When we last saw the Avengers, it was at the end of Fantastic Four #150 — the second half of a crossover with Avengers #127 in which both of Marvel’s premiere super-teams came together in the Great Refuge of the Inhumans to celebrate the wedding of the one-time FFer Crystal to the inactive Avenger Quicksilver.
The next issue of Avengers, #128, picked up directly from that two-parter’s events, as behind a cover by Gil Kane and John Romita, writer Steve Englehart and artists Sal Buscema and Joe Staton opened with a scene of the Avengers and Fantastic Four arriving together back in New York, via Avengers quintet. (Just why the two groups were now traveling together, when Avengers #127 had clearly established that they’d made the journey to Attilan separately, was never explained. Maybe the FF lent their own ship to the newlyweds for their honeymoon?)
But after landing on the rooftop of Avengers Mansion, the travelers had barely disembarked from their craft when they were suddenly attacked by a lightning storm — right at the stroke of midnight:
As it turned out, not only did Agatha Harkness know exactly who was behind the attack — she herself was its target. After bringing the storm to a complete halt with a magic spell, the witch went on to explain:
The Scarlet Witch’s getting interested in learning about real magic (or “magick”) must have seemed like a natural development to Steve Englehart, who was himself genuinely interested in the subject; still, I wonder if even he had any idea what a watershed moment this would prove to be for Wanda Maximoff.
Of course, having this development occur at this particular time worked well in adding yet another complication to the increasingly strained relations between Wanda and her lover, the VisIon — as would become evident in the very next scene, where, after getting Miss Harkness settled in to her quarters at the Mansion, Wanda was approached by Vizh, who hoped to make up with her following a recent argument… only to have Wanda brush him off in deference to her brand new mentor, who demanded that she stay with her until morning, to help her meet the anticipated next magical assault.
Said assault came mere moments after Miss Harkness cast a spell that sealed her room off from the rest of the house; first, there was a bright flash of light, and when it faded…
This was the second appearance for the nefarious Necrodamus, who’d been introduced by Englehart and Buscema back in Defenders #1 (Aug., 1972). There, he’d been in the service of the extradimensional demonic entities known as the Undying Ones, and had plotted to sacrifice the Sub-Mariner to his masters in the interest of gaining himself a bigger, buffer body. Stymied in his aims by Marvel’s premier non-team, he’d fled, vowing to return the next time the stars were properly aligned — which had now happened.
Declaring his intention to sacrifice the soul of Agatha Harkness to secure his own permanent transformation, Necrodamus bulked up (something the stellar alignment allowed him to do for a limited period) and went on the attack. Miss Harkness’ not-quite-an-ordinary house cat, Ebony, leapt to her defense in the form of a giant, panther-like creature, but was quickly subdued by the evil sorcerer…
Meanwhile, just across the hall, the Scarlet Witch unleashed two hexes against Necrodamus in quick succession, but they barely slowed him down…
Instantly, Necrodamus was swept up by a mystical whirlwind made up of the spirits long imprisoned inside the box — spirits whose escape back to their netherworld would, according to the sorcerer, drag everyone else along in their wake. He screamed, and then vanished; and, for a moment, it appeared that Wanda would meet the same fate…
You may have noticed that in covering the events of Avengers #128 here, I’ve done a good bit of synopsizing of the “main”, action-oriented plotline involving Necrodamus, while allowing the quieter, character-oriented stuff to play out more or less as it was originally presented on the page. That’s in part because the action, as entertaining as it is, is simply easier to summarize than the dialogue-rich scenes of the story — but it’s also due to the fact that the personal interaction material is where this issue’s greatest dramatic interest lies, at least for this reader. Certainly, the developments chronicled here involving the relationships between the Swordsman, Mantis, the Vision, and the Scarlet Witch will prove to have considerably more impact down the road than Agatha Harkness’ lively, but possibly ultimately gratuitous “test” of the latter hero.
In any event, we’ve now come at last to August, 1974, and to Avengers #129 — which, behind its cover by Ron Wilson and Al Milgrom, quite naturally picks up exactly where #128’s cliffhanger left off…
Just for the record, although the footnote attributed to “Historian Roy” is arguably accurate in indicating that the Avengers’ most recent “personal encounter” with Kang the Conqueror was back in issue #71, the team had in fact fought what looked like Kang, but was eventually revealed to be an empty costume manipulated by the time-traveling villain, in the more recent Marvel Team-Up #9-11; in that 1973 storyline, our heroes (who on that occasion also included Spider-Man and the Inhumans) never met the real Kang face to face, though they did have to listen to his gloating voice over a speaker.
