Random Happenstance

From Avengers Spotlight #28, "Second Thoughts" Written by Dwayne McDuffie, pencils by Dwayne Turner, inks by Chris Ivy. This was an Acts of Vengeance tie-in, the 1990 crossover event where villains tried their luck against heroes they traditionally hadn't fought before. Although the wasp and Wonder Man are the featured Avengers, the story is more about longtime Fantastic Four villain the Mad Thinker, who is approached by the secret planner behind the villains. (Shh! It's Loki, plotting revenge on the Avengers. Like a lot of Marvel bad guys in the 90's, he put on a suit and no one recognized him, although without that big horned helmet, he'd be a tough face to pick out.)

I like the Thinker as a bad guy, but I usually think of him as more weird than evil, since most of the appearances I remember him from are a bit off-key. And of course, he was the creator of the Awesome Android, aka Awesome Andy, now appearing in She-Hulk.

Also, I believe McDuffie is due to start writing Fantastic Four soon, so maybe the Thinker will get a comeback. Of course, who's left for the Four is anyone's guess, but I have faith in him to pull it out of the current spiral. And of course, today's panel is yet another one that would be contradicted in Civil War, as both Wasp and Wonder Man would end up on the pro-registration side.

The more I think about it, the more I miss the old days, when the Grandmaster would pick a bunch of guys, and Death or Thanos or Deep Thought (sorry, the Prime Mover, another chess playing robot, only evil. Eviler.) would get the rest, and everyone would fight. And then you didn't have to worry about making sure everyone's political stance was consistent with past continuity, or hurt feelings and harsh words, or cloned teammates...