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.

Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #1, Spectacular Spider-Man #42, Fantastic Four #218, Marvel Team-Up #100, 132-133 and Untold Tales Of Spider-Man Annual 1996.

Peter Parker goes on a cruise to Liberty Island with his fellow Empire State University graduate students. While on the ferry, he sees a message from the Human Torch, asking Spider-Man meet him at the Statue Of Liberty.

Peter & the ESU gang go on a cruise;
Bottom left: Mike Zeck (who penciled this image) makes a "cameo".

But when the wall-crawler arrives, he is attacked by "the Torch", who turns out turns out to be Spidey's old villain Electro in disguise.

We learn that Electro is not alone. He's the newest member of the Frightful Four! His teammates Wizard, Trapster and Sandman join in and easily take Spider-Man captive. Spidey is imprisoned in the Trapster's super-paste.

But the Frightful Four aren't finished yet. They attack the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four. The villains manage to take down the Thing, Invisible Girl and Human Torch. They've got Reed Richards in trouble, when suddenly Spidey is able to break free and help Mr. Fantastic. Will Spider-Man and Reed be able to defeat the Frightful Four?

Shortly after that adventure, Spider-Man is swinging through New York when he's mentally possessed by someone. We observe a teenage girl on a rooftop who is amazed by how it feels to climb walls. The possessed Spidey is forced to attack a charity party held in a luxury apartment, where he tries to take two young children away from their uncle. The Fantastic Four are attending the party and try to stop Spider-Man.

When they fail, a young man named Tran intervenes. He tries to possess Spider-Man as well, enabling the FF to restrain the webhead. Spidey wakes up with no memory of the fight.

The Fantastic Four team up with Spider-Man and try to find out who possessed him. With the help of Professor X's Cerebro machine, they find the girl. We learn she is a Vietnamese immigrant named Xi'an Coy Manh. She tells the heroes that the kids at the party are her younger brother and sister, Leong and Nga. Their uncle Nguyen is a gangster and is holding the younger siblings against their will. Xi'an's brother Tran also has the ability to possess people but uses it for evil.

Will the combined might of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four be enough to stop Tran?

Months later, Reed is visited by a young man named Larry Ekler. Through flashbacks, we Larry's father Milton was a close friend of Reed. Larry grew up calling him "Uncle Reed." Milton believed in achieving the American Dream through hard work, but he was never able to pull himself out of poverty.

Reed looks back on Larry Ekler's life.

Milton's early death drove Larry insane and he became a costumed criminal called Everyman, declaring himself a hero for the working poor. Everyman killed two policeman before he was defeated by Captain America. Reed wonders how Larry got out of the metal institution where he was being treated.

Larry puts on a featureless mask and calls himself Everyman once again. Reed is shocked when Everyman attacks him and shows off his new super-strength. Everyman stuns Reed with a weapon called the Absorbascann that drains Reed's power.

Everyman then battles the police at the New York Public Library.  When Spidey and Mr. Fantastic arrive, Everyman overpowers them with brute force. But Reed is able to briefly reason with Larry, showing him the errors of his ways. Everyman runs away feeling terrible about what he's done.

Reed is determined to bring Everyman to justice. But we learn that Larry is not the real menace here.  He's being mentally manipulated and controlled by Dr. Faustus, an evil psychiatrist.  Reed sets out to capture Larry and Faustus, but his primary opponent in the battle will be his own mind and memories.

Review:
The stories reprinted in this fairly slim volume aren't classics (despite the title), but I enjoyed them. I can think of a few more Bronze Age team-ups of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four that could've been featured here, but I'll focus on what's in the book.

Story:
Bill Mantlo wrote the Frightful Four story and it's a good one. I've always been a big fan of the evil FF.  It makes sense to have the Frightful Four go after Spider-Man, since Sandman and Wizard had battled both the Fantastic Four and the wallcrawler. Mantlo scripts a very funny scene near the end where the Thing taunts Trapster over his former alias, 'Paste Pot Pete'.

The Frightful Four easily take out the Liberty Island police.

The next story, written by Chris Claremont is also good. The Vietnam War had been over for less than ten years. It was interesting to see the Vietnamese immigrant experience depicted in a Bronze Age comic. Claremont would bring back Xi'an Coy Manh as a member of the New Mutants a couple years later, giving this story some "historical" significance. 

J.M. DeMatteis, one of my favorite writers of the 80s, penned the portion that features Everyman taking on Reed & Spider-Man. Everyman was created by DeMatteis in a Captain America story and he's an interesting villain. His arguments about the American Dream (and those who can't achieve it) have some validity, but his methods, as Spider-Man says, stink. 

