Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 1

Reprints Avengers (1963) #231-241, Avengers Annual #11-12, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, Fantastic Four (1961) #256, and Doctor Strange (1974) #60   
Written by Roger Stern, J.M. DeMatteis, Bill Mantlo, John Byrne and J.M. DeMatteis.
Penciled by Al Milgrom, John Byrne, John Romita Jr., Jackson "Butch" Guice, Dan Green and Bob Budiansky.
Inked by Joe Sinnott, John Romita Sr., Rick Magyar, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Jack Abel, Brett Breeding, Al Milgrom, Kim Demulder, and Andy Mushynksky.

Nebulon, the Celestial Man has been exiled to Earth. The alien from planet Ul'lula battled the Defenders several times and has been banished to this planet for repeated attacks on Earth. In the Himalayas, Nebulon encounters Thor and tells the thunder god of his desire to change his ways. Thor believes Nebulon and brings him back to New York, where Nebulon is introduced to the Avengers.

We later learn that Nebulon's wife Supernalia has arrived on Earth as well. Nebulon chose exile over death as his punishment. Supernalia sees this as dishonorable and has come to restore her husband's honor...by killing him! Through mind control, she recruits the Defenders to battle the Avengers!

Sometime later, a new superhero arrives on the scene. New Orleans-based police Lt. Monica Rambeau is involved in a freak accident that gives her the ability to transform into any form of electromagnetic energy. A local paper reports on her actions and dubs her Captain Marvel! But if Monica can't learn to control her new powers, she will "explode...like a megaton bomb!".

With this in mind, Captain Marvel heads to New York City to seek help from Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. But before she arrives at their headquarters, she accidentally knocks out Spider-Man.  This makes the webhead think she's one of the bad guys.

With Richards out of town, Monica visits the Avengers for assistance. With the help of Spider-Man and Iron Man, Captain Marvel is saved and is invited to join the Avengers.

Subsequently, SHIELD Director Nick Fury and President Ronald Reagan visit a SHIELD base near Baltimore. But they're ambushed by SHIELD agents and taken hostage. The Avengers are called to the scene and discover it's the work of the super-villain known as the Plantman.

During the fight against Plantman, the Avengers are aided by Eros of Titan. He says he came to Earth to join the Avengers. Eros possesses super-strength and the power of flight. But his primary power is his ability to psionically manipulate "pleasure centers" in people. This makes Eros' foes easily persuadable.  Wasp suggests Eros take on the codename Starfox and he is made an Avenger-in -training.

Plantman's monster stomps She-Hulk.

The Plantman escapes in a submarine, but Thor, Eros and Captain Marvel track down the villain. The two new Avengers play an important role in Plantman's capture.

After that, the Avengers travel to the moon. They visit the Inhumans, who recently transported their homeland to the moon's blue area. The United Nations Security Council is uneasy about the Inhumans' lunar presence and sends the Avengers to secure a non-agression treaty with them.

The Inhumans agree to this, but then the Avengers are notified about the bombarding of Earth with moon rocks. The prime suspect in this attack are the Inhumans. The Avengers question them and tempers start to flare.  t gets worse when Black Bolt orders the execution of the Avengers! Have the Inhumans turned evil? Or is there another explanation?

The Avengers battle the Inhumans on the moon!

Later, the Fantastic Four's old foe Annihilus takes over the Baxter Building. He encases the surrounding area in an invisible and seemingly impenetrable barrier. Vision uses his ability to become intangible to walk through the barrier. But after taking one step, Vision falls unconscious. Thanks to Captain Marvel's intervention, the barrier is deactivated and Annihilus is eventually defeated and presumed dead. But the Vision remains in a coma.

Shortly after, Doctor Strange contacts Scarlet Witch with some bad news. Dracula, the lord of vampires is seeking Wanda's copy of the Darkhold, a book of sorcery that contains very dangerous spells.  Dracula attacks the Avengers mansion, but Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel are ready for him and his vampire minions. Doctor Strange joins them in saving the world from Dracula.

Next, the supervillain known as the Wizard escapes from prison. Wasp thinks that the best place to find him is his futuristic mansion in Long Island. She-Hulk, Captain America, and Scarlet Witch visit Wizard's home and find that Wasp's intuition was correct. But if the Avengers want to apprehend the Wizard, they'll have to get through a series of death traps that the villain has created for them.

Following that, when She-Hulk tells Spider-Man she makes $1000 a week as an Avenger, he decides to join the team. Much to their chagrin, the webhead breaks in to the Avengers mansion to show he's good enough for the team. The Avengers' alarm goes off and puts a halt to Spider-Man's request.

The heroes are called to Project Pegasus, a government research facility founded to seek out alternative forms of energy. Spider-Man stows away on the outside of the Avengers' Quinjet. The Avengers are NOT happy about this, but Spidey tags along with them anyway.  

