This specifically doesn't count; and yet, here we are!

I did check a couple stores and more than a few bins, to see if I lucked into another iteration of Avengers #23: Bendis had one in 2012, Hickman in 2014 that looks like the new issue of 'Infinity,', and course there were stacks of variants and spin-offs: West Coast, New, Academy, Savage, Spotlight, Uncanny...the point is just that comics numbering is largely a nightmare and probably a hindrance to new readers. But, we've got one more issue, partly because I think I've bought it more than once and keep forgetting! From 1994, Avengers Annual #23, "Strangers on an Astral Plane" Written by Roy Thomas, art by John Buscema.

Yes, it's a riff on the Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train, albeit in a bit more forced way. Pluto and Loki bump into each other, on a distant astral plane: Pluto was currently forbidden by Zeus from leaving Hades, while Loki was trapped in Mephisto's hell, yet they seem to be out for a little constitutional. And, Loki suggests, maybe they can help each other out: Loki could bump off Hercules, while Pluto wacked Thor. They would be able to look innocent; or at least set up alibis ahead of time. Back at Avengers' Mansion, it's two of the main activities we usually see there: training and brooding! Hercules and Captain America are both distracted and gloomy today. There's probably a board for it somewhere, like you see at daycares or animal sanctuaries.

In Hades, Loki frees the Titan Typhon, who should just be happy to get away from the torture, but wanted revenge against Herc and the Avengers for beating him way back in Avengers #50; also by Roy and John! Loki also frees some other Titans, partly because they jumped him, but also because Hercules would probably have back-up. He maybe didn't have to worry; since when the Titans attack Herc at a fancy restaurant, Herc refrains from calling the Avengers, but his ID card is activated in the fight. The Avengers don't arrive in time, as the Titans escape with the captured Herc, for a quick trip back to Hades, to dip Herc in the waters of the river Lethe, which brings forgetfulness! (This memory loss for Herc was a plot point in the MST3K favorite Hercules Unchained! Although I don't recall if the Lethe was mentioned by name.) Not remembering otherwise, Hercules is easily convinced that Typhon was his pal, and they all had been wrongly sent to Hades by Zeus, which is close enough to crap Zeus actually had done to Herc that it seems true. Sneaking up Mount Olympus, Typhon recovers his axe from a mystic brazier which then goes out, reducing the Olympic pantheon to mere intangible wisps.

The Avengers currently had Thunderstrike on the roster, and while he wasn't as adept at transporting to other realms as Thor, he's able to (eventually) get the team to Olympus: the team had figured Typhon might want to kill Hercules in front of Zeus, and Cap recognizes this as being not unlike Typhon's last appearance. While the Avengers fight the other Titans, it's down to Cap--who was at a low point, the "Fighting Chance" storyline where the Super-Soldier Serum was breaking down in his system. Cap goads Herc with comments about his dead wife and kids, which led to Herc having to complete his Twelve Labors to redeem himself, and in remembering, Herc diverts a river, washing Cap headfirst into a wall. Herc goes after him, intent on maybe showing him how he strangled the Nemean Lion, but the water of Olympus returns his memories. Hercules then rescues Cap, and together they start in on Typhon; with Cap passing his axe to the other Avengers to relight the brazier; even though Typhon reverts to a more horrible tentacled version in the fight.

With the Titans defeated and Zeus and the other Olympians restored, Typhon is questioned but refuses to talk; and Pluto has been chilling with his wife Persephone, innocent as a baby lamb. Still, now Pluto has to make arrangements to re-imprison the Titans...and kill Thor. That would be in Thor Annual #19, which I'm pretty sure wasn't the best. Also this issue: Giant-Man and Vision in "Master of his own Density," story and art by Al Milgrom. An AI "Glitch" that looks like a more articulate Kremzeek tries to take over the Vision. In a training session, Giant-Man realizes the Vision was getting dumber every time he tried to change his density, until Glitch takes over. But Glitch may end up in his own trap...

I went back to add the Pluto/Persephone panel, since it was a very Buscema panel, and great! And I did like to see Herc's concern and honestly, affection, for Cap: like Thor, Herc seems to just like Cap more than the other Avengers usually do. Read more!

I hadn't read this before, and I maybe had even fallen off Captain America before this crossover: from 1995, Avengers #388, "Taking A.I.M. part 4, Into the Breach" Written by Bob Harras and Terry Kavanagh, breakdowns by Mike Deodato, finishes by Tom Palmer.

I have only the vaguest idea what was happening in the previous issues of this crossover, but this was very close to the end of Mark Gruenwald's Captain America run, as the Super-Soldier Serum was deteriorating and Cap was fading fast, even with the prerequisite 90's big armor suit to keep him alive. Actually, we don't get armor-Cap this issue, since MODOK had tried to break him in the previous issue, and he spends this issue in a torn-up standard Cap suit as he and a newly-sentient Adaptoid try to save the world from some Cosmic Cube-related calamity. Superia, the Amazon-like villain of "The Superia Stratagem" a few years back, offers to save Cap, if he'll agree to owe her a favor later. Cap says no deal, but slapping away her drugs, the Red Skull grabs them: he was inhabiting a clone of Cap's body, and so wanted to make sure he didn't fall victim to the same deterioration that befell Cap. (But, it took some time for Cap to go south, and other factors like, um, crack use, could've been a factor. And I don't know that I would just take something Superia said would cure me...) The Skull kills Superia (she'd be back, possibly because Mike Deodato might've dug drawing her) and teleports away, apparently unconcerned about the impending end of the world. It might even be the Skull simply assumed Cap would sacrifice himself to save the world--and the Skull!--and there was no point in even worrying about it; although I would've expected a more snippy parting shot then.

