Thursday, February 3, 2022

The Machinations of the Intelligencia!

 

Early 2010 saw the introduction of the Intelligencia, a group of villains who pooled their talents to make acquisitions of rarity and value and assist each other when needed, as well as stepping in to manipulate events with an eye on reaping benefits down the road. Comprised of the Leader, M.O.D.O.K., Dr. Doom, the Red Ghost, the Wizard, the Thinker, and Egghead, the group was not "a team," as such--"more an irregular collective, sharing information, and when necessary, taking it," as the Leader put it.

If their collective name sounds familiar, you may be remembering a previous Captain Marvel character from nearly a decade before these mental masters made their debut:


As opposed to the cover caption, the story adds a "t" to the Skrull entity's name. We can only wonder if some future incarnation of Not Brand Echh would have either the Intelligencia or Intelligentsia make a point of correcting the other and what such a meeting might entail. It doesn't seem likely that reaching an impasse on the subject would be an option acceptable to either camp.

The Intelligencia were used as a spearhead to launch the Fall Of The Hulks mega-crossover event, numbering 15+ issues published over a span of five months--a reading list not for the faint of heart.



As for their first foray into "taking" information when they deemed it necessary, we meet the Intelligencia as they scour the globe searching for repositories of the until-now lost contents of the library of Alexandria, assumed to be destroyed in the fires set by Julius Caesar's men in 48 BC. The narrative we find in the scene belongs to the Leader, who in hindsight informs us that this undertaking would eventually lead to the end of the Intelligencia.



Looking at the credits, that's a lot of people on the payroll for contributing to a single story--that is, "an Irene Y. Lee Production," mind you. And just look at that roll call of editors--from Editor In Chief, the list trickles down to Senior Editor, to Associate Editor, and finally to Assistant Editor, all apparently overseen by an Executive Producer. (To say nothing of a list of contributors as long as one of those scrolls.) I dare say Mark Gruenwald could have managed all of the plates being juggled here without even a tenth of the fanfare.

Unlike the various Hulks that we'll encounter in this series who will be throwing punch after punch after punch after punch after PUNCH (the sight of a Sue Richards Hulk getting ready to square off is flagrantly taking things too far), the allure of the Intelligencia is that, with the exception of perhaps Doom, there is no one in their lineup who will be trading blows.  In fact, there's little to none of that taking place in the "Alpha" issue, which consists mostly of various profiles of the individuals comprising the group, introduced by the Leader as they go about their business.




(I'm not really clear on what qualifies the Red Ghost to be a part of the Intelligencia, though perhaps it's due to his early work in aerospace technology.)

As intimated earlier, the Intelligencia have also kept an eye not only on various villains who might have perished without their timely assistance, but also on each other, extricating those of their number who fell victim to failed schemes (which applies to maybe all of this crew, at one time or another). Perhaps it was inevitable that one of them would depend on that sort of "safety net" and decide to take one risk too many, as was the case with Egghead.


Eventually, this story would have to deal in what specifically brought the Hulk to the attention of the Intelligencia--and to that end, we see how they have been aware of how he was ejected from Earth by members of the Illuminati, as well as the probability of his eventual return as a major threat. But addressing this further was tabled when they were forced to face the betrayal of one of their own, once their raids on the Alexandria caches were complete. As to their foe's identity... well, take a wild guess.




Their group splintered, the Leader retreats to a hidden base, where MODOK eventually follows in order to hatch a plan with him to strike back at their enemies through a powerful ally which they would create. (And leading to, it probably goes without saying, a whole new set of crossover issues.)


The Intelligencia's involvement with the man who would become this new Hulk is shown in the PPC's earlier profile of the Red Hulk. As for the Intelligencia, they would be appearing at various stages of the Fall Of The Hulks storyline, which may have become too convoluted for even these gentlemen to keep track of.


12 comments:

  1. Wasn’t Egghead killed years before by Hawkeye? Why would Marvel want to bring back someone so cheesy?

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  2. Ooh, a mega crossover event.
    I've not read any of it but as you probably know by now Comicsfan, I'm not one for letting ignorance get in the way of having an opinion about anything (or indeed, everything) - this Intelligencia stuff looks terrible.

    As if Doom would hang around with all those losers.

