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.

Captain America and the Falcon: The Secret Empire

Reprints Captain America and The Falcon #169-176
Written by Steve Englehart.
Penciled by Sal Buscema.
Inked by Vince Colletta.

Captain America, known as Steve Rogers in his personal life, has always fought  for his country and pushed it to uphold its ideals.

Left: Falcon talks about his desire for super powers;
Right: Cap watches Harderman's campaign ad.

Cap is flabbergasted when he sees a campaign ad that attacks him. It's narrated by an advertising wizard named Quentin Harderman. It paints the superhero as an out of control vigilante who acts as a law unto himself.  The ad is sponsored by an organization called the Committee to Regain America's Principles. They believe Captain America is a serious threat to the American way of life. In reality, the Committee is a front for the criminal organization that calls itself the Secret Empire!

At the same time, Captain America's partner the Falcon (known as Sam Wilson when he's not fighting bad guys) is feeling like a fifth wheel. He doesn't believe he's pulling his weight in his crime-fighting partnership with Cap and is in search of more power. He takes off for the African nation of Wakanda.  The Black Panther, Wakanda's monarch, has promised to help Falcon become more powerful. 

After watching the ad, Captain America decides to confront Harderman face-to-face at his office.  Harderman says he'll back off his campaign if Cap will participate in a charity boxing match. But when Cap shows up for the bout, he recognizes his opponent as his old enemy, the Tumbler! Captain America chases the Tumbler, but the villain suddenly dies when Cap grabs him. Harderman (who is responsible for Tumbler's death) immediately blames Cap and labels him a murderer. The public quickly turns on Captain America, which deeply hurts the Avenger.

Cap is defeated by Moonstone, whom
Harderman then declares a hero.

Branded a criminal, Captain America is attacked by a man who calls himself Moonstone. He has super-strengh, eye-blasts and the ability to disappear and reappear at will. Cap is distracted, under stress, and is easily defeated by Moonstone in a short battle. Harderman is there to praise Moonstone and declares him a hero.

The next morning, Captain America wakes up in a jail cell. He is freed by a jailbreak, but it's part of the Secret Empire's plan to demonize Cap, who is now a fugitive.

Falcon gets wings, while Captain America is busted out of jail.

When the Falcon returns from Wakanda, he is wearing a winged harness (built by the Black Panther) that allows him to fly. He arrives in New York just in time to help Captain America prove his innocence. After another failed battle with Moonstone, the heroic duo escapes and is forced underground. Through some "detective" work, they theorize that Moonstone is from Nashville and hitchhike to the Music City.

When they arrive in Nashville, the heroic duo is attacked by the sonic scream of the Banshee! He thinks Cap and Falcon are mutant hunters. Their brief battle is broken up by Professor X, Marvel Girl, and Cyclops of the X-Men. They learn that in addition to framing Captain America, the Secret Empire has been hunting down and capturing mutants. Cap and Falc gain new allies, the X-Men will help them take down the Secret Empire.  Captain America is very grateful to have the X-Men stand with him against their common foe.

Before they can tackle the Empire, they're surrounded by Nick Fury, who's accompanied by (in Fury's words) "the pride o' S.H.I.E.L.D. and maybe half o' the Tennessee State Police!"  But the heroes are able to escape without harming Fury or any of the agents.

The heroes pull off a daring escape from Fury & S.H.I.E.L.D.

Using disguises, Falcon and Captain America eventually infiltrate the Secret Empire. They come face to face with the Empire's leader, who is known only as Number One.

Sam and Steve go undercover & wind up the Secret Empire's hideout.

Cap, Falcon and the X-Men team up and battle the Secret Empire. The final battle takes place on the White House lawn, where Captain America learns a shocking secret about Number One.

It turns out the Secret Empire has ties to the highest levels of power in the United States. This makes Steve Rogers very disillusioned about his country and he questions his desire to remain Captain America.
Could this be the end of his career as Captain America?

As if that's not enough, Falcon and Black Panther team up to stop the crimelord known as Stoneface. Plus, appearances by Captain America's Avengers teammates Iron Man, Thor and the Vision!
J.A. Morris says:

This is one of the definitive arcs of Captain America's 73-year history, and one of the best multi-part sagas of the Bronze Age.

Story:
Steve Englehart writes a great story here, filled with action and drama. It's one of Englehart's crowning achievements. We see the very symbol of America's ideals libeled as a murderer, stripped of his assets and forced to hitchhike to get around.  

The Secret Empire contains an almost perfect mix of action and drama. We get one great fight scene after another. In between, we see Steve slowly losing his faith in his country. The last issue reprinted here consists of nothing but Cap talking to his friends (and himself) about whether or not he will continue his crime-fighting career. But like the rest of the book, it makes for great reading.

Falcon and Black Panther take battle Stoneface.

The way the American public turns on Cap is believable. Harderman is shown to be an expert at telling "The Big Lie."  It's been said that the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. This has been proven in real life more than once, and it works here for Harderman and the Secret Empire.

Falcon tries to talk Cap out of quitting.

Though Captain America is the main focus, his co-star the Falcon gets a good subplot with the trip to Wakanda. Giving Falcon the power of flight was a nice, long overdue improvement on the character.

One thing that makes this saga special is the villains. Most of them are B- and C-list criminals.  Harderman and Moonstone are one-shot villains. The Secret Empire appeared in a few more stories before and after this, but they've never been heavy hitters in the Marvel Universe. It's interesting that the villains that make Cap question his future as a hero have no ties to his arch foes (Red Skull, Zemo, etc). Behind the scenes, we're shown that the original Viper worked with Harderman to begin the campaign against Captain America. While Tumbler existed before this story, his only prior appearance was 8 years before this story. It's to Englehart's credit that I read this story more than once before I noticed its lack of major villains.

The original X-Men's appearance here is also worth noting. This story took place when the X-Men comic book series was nothing but a reprint title. The mutants made sporadic guest appearances in other series between 1970 and 1975. During that time, Englehart wrote solo stories that featured the Beast in Amazing Adventures. Englehart does a nice job tying those stories to the Secret Empire storyline as well. A year or so after this story, the X-Men series was revived and they went on to become the most popular superhero team of all time.

It may seem silly to say this about a 40-year-old story, but I won't "spoil" who is behind Number One's mask. Since I have a degree in History (minor in Poli-Sci!), I should point out that Harderman's name is a reference to H.R. Haldeman, Chief Of Staff in the Nixon White House, who was convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal. And Harderman's Committe to Restore America's Principals is an obvious reference to the Nixon campaign's Committee for the Re-Election of the President.

Number One's speech is interrupted by Captain America, and Moonstone gets run through a tree!

Art:
Penciler Sal Buscema and inker Vince Colletta make a great art team here. It's some of their best work. I've mentioned in other reviews that Colletta is far from my favorite inker, often over-inking and obscuring the pencilers. But he's great here, an asset to Buscema. And Sal draws many great battle and action scenes in The Secret Empire.

How does it look:

Great, as all pages scanned and posted above will demonstrate.  Here's one more:

Mutants good & evil are attached to a machine that siphons their brain energy!

Captain America and the Falcon:The Secret Empire is highly recommended to fans of Bronze Age stories and all Captain America fans. It's a product of (and a reaction to) Watergate-era America, but it's also a great story that's still highly entertaining four decades later.

J.A. Morris's rating:

4 Sals!


Coming tomorrow, Part 2 of this blog's first ever two-part review! Check back here for my review of the tpb that reprints the follow-up to the Secret Empire saga!