The Macrobots — who collectively represent a new and supposedly improved version of the Stimuloid (aka the Growing Man) who was previously employed by Kang in Thor #140 and Avengers #69 — take down Earth’s Mightiest Heroes with remarkable speed. A triumphant Kang then proceeds to declare his intention to the police officers and other onlookers who can otherwise only stand by helplessly:
Taking to the skies in the Avengers’ quinjet, the Swordsman continues to brood over “his” Mantis…
Indeed, he gets so caught up in his ruminations that, before he knows it, he’s virtually arrived at his destination — and has inadvertently violated Egyptian airspace in the process. After taking fire from military fighter jets, he’s forced to make a rough landing — though thankfully not so rough that he’s unable to walk away from it…
Kang continues his tale for his captive audience, recapping the key points of Avengers #8 (the story where he was first called Kang) as well as those of Fantastic Four #19 (his actual first appearance, under the name of Rama-Tut), wrapping up with his explanation of why, after subjugating the Earth of the 41st century, he turned his attention to our own era: “…I wearied of ruling serfs! I needed fresh conquests, over more virile men — and thus, I began my campaign against the twentieth century!”
As he closes with his foe, the Swordsman immediately begins to imagine himself in the role of one of the monster-fighting fantasy heroes of pulp author Robert E. Howard (the creator of Conan the Barbarian, though that character isn’t actually name-dropped… perhaps because he was actually a part of the Marvel Universe at this time). It makes for a moment that’s at once both genuinely poignant and a little pathetic — the latter coming through especially when the vampire ignores the Avenger’s putting his blade through its throat, and knocks him over backwards. The Swordsman cries out in anguish — and his cry is heard by the platoon of Egyptian soldiers who’ve been dispatched to bring him in. Following his voice to its source, the unfortunate men become the new prey of the vampire, who very reasonably opts for a bigger meal over a smaller one…
Kang explains to Thor, Iron Man, and the Vision that over the last three hours, the rays of his device have paralyzed them so thoroughly that they’ll be unable to make the least resistance to the next step in his paln — placing them inside the mechanical bodies of his Macrobots, so that they’ll serve as living superpower batteries — as Kang prepares “to begin World War III!”
To paraphrase Steve Englehart’s closing caption, this is where we’ll have to take a break for now… but we’ll be back in two weeks, when we’ll find the writer joined by artist Dave Cockrum as the story continues in Giant-Size Avengers #2. I hope to see you then.
Ha! I have this book sitting in my reading box…so I’m going to pop away for 30 minutes and read it and that brings up an interesting question for all you fine blog readers: when you see Alan’s email enter your inbox and you own the issue do you revisit the book before reading Alan’s work or you like to read the article and let your memories flow back whilst scrolling through Alan’s prose?
All I know are the word’s of a very wise man (and comic creator) named Mel Taylor: I like reading about comics books nearly as much as I like reading comic books!
Definitely the latter, let the memories flow from 50 years ago, though I have of course re-read them since then.
OMG, Madonna? I didn’t know she was even a thing back then!
I loved this run, though unlike Spider I’m not rushing out to reread it (but someday soon …). Still love it when I do reread it. Having read more of Kang’s earlier appearances it feels like this is the first time his mask looked like a mask rather than a blue face.
The Macrobots turned out to be easier to defeat than the Growing Men, but even a 40th century warlord can’t hit the nose on the head every time.
IIRC I did pick up the Giant-Sized sequel first. It wasn’t confusing but it definitely gained being read the right way, as I’ve done several times since.
Very enjoyable analysis, as always…and yet I think what I enjoyed most was the gaffe about *Super-Giant Avengers* #2 at the end of *Avengers* #128. (We find the correct title, *Giant-Size Avengers #2,* at the start of #129.)
The 100-page (counting covers, natch!) books may never have come into being at Marvel, but somebody must have thought that they would.
I hope it’s not too early for some poetry:
Wandering between two worlds, one dead,
The other powerless to be born,
With nowhere yet to rest my head,
Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.
