Avengerous Tales 2.18 - Avengers #106-#107

To read Avengerous Tales 2.17, go here!

It seems the Avengers are having trouble pinning down a regular artist: Issue 106 brings us the combined work of Rich Buckler and George Tuska, while 107 is by Jim Starlin, George Tuska, and Dave Cockrum.  I’d say I miss having a regular artist, but with my luck, when they DO get a regular artist I won’t like him and will yearn for the days when Marvel just threw The Avengers at whoever was available.

We begin with the return of Captain America, who’s finally done beating himself up.  Long story short, back in the 1950s, Marvel unsuccessfully tried to revive Captain America (I mentioned this in a very early Avengerous Tale), and in the 1970s Marvel decided to play with that old concept by making the failed reboot a Captain America obsessee who happened to stumble upon half the super soldier serum formula.  Unfortunately, it turned him into an insane racist, and when he returned in Captain America #153, the real Cap had to shut him down.

Anyway.  Cap returns to find the Vision still moping about how he can’t love, and Cap is about to break out the pep talk when OH FOR THE LOVE OF KIRBY NOT AGAIN
 

 

For some reason this reminds me of that time I tried to vacuum up a flying ant, but every time I ran the vacuum over it, it just got up and continued on its way.  The stinking thing refused to die, just as Rick Jones refuses to admit he will never, ever be a real Avenger and keeps coming back for more emotional punishment.

Also, please don’t tell Ant-Man that I tried to vacuum an ant to death.  I don’t want to hear any more about the anguish of ant screams.

If you remember from the last time we saw Rick Jones, non-sidekick extraordinaire, Captain Marvel had to fuse with him in order to save Rick’s life.  This made it so that all Rick had to do was clink his Wonder Woman bracelets together to become Captain Marvel.

Rick tries to demonstrate the “thing” he has “goin’ with” Mar-Vell (his words, not mine), which for some reason violently sends Captain America into a flashback to Captain America #113.  There, Captain America and Rick Jones (who was Bucky at the time) fought off a bunch of Hydra goons in a cemetery.  In the original issue, Cap and Rick simply defeated them and went on their way.  But in Cap’s flashback, things weren’t quite so simple…

 

Meanwhile, the other Avengers are out investigating that disappeared guy when Hawkeye falls through a hole in the middle of an alley like a cartoon character.  You can practically hear him doing a Goofy yell as he goes down.

Back with Cap, he’s gone to visit the cemetery where that HYDRA fight went down in the hopes of triggering another flashback and, what do you know, it works.

 

“And they’ve painted everything green for some reason!”

After falling through the wreckage, they get themselves trapped in a dummy elevator which proceeds to try to squish them to death.  Rick futzes with some wires until they explode, enabling the duo to escape, and that’s where the flashback ends.  It’s enough for Cap, though, and he goes dashing across the city to see if he can find that tenement he saw in his dream.

Across town, the search for Hawkeye continues.  Black Panther finds him first.

 

 

Quit mooning everybody, Clint.  Nobody wants to see that.

Before the Avengers can interrogate Hawkeye, the lights go out, and for some reason Englehart felt the need to reference Ray Bradbury by using an altered version of the most famous line from The October Game: “And then some idiot turned out the lights.”

I really don’t know why Englehart did that.  I won’t spoil the story for you if you haven’t read it (or the EC comic based on it), but the original line was so memorable because of the context and the way the suspense had been built up throughout the story.  Here, it’s just thrown in at random and loses almost all meaning.  Just, why?

By the time the lights come back on, Hawkeye is very confused and has no memory of smacking T’Challa, while Iron Man has decided he doesn’t like T’Challa’s face and repulsors him.  Another light switch and it’s Black Panther who’s lost his marbles.  Finally, Iron Man catches on to what’s happening, and if you remember Avengers #2, you should know too.

 

That’s right!  Classic Avengers baddie the Space Phantom—an alien with the ability to shapeshift into anyone and send the person he imitates into limbo—has returned to wreak vengeance upon his enemies… and he’s teamed up with the Grim Reaper to do it.

So the Avengers get themselves captured and we begin Issue 107 with them trapped in a stasis field, watching the Reaper and the Phantom discuss their evil plans, which involve killing all the Avengers at once—except the Vision, who the Grim Reaper wants alive.  Space Phantom’s thought bubbles tell us he has no plans of letting his partner save his “brother,” but for now, they move to track down the Avengers they haven’t captured yet.

Those Avengers include Thor and Captain America.  Thor is busy in his own book attending yet another Halloween parade in Rutland, Vermont, and since our demonic duo is apparently too lazy to drive up there and get him (come on, guys, Vermont is beautiful!), they decide to focus on Captain America instead.

 

The man has a migraine.

Cap is still wandering around chasing his flashbacks.  This time, he finds a hidden passage, which triggers a memory of beating up Hydra agents in an underground facility.  They manage to hold their own until the agents turn themselves invisible, at which point he and Not Bucky have no choice but to make a break for it.

They find themselves in a kitchen of all places.

 

“We’re going to make the best darn birthday cake you’ve ever seen!”

No, obviously, they used the flour and sugar to coat the Hydra agents, rendering them visible.  And yet the goons STILL manage to escape via a trap door, leaving Cap and Rick to the mercy of an agent with a shrinking ray and for crying out loud, how long is this flashback going to go on?  Can we wrap this up and get to the point?

Cap and Rick escape by running under the shrinking ray and into the control room, where they get themselves back to normal size and knock out the Hydra guy who shrank them and was, apparently, behind this whole thing.

 

It was God the whole time?

And naturally this is where Cap’s flashback conveniently ends, before he can remember who was behind the mask.

While this is going on, the Vision is wandering Central Park in the middle of the night, moping about how he (supposedly) can’t love the Scarlet Witch.  But of course, this being Central Park in the middle of the night, Vision runs into an unsavory character: the Grim Reaper, who reminds our sad synthezoid that Simon Williams isn’t using his body right now, so Vision could totally take it and become human like he’s always wanted, no problem, right?

 

Oh.

Reaper has a really hard time taking no for an answer, though, and insists the Vision pay another visit to his hideout.  There, Reaper confesses that Williams’s body was a fake the whole time.  This angers the Vision, and the Grim Reaper interprets that anger as a sign that the Vision really does want to become human, so he makes a new offer—help him destroy the Avengers, and Reaper will give Vision Captain America’s body as his own.

And then we get a couple pages of exposition about the history of the Phantom and the Reaper’s partnership.  The Space Phantom actually escaped limbo a while ago and he and the Grim Reaper have been planning this team-up for ages.  In fact…

 

Yep, the Space Phantom was the Hydra agent that Cap has been dreaming about.  Apparently that whole second Hydra battle was a plan to test Captain America’s abilities and determine if he’d make a good flesh vessel for the Vision.  The Space Phantom then erased Cap and Rick’s memories and—since brain transplants require both parties to be completely at ease—the Phantom even helpfully gives Cap his secret identity back, erasing the entire planet’s memory of that time Cap revealed himself as Steve Rogers.  And Cap didn’t even have to sell his marriage to Mephisto to do it!

Armed with this new knowledge (and the threat that the Space Phantom will kill him if he doesn’t comply), the Vision agrees to the Grim Reaper’s bargain.

Just one issue left in this storyline, folks!  And not a moment too soon.  Cap’s flashback in Issue 107 went on WAY too long—ten pages out of twenty-one—though I guess it makes sense that the Space Phantom would want to thoroughly test him.

To read Avengerous Tales 2.19, go here!

Images from Avengers #106 and Avengers #107