Cover to Avengers #145 (Mar., 1976). Art by Gil Kane and Dan Adkins.
Cover to Avengers #146 (Apr., 1976). Art by Gil Kane and Al Milgrom.
Back in November, we looked at Avengers #144, featuring the latest (as of Nov., 1975) installment in writer Steve Englehart and artist George Pérez’s “Serpent Crown Saga”. As readers of that post will recall, despite the comic’s final-page “Next” blurb’s promise that the following month’s issue would present the next chapter in the still-ongoing storyline, when Avengers #145 arrived on stands in December its pages were instead filled by the first half of a completely unrelated, out-of-sequence story scripted by Tony Isabella and drawn by Don Heck. That issue, together with the fill-in yarn’s second part in the next month’s Avengers #146, pushed the continuation of Englehart and Pérez’s epic out to February, 1976.
According to later reports, both halves of this story had originally been intended for publication in Giant-Size Avengers #5 — a plan that was up-ended by Marvel Comics’ mid-1975 decision to phase out their whole line of mostly-new-material-filled giant-sized comics. (While GSA #5 was indeed published in September, it was an all-reprint book.) Given that 30-plus pages of Isabella-Heck material had already been both produced and paid for, it’s certainly understandable that Marvel would want to get it into print sooner or later. But smack-dab in the middle of a complex, multi-issue story arc? That hardly seems like an optimal solution.
Per a blurb appearing on the opening splash page of Avengers #145, there had in fact been extenuating circumstances that necessitated running the story at this time:
I hate to disappoint the anonymous Marvel Bullpenner who wrote that blurb, even fifty years after the fact… and, of course, I can’t speak for any other fans… but this particular reader really didn’t “love ’em”. Oh, I don’t think my younger self hated issues #145-146, exactly — but I definitely didn’t think they were on the same level as the stuff Steve Englehart had been producing with his various artistic collaborators over the last three years or so. And while I might have shrugged the whole thing off had the “Assassin” serial appeared in a single giant-sized issue, as it had been intended to, having it interrupt Englehart and Pérez’s current story arc for not just one month, but two, was extremely annoying.
Would I have rather had a reprint of a story I’d already read, as had happened the last time Avengers fell prey to the “Dreaded Deadline Doom“? Probably not. Actually, if Marvel had asked my opinion as to whether it would have been preferable to simply not print an issue of Avengers until Englehart, Pérez, and company had finished the next chapter of their storyline, I’d have said, “Sure!”. But, even if the powers-that-were at Marvel had been interested in what 18-year-old Alan Stewart of Jackson, MS thought about this matter, that’s not a question they ever would have asked me, or anyone else, circa 1975-76… for the very good reason that they’d reserved time at their printer for the presses to roll on a new issue of Avengers every single month, and they had to print something, or pay a fine. That’s just how the business worked, back in the pre-“direct market” days.
We’re going to move on from this unfortunate incident… though, before we do, your humble blogger feels obliged to mention one last little oddity in the historical record. In his 2014 introduction to Marvel Masterworks — The Avengers, Vol. 15, Steve Englehart offers a few remarks about every issue included in the collection; here’s what he has to say about the only two issues he himself didn’t write:
#145 and #146: The Marvel Age was thirteen years old, and like any teenager, it was beginning to develop mood swings. With the rapid editorial changes, factions were jockeying for power in New York; out in California, pre-Internet, I was unaware of it until this happened. I’ve talked about this stuff before, but I’m not talking about it here, because we’re here for the Avengers…
Unfortunately, while I’m happy to take Mr. Englehart at his word that he’s “talked about this stuff before”, it hasn’t been in any of the introductions, interviews, web articles, etc., that I’ve managed to access prior to publishing this post, so what might have been going on here instead of (or in addition to) deadline problems will have to remain a mystery… unless, of course, one of you good people out there reading this has additional information, in which case I hope you’ll fill the rest of us in via the comments section below.
But, really, enough about all that. (At least for now.) Let us now proceed to peruse the comic book that, in a more generous timeline, might have been Avengers #145 — but, in our own reality, is known to us as Avengers #147.
