Back in August, we covered Avengers #129 and Giant-Size Avengers #2, two memorable issues which together kicked off writer Steve Englehart’s “Celestial Madonna” saga — and the latter of which also saw the death of an Avenger, as the reformed villain called the Swordsman met his untimely end as an unquestioned hero.
The next regular issue of Avengers, #130, unsurprisingly gave us the Swordsman’s funeral, and burial, both held in Vietnam. That location wasn’t in itself surprising — as the late hero’s bereaved (and recently estranged) lover, Mantis, explained, “To this one’s knowledge, it is the place where most happiness was his — and she owes his spirit the most peace she can provide.” Still, the specific site where Mantis wished the Swordsman’s teammates to lay him to rest — the abandoned temple of the Priests of Pama, a now-deceased sect who were supposedly originally descended from the alien Kree, and who had allegedly raised Mantis to adulthood (though she herself had no memories of such) — was perhaps not the most obvious choice. But, as Mantis went on to say, “This one can only follow her empathic nature… and even with its history of monsters and bloodshed, this temple fills her with an overwhelming sense of tranquility. This is the place this one wishes her man to pass eternity.”
And so the Avengers traveled to Vietnam, though not all of them made the journey; Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, stayed behind to continue her studies in magic, at the direction of her new teacher, Agatha Harkness. On the other hand, one hero who’d rather dramatically left the team a couple of years previously, and who’d even fought against his former colleagues alongside the Defenders did come along… which was certainly appropriate, given how closely entwined the Swordsman’s history was with that of his one-time protégé and later enemy, Hawkeye:
This was a somber moment, and an appropriately quiet one… though, of course, this being a Marvel superhero comic book, none of us reading this in 1974 expected that quiet to last, and once we turned the page, it didn’t:
Things weren’t quite as they appeared, here, as these three supervillains hailing from Communist countries — the Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo from the Soviet Union, the Radioactive Man from the People’s Republic of China — had all arrived in Vietnam under the auspices of the Paris Peace Accords of 1973. Calling themselves “the Titanic Three”, they’d set themselves up as a team of superheroes, fighting to enforce law and order in the areas of Vietnam that were now under Communist authority; in fact, the frightened man they’d pursued into earshot of the Avengers had been accused of domestic violence against his wife. The Titanic Three informed the Avengers that the latter group had no authority to involve themselves in the matter…
Iron Man’s comment about the Vision “malfunctioning” was of course a reference to the series’ second ongoing mystery, after the big one centered on Mantis’ origins and ultimate destiny — i.e., why had the android Avenger suddenly and inexplicably shut down on a couple of recent occasions?
In Saigon, Mantis’ efforts to verify her memories of her childhood had dispiriting results — for instance, the people currently residing in the house she remembered living in in 1961 told her they had built it only two years ago…
Yeah, you knew that this had to happen eventually, right? (If for no other reason, then because of that swell Gil Kane-Dave Cockrum cover fronting the issue.) It was all the fault of that guy standing on the Crimson Dynamo’s right in the third-from-last panel above — a new baddie calling himself the Slasher, who was actually no more than a costumed jewel thief who’d managed to con the Titanic Three into believing the Avengers were trying to frame him on trumped-up charges of theft.
Speaking of the Crimson Dynamo — he found himself on the receiving end of special attention from Iron Man, who blamed CD for the death of Tony Stark’s girlfriend Janice Cord back in Iron Man #22 (Feb., 1970)…
The Slasher’s ruse was ultimately discovered when the Vision made him drop and spill his sack of stolen diamonds, leading the Titanic Three to turn their backs on him in disgust. And that was that. While this episode has some historical interest today in the context of how American comics dealt with ongoing developments in the Vietnam War in real time, in terms of the Avengers series’ ongoing plotlines of 1974 it was of little consequence, serving as little more than a breather between story arcs — or, as would become evident with the very next issue, between portions of a single arc.
