Thursday, February 28, 2013

Stupid Villain Tricks


It all started with an innocent phone call:



So that, before you know it, television watchers are tuning in to the most unexpected promo ever:



Unfortunately, a certain arch-nemesis of the Avengers also happens to be at his set:



YES, IT'S THE RETURN OF:
FABIAN STANKOWICZ



After his last crushing defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, Fabian has been biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to avenge himself on the Avengers. And now, after infiltrating the David Letterman set, he's put in place all of the elements of a carefully laid trap that will bring him fame at last:



When the Avengers have comfortably settled into Dave's comfy couch and their interview is underway, Fabian makes his move from the safety of the studio audience. First, by activating a sabotaged TV camera:



And just for good measure, the dumpster he's left backstage is rigged to become a deadly, armed steamroller:





But Fabian seems to have learned at least something from his earlier failed encounters with the Avengers. Rather than be in the driver's seat of these deadly creations, they serve as distractions to keep the Avengers busy so that he can take advantage of a priceless promotional opportunity:




Eventually, the Avengers figure out that their foe is the new guy sitting opposite Dave, and they attempt to take him out--only to find him protected by a force field. A little item of information that he was better off not sharing with his host:




So Fabian is off to do more time, though the courts seem to be taking his appearances as inconsequentially as the Avengers do. Yet eventually, his fortunes change when Captain America takes him under his wing (no, not as a costumed partner--that would probably be disastrous) and hires him as part of the Avengers support staff on Hydrobase, where he puts his inventor skills to work improving the team's various equipment and devices. He then went on to work more closely with Cap along with maintaining his association with the Avengers, though with some pitfalls along the way--battling a drug addiction, attempting suicide, and becoming a victim of Sentinel technology. The last I knew, he was recovering in a hospital. Hopefully, the nurses have the good sense to refuse any requests for a tool kit.


4 comments:

Edo Bosnar said...

Hmmm, somehow I think it would have been so much cooler if Larry "Bud" Melman had been the one who took out Fabian...

Anonymous said...

I was not a big fan of this period in the Avengers. Maybe I'm showing my age, but I was more used to the drama-drenched, melodramatic, cosmic space opera days of the 60's and 70's. I had a subscription at this point, but what I really wanted to see was either Kirby, Perez, or one of the Buscema brothers at the drawing table. And what's with Wonder Man and the Vision making all nice, like they're brothers-in-law planning a barbeque? I kind of of preferred it when they were beating the crap out of each other. I remember thinking, I paid paper route money for this? Just sayin.'

Comicsfan said...

The Stern/Milgrom/Sinnott run on The Avengers had its good moments and its not-so-good moments. (I was never a fan of the Dire Wraiths.) I liked seeing Captain Marvel coming aboard and the whole Avenger-in-training concept, and I found the Ultimate Vision story interesting as far as seeing the Vision in a leadership role (though he wasn't quite himself). But yes, Stern seemed more at home with Buscema's pencils. While Sinnott did a lot to smooth out Milgrom's work, the Buscema/Palmer team is hard to beat on this book.

As for the Vision and Wonder Man, you might take a look at my Grim Reaper series of posts to get a handle on how their relationship evolved.

Doc Savage said...

This is my favorite Avengers era.