We’ll pause long enough at the cover to admire its artwork — an effort by Rich Buckler and Dan Adkins that finds the former of those artists in full Jack Kirby mode — as well as to note that, in its copy, the Squadron Supreme has once again been erroneously referred to as the Squadron Sinister. Oh, well.
And now it’s on to our opening splash page, where Steve Englehart’s narrative captions do an efficient job of reminding us just what had been going on with the Avengers, their friends, and their enemies when we were all so rudely interrupted, two months before…
The story’s title is, of course, a nod to DC Comics’ classic annual crossover stories between the Justice League of America (upon whom Marvel based both the Squadron Supreme and the earlier Squadron Sinister) and their Golden Age predecessors, the Justice Society of America — many of whose individual installments (though not all) had “Crisis” somewhere in the title, beginning with the very first of ’em, “Crisis on Earth-One!”, way back in JLA #21 (Aug., 1963).
Meanwhile, per the first page credits: after three issues away (or five, if you want to count #145 & #146), veteran inker Vince Colletta has returned to embellish the pencils of young tyro George Pérez. It may just be me, but I feel that the two artists’ styles mesh a little better in this issue than they did in their earlier collaborations (#141 & #142) — though whether that’s more a matter of Colletta taking greater care, or of Pérez getting a little better with each new effort, I couldn’t tell you. Maybe some of both?
Descending from the heavens are U.S. Army helicopters — which are recognizable to the Avengers by their markings, given that, as Captain America observes, “This whole world is a near-replica of Earth.” To which the Golden Archer replies, “Or your world is a copy of ours, eh, Yank?”
For my fellow geezers who may need a memory refresher (as well as for those youngsters among you who may have slept through their American History class on one or more days), while the real-world Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979) ran for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination on three separate occasions, the closest he ever came to taking the big seat in the Oval Office was as the appointed vice-president under Gerald Ford, following the resignation of Richard Nixon from the presidency. It’s probably fair to assume that the “Rocky” of Other-Earth earned his office via the normal electoral process, since — as will be strongly implied, if not overtly stated, just a few pages from now — this world seems never to have had a Watergate scandal… or, for that matter, a “Secret Empire”.
As for the Serpent Crown — even though Steve Rogers’ attention was justifiably elsewhere at the time, we readers of Captain America #182 had seen the thing slipping through an open manhole into a Seattle sewer… although, as it happens, that fact isn’t actually all that relevant to our current saga, as the following statement by the Scarlet Witch suggests…
Panicked at the thought the Serpent Crown could be damaged, President Rockefeller does just as Wanda Maximoff has bid him, and orders both the Squadron and the Army to back off…
Gee, do you suppose that “Lois” and “Lonni” actually work as reporters on this world, or are they just talking about calling the cops? I don’t suppose we’ll ever know…
The footnote in that last panel — attributed to editor Marv (“M.”) Wolfman, but more likely to have been written by Steve Englehart — might well have been prefaced with the comment, “Let me tell you that the Secret Empire ‘s ‘Number One’ was Richard Nixon without telling you that the Secret Empire’s ‘Number One’ was Richard Nixon”…
Evidently, Steve Englehart was really looking forward to writing about the exploits of Hawkeye and theTwo-Gun Kid in the 20th century — although, based on recollections he shared for a retrospective on the Kid that was published in Back Issue #42 (Jul., 2010), neither of the characters would have been hanging around out West for quite as long as their dialogue on the page above seems to imply:
My basic idea, which I still like and have never been able to do [since], was to bring this guy who was the master of his small, contained Western world, to New York City in the modern age. He’d be alongside a god and guys with various superpowers, in a world with cars and planes and Quinjets, and his great power was … he could shoot pistols well. I was intrigued with the culture shock and the heroism involved in adapting to the new world and succeeding with such a limited power — i.e., seeing the hero in him shine through. Certainly, a good way to ease into that was to work with Hawkeye, whose powers were not so much better than his, really. In this pre-West Coast Avengers era, I thought I could explore Hawkeye as a friend and mentor better than Hawkeye as #5 or so on the Avengers roster. The cowboy and the arrow-guy made sense in and of itself.
