The Old Order Changeth!...like two spots...
Avengers #211 was my first issue of that book, and in retrospect it may not have been the best starting point. I wouldn't have realized it at age ten, but I'd just missed George Perez' first run, and the Korvac saga a few years prior. Jim Shooter was writing, and although he'd have his moments, the book was about to get into Yellowjacket hitting his wife the Wasp, not exactly exciting high adventure. On the plus side, the book starts with 9 Avengers, then picks up 10 guest-stars for good measure.
Yeah, I count Jocasta as an Avenger, and if you don't you're mean. As usual, I was looking for something else and stumbled across this, and read it again with a more discerning eye:
1. For some reason, the print on this particular issue seemed really dark and muddy. The lettering takes a hit for that as well, with a lot of the open spaces filled in. So it's neither a crappy scan nor 10-year old me filling in letters.
2. From the scanned page: Gene Colan is awesome, shoddy printing or no, but the Avengers have a trapeze bar in the meeting room for the Beast? OK, I guess that's no dumber than the little floating chair the Atom used to have in Justice League of America. But, does that table look really small? The chair Vision's on looks like he had to eat at the kids' table last Thanksgiving.
3. Captain America has decided the Avengers are becoming bloated and would be more effective if there were only six active members. Cap, even as a ten-year-old, I was screaming at the page, "NO! You asshole! What are you thinking?" Damn, my dog thought I was yelling at him just then. It's not like you're paying for the mansion and butler, right Cap? Did someone steal your lunch out of the fridge again? Beast and Wonder Man hog the TV? Vision and Scarlet Witch a little too frisky last night? Good grief. I have a hard time picturing a situation where Dr. Doom, the Super-Adaptoid, and Count Nefaria are approaching the mansion, but you'd be more effective with three less guys. Even if they were Hellcat, Dr. Druid, and Swordsman; they could at least yell "They're here! Fuck! Arrgh!" Actually, if anything, I'd want more guys with nowhere else to go like Wonder Man; and less guys with solo books and alcoholism...oh, not you Tony. I was talking about some other drunk.
4. Jocasta, the female robot built by Ultron, had been hanging around the mansion for a while, but felt like she wasn't fitting in. She tries to approach the Vision for advice, who shoots her down, as he's a "synthozoid," (I'm not sure that was spelled right in that issue, honestly.) and she's a robot. Also, he's got a hot wife "--who Needs me now!" Damn, Vision, cold. I mean, yeah, Jocasta would totally steal you from the Scarlet Witch if she had a snowball's chance, but that was so harsh it seems racist. I can't help but notice that Scarlet Witch was never really open to Jocasta, and now the more I think about that sentence, the more glad I am this comic was written in 1981 and not 2006, because I could totally picture that as going in a different direction. A different, icky, yet compelling direction...
Anyway, I'm having fun, and haven't even got to the guest-stars yet! More nonsense later, then.
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