Art:
The art is excellent here, featuring some of the best pencilers of the Bronze Age.

Mike Zeck pencils the first part of the Frightful Four story. Jim Mooney inks Zeck and they're a great art team.

The next portion features John Byrne inked by Joe Sinnott, the regular art team on the FF at the time.  Sinnott tended to be a "heavy" inker, but I've always thought his inks worked well over Byrne's art. Byrne and Sinnott together were a wonderful combination of old school and (then) new school art.

Frank Miller and Bob Wiacek provide the art in the first Marvel Team-Up story. I don't recall Wiacek inking Miller elsewhere, but they work great together here. Here's a great scan that features Xi'an's story of how she became aware of her powers:

Sal Buscema pencils the Everyman story, with inks by Mike Esposito. This isn't their best work, Esposito inks are a little overpowering at times. But their work is still pretty good, demonstrated by the image below:

How does it look?:

The comics reprinted here look fine, with no odd recoloring. Here's another scan that shows how great the pages look:
 

I love the expression on Wizard's face in the center, great work by Byrne & Sinnott!

Extras:
This book opens with the classic, first ever meeting of Spidey and the FF, from Amazing Spider-Man #1. It closes with a story published in the 90s.  

Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic is a fun read, featuring some stories I enjoyed 30 years ago and enjoy just as much now and it features some of my favorite writers and artists of the Bronze Age. But as I said above, it's a thin book, which keeps it from getting a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Avengers: Falcon

Reprints The Falcon #1-4, Captain America #117-119, Marvel Premiere #49, Falcon back-up stories from Captain America #220, 276-278
Written by Christopher Priest (writing as Jim Owsley) , Mark Evanier, Scott Edelman, J.M.DeMatteis and Stan Lee.
Penciled by Paul Smith, Mark Bright, Sal Buscema, Mike Zeck, Gene Colan.
Inked by Vince Colletta, Mike Gustovich, Joe Sinnott, Dave Simons, Al Gordon, John Beatty and Josef Rubenstein.


Sam Wilson fights crime as the Falcon and works as a Social Worker in poor neighborhoods of  Harlem. He's accompanied by Redwing, his trained Falcon. Falcon is helped out by Sgt. Francis Tork of the NYPD. Tork respects Falcon, but they have very different approaches to law enforcement.

In addition to battling crimnals, Falcon spends lots of time counseling gang members, encouraging them to reject violent "solutions" to the problems in their neighborhood. One gang called the Legion is trying to move from gang fights to more productive, peaceful methods of problem solving.

Tork, Falcon & Redwing battle Nemesis.

Daryl Kane, a landlord and developer with a shady reputation is building new housing projects in Harlem. Falcon doesn't trust him and says the new buildings will be constructed with shoddy materials. But the buildings are attacked by a supervillain who calls himself Nemesis. Falcon, with some assistance from a member of the Legion, defeats Nemesis, but the villain's identity comes as a bit of a surprise.

Sometime later, Falcon is flying over New York when he is captured by a mutant-hunting Sentinel robot. The Falcon finds himself somewhere in Upstate New York. At the same time, a riot breaks out in Harlem between the police and the Legion. 

Left:The Legion tells Falcon they're done with crime;
Right:Falcon is attacked by a Sentinel!

Following that, the supervillain Electro returns to New York. He's hiding out in Harlem, but is paranoid and convinced the Falcon has found him. Electro decides to kill Falcon so he can't capture him and send him back to jail.

While Electro is at large, Pres. Ronald Reagan makes a fact-finding visit to Harlem. The Legion attacks the Presidential Motorcade and in the chaos, Reagan disappears. When the Falcon goes searching for the President, he's attacked by Electro. A brief battle leaves them both unconscious. But Electro wakes up and goes searching for the President. Falcon's old partner, Captain America, shows up and helps Tork look for Reagan.

Shortly after battling Electro, Sam Wilson decides to hang up his Falcon wings and run for Congress.  But Sam's candidacy is damaged by a Daily Bugle article that unearths Sam's petty criminal past, when he was known as "Snap" Wilson.

We learn that Snap is a separate personality that Sam has repressed, and he's struggling to understand who he is. Will this kill his chances of winning election to Congress?

But that's not all!

Falcon attends a soiree at the Bodavian embassy.

Falcon is invited to a party at the Bodavian embassy. The atmosphere is already hostile when a gunman breaks into the embassy. He calls himself the Silencer. His gun shoots a ray that renders people mute. Silencer captures Sigjid Roskoff, a famous Bodavian orator. Falcon pursues Silencer, but Roskoff is killed.