Their faith, my tears, the world deride—
I come to shed them at their side.
(Matthew Arnold, “Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse”)
Wow, was it really 50 years ago that one of my all-time favorite story arcs in comics began? The Celestial Madonna fan was the pinnacle of high-action/high-drama, adventure/soap opera in comics. The central core relationships of Vision-Scarelet Witch-Mantis-Swordsman exploded with an emotional intensity that was new in comics. Mantis was already a favorite character of mine, and adding some flaws to the incredible skills she had already displayed just made her all the more fascinating for me. And the growth in the Scarlet Witch’s character was so welcomed. The upcoming Giant-sized Avengers #2 was one of the many high points.
I look forward to following along your journey through this saga, and I hope you enjoyed it even half as much as this then-12-year-old did. So excited to get to relive this through your reminisences.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the ride, Michael — and my apologies for allowing your post to languish a few hours in the “spam” folder where WordPress erroneously sent it. (I have no idea why… grrrrr.)
Thanks, Alan — and sorry I think I submitted three replies because it didn’t show up right away. Not sure why it went to spam either!
This issue was where I started collecting the title. Pretty good place to start, but a bit beyond me at the tender age of 9. Solid art by the Buscema/Staton team, and Englehart’s dialogue holds up pretty well. The Swordsman’s disintegration after Mantis’s rejection is some powerful stuff. Looking forward to your summary of the 30-page conclusion in Giant-Size Avengers #2!
I had to wait quite a number of years before obtaining G-S Avengers #2 myself (and same for issues 3 & 4), but I got all the regular issues involved in this saga. I’d read the reprint of the Swordsman’s introduction in Marvel Triple Action about a year earlier, although I hadn’t yet read any of his subsequent appearances as a villain for hire in later issues of the Avengers, including the first King-Size issue and in a Captain America story in Tales of Suspense.
Having long since read those, his character arc is interesting. In Avengers 19 & 20, Lee writes him as clearly a villain but still with a spark of decency that prevents him from going through with following the Mandarin’s orders to destroy the Avengers. But in later appearances, Lee & Thomas write him pretty much in pure villain mode. Reduced to repeated flunkydom, as was the fate of so many other grade D baddies, but as seemingly irredeemably nasty and capable of murder for profit or power as any other. However, then, when Thomas is writing Avengers #100 with the idea of bringing in everyone who has ever been an Avenger (aside from the then “deceased” Wonder Man), he can’t help but include Swordsman, who however deceitfully, briefly and dishonorably he had served, had still been among their ranks. And in that tale, Thomas writes the Swordsman as genuinely intending to do his part for the greater good, with no obvious underlying selfish scheme to enrich himself. Thus, Lee & Thomas had both touched on Swordsman’s contradictory nature. Mostly a selfish, greedy bastard, but still with some smidgen of goodness.
Englehart clearly picked up on that in later bringing Swordsman into the team for real this time. I know Englehart’s ideas as to what to do with Mantis shifted over the course of the period while he was writing her in the mag, but I haven’t read as to how far out he planned out what he would do with the Swordsman over these same issues. He certainly put poor old Jacques Duquesne (a name that as far as I know wasn’t bestowed upon him until much later) through a lot of physical and psychological trauma, starting with him being shot in the back during the Avengers/Defenders clash. in issue #117. Despite all that, Swordsman remained genuinely committed to doing his best to be a hero, in his all-too-often blundering way.
Even as an 11-12 year old kid reading all this 50 years ago, all that human drama involving Swordsman, Mantis, Vision and Wanda, really sucked me into these stories, much more than the action, although I liked that too. Funny to note that upon their first meeting, Wanda & Mantis became friends rather quickly, but by this point they’d become bitter rivals as Mantis abandoned Swordsman to put the make on Vision, who for all his highly “logical” outlook, couldn’t make sense of it all. But then, as evidenced by that famous full page panel by John Buscema in the story wherein Vizh became an Avenger, he’s as capable of being torn by emotions as anyone else. He most definitely was not Mr. Spock in that regard! But although he couldn’t fully comprehend Wanda’s growing anger over the situation, he remained fully committed to her and resisted Mantis’ temptation. And Wanda herself had to provide a comforting shoulder to Swordsman as he was emotionally breaking down in front of her.