And speaking of the next issue — aka the ostensible main topic of this post — we’ve arrived! So we’ll shift now into present tense, as we turn past issue #131’s cover by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito and/or Frank Giacoia to see where the regular creative team of writer Steve Englehart, penciller Sal Buscema, and inker Joe Staton will take us next…
Hey, it’s the Nomad! It’s good to see that Steve Rogers has calmed down a bit since his exasperated slugging of a Roxxon Oil security guard at the end of Captain America #181. Maybe he’s not Cap anymore, but we fans still have our expectations…
Was it really so unexpected to have Kang the Conqueror show up again, just two months after his defeat at the end of Giant-Size Avengers #2? As far as my younger self was concerned, it probably was — though with hindsight, I should have seen it coming. After all, we’re still hip deep in this “Celestial Madonna” business, and Kang still seems to be the only one around with any idea what that actually means…
Art by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
Like it says in the footnote above, Immortus‘ one and only appearance to date (not counting a one-panel cameo in Avengers #16) had been in Avengers #10 (Nov., 1964), where Stan Lee and Don Heck had introduced him with virtually the same words Steve Englehart has put in his mouth here: “Immortus! The master of time! The one who rules the mystic realm of Limbo, where things never change!” In that story, he’d attempted to ally himself with the Masters of Evil, using his ability to summon such “warriors of the ages” as Goliath (the Biblical one), Merlin, and Hercules to attack the Avengers, though ultimately to no avail… and since the Enchantress rewound time at the end to a point before Immortus came calling, the team members wouldn’t even remember it happened; nor, arguably, would Immortus himself (though with him being from the timeless realm of Limbo and all, I wouldn’t take that bet).
Back in Saigon (and 1974), Nomad continues chatting with the Avengers — well, most of them, anyway, as Mantis pulls the Vision aside for a private chat; she tells him she wants to apologize for coming on to him back in issue #128. With destiny seemingly having chosen her “for a new role in life’s scheme”, she feels the need to make amends while she still can…
Meanwhile (?), in Limbo, Immortus has asked Kang to help him take on the Avengers, and the Conqueror is agreeable — although he has a few ideas for improvements to the Master of Time’s previous modus operandi (with which he’s already familiar, having secretly monitored the events of Avengers #10)…
Art by Mike Ploog.
As we’ll see over the story’s next few pages, “unliving” doesn’t quite mean “dead” in this context. Sure, most of Kang’s recruits from across time are in fact deceased (or at least reputed to be) in the story’s present-day setting of October, 1974; but his use of Immortus’ apparatus means he can yank them from a time before they met their final end. That said, the famous creation of author Mary Shelley (whose current Marvel Universe version had debuted two years earlier, in Frankenstein #1 [Jan., 1973]), courtesy of writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog) was something of a special case, given that he’d never died at any time since being brought to life (or a reasonable simulation of such) back around the beginning of the 19th century. It’s also interesting that Englehart has Kang pluck the Monster from 1898, the year in which his Marvel adventures had originally been set, rather than in 1974, the current timeframe for both his bimonthly color comic and his ongoing feature in the black-and-white Monsters Unleashed; my guess would be that Englehart decided that that would the simplest way to avoid the continuity issues that might have otherwise come up with using the character — who, unlike every other draftee in Kang’s new Legion of the Unliving, was known to be around and active in the prime Marvel reality at the time of this story.
Art by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
Remember what I was saying about Kang pulling his “unliving” team members from some time before they’d died, rather than summoning their spirits from beyond the grave or some such? Retrospectively speaking, that’s especially useful for a character like Wonder Man, aka Simon Williams — a creation of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck who’d apparently kicked the bucket at the end of his one and only appearance to date, in Avengers #9 (Oct., 1964), but who would later be retroactively deemed never to have actually died at all, in a storyline coming along just a few years after the one currently under consideration. Since Kang is plucking him from 1964, rather than from some netherworld, no later continuity problems will arise from his use here.
Art by Frank Paul.
Speaking of characters with complicated continuity (of course, most of those tangles wouldn’t be introduced until years later, although one very prominent continuity implant will be coming up in this very storyline before too long, as most of you reading this doubtless already know.) Created by Carl Burgos, the original Human Torch was of course one of the original Marvel superheroes as well, having made his debut in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct., 1939), where his was the lead and cover feature. His heyday had been in the Golden Age, when Marvel was known as Timely, but he’d been briefly revived in the Atlas era, where his last adventure had appeared in Captain America Comics #78 (Sep., 1954) — a comic whose year of publication, you’ll note, is the same one from which Kang yanks him in our present tale. Not counting Avengers #71 (Dec., 1969), in which the Torch, Captain America, and Sub-Mariner of 1942 had met a trio of time-traveling Assemblers, the OG Human Torch’s only “modern” appearance prior to this comic had been in Fantastic Four Annual #4 (Nov., 1966), where he’d been revived just long enough to fight his younger namesake in the FF before “dying” at the end.