As things turned out, Englehart would leave Marvel Comics before he could get around to scripting a planned Hawkeye/Two-Gun Kid series pilot for Marvel Spotlight (see below). And though he would eventually get around to writing the character again via his West Coast Avengers run, by that time a number of other writers had already had a go at chronicling the adventures of Matt Hawk in the modern world.
If one didn’t know better, one might believe that Englehart was already gearing up to write Justice League of America (as he would in fact be doing before the year’s end), as his dialogue for Lady Lark and Golden Archer in this scene would work just as well for Black Canary and Green Arrow (assuming you correct for the Other-Earth GA’s alleged English accent).
By contrast, Englehart’s Hyperion is clearly a broad parody of Superman, rather than the same guy with a different name and visual…
The Vision becomes intangible, so that the Golden Archer’s arrow passes harmlessly through him prior to detonation; he then turns solid again, just in time to stop Lady Lark from singing by stunning her with his solar eyebeams…
“…my arch-foe, Burbank…” This is, I believe, the first mention of Hyperion’s greatest enemy — the Other-Earth analogue to Lex Luthor (the name is a play on that of the famous real-world botanist, Luther Burbank). We’d have to wait until Thor #280 (Feb., 1979) for writer Roy Thomas and veteran “Superman” artist Wayne Boring to bring us Emil Burbank’s actual on-panel debut, however.
And that is that for this episode of the Serpent Crown Saga… though, as that final panel’s “Next” blurb suggests, there’s still plenty of Justice League of America-inspired fun yet to come. Thankfully, “20,000 Leagues Under Justice!” would appear in the very next month’s issue, just like it was supposed to… though, alas, this run of Avengers issues wasn’t done with scheduling problems — not by a long shot. But that’s a story for another post, another day.
Ah, back then I struggled to figure out where the Assassin two-parter could fit in continuity, given how tightly packed together Englehart’s issues were. Now I just shrug and accept it’s a mediocre story. Fortunately I can skip over it and keep reading.
This was a great tale even if I got defensive over the JLA getting the worst of it, even by surrogate. The concept of the serpent crown as a multiversal threat would define that chapeau sinister going forward, until someone did a story in which all the crowns were destroyed (which I welcomed, as it was suffering from overuse).
I can’t say Englehart’s plans for the Two-Gun Kid particularly excite me, but I do think Stainless Steve would have made it interesting if I’d gotten the chance to read that never-written issue.
Hi, Alan,
What a joy revisiting this story. I loved the little touches that Englehart threw into the script, like Hyperion exclaiming, “Helium and argon!” (Hey, those are two noble gasses. Gee, what’s another noble gas…?) I always wondered if the redhead sunbathing with “Lois” was going to be “Lana” except someone thought it was a little TOO on the nose.
I loved the fact that Englehart was able to maintain the humor of the JLA parody while still maintaining the characterization of the Avengers. The ending of this story, in particular, is superbly executed, and “I, too, shall be saved by love.” is great a line that Tom King lifted it with attribution for his (outstanding) VISION limited series of a few years ago.
I agree that Coletta’s inks here seemed to work better with Perez, which I chalked up to Perez getting more comfortable and detailed with his pencils. He really WAS one of those artists who almost magically matured before our eyes. Sigh…
Speaking of Perez, I was always under the impression that the filler issues of #145 and #146 were the result of Englehart blowing the deadline. However, on a FB post, I saw it written- and you can take this with the requisite dose of sodium chloride – that the problem was on Perez’ end. He got sick partway through drawing this issue, and it was too late in the production cycle to have someone else finish the story. And in those unforgiving days when the direct market was just a gleam in the eye of the publishers, the companies were locked into their schedules. That’s why you could set your calendar based on which books came out which week (TOMB OF DRACULA, HULK, DAREDEVIL the first week of the month, CAPTAIN AMERICA, DR. STRANGE, SPIDER-MAN the second week, and so on.)
