New York is blown up.

 

Well well well, look who’s slithered back from the brink of oblivion.  I already told you why the origins of the Sons of the Serpent were sucktastic, so is it too much to expect a decent story now that they’ve regrouped?  Hopefully WITHOUT the help of an Asian communist?

Montague Hale is a TV talk show host, who does indeed use his program to publicly lambast the Sons of the Serpent.  He’s also black, so I’m not sure if it’s his skin color or his opinions or both that prompt the Serpents to kick his butt the night after the broadcast.  This causes Hale’s network to drop him because apparently they’re unsupportive jerkweeds, but as soon as he recovers, Hale makes a guest appearance on The Dan Dunn Show.  Dunn is super white, super racist, and super rude, even interrupting Hale to bring on a singer.

Aaaaaand we’re already running into stupid.  What is that “choose sides depending on their previous prejudices” bull?  Are you actually suggesting both sides are equal in this scenario, or that Hale is railing against the Serpents because he’s prejudiced against white people?  We saw Hale on his own show and he was actually a little too even-handed for my tastes, stating that EVERYONE regardless of color was in danger thanks to the Serpents (though people of color are in significantly MORE danger, I mean come on).  He seems like a perfectly reasonable person with a perfectly legitimate gripe against a bunch of perfectly hideous a-holes.

Like I said last time, the Sons of the Serpent are obvious stand-ins for the Ku Klux Klan, which automatically eliminates the possibility of presenting both sides of this debate evenly.  No one is siding against Dunn or the Serpents because we’re “prejudiced,” we’re siding against them because we’re decent human beings and THEY’RE FREAKING RACISTS.

This may seem like nitpicking, but if this is the attitude the creators have about racism and civil rights, it can’t possibly bode well for the rest of the story.

Anyway, Lynne finishes her song and joins Dunn and Hale at the table, stating that she’s not interested in politics either way.  Dunn praises her for “knowing her place,” just in case you were still stuck on the idea that anybody would dislike Dunn because they’re prejudiced.

 

Hale tries to convince her to get involved in the civil rights movement, but she isn’t impressed.  Meanwhile, at Serpent headquarters, the new Supreme Serpent orders a hit on Monica Lynne, so it looks like she’ll be getting involved in politics whether she likes it or not.

We finally return to the Avengers themselves—were they in this book?—where we see Goliath and Yellowjacket telling the Vision all about the first time they fought the Sons of the Serpent.  I already provided links to my review of those issues above, so we’ll gloss over this bit and skip straight to the kidnapping of Monica Lynne.

 

Oh, did I say kidnapping?  I meant attempted kidnapping.  Panther is just about to beat them when the Supreme Serpent, who of course was watching the fight on camera, electrocutes his minions so they can’t talk.

The police arrive not long after the fight, which angers Lynne because she believes the cops would have gotten there faster if she’d been white.  She’s probably right, but the point would be much more convincing if virtually every comic I’ve read up to this point didn’t feature the police getting there after the danger was over.

In any event, Lynne leaves to call up Hale and tell him she’s changed her mind about joining his cause.

 

Wow.

WOW.

WOW.

They are actually trying to make us see both sides of this debate.  They are ACTUALLY suggesting that a black man should be “civil” when some loudmouth questions whether he faked being attacked, interrupts him whenever he tries to speak, and praises a black woman for “knowing her place” because she doesn’t speak out against disgusting bigots.

Let me clue you in here, comic.  If someone makes racist or otherwise offensive comments against another person, that person has EVERY right to call them out on it, and they sure as hell don’t have to be “civil” about it if they don’t want to be.  People of color owe racists NOTHING, least of all politeness.

Montague Hale and Monica Lynne appear on The Dan Dunn Show yet again, because there are no other talk shows in America right now.  Dunn even questions whether the attack on Lynne was really racially motivated even though, hello, the Sons of the Serpent have openly admitted that the only reason they exist is to “drive from the land the unfit… the foreign-born… the inferior.”  Heck, in Avengers #33, they went on national television to announce how racist they are.  Their motivation shouldn’t even be a question anymore, but of course Dunn is a dipwad, and he accuses Hale of trying to ruin America.

Black Panther is so angered by the interview that he demands the Avengers let him go out to kick the Serpents’ tails alone.  The Avengers give him a day, and he immediately tracks down Monica Lynne and begs her not to go on Dunn’s show again (Hale scheduled another debate for tomorrow), while also revealing that he himself is black.

 

So I guess we’re all just ignoring the time Panther’s mask only covered half his face, displaying his race for all to see.

Panther then seeks out the Serpents themselves in an entire page free of dialogue and narration boxes—incredibly eye-catching, especially since going just one or two panels without any words was still a novelty back then.

Panther knocks out a Serpent and tries to take his place, but he’s busted when he can’t recite the super-racist rhyme that is their password.  The issue ends with several guns jammed in Panther’s face, while the Supreme Serpent crows that Panther is the final element they need in their plan to take over the country.

I never thought I’d say this, but this storyline is on track to be even worse than Avengers #32-#33.  But, in the spirit of fairness and unwarranted optimism, I’ll reserve judgment until the end of the story.  That way I save myself a big rant if things miraculously get better.

To read Avengerous Tales 2.2, go here!

Images from Avengers #72, Avengers #7, Captain America #110, and Avengers #73