Comes To Hel... The Destroyer!

 

Many of you no doubt recall the sharp change in direction which several of Marvel's titles took in 1986--stories which collectively became unofficially known as the "mutant massacre" plot, where no mutant, Morlock, or even Thunder God was safe. Yet during this time there was another plot forming in Hel, where the death goddess Hela prepared to take her vengeance on Thor for past transgressions--the effects of which became clear when he sustained an injury from Blockbuster of the Marauders which shattered the bones of one of his arms.

Depending on how you felt about the spike in a more graphic portrayal of violence displayed during the mutant massacre events, it's arguably to Marvel's credit that it pushed ahead to mainstream this new direction and cross over to other titles rather than take an isolationist approach and having the affected characters appear elsewhere untouched and unaffected by what these attacks entailed (along with a well-placed editor's note to smooth over the discrepancy). For Thor, those effects became more pronounced with injuries sustained in further battles, to the point of having to don a custom suit of armor which literally held him together as his wounds and injuries became more severe.

In Thor's own title, Hela's curse takes eight issues to play out before a reckoning. By that time, however, he had engaged in a battle to the death with Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, prophesied to be the instrument of his demise--their final clash reducing Thor's body to little more than a bloodied, barely recognizable corpse within his armor (thankfully Marvel established some boundaries as to how much graphic realism to portray), even as Hela's curse kept him alive and, it goes without saying, in unbelievable agony at this point. Yet in the Mephisto vs. limited series, the title character found even a battle with Thor's still-indomitable spirit to be fruitless as far as obtaining the son of Odin's soul.

Still, on a startling cover which preceded Thor's 300th anniversary issue, we would see an indication that Hela should have heeded Mephisto's parting words, as the armored threat known as the Destroyer, garbed in familiar raiment and wielding the hammer of Thor, advances toward a confrontation with the Goddess of Death that will leave no doubt as to the purpose behind his dreaded name.

Death To The Son Of Loki!

 

In the pages of Mighty Thor, we've twice seen the fulfilling of prophecy regarding the appearance of Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent--the final foe to burst forth on the dreaded day of Ragnarok, and the creature who is fated to bring about the death of Thor and precede the final, monumental explosion which causes the end of Asgard and all who dwell within. In addition, Jormungand arrived on cue during Odin's plan to fulfill the prophecy's signs himself, so that the conditions of Ragnarok were met but in a way which did not bring about the devastating climax.

As a prelude to that particular story arc, we learn of a time in Thor's past when the Thunder God decided to try to cheat fate (or, in this case, the Norn Fates) by taking on the Serpent earlier than the prophecy foretold--yet Hymir, the giant who accommodates his request to bait a creature without having full knowledge of what Thor intended, doesn't share his passenger's desire for an early confrontation of the Serpent, and certainly not an early death.

And yet, Jormungand, the offspring of Loki (I can't even imagine the mechanics involved in that delivery), is not present when Ragnarok finally does occur. To understand why, we have to turn to artist/writer Walt Simonson's take on the final battle between the Serpent and the God of Thunder which took place in mid-1987--fittingly, near the end of Simonson's run on the title. But as we see, there appears to be another monstrous, tailed, snorting form involved in that story--that of Fin Fang Foom, who has received a good deal of exposure of late in the PPC and whom we've learned Jormungand used as a disguise during his meeting with an unknown warrior that he'd hoped would lead him to Thor. And Thor played along, to a point--but when misconceptions turned to shocking revelations, the die was cast.

Which brings us to the final, destined meeting between Thunder God and Serpent--its unscheduled, flying-in-the-face-of-prophecy nature serving to heighten the tension between both combatants while making this bout a page-turner in more ways than one.

Marvel's Classic Corner Boxes: Fantastic Four Vol. I

 

Nine years ago, the PPC briefly took a look at those eye-catching corner boxes which once graced the left corner of issue covers and featured the character(s) which starred in the comic you took home to read. At the time, we explored the subject within the context of where the art for the characters might have originated from; but during this week, we'll expand our look to showcase a near-entire run of a title's first volume of corner boxes in all their mini-glory, from beginning to end. And why not begin where Marvel began, in the comic which set the standard for its new line of super-hero books?