Art by Jim Starlin.
I’ve long thought that Steve Englehart must have had almost instant regrets after turning in his script for Special Marvel Edition #16 (Feb., 1974) (not “Master of Kung Fu #16″, regardless of what the editorial footnote says) — the comic that not only introduced his and Jim Starlin’s character Midnight, aka M’Nai, but also, you guessed it, saw him killed him by its end. After all, not only did Englehart swiftly bring Midnight back on a temporary basis in our present story, published less than one full calendar year after the character’s death, but he’d bring him back on a more-or-less permanent basis some fifteen years later, during the writer’s run on Silver Surfer, of all things. And who can blame him? The character’s martial-arts shtick may not have been in any way unique, but there’s no question he had a great visual.
Art by John Buscema and Dan Adkins.
Perhaps the most obscure figure brought into service by Kang, the Ghost shares with the Frankenstein Monster the distinction of not originating as a Marvel Comics character — at least, not completely. In Silver Surfer #8 and #9 (Sep. & Oct., 1969), Stan Lee and John Buscema built on an old European legend of a ghost ship to develop the character of Joost Van Straaten — a ship’s captain who’d been cursed for his wicked ways to sail the seas forever as the Flying Dutchman, until he was given superpowers by Mephisto and dispatched to destroy the Silver Surfer. The Ghost was supposedly freed from his curse at the end of SS #9 when the Surfer shed a tear for him; but while he’d be brought back in 1990 for a “Devil-Slayer” storyline in Marvel Comics Presents that inexplicably depicted him as being once again in the service of Mephisto, the fact that here Kang is taking him from the year he encountered the Surfer — 1969 — means that we don’t have to worry about any of that later stuff in this post.
Art by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
Marvel readers had first met Baron Heinrich Zemo as a shadowy, unnamed figure in Avengers #4 (Mar., 1964), in the flashback sequence which explained how Captain America’s partner Bucky Barnes had been tragically killed near the end of World War II. But it hadn’t been until issue #6 (Jul., 1964) that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had given the nefarious Nazi scientist a name and face (well, a never-coming-off mask, at least) for fans to forever associate with that deed of infamy, as The Man Who Killed Bucky was revealed not only to have survived the war, but also to be hale and hearty enough in 1964 to put together his own team of supervillains, the Masters of Evil, to whomp up on his old wartime enemy as well as the latter’s new allies. The Masters’ attempts to destroy Earth’s Mightiest Heroes continued intermittently through #15 (Apr., 1965), at the climax of which Baron Zemo was buried under an avalanche; he’s remained dead ever since, only showing up for flashbacks, netherworld glimpses of his damned soul, or in the odd time travel story (e.g., Avengers #56). While Kang neglects to tell us what year he’s plucking Zemo from, 1965 seems like an awfully good bet. (The Marvel Chronology Project posits that Zemo’s service with the Legion of the Unliving takes place between the fourth and fifth panels of Avengers #15, and who am I to say those worthies nay?)
In some ways, Baron Zemo is an odd choice for Kang’s team, given that his narrative mojo derives mostly from his history with Steve Rogers — who, as we’ll see anon, is about to exit our present storyline. On the other hand, as unambiguously dead major Avengers villains go, his legend looms pretty large — and his beginnings go back to the same early run of issues that gave us several other major figures in this storyline including Immortus, Wonder Man, and — as an Avengers villain, at least — even Kang, himself.
And speaking of Kang, I rudely interrupted him mid-sentence — so let’s return to our story to let him have the rest of his big dramatic moment…
…before getting back to Saigon, where a rather confused Vision approaches Iron Man for advice. Seeing as how the Golden Avenger’s longtime “employer” Tony Stark is such “a renowned playboy“, Vizh hopes Shellhead will be able to help him make sense of his confused feelings about Mantis: “You see, I love Wanda — but of late I find Mantis’ presence… distracting.”