Back to the Swordman in this issue, he’s still the hardluck hero, only able to locate his captured teammates thanks to Angela Harkness’ magic, and although he gained entrance to the pyramid entirely through his own skill, he only survived the attack by the monster vampire through the intervention of the Egyptian military who had arrived to arrest him but instead became Amenhotep’s victims themselves before the vampire unwittingly destroyed himself by going out into the direct sunlight. And then, just as Swordsman seems on the verge of taking Kang out and becoming the hero of the day, he’s interrupted – by the man we readers had just been reminded was supposed to be a younger version of Kang himself! Wha???
Well, my younger self was definitely upset that I couldn’t get the conclusion to this part of the story back in August 1974 but at least I eventually did and much enjoyed it. Of course, that part of the discourse will have to wait until your eagerly awaited upcoming segment on that issue, Alan!
I’m not familiar with Agatha’s stint in Fantastic Four — my impression is that Englehart showed her as much more powerful than Lee/Kirby did. Is that correct?
Hmm, I dunno about that — in her debut appearance, she took out the Frightful Four pretty much single-handedly (well, Ebony helped). While the upper limit to her powers weren’t spelled out either there or in her later FF appearances preceding this storyline, I don’t recall feeling at the time that Englehart had given her a big upgrade.
At the end of *Fantastic Four* #123, it’s Agatha Harkness’s magic which allows Mister Fantastic to announce to the world that the threat of Galactus is no more.
So I’m with you on feeling that her abilities in *The Avengers* aren’t inconsistent with those displayed earlier.
Agreed that Englehart did a fantastic job writing the Swordsman, simultaneously making him into a hard-luck loser who the reader nevertheless had a great deal of sympathy for. Even though he’s always failing, you can’t help rooting for the guy. It’s one of the main reasons why I found Englehart’s run on Avengers to be so compelling.
I find it mildly interesting that at the same time Kang is making his rise as one of Marvel’s pre-eminent villains in the 70’s, fifty years later, he’s experiencing a fall from grace in the 2020’s due to the poor casting choices of the MCU and the poor life choices of actor Jonathan Majors. I’m sure Kang will bounce back in the comics, but it’s a shame we won’t get any more of the self-styled Conqueror of Time at the movies.
As for this story, you have to wonder if Kang’s quest to find the Dawn Star and the Celestial Madonna also required him to show up at that manger in Bethlehem two thousand years earlier to check out the original “World’s Best Mom?” I’m sure he didn’t, since Kang is fixated on the 20th Century and not the first (or fourth, as the case may be), but Englehart certainly isn’t being subtle here.
Speaking of sublety, I agree with you, Alan, that the deeply personaly moments here, where Wanda becomes a student of Agatha Harkness, Mantis finally dumping the Swordsman, and more importantly, then throwing herself at Vision, were much more impactful and significant to the stories of all those characters moving forward. It’s clear that the scene between Mantis and Vision is the one Englehart cared about, since that’s the one he gave room to grow and develop naturally, while scenes involving Agatha and the Richards, Mantis and Swordsman and Wanda and Agatha were given scant attention, if any at all. The scene between Vision and Mantis was phenomenally well-written and paced, so much so that you not only wish comics had room to give all personal relationships that kind of room to breathe, but that you also realized Vizh and Mantis would probably make a good couple with their similar pasts and quests of identity and meaning.
After having his heart cut out so ironically by Mantis, and the almost deadly snit-fit he had in the halls of the Avengers Mansion, Swordsman did manage to redeem himself quite well, though thank god for Agatha Harkness to guide him along the way. Englehart also gives Swordsman a nice character beat, when rather than mourn the Egyptian soldiers who died for him against Amen-Hotep, he was simply grateful that he, himself was still alive. A natural reaction for someone not that far removed from his more selfish, villainous past. Thanks, Alan. I look forward to Giant-Size Avengers #2 and the conclusion of this story.
This also brought to my mind the perhaps unintentional parallel between Swordsman and Kang. Lee had also written Kang to possibly have the capacity for goodness for the sake of Ravonna’s love, but Thomas later showed Kang’s evil nature overwhelming his capacity for love when he chose the possibility of destroying the Avengers rather than restore Ravonna’s life & health. But as Englehart was about to delve into, there were many other possible aspects to Kang, much to the disgust of the version of Kang who beat the Avengers so easily in this story.