It took a year and a half for the first corner box to appear in the Fantastic Four comic since its launch--but with variations, that box would endure for the next four years and appear in nearly fifty issues.

Saga Of Annihilation!

 

Forty-three years ago almost to the month, I and several other college students in a media-related course were invited to our professor's home for an informal gathering with his family to watch the premiere of the new "Battlestar Galactica" television series on ABC. With the amount of press the show was receiving, coasting as it did on the reception of the wildly successful "Star Wars" film a year and a half earlier, there was a good deal of curiosity as to the show's concept as well as the quality of its production values considering its multi-million-dollar price tag--and our professor, who enjoyed cataloguing such media events and related trivia, had his VCR all set up to record the three-hour special. (There's no telling what he eventually did with all those videocassette tapes he must have amassed by the time VCRs finally bit the dust, but he no doubt enjoyed the run while it lasted.)

Things didn't end well for Galactica as a weekly series (at least where ABC was concerned)--yet Marvel was still able to reap some benefits from the show, the first being an adaptation of part of its premiere, "Saga of a Star World," for magazine publication in its Marvel Super Special publication, which hit the stands a month later.

Memories From Mimir

 

The 1978 Thor Annual takes place at a crucial point in Asgard's existence, with the Asgardians on the brink of facing their worst nightmare: Ragnarok, the prophesied twilight of the gods which will doom not only the realm but also Earth, as well (or so the Asgardians believe). Yet for all intents and purposes, this story takes its cue from an earlier annual from 1976, where the gods of Asgard faced off against those of Olympus, and each realm believed itself to have triumphed when in reality neither did. Thor, still young (well, for an immortal) and headstrong at the time, was not at all pleased with his father Odin's explanation as to why each side was denied a true victory--but we find that Thor's mood is equally dour in the more current tale, where it seems that the coming crisis, which most have laid at the feet of Loki's machinations, is unavoidable, leaving these warrior gods of Asgard bristling at their collective helplessness.

To learn how one story connects with the other to bring about a third, we must catch up with Thor as he wanders the royal palace aimlessly and finds himself before one who takes delight in mocking Asgard's current state of affairs--Mimir, the fiery guardian of the Well of Wisdom where Odin was recently compelled to cast one of his eyes into in order to learn how he may prevent the coming of Ragnarok. What knowledge Odin gained from that encounter proved to be ultimately fruitless--yet Thor has no intention of paying such a price for the answers he seeks this day.

Mimir leads off by recounting the Asgardian/Olympian conflict, a "war" which left Thor feeling manipulated and sent him stomping out of Asgard earthward. It's something of a stretch on writer Roy Thomas's part, since in the story the rest of us read, Thor's mood was improved considerably by a conversation with the Norn Queen, Karnilla, leaving him in a more upbeat frame of mind:

And yet to accommodate the current tale, off to Earth he goes, now unwilling to accept his limitations and determined to explore expanding Asgard's influence among mortals in anticipation of the throne eventually being seated by himself. But in so doing, he is destined to cross paths for the first time with a highly-advanced race of Earth-born "gods" who have their own plans for the primitive mortals of the world--and who await the return of beings who, unknown to Thor, had long ago begun shaping the evolution of mankind as part of an operation which would take millennia to come to fruition!

 

The Future Is Now: The Iron Man of 2020

Having seen a number of grim future scenarios portrayed in Marvel's line of comics, which we eventually caught up to in real time and passed without incident, it seems fitting to take a look at what the company once had to say about the year 2020, the year in which we now find ourselves. Such a story was published in mid-1994, nearly twenty-five years before the ball would drop on 2020--and once again, there wasn't really a silver lining to be found in our future, no idealistic prognostication of mankind having finally gotten its act together and resolved to build a better world and a brighter future for itself. On the contrary, there was only the stark realism of the same-old same-old--while the only thing that had improved, for what it was worth, was our technology.

And speaking of "stark," we discover that a certain industrial conglomerate has survived to claim a place in that world--but neither the company nor its chief executive is thriving.