I’m sure someone else can confirm or refute the story of Perez’ illness.
It does make me wonder, though. Obviously, this story HAD to be a two-parter (as all the JLA/JSA team-ups were until that point). So if it had originally run in #145 and #146 – what was going to happen in #147 and #148? As we’ll see in a couple of months, the story in #149 had to serve as the culmination and deck-clearer in advance of #150. So – was there going to be another complication in the Roxxon plot? Or would the returning gods have encountered another threat? We’ll never know, I guess.
I remember it was announced that Englehart was actually going to write a few issues of MARVELS SPOTLIGHT focusing on solo Avengers stories, such as the Vision and the Scarlet Witch, besides the Hawkeye/Two-Gun Kid tale. I don’t know if the adventures of Clint and Matt would have had legs for a whole ongoing titles, but as a miniseries it had potential. Not that miniseries would be a thing for a couple more years…
Glory days for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! I like to think I didn’t take them for granted – especially since it would all come to an end in a few short months…
Thanks, Alan!
I read an interview with Steve Englehart – don’t ask me where or when – that had him saying that none of the reprints or fill-ins on the Avengers were his doing. We can file that in the “For What It’s Worth” category.
Yeah – I love Steve’s writing, but he does have a tendency to overstate things. I know that the partial reprint of #150 was deliberate on his part, after Conway fired him for being late with a plot.
In fairness to Steve, almost every comics professional seems to rewrite history when talking about problems with their career. They’re human.
Steve Englehart is the only comics pro I’ve ever actually met and talked to – back in 1988. While I enjoyed the conversation, “overstating” would suffice as an accurate description to much of what he had to say.
was so annoyed when Two Gun was sent back unceremoniously. If Valkyrie could wield a sword and only us ethe flat of her blade, they could have handled Matt wielding guns. Maybe have Stark give him high tech bullets? Hard light projections? The fill ins were indeed a waste of space and would have been even if they had appeared where originally intended. I liked Isabella and have since grown to appreciate how good Heck was (I didn’t yet) but that story was a dud.
My fault! My fault! It’s all my fault that everyone was subjected to those fill-ins for #145 & #146. It was my Subscription Curse! Y’see, distribution was bad enough in my small SW Oregon town that I would subscribe to my favorite comics so that I didn’t miss an issue. And for reasons beyond my meager understanding, that immediately meant a fill-in and/or reprint would soon be part of that subscription. For example, Capt. Marvel #36 – second issue to arrive. And Iron Man – oh man, #76, #78 & #79. Then with Avengers, the first issue to arrive in the mailbox was…#145. And of course, what was to come in a few issues.
But the contents of Avengers #147 damn near made up for that two-month delay. Having read a few JLA’s, even my fifteen-year-old self picked up on the “in-jokes” Englehart dispersed throughout the issue. As for Perez’s art, while Vince Coletta smoothed him over more than I liked, his panel layouts and overall energy were an absolutely stunning!
Loved the Serpent Crown conspiracy that Englehart tied into Capt. America. Got a kick out of seeing Nelson Rockefeller as POTUS.
I’d pretty much have to say that this storyline had the Avengers holding the top spot on my Top 10 Comics at that time. Unfortunately, as everyone else notes, all of this was quicky coming to an end.
Thanks for another Hump Day treat, Alan!
I loved this comic then and I love it now.
Thanks for the post Alan!
As always, great characterization from Englehart even in the midst of a superhero brawl. Nice teamwork from the Avengers, and a great spotlight on Wanda and especially Vision. It’s great when Vision gets to strut his stuff, and against Hyperion — even better. And man, I did love them as a couple.
If you compare this splash page with the first effort by Perez in #141, I think you can see that credit for any improvement should go to Perez. Both scenes are very similar, with the Beast at the fore of a street scene, but the proportions, perspective, details and layout have all significantly picked up from the earlier effort. I think Colletta pretty much stays (unfortunately) the same (not holding my breath for the defensive rebuttal to that).