While it’s not specifically stated, I think Kang was always planning to shiv the Avengers. The Grandmaster’s statement that instead of the power of life and death he has to pick one implies that with a clean win Kang would have been able to kill and resurrect. Presumably he’d have offed the Assemblers with one hand, restored Ravonna with the other.
Englehart giving him more complexity was good, as you say. I do love his line about how his battles with the Avengers “will occupy at least a chapter in my memoirs.”
the Staton inks, Mantlo (!) coloring and Orzechowski lettering all helped make this part of the Englehart/Buscema shine.
wish this art team had done the epic Giant Avengers #4. still aggravated about that in 2024 ¯_(ツ)_/¯
great post and comments!
edit: *this part of the Englehart/Buscema RUN” whoops
Agree Steven, I read the issue last night (an original aka proper copy, not a repor with the hyper-satured colours)) and the colouring and inks are gorgeous; I honestly thought it was Dave Cockrum (who did work on 124/125 and of course the GS#2)…and was shocked that it was Bill Mantlo, his decisions on background colours in the panels gave the book a really energetic feel.
One of the many times that Avengers soared back then. The fight with Necrodamus was pedestrian but Agatha as Wanda’s mentor is a plot point that is affecting comics fifty years later. Almost every story involving the Scarlet Witch for the last fifty years would not have been possible without this issue (though frankly Orlando’s Wanda has me kind of regretting that at times).
The complexity of Kang was introduced the next issue, although we only got a smidge of it at first. Today we have a Kang with a past as Scarlet Centurion and Victor Timely, Rama Tut and a future as Rama Tut and Immortus (and who knows who else considering the openings Englehart and others have left for more). I loved back then that Englehart was using a time traveling villain logically, able to come back after defeat moments later to the heroes but having had time to hone a plan and build a threat that could have taken years to prepare before his return.
And I’ve thought of something off an on since the Fantastic Four Event that featured Mantis’ son being the Big Bad in it: Does that mean that the child Kang and others prophesized Mantis would have that would be a type of universal savior will be her second child and not a half-breed from a Cotati zombie?
“Does that mean that the child Kang and others prophesized Mantis would have that would be a type of universal savior will be her second child and not a half-breed from a Cotati zombie?”
I’m tempted to say “let’s ask Tom Brevoort!” but I think he’s too busy with the X-Men now. 🙂
Alan, I am glad you chose to essentially review Avengers 128 and 129 today as they are both important to the “Celestial Madonna” storyline, and really excellent issues. This is now one of the best periods of the Avengers and I am enjoying reliving this period. It is interesting to consider that AV 128 was really Wanda’s first real solo outing. Stan had done very little with Wanda when he wrote her in the Avengers, she was usually overshadowed by Pietro, and then Stan sent her off to Europe with Pietro in AV 30. Even when Roy brought her back he did not do much with her at first and then sent her away with Pietro in AV 53. When Roy brought Wanda and Pietro back in AV 75-76, we slowly saw some personality emerge in her, becoming more evident in Roy’s last year on Avengers, and it appears he planned to get her out from the shadow of Pietro by removing him from the Avengers in AV 104. But it was Steve from his debut in AV 105 who clearly wanted to take her and make her into a more 3 dimensional character, and she really seems to come into her own in AV 128. Regarding Agatha Harkness’s powers, besides singlehandedly defeating the Frightful Four in FF 94, she helped get Reed out of the Negative Zone in FF 110, communicated with the Watcher to learn the secret of the OverMind in FF 115, and she helped the FF with Galactus in FF 123. So yes I would say we have seen that she is already quite powerful….. Regarding that moment with Mantis and the Swordsman.. of course I didn’t think this way at the time, but I don’t believe I ever felt quite the same way about Mantis again…she comes off pretty badly here (and I know that’s the intention…), but even when she asks forgiveness much later, I just don’t think I cared for her as much. And it’s interesting that Wanda had mentioned in AV 127 that Mantis actually was NOT an Avenger (not yet, anyway, although she would be made an Avenger in her last appearance). I had thought she was made an Avenger with the Swordsman…but I guess I was wrong.