Meet Arno Stark, who in taking on the mantle of Iron Man has tarnished the golden Avenger's legacy. Instead of living an altruistic life, Stark instead uses the armor as a mercenary, hiring out his services as Iron Man to equally ruthless business leaders like Sunset Bain (CEO of Baintronics) while having established for himself a reputation as someone who has no compunction against committing corporate espionage in order to cripple his competitors for his own company's gain.

When we first meet Stark, a character who appears in the 1984 Machine Man limited series based in 2020, that amoral man fits all too well in the corporate cutthroat environment where Bain et al. are looking for any edge to prevail against their competitors. The plot revolves around Machine Man, whose remains have been found and reassembled by a group of technology raiders calling themselves the Wreckers--whom he then joins forces with against Bain (who subsequently hires Iron Man to take out Machine Man).

Stark of course believes what he's saying about the fate of Iron Man, though the truth would only be revealed to the reader in the later '94 story--but more on that in a moment.

Your Guided Tour of The Time Variance Authority!

For his penultimate issue before ending his stay on Fantastic Four, writer/artist Walt Simonson devotes its story to giving us the 411 on the Time Variance Authority, which has recently monitored the extensive time-jumping taking place in Timeline 0257/0923-A (er, that would be us--specifically, the time-sequencer duel between Reed Richards and Dr. Doom) and taken appropriate action to issue cease and desist orders to the parties involved. With Doom terminated for resisting arrest by the TVA's "Minutemen" squadron, that left only the FF to be remanded to TVA custody and transported to the null-time zone where the TVA is based.

For what it's worth, it was only a matter of time (heh, get it?) before the FF would have been brought before the TVA anyway in order to answer for pending "temporal misconduct charges" that were awaiting further investigation. So things admittedly don't look too good for our foursome with this latest transgression--but they agree to accompany the TVA's "Minutemen" enforcers (led by their letter-of-the-law officer, Justice Peace) and face the music, cooperation which will hopefully count in their favor.

Duel Within Time!

Walt Simonson, to be honest, wasn't one of those Marvel talents whose name on a story guaranteed an automatic purchase for me--yet he reminded me a lot of Jim Starlin, another Marvel notable whose own style of art was unconventional but eye-catching, and whose scripting talent turned out to be first-rate. And so Simonson's name on whatever new project he took a hand in as its writer and/or artist was enough to get my attention and tempt me into at least giving it a look.

Aside from sampling a variety of his work in a number of titles, there were four projects which stood above the rest for me as books that I invested a good deal of time in, just to see what he had in mind for their direction or what he would otherwise bring to their table. Only two of them panned out for me--but two winners out of four made it time well spent as far as I was concerned, while your own mileage may have varied (and if so I hope you'll give your own thoughts on the subject):

Mighty Thor (artist/writer)
1983-1987

Simonson set a high standard with his outstanding work on this book, bringing to Thor and the Asgardians a fresh take on the gods of Asgard who all suddenly sounded and acted considerably less Shakespearean than we were used to, with each character given much more depth than had previously been allowed beyond their unswerving devotion to lord and land. It was nearly four years of incredible reading and compelling, entertaining stories, with Thor himself being more relatable to his readers while being no less a hero.

X-Factor (artist)
1986-1989

X-Factor's concept--former X-Men who used their occupation as mutant hunters as a smokescreen to instead find and rescue persecuted mutants--never seemed practical, given that their very covers instilled in the public the fear and hatred they took advantage of to accomplish their work. The addition of Simonson saw their methods and mission altered somewhat--but writer Louise Simonson's tenure on the book provided little substantive direction and no small amount of confusing, haphazard plotlines and characters, while she was also instrumental in starting the X-titles down the road of crossovers ad nauseam.

The Avengers (writer)
1988-1989

Having the unenviable task of reversing course on the solid direction for the book and its characters that writer Roger Stern had established during his distinctive run on the title, while leaving a new team and direction in place by the time of the book's 300th issue, couldn't have won Simonson many fans among Avengers readers, who probably felt like the rug had been pulled out from under them. And plugging the Fantastic Four into the new lineup was a parting shot that likely had more than a few heads shaking in a mixture of disappointment and bewilderment.

