This is "From a Different Point of View," a feature where I discuss a comic book series with another writer. In this case, it is Eileen Gonzalez who will be going over the history of the Avengers with me, story by story!
When last we checked in with our heroes in Avengers #78, "The Man-Ape Always Strikes Twice" by Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema and Tom Palmer, Captain America was lured to Avengers Mansion where he was ambushed by Man-Ape and almost killed before the other Avengers arrived to rescue him. Man-Ape then escaped, and it turned out that he was working for the Lethal Legion, a bunch of low-level former Avengers villains who had banded together to take down the Avengers by each villain swapping so that the main rival of that villain wouldn't expect the villain (basically Acts of Vengeance) but then Man-Ape went after Black Panther anyways, capturing both T'Challa and T'Challa's love interest, Monica Lynne.
That brings us to Avengers #79, "Lo! The Lethal Legion!" by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Tom Palmer
Eileen Gonzalez: I like the idea of this cover, but their faces look a bit odd. Might just be my copy, though.
Brian Cronin: No, LOTS more cartoony than normal.
Eileen Gonzalez: Ah, good. Not just me, then!
Brian Cronin: Buscema inked himself on the cover, so maybe he rushed it?
Brian Cronin: Perhaps, by this point, he was already starting to lean on Tom Palmer a bit?
Brian Cronin: Who once again gets an "embellisher" credit, suggesting Buscema didn't do full pencils on this one.
Brian Cronin: Palmer, by the way, was a trained colorist, as well.
Brian Cronin: And I wonder whether he was coloring the book by this point, also.
Eileen Gonzalez: From the sound of it, Palmer should have gotten his credit at least on the same level as Buscema.
Eileen Gonzalez: Instead of squished below.
Brian Cronin: Well, Stan still gets top-billed despite him almost certainly no longer being heavily involved in the book at all.
Brian Cronin: It's funny, a constant refrain we say is how Thomas couldn't use Thor and Iron Man as regulars in the book, so he just kept having them guest star
Brian Cronin: But what's odd here is that even Thor and Iron Man seem to act like they're above the book!
Brian Cronin: "Sigh, what IS it, Avengers?"
Brian Cronin: "We actually have lives. What do you WANT already?"
Eileen Gonzalez: I'm trying to figure out how they're even entering right now. Is that a really weird skylight? Are the Avengers in a sewer and that's the manhole?
Brian Cronin: It makes sense, though, that they'd have a skylight for their flying members to fly out of, right?
Eileen Gonzalez: It would prevent a lot of holes in the ceiling for sure.
Brian Cronin: Also, knowing the Avengers, they probably just have a hole in the ceiling from a villain getting in there between issues.
Brian Cronin: Cap's exposition-crazy dialogue is pretty funny.
Brian Cronin: I think at least half of that talk could have been replaced by editor's notes.
Eileen Gonzalez: It sounds like Roy Thomas got so into writing Thor's dialogue that he forgot to turn off the fancy talk for Cap.
Eileen Gonzalez: I also like how Goliath won't stop freaking out and Quicksilver of all people has to tell him to chill.
Brian Cronin: How funny is Vision and Quicksilver both rocking the chin on their hands look?
Eileen Gonzalez: They are Serious Men having Serious Thoughts.
Eileen Gonzalez: Although if I said that to Vision, he'd probably give me a speech about how he's not really a man, now is he.
Brian Cronin: I love that they take a break from their SUPER SERIOUS case
Brian Cronin: For Vision to put on a disguise and fly to the Black Panther's school to let them know that the Panther's secret identity won't be showing up
Brian Cronin: Even though, as they note, his voice remains robotic.
Brian Cronin: So what kind of disguise is that?
Brian Cronin: And why does he have to go to the school in person?
Eileen Gonzalez: Obviously it was critically important for Vision to test out his Martian Manhunter cosplay.
Brian Cronin: Right?
Brian Cronin: And he DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A NAME!
Brian Cronin: So he has no name.
Brian Cronin: His voice sounds like a robot.
Brian Cronin: Otherwise, his disguise is perfect.
Brian Cronin: I'm sure when he gets there, he'll say, "If I were a human, I'd tell you that Mr. Charles cannot make it to class."
Brian Cronin: "If you were a human?"
Brian Cronin: "Dammit. Never mind. I meant As a human, I will tell you that Mr. Charles cannot make it to class. That sounds feasible, right, human?"
Brian Cronin: "Errr...FELLOW human."
Eileen Gonzalez: And all that fun could have been avoided if they'd just picked up the telephone and CALLED the school. Like a human person.
Eileen Gonzalez: Speaking of unrealistic dialogue, Iron Man's observation is a super weird and unsubtle way of changing the scene.
Brian Cronin: Right?