And so ends Nomad’s cameo in Avengers — which didn’t do anything to advance either his title’s storylines or this one’s, when you get right down to it — but nevertheless reinforces the sense of interconnectedness in the Marvel Universe valued by so many of us readers, then and now. And also, perhaps, lends an air of legitimacy to Steve Rogers’ new costumed identity (although I have no idea if that was intentional on Englehart’s part).
Um, I don’t need to point out that Englehart is quoting from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s classic poem “Kubla Khan” in that last panel, do I? Nah, I didn’t think so.
Yep, just when you were getting over the one-two punch of Avengers #129 and Giant-Size Avengers #2, here comes another double-shot from Englehart and company, just three months later. I hope you’ll join me back here in late November, when we’ll take on the next two chapters of the Celestial Madonna saga in one mighty post.
My 12 year old self loved that cover so much I drew my own version of it as a poster for my room. I think mainly the eerie creepiness of Kang conjuring up (even with magical technology) characters who were at least more or less dead in 1974, even if taking them from a time-line just before their deaths, really appealed to young Fred, who did have a taste for the macabre and stayed up late most Saturday nights to watch Creature Features. I had gotten the reprint of the story in which Immortus made his first and last consequential appearance, as well as that featuring the demise of the elder Zemo, both within the last year and a half or so. Of Wonderman, I’d only read references to, while I’d seen an ad for the issue wherein Midnight made his first and last appearance. The Ghost was entirely new to me, and I think this was the first time I’d heard reference to the legend of the Flying Dutchman. Overall, some interesting selections and I can’t help but think that Englehart was making a sort of play for another Halloween-themed story despite making no direct reference to the day, but may have prompted inclusion of spooky figures like the Frankenstein Monster and the Ghost. There were at least a few other dead Marvel super-villains (as of 1974) Kang might have added to his legion, such as the Nathan Garrett Black Knight and the original Green Goblin, or even the Kangaroo! But not all that much more who were beyond reasonable doubt meant to be truly dead and not just “temporarily indisposed after being seemingly killed off” as with Dr. Octopus and Dr Doom in their last appearances as of the time this mag saw print. But whatever Conway’s intent when he wrote their apparent death scenes, I don’t think any true Marvelite in 1974 genuinely believed they’d seen the last of those nefarious doctors!
Of course, this issue is just the build-up to the main conflicts that would occur in the next issue and then the next Giant-Size issue. It was rather fun to see the interactions of the characters while just roaming around Saigon, some lost in ruminations, and then their old pal Steve Rogers just happening to pop up unexpectedly in his new costume, the first and last time they’d see him as Nomad, although it’d be about another 10 issues before he’d show up again, back in his usual red, white & blue uniform.
Overall, even without much action, action action!!!! I enjoyed this issue and your own overview of it, Alan!
Cap returns in full force in *Avengers* #141, as you noted, but he also has a brief appearance in #137, explaining that the current business with the Falcon will keep him from returning to the teams’ ranks.
This was my first encounter with Wonder Man other than the corpse Grim Reaper kept in the glass crypt. I don’t think I’d ever heard of Immortus before.
I knew of Wonder Man from the Grim Reaper’s first appearance in issue 52 and Vision’s origin in issue 58. Marvel didn’t reprint issue 9 in Avengers annuals or Marvel Triple Action. I wonder if that was because of DC and Wonder Woman?
Brian Cronin says DC’s issue with Wonder Man was that they’d introduced a one-shot character Wonder Man not long before (https://www.cbr.com/avengers-wonder-man-dc-marvel-lawsuit-threaten/). Maybe that affected the decision to reprint it.
However (Cronin again) when DC introduced Power Girl right after Power Man at Marvel, Marvel said “screw it!” and brought Wonder Man back (https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-143/)
I had read both of Cronin’s articles but pretty much forgot about DC’s Wonder Man, which is why I assumed it was because of Wonder Woman, which seems to be more likely by ’74 (of course I knew none of this 50 years ago). I also checked and realized Marvel also skipped reprinting Avengers #7 at the time for, I’m guessing, unrelated reasons.