And then, in 1990, Simonson followed the Fantastic Four to their own book as both writer and artist (though others would pick up the art chores on occasion), which frankly was the last place I expected him to set up shop since for whatever reason the FF didn't seem like the type of characters that he could adapt to, as others have discovered. But while there were times when you couldn't see the FF for the guest stars, Simonson offered a nice take on the team that made his two-year run more than passable fare--as good a "placeholder" as any, until Tom DeFalco began his more extensive stay on the book.

For one of his final FF issues, as an example, Simonson pulls out all the stops, as the team arrives in Latveria to rescue Sharon Ventura (a/k/a Ms. Marvel, who came to the team while Reed and Sue were on hiatus) from the clutches of Dr. Doom, though they were initially unaware that she came to Doom of her own free will because of his promise that he could cure her of being the "She-Thing." On their arrival at Castle Doom, the four are separated from each other and taken captive, but Reed surprises Doom by freeing himself from the trap meant to contain him, and Doom offers to face him in a unique contest between them in exchange for the lives of his partners--a duel to the death in the midst of time itself, using devices that Doom purloined during his travels.

Quite a concept--a deadly battle between two of Marvel's most classic foes that will go the distance but might last only a few minutes in real time, or, conceivably, even seconds. And time will indeed run out for one of them--but the "victor" may surprise you!

The Rampaging TV Sensation

(With a tip of the hat to Steve Does Comics for this post's inspiration!)


Like a number of Marvel's line of B&W magazines from the '70s, I passed on the original run of The Rampaging Hulk magazine from 1977-78, though I remember taking a quick look at a couple of issues when browsing the magazine rack. The book's time period preceded that of the present-day Hulk, going back to the days just after his first series when he had a little more on the ball in the brain department, a facet of his personality which writer Doug Moench took further so that the Hulk's manner and speech resembled that of the character we saw during his brief stint in The Avengers. That alone wouldn't have been a problem for me; in fact, I liked the Hulk when he was almost always in a bad mood and had a hair-trigger temper, when you could never tell what was going to push him over the edge. But the mag also made an alien race called the Krylorians the Hulk's perpetual foes throughout the run of the initial series, and they just didn't appeal to me--mostly because Moench wrote them as if they'd modeled their speech and cognitive patterns after street-savvy Americans, something I couldn't reconcile with alien invaders. Boiled down, they seemed to be really snarky versions of the Toad Men, though frankly I enjoyed the Toad Men.

Also of note is that Marvel's magazines tended to be churned out depending on the trend of the year, whether it was martial arts or monsters or a popular film. In this case, when The Rampaging Hulk was retooled to a color magazine in 1978 with more contemporary stories, it hitched its wagon to the 1978 television series The Incredible Hulk, appealing to the show's fan base with interviews and behind-the-scenes segments. Naturally, the Incredible Hulk comic followed suit with prominent "Marvel's TV Sensation" captions appearing on its covers, though I can hardly fault them for striking while the iron is hot.  At the time, however, I wasn't a regular view of the show--so the large-format Hulk magazine just didn't reach me on any level.

But having recently taken a look at a good number of the magazine issues from each of its runs, I found that there were many things to appreciate about them, creatively speaking. I can't say I didn't have a few problems with Moench's at times meandering style (for instance, an interminable amount of time is spent having Rick Jones, in hot pursuit of the Hulk, trying to determine from the air which direction Queens would be)--but some of the stories were engaging (many of the action sequences more so), and, in all fairness to Moench, each was packed with a whopping 60+ pages of material. In addition, there is some truly spectacular artwork to be found in the series, which will be the primary focus of today's post.

It's only fair to start at the beginning--that is, the Hulk's beginning, following Bruce Banner's exposure to the radiation emitted from the explosion of his gamma bomb. Without the aid of a colorist, the scene is all the more chilling, thanks to artists Walt Simonson and Alfredo Alcala.

It's Official: Thor Is A Mercenary Teddy Bear

Homage covers are always eye-catching and often an unexpected surprise, since they can trickle down from any comic book and are completely unpredictable as to what title (or company) they'll show up in--but it's fair to assume that even artist Walt Simonson was pleasantly surprised at the mileage his cover for Mighty Thor #337 has received through the years.