AV 129, besides being a very entertaining story can be looked at as the Swordsman’s finest hour which was clearly Steve’s intent, and of course we know why. I had first seen the Swordsman in Cap 105, one of the earliest Marvel comics I ever read. I later read AV 65 and 79 where Roy Thomas wrote the Swordsman as an out and out villain. But I agree with comments above that Roy planted a seed by having Swordsman appear in AV 100 to help the Avengers, which gave Steve the opportunity to reform the character. Personally I don’t think I was ever a big fan of the Swordsman although the interpersonal dramas that played out were very interesting. And in retrospect, a character who uses a sword makes more sense in the age of Conan than today. (Although as you pointed out last year the Swordsman did actually use his sword against someone, stabbing that person in AV 117.) And yes a person who uses arrows may not really make that much sense either (such as Hawkeye…or is that the Golden Archer?). It’s also interesting that Steve does a bit of retcon by saying upfront in AV 129 that Kang was always interested in the 20th Century because of the Celestial Madonna. There is certainly not the slightest indication of that in the Lee-Kirby Avengers 8 (Kang’s 1st appearance). And at the end of the issue, Kang basically goes on and on talking about his interest in power and taking over the world and seems to contradict what he said in the beginning of the issue..so who knows what he really means. What I did notice is that although Steve has used other villains in the Avengers, somehow he really clicked with this villain and the use of Kang over the next year would be really interesting and entertaining. Yes I know maybe it was a little too much but I did enjoy his last appearance in AV 143 (maybe because of Perez too).
It was also clever of Steve to have a detailed discussion of Rama-Tut, so the last panel would not be too confusing (although of course it was puzzling). I don’t believe I had read FF 19 at time as it was not included (why I don’t know) in the usual reprints in Marvel’s Collector’s Item Classics which reprinted earlier FF tales. I had read the reprints of FF Annual 2 (in FF Annual 7) and Avengers 8 so was familiar with the character of Rama Tut. And I believe I had actually seen the Fantastic Four cartoon show (1968) episode which actually adapted FF 19.
It’s interesting to consider that Avengers 127, 128, 129 all had surprise endings: the return of Ultron, the return of Kang, and the appearance of Rama Tut. And neither Ultron nor Kang had been seen in the pages of Avengers for 5 years. Steve Englehart was really cooking now and as we would learn in Giant Size Avengers 2, he was just getting started. Thanks Alan!
1)Thanks to you and Alan for filling me in on Ms. Harkness.
2)I believe Kang recapped his origin as Rama-Tut to the Avengers in his first battle. But obviously it was helpful to repeat that detail here for newbies (I certainly didn’t know it).
3)The 1980s indie series Southern Knights introduced a character, Connie Ronin, with a psionic sword that affects people she hits with psychosomatic damage — if she cuts through your arm, it’ll be temporarily paralyzed as your nervous system says it’s been cut off. The creator said that was inspired by all the sword-swinging characters who never stab anyone.
4)According to Englehart, IIRC, he was horrified by how casting hex spheres left Wanda exhausted and weak. This issue was the first step to fixing that. Much as I like Roy’s work, he did a bad job handling the Avengers women — Black Widow retires (before leaving for her own series), Scarlet Witch disappears for a long stretch and Jan spends way too much time screaming in terror.
I like how from the point that Englehart reassembled the Avengers by issue 114, with the “Big Four” of Thor, Iron Man, Cap & T’Challa, who all had their own separate series (at least once the Black Panther run in Jungle Action got going), and an inner quartet of Wanda, Vizh, Swordsman & Mantis all of whom he would put more focus on towards character development. Having read Thomas’ run almost entirely in reprints (the 1st issue of Avengers I ever got was # 104, Thomas’ last as regular scribe), while I like most of his stories (his earliest ones were rather shaky), aside from the Vision, I didn’t get the feeling he put a lot of deep thought into developing the cast of characters he had more-or-less full control over and he was regularly shifting most of the characters in and out of the series, Clint Barton, as either Hawkeye or Goliath II, being the only mainstay of his entire run, although Vision appeared regularly after having been introduced. Upon bringing Wanda back into the team, Thomas gradually built up a budding romance between her and Vizh, just as he also put kaput on the ill-fated romance of Clint & Natasha, resulting in Clint switching his libido towards Wanda, despite her utter lack of similar interest in him, and all under the eye of her overprotective sibling, Pietro, who likely didn’t think Clint was good enough for his sister but most decidedly felt outrage at the thought of her becoming romantically involved with a “machine”, as he felt about the Vision. Such was the state of things when Englehart took over, but Pietro was missing, his whereabouts unknown to his teammates for several more issues, and even before that mystery was resolved, Hawkeye checked out, his hurt over being rebuffed by Wanda too much for him to take. Even after Swordsman died and then Mantis departed, in short order Englehart brought back Hank & Jan, as well as Beast and Moondragon and later Hellcat. And although Hank & Pym wound up in a hospital for most of the last year of Englehart’s run, for most of his nearly 50 issue run (including the 3 Giant-Size mags he wrote), at least two super-heroines appeared in most of his stories. Sometimes, during Lee’s & Thomas’ runs, Jan and Wanda and sometimes even Natasha would all appear in the same issue, but for the most part shortly after Hank & Jan came back, Pietro & Wanda were shooed out and when they came back, Hank & Jan left shortly afterwards. And Natasha was never even made an official member of the team and her appearances irregular until she was written out altogether, although Englehart had her finally become a member — for all of two issues, just before Mantis & Swordsman arrived on the scene.