They learn that Project Pegasus has been attacked by the subterranean race known as the Lava Men.  But the real villains at Project Pegasus turn out to be Blackout, Moonstone, Electro and the Rhino! The Avengers will need Spider-Man's help in battling these foes. But the wallcrawler soon discovers he has a lot to learn about teamwork.

Sometime later, Starfox is assigned to watch over the comatose Vision. He is surprised to learn that Vision is awake and has regained his ability to speak and hear. Starfox decides to aid Vision's recovery by connecting him to ISAAC, the supercomputer that operates the Titan moon of Saturn. This gives the Vision control of the Avengers' computers and grants him near omnipotence. Vision uses his new abilities to catch villains, but his fellow Avengers are worried that it could lead to ego problems for the synthezoid.

During a rare quiet period for the team, Wonder Man's agent has booked him to appear as a guest on Late Night With David Letterman to boost his acting career. But Letterman's producers want Wonder Man to bring some of his Avengers teammates along with him. The regular Avengers are away, so Vision and Hawkeye recruit some reserve members for the Letterman show. Black Widow, Black Panther and the Beast agree to join Simon on Late Night.

David Letterman interviews the Avengers.

Everything seems to be going well for the Avengers on the show. But unbeknownst to the heroes and Letterman, their enemy Fabian Stankowicz is in the audience. Stankowicz attacks the Avengers with various machines he's created, turning 30 Rock into a battlefield! Only David Letterman can save the Avengers!

Lastly, former Avenger Tigra calls her teammates to San Francisco. Tigra's friend Jessica Drew, better known as the crime-fighter Spider-Woman, is in a coma. While Jessica is unresponsive, a ghostly image of Spider-Woman looms above her. Tigra and the Avengers learn that this is the work of Morgan Le Fey, evil sorceress from the Arthurian Era! The Avengers call Doctor Strange for help in defeating Le Fey. But even if they win, will it be too late to save the life of Jessica Drew?  

Review:
This is a great team of Avengers that features a nice blend of the "old guard" (Wasp, Captain America, Thor) and newbies (She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Starfox). The stories reprinted in Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 1 feature work from some of the finest creators of the Bronze Age.

Story:
Roger Stern writes the bulk of this tpb and does a great job. I get the impression Captain Marvel meant a lot to Stern, and rightly so. Monica Rambeau is a great character with cool powers who saves the day multiple times in these tales.

Captain Marvel flies through New York and smashes into the barrier!

Speaking of Captain Marvel, Stern does a great job writing the women of the Avengers. There are stretches where the team contains four women on their active roster (Wasp, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel and Scarlet Witch), which is an unusual example of gender representation in early 80s comics.

Spider-Man's guest appearance is good as well. Stern, of course, wrote Spider-Man around this time and these stories show Stern understands the difference between a "loner" hero and a team. Stern demonstrates that Spidey has a lot to learn when it comes to teamwork. But the webhead also plays a valuable role in protecting Project Pegasus from Blackout's gang.

One of the highlights of this book is the Avengers' visit to Late Night With David Letterman, which was published during Assistant Editors' Month. I was a big fan of Letterman when I first read this story (and remain a Letterman fan to this day!). It does a nice job of capturing the free-wheeling "anything can happen" style of Dave's early years on NBC.

Dave turns the tables on Fabian Stankowicz!

Letterman retired from tv last month.  If you're having a tough time adjusting to a world without Letterman (like I am), this is a good time to revisit the Letterman/Avengers tale. For a more comprehensive summary of the Letterman story, please visit my other comics blog, Assistant Editors' Month Online.

Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 1 opens with a story penned by J.M. DeMatteis. It's a good "done-in-one" story that features a fun Avengers/Defenders duel. Nebulon always made a good antagonist for the Defenders and this story is a good farewell for the Celestial Man.

In some ways, this feels more like a Defenders story (maybe it was originally intended to be one?). But that's fine, since DeMatteis wrote so many great Defenders tales around the same time this story was published.

Bill Mantlo authored the Inhumans story. It's entertaining, but it suffers from the same problem as most stories that feature the Inhumans: Maximus is almost always the cause of their problems.  

John Byrne wrote one issue of the Fantastic Four that ties in to the Avengers struggle against the barrier. It's good, but it's part 6 of a six-part story, and it doesn't add a lot to this tpb. I had a similar problem with the inclusion of the tale from Doctor Strange #60. It's included here because Stern wrote it and it features guest appearances by Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch and Jarvis. But it's also part of a multi-part saga from the Doctor Strange series.

With the exception of Annihilus and Dracula, the villains here aren't exactly A-listers, but Stern writes them all very well. He even makes good use of a joke-of-a-badguy like Plantman.