The issue was Simonson's debut as the title's regular writer, while returning as artist from a previous 1977-78 run in the book. Since that time, a number of artists have paid tribute to Simonson's cover--and while many other characters have cracked, crumbled, ripped, or smashed through their own masthead in one way or another, there's no denying Simonson's distinctive pose for the Thunder God--or rather, for Beta Ray Bill, the alien who surprised even the Asgardians with not only his victory over Thor, but also his ability to lift Thor's fabled hammer.

Here, then, is a brief collection of issues which paid tribute to that cover, along with a note or two about the cover artist for each.

Sisters In Seduction

Before writer/artist Walt Simonson changed the Asgardian landscape in Mighty Thor and began introducing many more characters of the realm that interacted with the principals, the self-serving sorceress known as the Enchantress appeared to have no known ties to anyone (apart from her partner in crime, the Executioner). But Simonson changed that almost immediately when he began his distinguished run as the book's regular writer, and presented the Enchantress' younger sister, Lorelei--a first appearance which makes it clear that, when it comes to a talent for manipulation and betrayal, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Loki's plan for Lorelei involved using her talents to seduce Thor in order to keep him occupied while Loki schemed for power--which is exactly why he sought out the Enchantress nearly twenty years earlier (our time, that is--for a race of immortals, two decades could amount to last June).

Both the Enchantress and Lorelei would pursue the Thunder God, though the Enchantress is more drawn to Thor as a long-term prospect whereas Lorelei acts at Loki's behest and eventually tends to lose interest once her schemes have run their course. That's not to say that the Enchantress hasn't treated her men like crap, tools to exploit as a means to an end (e.g., the Black Knight, Power Man, Arkon, et al.)--on the contrary, she's been shown to be quite callous, indulging in cat-and-mouse diversions with men as a form of momentary amusement, to her victims' eternal regret.

Council Is Again In Session!

As we've previously seen, a three-member council made up of alternate-reality versions of Kang the Conqueror had convened to, in essence, clean up after themselves--that is, to exterminate the thousands of Kangs who had been brought into existence as a result of their extensive travels through time and the divergent versions of themselves that were created. But this is Kang we're talking about, after all--so when their task was completed, it wasn't long before two of the council members were eliminated due to the treachery of the third, as part of a scheme to place a robotic double of each of the slain Kangs in their respective realities, allowing the sole surviving Kang to take control and rule all of their empires.

What Kang was unaware of was that he himself had been manipulated by Immortus, another manifestation of himself, who then dealt with Kang by having him absorb the combined memories of all the Kangs who were killed, thus driving him near-mad and trapping him in Immortus's realm of Limbo. It seemed that Kang the Conqueror had finally seen his last attempt at conquest.

Yet whatever his failings, it's generally a good idea never to underestimate Kang--even in the case of Immortus, who isn't as much on top of things as he'd like to think.

As for Kang, he's possibly thinking that he can pick up where he left off, since, Immortus notwithstanding, his prior scheme left him as the only surviving Kang.

He's wrong on both counts.

It's Been A Blast--But You Bombed

I wish I could tell you that a match-up between Thor, the God of Thunder and Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst would be a battle to remember. But since his debut in the pages of Fantastic Four, Blastaar hasn't exactly seen his star on the rise. His next appearance in X-Men two years later gave us a good idea why that title was spiraling down to cancellation; and when he resurfaced in Marvel Team-Up to take on the Human Torch and the Hulk, it was under a human's control, forced to do his bidding in destroying a factory which belonged to a business finagler who had cheated him. The X-Men story was atrocious--the MTU story far less so--but the threat of Blastaar in both cases was handily dealt with and somewhat lackluster.

So why wouldn't an appearance in Mighty Thor help to bring this character back from the specter of oblivion and reinstate him as a major threat? Well, we could choose from among three reasons. First, Blastaar has an impressive track record--of being successfully fought off, that is. The FF dealt with him even with their attention divided by the Sandman; the X-Men's tactics were jokes, and still they outfought him; Medusa restrained him with her hair so that any blasts from his hands would cause him to be crushed; and the Hulk neutralized him by wrapping him up in adamantium alloy and hurling him into the ocean. (How's that for dismissing your foe?) Blastaar also proved in the X-Men story to be vulnerable to electrocution--so imagine how a god who can wield lightning will do against him.