Anyway, your first comment got me thinking about what I knew about the Legion members 50 years ago. I had the first (at the time only) appearances of Midnight and the Ghost. Frankenstein Monster was being published at the time, the Torch from Avengers #69 and reprints in Marvel Fantasy Masterpieces/Super Heroes, an FF annual and the all reprint Human Torch series that was around at the time. Zemo from issue #56 and reprints in Avengers Annuals and Marvel Triple Action, along with Immortus.
“She thinks I’m crazy, but I’m just growing old…”
I didn’t catch the Samuel Taylor Coleridge reference then or now, but I did notice two things that I hadn’t in 1974.
First, that Thor’s remarks over the Swordman’s grave felt like something Stan Lee could have written six or seven years before. The Watcher tells the Invisible Girl in *Fantastic Four* #72 that there is only one who deserves the name of “All-Powerful,” and that “his only weapon is…love,” and in *Captain America* #105, our hero thinks of the power of love as he goes to save a city. (Steve Englehart has the Falcon delighted with people in love in *Captain America and the Falcon* #153, as he watches Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter go off on a well-earned vacation.)
Second, that the silent panel at the Swordsman’s grave was reminiscent of Dude Hennick and Terry Lee at Raven Sherman’s in Milton Caniff’s *Terry and the Pirates.*
Since I nitpicked above to frednotfaith2, I shall do so with you: you had Wonder Man come from *Avengers* #8, when he actually appeared in #9 (no, not you, Linda Donaldson!). It’s nice to think that we have Kang from #8, Wonder Man from #9 and Immortus from #10. (If you did it now, Kang could have added to the Legion of the Unliving the Executioner from #7!)
And note that Zemo appeared in the Avengers # 6 & 7, and Kang showed up again in issue 11, so Englehart was certainly riffing on early Avengers history. Interesting that in the first round with Kang, the focus was on him as a “conqueror” but in this and the last in this series of Kang Wars would put more focus on aspects of time travel, this time plucking “dead” characters from the past, and in the third round on Kang’s attempt to conquer America in an era in which there were no superheroes but gunslinger heroes abounded in the Marvel universe – can’t honestly call them “cowboys” because none of them worked as genuine cowboys, that is guys who herded cattle along hundreds of miles of trails.
An interesting detail of this issue is that the actual year the “dead” were taken from was specified, which meant that at this point in continuity, Englehart made specific that the Avengers had been around at least 10 years, given that Wonderman was plucked from 1964. And not too long ago, when Roy Thomas took over writing the FF, he had Ben Grimm reference his initial transformation into the Thing as being in 1961. It’d still be several years before Marvel writers became more circumspect about having characters reference specific years in events in their past, or the specific number of years past events happened. As such, when Marv Wolfman wrote Spider-Man’s 2nd confrontation with the Burglar in ASM #200, published in late 1979, our wall-crawling hero wasn’t going to exclaim, “you murdered my uncle in 1962, 17 years ago! Uh, gee, wouldn’t that make me at least 30-something now? Oh, never mind, you uncle-killing scum ….”
I knew I was going to get confused with Kang being in #8 and Wonder Man being in #9 and was trying to be careful, but somehow ended up blowing it, anyway! Thanks for catching the error, A.S. (it’s fixed now, btw).
I loved the concept of the Titanic Three re-inventing themselves as big shots.
The Legion of the Unliving were a good idea though IIRC the next couple of issues fudge the idea they’re not really dead — Midnight takes a lethal punch from Mantis and gets up because he’s dead, Jim.
Later incarnations would just make them “Avengers foes plucked out of time” which made the “Unliving” pointless — if they haven’t battled Oort the Comet Man yet, saying that he’ll be dead someday is irrelevant — everyone’s going to be dead someday.
Immortus is one of the long string of character Englehart has resurrected from obscurity (https://atomicjunkshop.com/steve-englehart-the-lazarus-man/). I suppose Wonder Man might count but given his links to the Vision and the Grim Reaper, someone would probably have brought him back eventually.
Englehart fudged on his own plot detail with Midnight! He actually brought Wonderman back in his last Avengers story with issue 151, at least to my understanding that was part of his overall plot for what should have been in issue 150 but got mangled as he missed the deadline to complete it, purposely or not, and Conway & Shooter were credited as co-writers, with Conway taking over with the next issue for a brief run before Shooter began his run, each putting their own twist on Wonderman’s resurrection. Given that references were made to voodooism early on, it’s a bit amusing that Wondy just happens to share a first name with Marvel’s Zombie, Simon Garth!