Perez would far and away qualify as the GOAT of Avengers’ artists if it was not for my personal pet peeve – post-Titans he improved to the point of giving distinctive facial features and physiognomies to each character in a team book, and (unfortunately again) I was not at all impressed with his designs for two of my favourite Avengers, Hawkeye and Thor. I digress.
As much as I admired his work back in the day, I think Englehart saying that none of the reprints or fill-ins on the Avengers were his doing would be questionable to say the least. Really, none of them? Because it felt like there were several, just like with Dr Strange and Captain Marvel around this time.
Anyway, another great issue and another great review. Thanks, Alan!
“Because it felt like there were several, just like with Dr Strange and Captain Marvel around this time.”
Mike, as far as I know, the only fill-ins/reprints with Dr. Strange during Englehart’s tenure were the ones in Marvel Premiere #11 and DS #3, both of which seemed to be planned (the usually bi-monthly titles went monthly just for the summer, and the extra issues in both instances featured old Lee/Ditko stories relevant to the current ongoing continuity). That said, there are enough other instances of Englehart books falling prey to the Dreaded Deadline Doom that I think your point remains valid.
That’s funny as I liked his later depiction of Hawkeye. But then the hair and face of his Scarlett Witch reminded me way too much of someone I used to know.
You’re quite right, Alan, thanks. 50 years ago, though, I didn’t know any of that. I was quite the solitary comic book geek, no fanzines, no interaction with other fans, only what I found, assumed and inferred when I picked up the comics. As Steve Englehart was my favourite writer, I maybe noticed the fill-ins and reprints more than anywhere else. Like I said, ‘it felt like’.
I hope you picked up most of Englehart’s fairly imminent move to DC, looking forward to reading those reviews!
I did indeed, Mike. Believe me, I’m looking forward to writing them at least as much as you are to reading them!
I remember being confused by the inserted two-parter at the time. I had only recently started reading the Avengers on a regular basis and this “Dreaded Deadline Doom” stuff didn’t mean a lot to me. I think I just thought, “well…skip a month.”
The main thing about this issue for me was that it really served as an introduction to the Vision for me. His battle with the Squadron was a real eye-opener and he rapidly became one of my favorite heroes.
Thanks Alan, for another excellent review. I remember this issue very well and remember enjoying it very much. I also remember being very irritated by the 2 part fill-in in issues 145-146. I certainly didn’t think that fill-in was terrible (that honor would probably go to Defenders 30 as worst fill-in of all time). Still, it wasn’t great to wait 3 months for this issue. If the story in 145-146 had actually turned up as a fill-in in Giant Size Avengers 5, I probably would have been more receptive. I must admit that Gil Kane’s cover to issue 145 is pretty good.
Regarding why the fill-in was necessary, I do remember seeing various reasons that had to do with George Perez. Either he had sprained his drawing hand, he was overcommitted or he was having some personal problems. From what I can recall, I believe it was some combination of all three. In November 1975, he was working on 4 series: FF. Avengers, Inhumans and Sons of the Tiger (which would become the White Tiger). There may actually have been more but I’m not sure. This was obviously too much and Perez soon cut back. Rich Buckler returned to the FF in December 1975 and January 1976. But by this month, February 1976, it was announced that Perez was the new regular penciler on the FF. Perez did drop the Inhumans, which Gil Kane took over (briefly).
As other commenters have noted the reprint in 150 was definitely necessitated by Steve Englehart’s departure from the series, but the facts are somewhat complicated, as I presume you’ll get into eventually.
With respect to the Avengers battle with Squadron Supreme, it’s true that the Avengers seem to have the upper hand in this issue but there were soundly beaten by the Squadron in issue 141 so it seems only fair that the Avengers turned the tide in this issue.
I did notice one point of confusion that I did not notice before. In issue 141, the Squadron goes out of its way to tell the Avengers that they “sold out!” That does not seem to be true in this issue. It just seems like they are following the orders of their president. Another more subtle implication is that the Serpent Crown is also affecting the Squadron’s behavior.
Also, anyone notice that Nighthawk was missing from this whole storyline> Possibly to avoid confusion with the Defender’s Nighthawk.