Secondly, Blastaar, aside from his body's ability to resist temperature extremes, has one power to his credit: explosive bursts. As a would-be conqueror, that power alone doesn't cut it. There are other sources of explosive forces that can counter Blastaar, without even venturing into the super-powered options. And, granted, Thor has been dropped by explosions before, but he's also withstood such forces. What that means for Blastaar is that, while Blastaar might gain the upper hand at some point, soon enough Thor will overwhelm him.

Lastly, Blastaar is once again acting under orders of another--this time, I kid you not, a sentient factory. In fact, he's practically dedicated himself to this building's wishes and carrying out its orders (calling it "Master," just as he did with the Kree at an earlier time), mostly because the factory--F.A.U.S.T., the automated factory featured in the MTU story--has promised to install him as King of the Negative Zone. The Blastaar we remember would have destroyed this factory on the spot for making such a ludicrous promise without providing any specifics; instead, Blastaar gives the building his unwavering loyalty and carries out his orders without hesitation. You can almost see Blastaar's cred in world-conquering circles plummeting.

The only thing we truly have to look forward to in this fight is that Thor meets Blastaar after having dealt with the Stilt-Man--and we surely have to breathe a sigh of relief that Blastaar would have to be a step up from that.

Unfortunately, Thor would spend much of this issue pursuing information on F.A.U.S.T., leaving him only two brief intervals of battling Blastaar. In both instances, Thor never mixes it up with Blastaar to the extent we know he can; in fact, he seems to fight mostly a defensive battle, while writer Len Wein's main goal appears to be to move along the continuing plot involving F.A.U.S.T. Thor is even ejected from his first skirmish with the brute due to his hammer being out of his grasp for more than sixty seconds.

See what I mean? Nothing to write home about so far--except to maybe say, "Ma, I've been gypped!!" And when Thor later engages with Blastaar in force at the factory site, the fight is cut short after just a few panels when the central computer core of F.A.U.S.T. blasts off into orbit and Blastaar panics at being seemingly abandoned. But rather than Thor finishing things up with him, we'll find that Blastaar is dealt with by F.A.U.S.T. in absentia.

For what it's worth, Thor will be joined by Iron Man in taking the fight to F.A.U.S.T. in the next issue. As for Blastaar, you may or may not want to see him again--but after seeing how quickly he's gone downhill, you'll probably want something more substantive than Asst. Editor Jake Thomas's sales pitch as an incentive, eh?

Mighty Thor #270 Script: Len Wein Pencils: Walt Simonson Inks: Tony DeZuniga Letterer: Joe Rosen

Months Of Vengeance!

OR: "Pay No Attention To Those Villains Behind The Curtain..."


The last Marvel crossover event to grace the 1980s was the extensive 1989-90 Acts Of Vengeance series of stories, which mainly centered on the Avengers, Captain America, and Thor books but also cast a wide net over a number of other titles. The event's main draw was its cabal of villains who joined together to conduct aggressive operations against super-heroes in order to bring about their end; though it's more accurate to say that these villains were brought together, by a mysterious figure who suggested this initiative and secured the agreement of the villains to participate.

The premise of the AOV project was bolstered by several key elements that only barely sustained it for the duration. Chief among them was the campaign's coordinator, the suited figure who enticed the likes of Dr. Doom, the Red Skull and the others to band together and embark on this course of action. It was clear the man had an agenda beyond the one he conveyed to his "superiors"; it was also clear that his power dwarfed that of the others, and that he was manipulating them in order to bring about the destruction of the Avengers. The story is coy in keeping his identity undisclosed--but with his references to "the gods" and "Midgard," it becomes apparent that we're dealing with Loki here (with his identity being confirmed in an unrelated Thor issue). And granted, Loki has a history of working behind the scenes as well as drafting and manipulating mortal pawns to his own ends--but this seems too elaborate a ruse for him to spend his time on, even an immortal's time. (I could make the same point in regard to Dormammu and his scheme to recover the Evil Eye, a scheme which Loki himself was conscripted into playing along with.)