Speaking of that silent image as the Avengers stand around the Swordsman’s grave, did Sal draw that? The style looks very different from the rest of the book. It looks more like a Walt Simonson piece; at the very least, Simonson’s inks over Sal’s pencils. I have no idea, really. I usually depend on you guys to tell me these things, but if I’m the first to mention it, maybe one of you knows the answer.
Otherwise, this issue is merely a transition between chapters of the Celestial Madonna storyline. We see Swordsman buried and the main Avengers sit around chewing the fat with Nomad while Mantis and Hawkeye do a little existential brooding and Kang sets up his next trap for the Avengers. I like it when Englehart takes the time for a little character-building, but I thought the scene when Tony so abruptly blew Vision off when asking for romantic advice was a little cold. Maybe there was some stuff going on in Iron Man’s solo book that would have him touchy on the subject of the heart, but his response to the android’s heartfelt confusion didn’t seem like the actions of a friend.
Don’t know what Immortus was thinking when he invited an Alpha male like Kang into his den and showed him all his secrets, but he certainly didn’t get it. The Conqueror can’t even play well with a future version of himself (the Pharaoh), much less another time traveler, so expecting Kang to just go along with someone else’s plan was too much to ask and Immortus paid the price.
Good story and the Sal/Staton team worked very well together. Plus, the covers of both Avengers #130 and #131 were gorgeous. Thanks for the wrap-up, Alan and Happy Halloween, everyone!
Kang referring to Immortus as having “grown flabby” was certainly an unkind cut! Immortus did come off as a doofus, thinking he could “use” Kang and not taking sufficient precautions to ensure that Kang didn’t turn the tables on him, which he did with the greatest of ease.
But as we know from subsequent installments,he wasn’t as dumb as he seemed.
I always thought Iron Man was acting like a dick because he is a dick. He had a crush on Mantis and here’s the Vulcan nerd of the group, a synthezoid, becoming a cool babe magnet while his whole playboy schtick is as uncool as Warren Beatty at a Velvet Underground after party.
Maybe that’s just my head canon but I’m sticking with it.
Also: this blog and the commenters are practically the only thing worthwhile on the furshlugginer world wide web.
How many places online can I actually say I look forward to comments because they’re gonna build on the themes of the original awesome blog post?
I love seeing these page shots. Revisiting Sal inked by Joe Staton with all the crazy Englehart stuff is so good.
Fond memories of my youth. One of my first comics (back issue) that I bought myself. Loved the cast of characters Nomad, Mantis, Legion of the Unliving. The sort book that makes you look further into back issues like the Nomad storyline or Midnight from MoKF
Another terrific review, Alan! I didn’t get Avengers # 131 or 132 back when they came out, but I did pick up Giant-Size Avengers # 3 at the same time as #4. At eight years old, I didn’t know most of these time-lost villains, except for Zemo and Immortus from the reprint of Avengers # 10 in Marvel Triple Action # 6. I had seen a reference to Wonder Man back in issue # 109 when Wanda suggested that the newly-demonstrative Vision might take the name Simon. It always seemed strange to me that a synthezoid hoping to learn more about humanity wouldn’t have taken some kind of human name. Seven years later, I was greatly enjoying Roy Thomas’s new All-Star Squadron in which time-travel villain Per Degaton snatched six villains from out of the recent past to attack mini-teams of the JSA when realized that this whole plot felt very familiar. What with Wotan, the Alchemist, the King Bee, the Monster, Solomon Grundy and the Sky-Pirate (the latter two being “dead-ringers” for the Frankenstein Monster and the Ghost). With regard to the earliest appearance of Baron Zemo in Avengers # 6, that same month in Sgt. Fury # 8, Nick and the Howling Commandos did battle with a pre-masked Dr. Zemo in a story set in 1942. I really wished that I had read the Kang/Mantis/Vision storyline in the regular issues at the time that I picked up the Giant-Size issues 2, 3 and 4 at the newsstand, whereas I finally got to read the whole storyline in Essential Avengers Volume 6 in 2008.
A big year for Titanium Man and The Crimson Dynamo, then, with an appearance here and Venus And Mars a few months later.