It was also kind of hard to believe that Patsy/Hellcat is suddenly a superheroine and can take on JLA level heroes (as she does in 147 and 148) just because of the cat suit. That is stretching things a bit.
Looking forward to your review of the rest of this very entertaining storyline Alan
Patsy suddenly leveling up doesn’t bother me for the most part — it falls into my “stuff that can happen in the MU/DCU” classification — though I agree being fast enough to dodge Hyperion is a stretch. Presumably the costume enhancing her is meant to explain a lot of that, though as Brian Cronin noted a few years ago, this doesn’t fit with the costume Greer Nelson wore in Claws of the Cat (https://www.cbr.com/avengers-hellcat-costume-cat-patsy-walker-greer-nelson/).
I loved this issue! Wonderful story and art. First I recall hearing that the fill-in was due to Perez being sick but I’m certainly glad he was able to finish it rather than having some lesser artist do so. Admittedly, some of the in-jokes went over my 13-year-old head in 1976, but I found it highly enjoyable to read then and now.
Got to thinking about how Englehart on Avengers and Gerber on Defenders had near concurrent big epic storylines toward the ends of their runs, and after codas of a sort, both mags were then taken over by Conway who, well, made his brief mark on the teams before scrambling back to DC.
I am curious as to how Englehart would have handled a Hawkeye/Two-Gun Kid mini-series and who would have been the artist??? Can’t think of who might have been the most appropriate as well as available to. John Severin come to mind as apt artist. Also might have been fun to have Two-Gun and Cap meet and talk about their varying experiences in doing the “time-warp”. Of course, it would have been much more extreme for Two-Gun, jumping about 100 years into a future wherein everyone he ever knew before is long dead and the culture and technology had all changed so drastically. Conceivably, even if the Two-Gun Kid was maybe 30 years old in 1876, he could have lived another 50 years, well into the period that Steve Rogers would have been a young child. Sometimes I find it disconcerting to think about all the changes, for good or ill, that have taken place within my own 60 + years of living.
Sorry to be so late to the party, but I didn’t realize there was a new post yesterday until late in the day and it was a loooong day, anyway.
As for the comic in question, as I’ve stated before, I wasn’t an Avengers fan fifty years ago. The only Marvel heroes I really cared for in those days were Spidey, FF and Daredevil and they seldom appeared in the Avengers, so I generally only saw an issue if someone else had one. Alan and I were both living in the same dorm at this point and he was rooming with one of my oldest friends, but I was pretty private about my comics habit (years of getting picked on) and I don’t think we’d started discussing our mutual four-color fandom yet (at least, I don’t remember doing so, Alan. Do you?). Anyway, point is, I didn’t see this one back in 76 and I wish I had.
I’ve always liked it when one company parodied the heroes of the other. I’d enjoyed the Squadron in it’s various forms (Sinister or Supreme) and knew who represented who and all that. Englehart’s story was tight and funny and the allusions to DC lore were dead on. Most importantly, the story fit the book it was written for, and didn’t feel all jammed in at the end. Perez’s art still carried about too much of that “Coletta look” but he was coming along nicely and I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed seeing the places where this world and Marvel 616 (I know, they didn’t call it that then) diverged from one another. It was fun stuff.
Thanks, Alan for introducing me to a comic I didn’t read fifty years ago. I was familiar with this storyline, but apparently missed this issue through either apathy or just not seeing it in the midst of all the re-prints. Glad I finally found it.
” I don’t think we’d started discussing our mutual four-color fandom yet (at least, I don’t remember doing so, Alan. Do you?)”
Nope! I think it may have been as long as a year or even two after we became friends before we started talking comics. Who knows why?
I always thought this issue had a Jack Kirby cover. I did not realize that it was actually drawn by Rich Buckler & Dan Adkins. Learn something new every day 😊
I am a huge fan of Steve Englehart… yet like everyone else here I’ve learned to take some of his recollections with a grain of salt. It’s a bit disconcerting that he always appears to be assigning the blame to others when his books were late or he was removed from series. I mean, sure, I could see that happen on some occasions, but every single time. He just comes across, unfortunately, as someone who regrettably does not want to own up to his own role in any setbacks he might have experienced in his lengthy career.