Also, Loki's method for getting these six villains to participate and cooperate in this plan is to convince each villain that this is their plan, under their direction and control, with himself serving as their aide-de-camp--a deception which seems doomed to fail from the start, doesn't it? Once you have all of them in a room together, one villain is bound to assert his authority and seek to direct the others, at which point each of the others would make it clear that they are the one who is in control here. Yet in scenes where they meet as a group, the issue is virtually ignored when one of them makes such assertions--which is fortunate for the story, since this group's members would never be able to cooperate with each other otherwise. A more workable approach might have been for Loki to simply masquerade as the lackey who follows the will of the collective group--an approach which the reader will probably find him- or herself assuming to be the case regardless, in order to avoid the confusion of this plot oversight.

We're also left to fill in the blanks as far as this cabal actually doing something when it meets, carrying out each step of "the plan" (as this endeavor is vaguely referred to) by dispatching their "lackey" to execute the details that they've worked out. Often, however, we get the impression that this underling is taking the initiative on his own, announcing that he's leaving to take care of business and later simply reporting back to the cabal at regular intervals, submitting to their approval and arrogance on his return while continuing to maintain the charade that he fulfills their will. It's likely the most hands-off "Sinister Six" that you've ever come across, at least at first glance. Fortunately, with AOV spread out among many other titles such as Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, et al., the slack is taken up by these villains indeed fulfilling the plan in their own ways, in venues where they're more at home and where they prove to be far more interesting in their machinations than in a group setting.

Finally, the key component of the AOV that makes our villains believe this plan is a sure thing: that the heroes who are targeted will be attacked by villains whom they've never met in battle, a tactic that will presumably put the targets at a disadvantage. To swallow that, we have to put aside the fact that characters in Marvel titles across the board are often meeting new opponents to battle, characters they've never gone up against before and whose abilities generally take them by surprise. It's the bread and butter of comics already--AOV is simply putting a new twist on it by having it occur over a three-month period in a string of titles that makes it appear to be a coordinated plot.

That said, it's not a bad way to spend a few months of comics reading, if you allow yourself to be swept along by that premise. For instance, a string of robots sent by Doom to sink Avengers Island (the former Hydrobase) succeeds and finally gets rid of a base of operations that only served to isolate the Avengers and probably wasn't popular with readers in the first place. (Though cramming the issue's cover with Avengers who, with the exception of Quasar, never appear in the story probably made the reader flinch at any other title bearing the AOV banner from that point on.) There's also Spider-Man taking on heavyweights like Graviton and Magneto, while attempting to wield the powers of Captain Universe; while the Mandarin nicely works behind the scenes and sets things in motion in the pages of X-Men and elsewhere.  And while three members of the former Freedom Force seem to be far more formidable against the Avengers to be believable (with the Scarlet Witch even agreeing: "We should have defeated these cretins easily!"), they still give a good showing of themselves, especially in light of the fact that they're not even part of the AOV initiative.

Writer/artist Walt Simonson, however, lends a humorous take to this AOV "tactic," in a succession of three Fantastic Four covers which all seem to make the same point:

As for Loki, he's not really effective as a protagonist until he steps from behind the shadows to enjoy chewing the scenery along with the villains in this cabal. Until then, he acts to promote the crossover itself, in brief insertions where he gathers the various members of the proposed group.

Over in the Captain America book, however, writer Mark Gruenwald makes the most of Loki's impromptu meeting with the Red Skull, giving a more realistic account of how Loki's overtures were likely to be received as well as heightening interest in this mystery intruder.

The Skull is the catalyst for the dissension that develops among the group's members, which at times forces Loki to step in and deal with what seem like mortal children to him, with their bickering and pointless posturing for dominance.

Over in the Cap book, Gruenwald would go on to provide clever scenes that show how the Skull chafes at not being able to subvert "the lackey" to his will--while also handling the eventual confrontation between the Skull and one whose memories of Nazis cannot abide such a man's freedom from retribution.

Things have obviously come to a head between these two--but despite his preparations for any incursion, the Skull is mistaken in thinking that he's escaped from Magneto's *ahem* vengeance, particularly in a metal rail car. Once the Skull is intercepted, Magneto dispenses his own chilling brand of justice.

