Avengerous Tales 2.4 - Avengers #78-#79

To read Avengerous Tales 2.3, go here!

So we’re still going with the name Man-Ape, huh?

…Sigh.

Today’s artwork comes to us courtesy of Sal Buscema.

We begin with Captain America being summoned to Avengers Mansion by an urgent note from T’Challa, supposedly.  The note was actually forged by the Man-Ape, a.k.a M’Baku, would-be ruler of Wakanda, who has returned to seek revenge against those who ‘killed’ him in his first appearance.  His first act of vengeance is to chuck Cap off the roof, requiring Quicksilver to speed down and save him.

 

Unlike Peter Parker’s ill-fated attempt to save Gwen Stacy from such a fall, which resulted in physics snapping her neck when his webbing brought her descent to a sudden halt, Quicksilver keeps on moving.  Unfortunately, thanks to Cap’s weight, this has less to do with making sure he doesn’t rip Cap’s arm off and more to do with the fact that he actually can’t stop at all.

All that good science is promptly ruined by the Vision, who beats them to the ground and catches them.  I’m gonna assume that Pietro had slowed them enough that being suddenly stopped by the Vision’s arms didn’t kill them all.

Back on the roof, Goliath is about to make short work of M’Baku when his sidekick, N’Gamo, swoops by in a helicopter to whisk him to safety, leaving the Avengers to wonder why M’Baku would target Cap when they’ve never met before.  Maybe he just saw The Wrath of Khan and thought it would make him cool.

But what’s T’Challa been up to in the meantime?  He’s visiting an old friend.

 

Monica gave up her singing career to become a social worker and fight for equal rights.  The comic also tries to set her up as a love interest for Black Panther, since the narration on the previous page details how Panther “wishes that his heart, his lips, held the answer she seeks.”  Which is completely irrelevant since this romance goes nowhere, but anyway.

After discussing whether Panther is doing enough to help black people, he heads back to Avengers Mansion to check in.  The second he leaves, M’Baku crashes through Monica’s window and kidnaps her.  He then hijacks a TV studio (I guess?) to broadcast a message to the Avengers and challenge Black Panther to a dual.

 

I should think your honored guest would at least deserve a chair.

Black Panther pledges to meet M’Baku alone, refusing the other Avengers’ offers to come along because ‘my word is my bond,’ etc.  He arrives at M’Baku’s airship and the two waste no time in starting the, er, cat fight.  Still, Black Panther’s concern for Monica overrules his desire to punch people, and he scampers off in search of her.

 

The mannequin is full of explosives, a fact which Panther doesn’t realize until too late.  A gloating M’Baku carries Panther to an underground chamber where he keeps his prize Avenger doll collection.  He grabs the Black Panther doll—which looks suspiciously like an Academy Award—and smashes it with his bare hand.

 

Come on, man, that thing was near-mint!

Who are these “others” M’Baku refers to, you ask?  Panther asks the same thing, when out of the shadows come our old buddies Power Man, the Swordsman, the Living Laser and the Grim Reaper.  Together with M’Baku, they have formed a new anti-superhero fan club called the Lethal Legion.  Their goal?  Destroy all of the Avengers!

Issue Seventy-Nine begins back at Avengers Mansion.  The team doesn’t know about the Lethal Legion yet, but the Black Panther’s disappearance concerns them enough that they’ve called in Iron Man and Thor to help find him.

 

Dang.  When Quicksilver is telling you to calm down and be rational, you know you done goofed.

Before they go looking for the Black Panther, however, the Scarlet Witch points out that his unexplained absence may not reflect well on his secret identity, that of Luke Charles, high school teacher.  Instead of calling the principal on the phone and telling him Mr. Charles is sick like normal people, the Vision volunteers to don a human disguise and go to the school in person.  That seems time efficient.

Meanwhile, back with the Legion…

 

I realize this wasn’t the creators’ intention, but I would just like to point out that Greenwich Village was the location of the Stonewall riots, and that around the time this comic was released—the cover date is August 1970, meaning the comic was available for sale around May or June—the Village played host to one of America’s first Gay Pride marches to commemorate the one year anniversary of the riots.  Kinda puts a different spin on Grim Reaper’s comments there, not to mention his ridiculous outfit.

Aren’t comics so much more fun when you know a little history?

Anyway, the Legion all goes their separate ways to check things off their grocery list of evil, leaving Black Panther the perfect opportunity to break himself and Monica Lynne out of their restraints.  He even manages to use M’Baku’s TV equipment to call the Avengers and tell them what’s up.  The Avengers also split up to go after the Legionnaires.  (Iron Man immediately volunteers himself and Thor to investigate the Village.  Interpret as you will.)

Unfortunately…

 

Yeah, turns out the only reason the Panther escaped was because the Grim Reaper wanted him to, and he never even left the hideout.  Now that Panther has done what Reaper wanted, he and Monica are gassed and put back in chains.

Speaking of embarrassing blunders, we get a quick scene where the Vision freaks out Miss Hotchkiss, the principal of T’Challa’s school, with his “ice-cold” voice.  Gee, it’s almost like they should have gotten Wanda to just pick up a phone and call her instead.  But no, Wanda’s with Goliath, getting her butt kicked by Power Man and Swordsman.

 

What a dweeb.

Cap and Quicksilver don’t fare much better against M’Baku and the Living Laser, and Power Man captures the Vision off-panel.  The Grim Reaper is pleased with their progress and, after placing the Avengers in a giant poison-filled hourglass like a ‘60s Batman villain, he goes over some papers Power Man pilfered from the Mansion.

 

The Reaper has just discovered that the Vision’s brain patterns were based on his dead brother Simon’s.  Unable to bear the thought of his brother dying yet again, Grim Reaper smashes open the hourglass… only to discover that the Vision wasn’t really the Vision.  It was Power Man, with whom the Vision swapped places earlier.

The Avengers are free, and they easily defeat the Lethal Legion.  And yet, despite his major contribution during this adventure, the Vision feels his lack of true humanity means he’s forever doomed to misfit-ness and quits the Avengers.

Despite the fact that we never get to see Thor and Iron Man’s adventures in Greenwich Village, I enjoyed these issues.  When I first read Avengers #9, I had no idea the fallout would be so dang extensive, but Marvel’s getting a lot of mileage out of the saga of Simon Williams, which they will continue to exploit for literal decades to come.

That said, M’Baku’s use of hi-tech equipment, e.g. the helicopter and TV cameras, strikes me as quite odd given that his motivation in his previous appearance was supposedly due to his inability to accept progress and change.  Was T’Challa just making all that up?  Also, M’Baku’s lackey disappeared completely after the reveal of the Lethal Legion.  Did he get shipped back to Wakanda or what?

Meh, I don’t really care.  Unless he gets a name change, the “Man-Ape” is not a villain I’m looking forward to seeing again.  Him and the Mandarin should start their own group of supervillains: the Stereotype Squad.

To read Avengerous Tales 2.5, go here!

Images from Avengers #78 and Avengers #79