Does anyone know the editorial backstory behind the Black Widow’s admission to the Avengers in # 111, only for her to resign at the end of # 112? I always thought that she would have been terrific as a full-time Avenger back at that time, especially with Hawkeye out of the picture.
I could understand them not using her as that would conflict with her role in Daredevil (and Hornhead wasn’t joining) but yes, bringing her in, then out was an odd choice.
To my understanding, it was a means to have her out of the way for the celebration of DD’s 100th issue and keep the focus on him. Seems a rather goofy explanation and I don’t know who’s idea it was but apparently Thomas, Englehart & Gerber got it all worked out. The basis set up was that with Pietro missing and Hawkeye having quit, the remaining Avengers determined to fill out the holes in their roster during a conflict with Magneto and managed to get both DD & Natasha to help out for issue 111, after which DD went back to San Francisco but Natasha opted to stay and accept the offer of official membership in the Avengers that had for so long been denied during the Lee/Thomas era. So she was around for the first battle with the Lion God in issue 112, but at the end of that story, decided to re-join DD in San Francisco in time to appear in his 101st issue to help out in the fight against Angar the Screamer. But in both 112 & 113, Englehart included scenes showing an enigmatic woman called Mantis and an unnamed figure cloaked in shadows, talking about their plan to join the Avengers. At the time, I’d never yet seen the Swordsman in full, so had no idea who the figure was, but the silhouette should have been clue enough for fans who had been keeping up with the mag for quite a big longer than I had at that point. And, of course, in 114, Swordsman and Mantis filled in those missing slots in the roster, which for most of the period from issues #93 through 150, was usually kept at 6 to 8 members, boosted by the return of Cap, Iron Man and Thor as regular members during the Kree-Skrull War. Previously, while at least once reduced to three not so mighty Avengers at the end of issue #50, for the most part the core team was at least 4 or 5 members.
To the best of my knowledge, during the first 25 years or more of the Avengers, that was the only time Black Widow served as a regular member of the team, so it was a bit amusing to me that in the cinematic universe, Natasha became one of the original members of the team, mainly because in that version the team was put together by Nick Fury of SHIELD rather than originating by happenstance and Natasha and Clint happened to SHIELD operatives with particular skills suited to Fury’s purpose in creating the team.
Revisiting these issues and demonstrates all over again how carefully Thomas and then Englehart wove together Vision and Wanda.
Byrne should never have been allowed near these characters.
No argument there! Though I think Neal Adams gets some of the blame for starting the whole Vision as a machine back in issue 93
my reading of it was that Thomas and Adams envisioned the Vision as a synthetic human but somehow there was a shocking (to Hank Pym) sight that revealed Vizh’s previous existence as the golden age Torch.
Thomas definitely. When Vision joined, Hank Pym said he was “a synththozoid, you’re basically human in every way…except that your body is made of synthetic parts”. Then Adams comes along and in his first issue has the Vision with a lot of mechanical parts. I don’t know if this is what gave Byrne the idea that Vizh was a machine that could be taken apart, but that is what I meant by the comment about Adams.
I think Byrne wanted the Vision to be a machine so presto, he was.