By this point in the series, it's becoming clear that the heroes being targeted by the AOV are prevailing against the threats being set against them. To make matters worse, the Mandarin and the Wizard attack the Avengers on their own, which lead to the Wizard being captured and the Mandarin retreating back to the villains' meeting place. Subsequently, the figure of Dr. Doom explodes, revealing itself to be a robot, with the rest of the group concluding that Doom may have only been present himself at certain times or even not at all. All of which lead to the wrap-up of this event, as the Wizard uses a hidden device that accesses the dimensional doorway to the group's headquarters and allows him to return--to the ire of Loki, who realizes that this mortal may have made a crucial blunder.

With Loki now tipping his hand and dropping the need for pretense, the Kingpin makes a judicious and discrete exit (with Magneto having already returned to his own concerns involving the Scarlet Witch). Loki then immobilizes the three remaining members of the cabal, and voices the underlying thought that's probably occurred to a number of readers by now--that Loki could indeed have accomplished his ends without going to such lengths, and without having to ride herd on and appease six mortal villains. With Loki fit to be tied, our three remaining villains unfortunately find themselves in dire straits--a lineup which should really only amount to two, in terms of the Red Skull being present. The Skull, discovered in Magneto's confinement hole by Crossbones and hanging onto life by a thread, played out his recovery in the pages of Captain America several issues after AOV had concluded and was in no shape to return to the cabal, much less be an active participant at the time of its dissolution.

As for Loki, he's guessed correctly that Thor and the Avengers would follow the Wizard back to the villains' lair--only to find that their surroundings were pure fabrication, the true location allowing Thor to deduce the reason why Loki concocted this scheme against the Avengers.

The fact that Loki--a god and an immortal who has contempt for mortals at best and whose sphere of influence is nothing less than the glory and the throne of Asgard--has been grumbling all this time about his part in bringing about the formation of the Avengers is nothing less than astonishing; add to that the fact that he would consider them such a blot on his life that he would spend more than an ounce of his time to align himself with other mortals in order to destroy them, and you have yourself a plot that doesn't even look good on paper. There's always been a sense of symmetry involved with Loki and the Avengers, given the fact that he was their charter villain and their baptism of fire, but, honestly--is it even conceivable that Loki, out for his constitutional with the storm giants or the Norn Queen, would ever give a moment's thought to how a scheme to force Donald Blake's transformation to Thor backfired and resulted in the formation of a mortal group of heroes?

With Loki handily dealing with the attacking Avengers (which offers a telling demonstration that he could always do so), it falls to Thor to deal with his half-brother, in an ending that seems far too rushed for a plot which took its sweet time getting here.

(Remember the climax to "Superman II," where Supes defeats the villains and they simply fall from sight, conveying the impression that their threat is ended? That's how this ending to AOV came across to me.)

If you take a look at AOV's reading list, you can't help but give it props for being ambitious in scope. AOV was spread across twenty-five titles, if I've got that right, and over a period of 3-4 months--that's a lot of scheduling to coordinate. And as we saw in the case of the Red Skull, all of the editors and writers involved didn't always avoid getting their signals crossed; for instance, New Mutants, despite having three issues tagged with the AOV banner, reportedly only had one of those issues actually involved with the event, and only two pages' worth, at that. If wide-ranging sales weren't an issue, or if the project had the luxury of being plotted with a few more months' lead time, we might have ended up with a much tighter story with the dots easier to connect; in addition, the story could have been driven by any number of villains who had it in for the Avengers, which might have led to a more anticipated and more exciting climax.

Nevertheless, AOV is well worth a look--not only as a series, but for the individual books that dig a little deeper into their respective talent pools to produce tie-ins with it, and in doing so turn out to be very good reads on their own. Assuming you have the stamina and want to dive into this event in its entirety, there's the Acts of Vengeance Omnibus containing the so-called core reading, along with the Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus hardcover which covers most of the tie-ins (maybe even all of them--it looks pretty comprehensive). And if you do take the plunge and snag the books for your comics shelf, think how cool it'll be to be able to scream: "VENGEANCE IS MINE!!"

(Please--I had to throw that in somewhere.)