Art:
The art on the whole isn't great, but it's mostly good. Most of the book features Al Milgrom penciling with inks by Joe Sinnott. They were always good for solid Marvel House Style art. Dan Green and Terry Austin serve as penciler and inker for the Doctor Strange story and they're okay too.

My personal favorite artwork comes from the Spider-Man/Captain Marvel story that's reprinted from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16. John Romita, Jr. penciled it, while his father provided the inks. They create a wonderful combination of (then) new-school and old-school Spidey art. 

John Byrne penciled and inked the portion that originally ran in Fantastic Four #256. It looks great and Byrne does a nice job creating an epic atmosphere.

How Does It Look?:
Pretty good, here's a scan of an original page from my copy of Avengers #238:

And here's how it appears in this tpb:

There's a bit of recoloring, but I've seen much worse, and it's not too garish or distracting.  

Extras:
This tpb contains a page of original art, plus several Avengers-related entries from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Avengers Annual #11 included the Avengers Membership Manual and that's reprinted here as well.

Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 1 contains some great stories that show why Roger Stern is one of the greatest comic writers of all time, and re-reading it this month helped me get over my post-Letterman hangover. But the lack of consistently great art prevents it from achieving this blog's highest grade.

J.A. Morris' rating:

  
.5

3.5 Sals.

Nova Classic Vol. 2

 

Reprints Nova #13-19, Defenders #62-64, Fantastic Four Annual #12 and Marvel Two-In-One Annual #3

Written by Marv Wolfman and David Anthony Kraft.

Penciled by Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Bob Hall, Keith Pollard and Don Perlin.

Inked by Joe Sinnott, Dick Giordano, Tom Palmer, Bob Wiacek, Jim Mooney, Don Perlin, Frank Giacoia, Dave Hunt and Bruce Patterson.

Summary:

Richard Rider is in a bank withdrawing some money. Suddenly, a robbery occurs, led by the Sandman!  Richard is in street clothes and can't turn into Nova. Thankfully, a new crimefighter, the Crimebuster goes after the villain.

Nova & Crimebuster foil a robbery attempt by the Sandman.

They take out his henchmen and lock Sandman in a bank vault. But he turns to sand and gets away.  When Sandman gets to his hotel room, he has a visitor waiting for him. The man claims to be a psychologist and says that Sandman's problems are all in his head.  

Then he uses a device called the encephalogrammer to take control of Sandman's mind.    

Nova stops a kidnapping near the United Nations headquarters. He learns that the target was a Dr. T'Kora, a nuclear scientist from Wakanda. Sandman shows up and captures Nova and T'kora. Nova is able to beat Sandman, but learns later that the brain behind the scheme is the villain know as Yellow Claw! Nick Fury and his SHIELD agents team up with Nova to fight Yellow Claw.  

In addition to T'Kora, Yellow Claw has captured another nuclear scientist, Samuel Burley. The villain wants them to use their knowledge to create a tidal wave that will destroy New York City! It ends with Nova in hand-to-hand combat with Yellow Claw.

Nova battles Yellow Claw & tries to save New York from a tidal wave.

Sometime later, Nova is flying around New York and notices the sky is getting dark in the daytime. He gets zapped by a ray of some kind. It's the work of a criminal named Blackout. After a brief fight, Blackout encases Nova in solid black light, then takes off.  

Nova comes face to face with Blackout, winds up imprisoned in solid light.

Through a flashback, we learn that Blackout was a criminal named Marcus Daniels. He volunteered to be a test subject in exchange for the government dropping charges against him. The experiment was an attempt to harness "the power of the black star", but it resulted in Daniels gaining superpowers.  Blackout uses those powers to kill the scientists when they fail to cure his condition.  

Nova goes after Blackout and they fight to the finish on top of a skyscraper!

Later, Dollar Bill, an aspiring filmmaker and friend of the Defenders, has made a documentary about the non-team of superheroes. The documentary is shown on a local tv station. In the film, Dollar Bill reveals the location of the Defenders' unofficial headquarters and says that since the Defenders have no formal rules or roster, anyone can join. This angers the team, since their existence is otherwise unknown to the general public. Nighthawk is especially angry at Dollar Bill, since the Defenders' HQ is also his home!

The next morning, more than a dozen superheroes, including Nova, knock on the Defenders' door.  Since the Defenders roster is more or less open, all the heroes now claim to be Defenders. Nighthawk is furious and his anger leads to various skirmishes among the heroes.  

Nova & Marvel Man play "cowboy";
Nighthawk chases the Falcon.

But they come to their senses when they hear that New York is under attack from dozens of villains who also claim to be Defenders! The Defenders and "neo-Defenders" come to their senses and unite to stop the villains.  

