Avengerous Tales 2.42 - Avengers #150-#151

To read Avengerous Tales 2.41, go here!

Let’s just hope that the 150^th issue is more exciting than the 100^th.  Well, it certainly can’t be worse than the 200^th! 

Avengerous Tales 2.21 - Avengers #112-#113

To read Avengerous Tales 2.20, go here!

New headcanon: Wanda’s ever-changing hair color isn’t a mistake, she just likes dying it back and forth for the heck of it.

Avengerous Tales 2.20 - Avengers #110-#111

To read Avengerous Tales 2.19, go here!

A special note for Hawkeye fans: you may want to keep a copy of your Fraction and/or Duggan TPBs at hand while you read this review to remind yourself of why you like this character.

Avengerous Tales 2.6 - Avengers #82-#83

To read Avengerous Tales 2.5, go here!

Cover the first: Tony, that is the worst battle cry I’ve ever heard.

Cover the second: FOR THE LOVE OF AZAR NOT ONE OF THESE.

Avengerous Tales 2.3 - Avengers #76-#77

To read Avengerous Tales 2.2, go here!

Welcome, nerds and nerdlings, to a very special era of The Avengers that I like to call ‘Why the heck is Wanda’s hair black on the covers and red on the inside?’

Avengerous Tales 1.34 - Avengers #63-#64

To read Avengerous Tales 1.33, go here!

I don’t know why Hank would continue being Yellowjacket when that’s the identity he took in a weird fit of schizophrenic self-hatred, but those covers are awesome.  Much better than the Random Floating Head covers we’ve been getting lately.

***This review contains a tiny discussion of emotional abuse, so if that bothers you, skip the paragraph after I start swearing up a storm.

Avengerous Tales 1.31 - Avengers #57-#58

To read Avengerous Tales 1.30, go here!

NO BLOOD

NO STAIN
ALL WE NEED IS
ONE WORLD
ONE VISION

Avengerous Tales 1.24 - Avengers #45-#46

 

To read Avengerous Tales 1.23, go here!

It’s background time!

In Tales of Suspense #84, Captain America went up against an android called the Super-Adaptoid, an AIM creation and blatant Amazo rip-off with the ability to absorb the powers of others.  He quickly absorbed the powers of Giant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, and Captain America, and then he followed AIM’s orders by attacking the good captain.  Neither side really won that fight—the Adaptoid threw Cap at the ocean and assumed he was dead, because clearly Cap has no experience with surviving a drop into the ocean—and ran off so that AIM couldn’t deactivate him now that he’d achieved his purpose.

Avengerous Tales 1.22 - Avengers #43-#44

To read Avengerous Tales 1.21, go here!

So remember last time, when the Avengers learned of Black Widow’s capture and Hawkeye was justifiably eager to save her?  Well, Issue Forty-Three picks up TWO DAYS LATER, and they’re STILL sitting around Avengers Mansion.  Why?  I don’t know, to be honest, but apparently Quicksilver can fly for short distances now—a power which I believe will quickly be left by the wayside—so maybe they’re finally doing something with their “Wanda and Pietro have power fluxes” subplot after all.

Then this happens.

Avengerous Tales 1.21 - Avengers #41-#42

 

To read Avengerous Tales 1.20, go here!

PANCAKES!!!!

Avengerous Tales 1.20 - Avengers #39-#40

To read Avengerous Tales 1.19, go here!

Okay, so remember last review when I said that Captain America’s battle with Red Skull in Tales of Suspense #88 wasn’t relevant?  Well, now it is, so listen up:

First off, waaaay back in Tales of Suspense #81, Red Skull got his hands on a doohickey called the Cosmic Cube (nowadays known as the Tesseract) that granted him unlimited power.  Cap knocked the Cube into the ocean, and Skull supposedly drowned trying to retrieve it.  Obviously he did not, as he returned in Tales of Suspense #88 with his Robo-Bucky.

After Cap defeats Robo-Bucky in Issue Eighty-Nine, Red Skull turned to Plan B: kill Captain America some other way.  After that failed in Issue Ninety, he turned to Plan C: he threatened to use his deadly bubble weapon (he should probably think about rebranding) to destroy New York unless Cap announced his allegiance to the Red Skull.  On live TV, no less. Captain America wasn’t about to let his adversary go on a rampage, so he did so swear.

Avengerous Tales 1.19 - Avengers #37-#38

To read Avengerous Tales 1.18, go here!

In Tales of Suspense #88, Captain America received a distress call from someone who appeared to be his lost sidekick, Bucky (the original, not the wannabe).  Obviously he dashed off alone to the location “Bucky” gives him, even though it’s a foreboding-sounding island.  Cap was the only one surprised when it turned out that Red Skull had created a fake Robo-Bucky (RoBucky?) to reel him in.  But the rest of that adventure is irrelevant for the purposes of this review.  All you need to know is that Cap will be AWOL for a few issues starting with Avengers #38, but first, let’s jump straight into Issue Thirty-Seven.

Avengerous Tales 1.18 - Avengers #35-#36

To read Avengerous Tales 1.17, go here!

“Big change”?  What, is Goliath going through puberty?
 

Avengerous Tales 1.15 - Avengers #29-#30

 

To read Avengerous Tales 1.14, go here! 

Time for a little back story here, since this is the first time the Black Widow will appear in an Avengers comic, and the context of her appearance won’t make much sense if you don’t know about her previous exploits.

Black Widow debuted in Tales of Suspense #52.  She was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck as yet another “red” adversary for ToS star Iron Man.  After failing multiple times to bring Stark Industries secrets to her superiors behind the iron (hee) curtain, she teamed up with budding criminal Hawkeye, who immediately fell in love with her and agreed to do whatever she wanted, even though he wasn’t a communist himself.  It all went south in Tales of Suspense #60, when Widow’s superiors have enough of her failing and mooning over Hawkeye and take her back behind the curtain for “interrogation.”

As we learn in Avengers #29, Black Widow was taken to “the Orient” where she was brainwashed to eliminate any “weakening” effects her time among those pansy capitalists may have had.

 

Now it’s story time!