Brian Cronin: I almost expected, "Hey, fellow Avengers, do you know what would really help set up a scene if I said it....this!"
Eileen Gonzalez: This issue is not starting out well. Maybe our villains can perk things up!
Eileen Gonzalez: Once Grim Reaper gets done making that face...
Brian Cronin: That is quite the face.
Brian Cronin: Buscema is like, "Fuck it, just let me go ALL the way over the top here."
Brian Cronin: I can't even imagine how this would be worth it, even for a super villain.
Brian Cronin: The Grim Reaper is un-fucking-HINGED.
Brian Cronin: What does Swordsman even get out of this? Why does he want the Avengers dead?
Eileen Gonzalez: Good question. I'm trying to remember his last appearance. It was when he was working for Mandarin, I think. Maybe he was super upset about that defeat and decided to go all in against the Avengers?
Eileen Gonzalez: Or maybe he's still trying to "impress" Scarlet Witch.
Brian Cronin: He worked for Egghead just about a year earlier.
Eileen Gonzalez: Oh, right! I forgot that one.
Eileen Gonzalez: He wants a rematch against Goliath, I guess.
Brian Cronin: And he didn't seem to have any particular enmity for the Avengers, really.
Brian Cronin: Certainly not, "Oh man, I need to join a team to see the Avengers die."
Brian Cronin: Most of these guys have no motivations other than, "Well, we're super villains, I guess we can't say no to a super villain team."
Eileen Gonzalez: Maybe they were unemployed and really needed the work.
Eileen Gonzalez: Are they getting paid?
Eileen Gonzalez: Or is their payment purely in vengeance and exposure?
Brian Cronin: That's what I mean about their motivation!
Brian Cronin: Why are they doing this?
Brian Cronin: If they were, like, robbing the city or something, I'd get it.
Brian Cronin: But Swordsman and Power Man are here just to help kill the Avengers? WHY?
Eileen Gonzalez: Living Laser's presence doesn't make sense either. His beef was with the Wasp, and she's not on the team anymore.
Eileen Gonzalez: At least they have lots of cool statues to crush.
Brian Cronin: I KNOW! How in the world did they crush a statue, get a new statue and then crush that one, too?
Brian Cronin: How does that make any sense?
Brian Cronin: What is the logistics of that decision?
Brian Cronin: Did he just have a dozen made of each Avenger?
Brian Cronin: Is he crushing the Black Panther one every few minutes?
Brian Cronin: Crushing it when he was captured made some sense.
Brian Cronin: But getting a new one and then crushing that does not.
Brian Cronin: Maybe they're made out of Play-Doh.
Brian Cronin: And he just puts them back together and then crushes them again. Sort of like a stress ball.
Brian Cronin: Also, Grim Reaper's plans are all over the place, right? So the idea is for the members of the Lethal Legion to each attack an Avenger not prepared for them, right?
Brian Cronin: Only after that didn't work right away, they switched to Man-Ape attacking his official rival.
Brian Cronin: And now they're just attacking as a team.
Brian Cronin: There is no coherent plan here!
Eileen Gonzalez: They should have stuck to playing with their action figures. That would have been a more productive use of their time.
Eileen Gonzalez: Heck, the "trap" is so haphazard that everyone figures out is a trap within a couple of pages!!
Eileen Gonzalez: But I do like how this scene is used to just get Thor and Iron Man out of the picture, since they head to the one location that has no supervillains. They never wanted to be in this story anyway.
Eileen Gonzalez: Can't blame them for that.
Brian Cronin: Yeah, that is too funny.
Brian Cronin: Why have them guest star if you're not going to use them?
Brian Cronin: How corner-cutting was the panel where Panther punches Grim Reaper?
Eileen Gonzalez: Ha, yeah. Just another weird face in the middle of an explosion. Maybe Buscema was trying to shake things up but it's not really working.
Brian Cronin: How funny is the notion that Grim Reaper "trained himself" to take a punch from Panther
Brian Cronin: Huh?
Eileen Gonzalez: Maybe he had one of his legionnaires dress up as the Panther and punch him repeatedly.
Brian Cronin: Why in the world did we have the Vision detour?
Brian Cronin: What purpose did it serve?
Eileen Gonzalez: We were all just dying to see if his disguise worked, obviously!
Eileen Gonzalez: And it kinda did.
Brian Cronin: She even noticed it was a rubber mask, though!
Eileen Gonzalez: Yeah, that was odd. You'd think an Avenger with so many resources at his disposal could make a better mask.
Eileen Gonzalez: Still can't get over how Black Panther works at a school called Andrew Jackson High School. That name would never pass muster these days.
Brian Cronin: I wonder if Hotchkiss is a reference to something?
0 Comments