Has Roy ever said what he had in mind for the shocking sight?
In the introduction to the Masterworks volume that reprinted this story, Thomas said that it was Neal’s idea for it to be an indication that Vision’s body had been the original Human Torch and he went along with it, meaning to come back to it but never did.
But what could he have seen: “Phineas Horton Was Here in 1939”? Though I suppose if there was anything distinctive about the Torch’s inner workings, Hank might have read about it.
I experienced the one-two punch of Avengers #129 and Giant-Size Avengers #2 in 2002 when Marvel released the Celestial Madonna collected edition. I’d already been fascinated by the character of Mantis in back issues (Avengers #120-124) and later stories written by Steve Englehart, so the trade paperback was invaluable in at long last allowing me to read the epic storyline that had been alluded to on so many other occasions since.
I had to wait a few more years for Avengers #128 to be reprinted in a black & white Essential Avengers volume. I wish that one had been included in the Celestial Madonna collection, since it really sets up where Mantis, Swordsman, Scarlet Witch and Vision are at in relation to one another and what their journeys are when #129 opens.
Still, even with #128 omitted, the Celestial Madonna TPB was a brilliant reading experience, and I’ve revisited it on several occasions over the years. Probably going to re-read it again now that Alan is doing his wonderful blog retrospectives on the storyline. I eagerly await his thoughts on GSA #2 in a couple of weeks.
Love the artwork by Sal Buscema & Joe Staton. As I have previously stated in the comments, they are two of my all-time favorite artists, so the collaboration between them is really wonderful, at least in my opinion.
I remember when I read this, I began to dislike Mantis around the time.
It’s enlightening to read comments about how the romantic subplots were more interesting than the main storyline. I’ve always found this to be true about Marvel characters. The ways they can beat up on each other are limited, but the emotional entanglements are endless. Even as a kid, I recognized how similar The Avengers and FF were to my mom’s soap operas.
Regardless of all the lovely philosophy concerning the spiritual love which can exist between mutated/extraterrestrially-trained martial-arts super-ladies, eventually/sooner-or-later, these characters will have to deal with the dual issues of A) The female libido, and B) The female desire for children, neither need of which an artificial man could provide. Maybe, back in the day, ( “Marvel-Time”-wise ) Mantis and the Scarlet Witch- both of them still being very young women at the time- ( I would put Mantis at nineteen, and Wanda at twenty-one, based on my studies of these women’s chronologies ) thought it would be a “cool” and “trendy” thing to date/pursue an android, as opposed to, perhaps, super-virile flesh-and-blood male Avengers like Hawkeye, Captain America, and the admittedly-flawed Swordsman, who could, eventually, satisfy their normal, natural carnal drives, and provide them with actual, flesh-and-blood children. ( as opposed to whatever the Scarlet Witch’s magically created ‘pseudo-children’, “Tommy” and “Billy” are supposed to be ) On the ‘super-duper’ side of this great epic, even after a half-century, the biggest and most memorable point of it, at least to my mind, is that #129’s “Bid Tomorrow Goodbye” features the actual, first confrontation between a Marvel Super-Hero and an actual, no-bullshit, honest-to-Irving Forbush vampire!! ( not including Morbius, from ‘Amazing Spider-Man’#’s 101-102, from three years earlier, in 1971- not a “true” vampire, in the classic, historical sense ) The poor, stumbling, bumbling Swordsman’s experience with “Old Amenhotep”is probably the most realistically-reflective encounter with a vampire that has ever been produced for a comic-book, as well as being the actual, technical, very first one. ( with super-heroes, that is, not the uncountable civilian victims of the Undead ) Another point of this epic which I found to be noteworthy was how Kang’s Fortieth Century technology was not only sufficient enough to defeat the Thunder God, but to enslave him, as well. That’s a very chilling and disturbing thought, but, ultimately, it does serve to underscore just what a monumental threat that Kang represents to the world. ( “Oh, NOOOO!!!! Not even THOR can stop him!!!!” ) Looking forward to the next installment!
IIRC the Vision is anatomically human so presumably he’s got a penis. And even if not, he has fingers, tongue, so he can certainly take care of her sexual needs. They had no reason to think he could give her kids but that’s something many partners can’t do for one reason or another, without it being a deal breaker (I’ve had friends for whom it would be a dealbreaker but not everyone).