Lastly, Nova encounters a gigantic green humanoid standing on a street in New York. A flying saucer appears next to him and starts drilling in to the ground. Nova attacks the giant, but is no match for him.  Realizing he's outclassed, Nova heads to the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four, to seek help.  The Thing joins Nova and they go after the giant. Similar "drilling" attacks are occurring in major cities all over the world.

The Monitors go on a rampage in Tokyo.

An alien woman arrives and explains the scenario to the Ben and Nova. Her name is Milandra and she says the giants attacking Earth are aliens known as the Monitors. They visit planets throughout the universe to test the worlds to see if they "are fit to survive!" The Thing and Nova will need Milandra's help if they want to save Earth from the Monitors.

Plus, Nova's enemy the Sphinx battles the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans!

Review:

Nova Classic Vol. 2 isn't a bad book, but it's a step down from the previous volume.

Story:

Nova's creator, Marv Wolfman, writes all the Nova solo stories in this tpb. It starts off with a bang, with Nova and Crimebuster stopping bank robbers. Nova's battle with the Sandman is an exciting story.  Sandman has and long been one of my favorite characters and Wolfman writes him well here. The presence of the Crimebuster makes things a bit more fun. I enjoyed his interaction with Nova, as they're both still learning how to be superheroes.  

But the next part of the book is where things go a bit wrong. The Yellow Claw three-parter isn't very compelling. I just didn't care much about Mike Burley or his brother, or Yellow Claw's plan to destroy New York.  

For that matter, Yellow Claw himself is problematic at best. He's a product of the "Yellow Peril" stereotypes found in Western Culture during much of the 20th century. But beyond that, I just don't think he's a very interesting villain. And the Yellow Claw story takes up 53 pages of the book (more than that if you count his shadowy "behind the scenes" appearances).  

Things pick up a bit with the Blackout story. I've always thought his powers were pretty cool, and he battled the Avengers a few times in the 1980s. Blackout also recently appeared in an episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so Wolfman deserves credit for creating a villain with staying power.  

Nova & Fury prepare to battle Yellow Claw's minions.

The Sphinx/Fantastic Four battle really has no business being in this tpb. Nova only appears in one panel during Sphinx's flashback and this story doesn't directly tie in to Nova's series beyond that.  Wolfman also wrote the Fantastic Four's series at the time and I'm guessing he wanted to tie his titles together, but it just feels like filler in this book. I reviewed the story in an earlier review when it was published in Fantastic Four: Reunited They Stand, so read that review for more details about the story.

The Defenders issues also have very little to do with Nova. He just briefly appears as one of the many superheroes who show up to be a "Defender For A Day",  but it's a fun story. David Anthony Kraft writes great scenes of (mostly) B-level heroes bickering and sometimes brawling with one another.  Plus, we get to see the Hulk learn how to throw a frisbee! I'll admit that I'm biased, since Defenders was one of my favorite series of the Bronze Age. 

The final story, from Marvel Two-In-One Annual #3, also written by Wolfman, isn't that great either.  The Monitors are generic aliens and Milandra isn't particularly interesting. But I enjoyed the interaction between Nova and the Thing. Wolfman wrote the Fantastic Four in the late-70s and always had a good grasp of Ben Grimm's character. I think it would've worked better as a regular issue of Marvel Two-In-One, rather than an "annual-length" story.  

Art:

Sal Buscema pencils the first few issues reprinted here, delivering his usual high quality Bronze Age work. Carmine Infantino takes over after that and I don't have a problem with Infantino's art here. It reminds of his pencils in Star Wars, but Buscema and Infantino had such different styles at the time that the change is quite jarring.    

Buscema also penciled the stories from Defenders and Marvel Two-In-One Annual. He's inked by several different inkers. Some inkers work better than others with Sal's pencils here, but Buscema gives us plenty of entertaining fight scenes.  

Nova is attacked by Spider-Man, Hulk & Iron Man...
or are they robot versions of the heroes?

Keith Pollard and Bob Hall penciled the story reprinted from Fantastic Four Annual #12, with inks by Bob Wiacek. Their art is okay, not great but not terrible either.

How Does It Look?:

Here's a scan from a copy of Nova #16, courtesy of supermegamonkey:

And here's how it looks in the tpb:

Extras:

Several pages of original art.

Nova Classic Vol. 2 is a bit of a disappointment, since the first volume was a lot of fun. But the solid art from Sal Buscema makes up for some of the lackluster stories. I'm a huge fan of the Defenders, which earns this tpb a half-Sal more than I would've otherwise given. But if you're not a Defenders fan, you probably won't enjoy this tpb. 

J.A. Morris' rating:   

 .5                

2 and a half Sals.