Roskoff wrote a note before he died. Falcon thinks it contains an anagram that reveals the killer. The Falcon becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of Roskoff's death. J. Jonah Jameson and Robbie Robertson of the Daily Bugle also try to decipher the anagram. 

Lastly, Mortimer Freebish, a wannabee supervillain armed with a crossbow, captures Redwing and tells Falcon to meet him at midnight. Will the Falcon be able to rescue Redwing and defeat Freebish?

Freebish captures Redwing.

Review:
Avengers: Falcon is a fun, if sometimes silly, tpb. In case anyone is wondering, Jim Owsley, who wrote the bulk of this book, has since changed his name to Christopher Priest, so I'll refer to him by that name in this review.

Falcon & Redwing rescue people from a burning building.

Story:
The first 4 issues are from the miniseries written by Priest, and it gets off to a good start. We get a nice balance of Sam Wilson, testifying in court as a Social Worker in the daytime, and Falcon fighting a supervillain at night. It has a good mix of "real life" problems such as poverty, arson and street gangs in Harlem and attacks by Electro and a Sentinel.

I enjoyed the interactions between Falcon and Sgt. Tork. They have very different philosophies of how to fight crime. But Tork is never demonized in the story. 

What didn't work was the kidnapping of Pres. Reagan. Even when I read this 30 years ago, this felt a bit silly. This story was published about two-and-a-half years after Reagan was shot. I can't buy that mere non-superpowered gang members could succeed in capturing a President surrounded by Secret Service.  Yes, it's silly to look for realism in superhero stories, but I think it's a fair criticism if the story is attempting to "make a statement" about social issues. On the whole, Priest writes a good story and it's obvious that he cares for and respects the Falcon as a character. 

The "Sam Wilson runs for Congress" arc was originally published as back-up stories in Captain America #276-278 and written by J.M. De Matteis. One of the worst things that was done to the Falcon was giving him the "Snap" Wilson backstory. De Matteis attempts to rehabilitate Sam and does the best he can with a damaged character.

The other two stories are standalones.

Mark Evanier wrote the story about Silencer and the Bodavians. It's a good old fashioned murder mystery, with Falcon playing detective. I enjoyed the way Evanier included J. Jonah Jameson and Joe "Robbie" Robertson in this story. It's always interesting to see supporting characters from one superhero's series interact with different heroes. Evanier (whose blog 'Newsfromme' is part of my daily reading), is a prolific writer of tv shows and comics, but he didn't write many superhero stories during the Bronze Age. This Falcon solo tale makes me wish he had.

Falcon believes an anagram will solve a murder;JJJ and Robbie Robertson have a similar theory.

The story that features Mortimer Freebish was written by Scott Edelman. It's short, funny and demonstrates how important Redwing is to Sam Wilson. I also liked the fact that it took place in Washington Square Park. I'm a big fan of stories that take advantage of New York City landmarks.

Art:
We get a bunch of different pencilers and inkers in Avengers: Falcon. I'd say the art is all pretty good.

Paul Smith draws the first issue reprinted in the book and it looks great. He's inked by Vince Colletta who does a nice job without over-inking Smith.

Electro zaps Falcon.

Mark Bright and Mike Gustovich take over as the art team for the rest of the miniseries. They give us some nice solid artwork. I especially enjoyed Falcon's fight scenes with Electro and the Sentinel. The only problem I had was their depiction of Ronald Reagan. Not a very good likeness.

Falcon & Captain America rescue Ronald Reagan.

Sal Buscema and Dave Simons did a great job on the Bodavian story. Bob Budiansky, inked by Al Gordon, make for a good team on the five-pager that features Mortimer Freebish. I liked the silly "arrow" costume worn by the hapless villain.

Mike Zeck, inked by John Beatty and Josef Rubenstein, penciled the story that involves the resurfacing of Sam's "Snap Wilson" personality. Zeck was one of the best artists who ever worked on Captain America and his work looks great when embellished by likes of Beatty and Rubenstein.   

How Does It Look?:
I've looked at a couple of the original stories. It looks like everything is faithfully reprinted. Here's a nice scan from the "Silencer" part of the book:

Extras:
The most important "extra" feature is the three-part story that introduced the Falcon (from Captain America 117-119), written by Stan Lee and penciled by Gene Colan. It was published near the end of the Silver Age (1969, to be exact), so I won't review it. But I'd never read the first appearance of the Falcon, so I'm glad it was included. It also contains Falcon's entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. We get three essays from Christopher Priest about why he wanted to write stories that featured the Falcon. The tpb also includes several pages of original art.

Avengers: Falcon is a good introduction to the Falcon, and fans who enjoyed these issues back in the 70s and 80s will appreciate the new, glossy reprints of the stories.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.