I mean, as Bill Nutt commented above, maybe in this case it was George Perez getting sick that necessitated the two issue fill-in storyline that interrupted “The Serpent Crown Saga.” But if so, why didn’t Englehart just come right out and say that, instead of vaguely hinting at more sinister, ulterior motives for it? Methinks that he just might have been playing the victim here?
Nevertheless, I’m still someone who appreciates the majority of Englehart’s work.
As for George Perez, agreed with Alan and the commenters, his work in this issue showed that he was consistently growing as an artist from month to month this early on in his career, really showing that he was developing into the amazing superstar he would become in just a few short years.
Next issue was Kirby . . . .
With all of those characters, all those tiny panels per page, and Englehart’s florid prose a vital element *had* to take a back seat in order for this story to be contained within the page count. And that was background imagery. A *lot* of panels don’t have any—-just a solid color behind the characters and text.
Fortunately the setting doesn’t change very often, but with fewer (and larger) panels the background architecture would have given more ambience to the story…but that would have necessitated this being a two-parter.
Though Hyperion is a Superman parody, his costume has more in common with Fawcett’s (later DC’s) Captain Marvel—which in some ways is even more ironic, given the accusation that DC made against Fawcett of plagiarizing the man of steel (which eventually shut down
the company—and Marvel Comics subsequently introduced its own Captain Marvel—yet more irony).
Even as a 14 yr-old, some fifty years ago, I wasn’t falling for it. I skipped 145 & 146 and eagerly returned to buying the Avengers w/ #147!
This goes into the “You Had to Be There” Department, but their were a small but vocal group of people who were highly paranoid about Nelson Rockefeller in 1974-’76. I would see Lyndon LaRouche’s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_LaRouche) people handing out literature at supermarkets, etc., then.
Given how Englehart handled Secretary Kissinger in Supervillian Team-Up, It seems he had some contact with “niche” views at the time. Not sure if it was something he was using to “ground” his stories or what.
I remember being a very super-frustrated 9 year-old when the filler issues came out. I found it tremendously annoying that in addition to those two issues, the Serpent Crown story was barely present in 142 and 143 (though I later grew to appreciate the Kang story). I wanted my Serpent Crown story! I did not (and to some degree still do not) find myself liking Don Heck art. I saw it as messy and the characters looked ugly. I also really did not like the Kirby covers that followed (such a heretic). But at that age, I did not appreciate the history of the classic artists, but still to this day do not share the reverence others have.
I loved the fact that Englehart seemed to really like his characters, and he wanted to use them all. I was a big Vision and Wanda fan immediately, so I liked that he had no problem featuring him. I did find it kind of odd that Wanda was often finding ways to work in “as a true witch” into interactions. My brother and I used to joke about it.
I do wonder what would have happened if he had stayed on the book. There were certainly good stories that followed, but I wonder what a 1976 Englehart would have done. We know what he did on WCA later, which would have been considered more of a classic run had it displayed a semblance of decent art.
In retrospect, the Serpent Crown saga was a mini-classic, and I was hooked, as my first Avengers story was the Celestial Madonna, so they were on a roll (minus fill-in issues). Here’s to the next era, may it yield many new classics!
Hi just to say that #145 and #146 did have some plus points…the Kane covers, 3 pages of nice Pollard work, and, from a nostalgia point of view, seeing Heck once more doing the Avengers. I though the ending sucked after a reasonable start though.
I bought #147 at the first comic convention I ever attended…which I think was at the Chelsea town hall on the Kings Road, sometime April or May of 76. I bought it together with #148, and will catch up with you all by readings these in a couple of months time.
Re Englehart’s comments about certain company politics going down in NY…I think it was not necessarily politics in play, but the commercial reality of print penalties from missed deadlines, eventually leading to the writing ‘stars’ and major culprits ( Englehart, Gerber, McGregor) being ‘replaced’ on some of their features.