    -sean

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  3. And another thing. If I can tell from very earl6 on that Doom is going to double cross the rest of the team at the end, why can't the Thinker work that out? He always has some excuse about the unpredictable element but everyone could see that coming.

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  4. dangermash, perhaps it was thought Egghead was a natural fit for this group, simply by virtue of his nickname (and I dare say he'd petition for membership if an invitation hadn't been extended to him). At any rate, we've seen the group note his unfortunate end at Hawkeye's bow, leaving them short-handed (short-headed?) for a crucial phase of their work.

    sean, in true form, Doom appears to have been stringing his allies along to gain his ends--something I'm astonished the other members never thought to anticipate and prepare a contingency plan for (as dangermash also notes).

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  5. The Thinker, dangermash?

    Seems he thinks alchemy "has real science behind it!"
    So he can't be that bright.

    -sean

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  6. Sean, sean...you need to adjust your Skepticism Frequency to "Earth Marvel". The sciences there a much larger buffet to select from, compared to our strict world. I wouldn't be surprised to read that Diablo with his mastery of alchemy had been on a short list for an Intelligencia membership.

    I loved this issue. The ensuing snarl of a Hulk crossover was a mess that didn't grab my interest at all. But I enjoyed this cabal of evil brains working behind the scenes thru Marvel history. It was a nice touch to offer a wee explanation for the constant resurrection of musclehead villains like Absorbing Man et al.

    CF: you mention how Egghead would petition for a membership. Another favourite appearance of the Intellgencia is Amazing Spider-Man #676 (2011). They face off against Doctor Octopus and the Sinister Six. Doc Ock has a major reason to shut the Intelligencia down, but the confrontation has extra hot sauce because he was snubbed by this little circle of mad geniuses.

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  7. "Seems he thinks alchemy "has real science behind it!"
    So he can't be that bright"

    I think the implication is that, unlike all the bogus alchemy, this stuff from the library Alexandria was actually legit.

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  8. I wouldn't underestimate Ock in any confrontation, Murray, though I recall his leadership of the original Sinister Six as something less than sensational. One mental blast by the Leader and the fight's as good as over; but I imagine it wasn't that simple, eh?

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  9. Murray, Murray... yes, I realize magic works in the Marvel universe, but its still something different to science.
    So alchemy would actually be a thing, but to someone like the Thinker who nevertheless considers it charlatanism if it were legit it would be chemistry.

    It seems like lazy writing to me, as if the characters hadn't been thought through properly. But to be fair, I am just going by what I read here.

    -sean

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  10. The Intelligentsia, despite being a cool concept for a group, is one of those things that really bothered me about this era of Marvel Comics (much like the Illuminati).

    The greatest super-scientists of the Marvel villains secretly working together for a common purpose is a great concept. How many great stories can be created through multiple books based on this! I can't wait to see the stories and how it impacts the Universe. Making that a retcon that happens behind the scenes is lame because it means no new stories, no impact, or anything else that's fun. It simply explains that everything that already happened, happened except for this one story.

    Likewise, as others have already mentioned, Doom's betrayal was obvious to anyone who knows anything about the character. Doom is never a team player. And couldn't the group have simply scanned the entire library and digitally preserved the knowledge so that every member had access to it?

    I imagine the Red Ghost is included simply because it's assumed that he must be a Reed Richards analogue, when in fact the Red Ghost, while smart, truly is not in the same league as the other characters.

    Chris

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  11. Speaking of "cheesy" these crossover events are always cheesy. This "Fall of the Hulks" at first glance looks just awful. But do I enjoy these "supervillain team-ups" and I found this particular comic reviewed here entertaining. Like the Acts of Vengeance crew, which the Red Skull called a "nest of vipers" (he would know), it makes for good reading! Lotsa intrigue and a bit of humor.
    Salvaging the lost Library of Alexandria is a noble task, no matter how dubious the motives! I like this team.
    Very slick art, too.
    That said I'm not about to go out and spend shekels on another dopey crossover. I suspect this issue was the high point.

    M.P.

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  12. M.P., I felt this issue profiled the group nicely, without getting bogged down in a host of Hulks. If I ever have some time to kill (and boy, do I ever wish for that day!), I might go through the issues and put together a collection of scenes of the Intelligencia which I thought stood out.

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