The Avengers and Cap's new sidekicks Free Spirit and Jack Flag are mostly hung up trying to save the innocent bystanders on Boca Caliente, if this was Boca Caliente: this artifical island doesn't seem big enough for that. Diamondback makes a brief appearance: she had been disguised as Superia's henchwoman Snapdragon, who she had killed! The sentient Adaptoid sacrifices himself to save everything, since it thinks that might be his chance to touch the divine, and Cap hopes he makes it. Cap himself is rescued by Falcon, Giant-Man, and the Black Widow; who perhaps don't realize how bad Cap's condition really was...

I didn't love this one, but some of Deodato and Palmer's work there is pretty dynamic. I also think that was towards the end of Black Widow's stint as Avengers chairwoman, and I'm not sure if that's because she thought she failed Cap, or something else. Read more!

Kurt Busiek's run on Avengers is one of my favorite runs ever, but in a bit of heresy, I prefer the post-George Perez issues, starting with Alan Davis on #38, as events built up to the best Kang story out there. This annual is set in the early part of that, but I'm not sure Kang is even mentioned here, too much else going on! From 2001, Avengers 2001, "The Third Man" Written by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Ivan Reis, inks by Scott Hanna.

Yellowjacket is rushed to Avengers Mansion by Wasp and Triathlon, a medical emergency: he had not only lost consciousness, but appeared to be becoming translucent. Photon arrives to get the exposition, and before passing out again, Yellowjacket implores Jan to get the "fake one," Goliath, who Yellowjacket had been holding prisoner in his shrunken "Hornet's Hideout" on the Avengers' front lawn! (Jan wonders if the Hideout has been there all those years--it looks a bit like a frisbee or toy stuck in a tree--but I re-read Avengers #59, and it wasn't there in its first appearance, anyway.) Jan finds the captured Goliath, suffering the same ailment. Dr. Jane Foster had been called in, but was at a loss for this one; so Triathlon floats an idea: he belonged to a Scientology-like group called the Triune Understanding, and healing spiritual rifts was a big part of their line--er, faith--and while the Avengers weren't sure they could trust the Triune's head, Jonathan Tremont, Wasp is out of other options.

At the Triune's compound, Tremont is able to get Yellowjacket and Goliath to confront each other, on a mental plain. Despite ostensibly being the same guy, they couldn't be more different: YJ was brash and impulsive, Goliath more reserved and careful. Both consider the other a fake, a mistake, a waste...they could go on, and do, as they try to smash each other. Monitoring them, Tremont explains the Triune way, that things work in threes: there should be a third part, that's not there. Jan thinks it's her, and has herself sent in to sort things out. But, when Goliath is really over-protective of her, she realizes the problem: he had been scared of hurting her again, so suppressed his emotional side; until Yellowjacket got free after a fight with Kulan Gath. While they're both willing to let Jan make the call, she knows they're going to have to work it out themselves.

Meanwhile, after a visit with Triathlon, where he doesn't want to talk about the Triune for fear of being accused of "recruiting," Photon is surprised to be met by Firestar and Justice, who had gone undercover as Triune members. (Firestar had been pissed at the group for stirring up anti-mutant sentiment, in a smear campaign against the Avengers.) They had found the Triune's secret spaceship: part of their faith involved combatting a threat from space, and the ship appeared to be legit. It was also psychically-powered, and Firestar worried it would kill everyone there if launched...Photon talks to Triathlon again, pointing out she used to be the rookie too, but he would get there.

Yellowjacket and Goliath are forced to confront what they like and don't like about themselves/each other, when they are finally visited by "the third man," an integrated, happy Hank Pym. The three of them come together, and Hank awakes, feeling better than he had in some time. Jan is grateful to Triathlon for the help, and the Avengers get ready to get back into the fight...with Firestar and Justice, still embedded, waiting. That plotline would be wrapped up before too long, though. If memory serves, Hank still stayed Yellowjacket after this (it's not only the best costume, it's more multipurpose) but he was also probably just stable until the next writer...

Also this issue: "House Cleaning" Written by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Ian Churchill, inks by Norm Rapmund. Jarvis answers some continuity glitches queries from the Avengers' security liason. One question involves Wasp's inhuman form from Avengers #394, and the answer is pretty much "Franklin Richards put back the toys the way he thought they should be," which included fixing Hawkeye's hearing? I don't know if that stuck, though, or if he re-injured it.   Read more!

Maybe Wonder Man was the sticking point?

For whatever reason back in 1992, despite the fact that I was regularly reading Quasar and Captain America, and had read almost all of the other books involved for long stretches in the past; I was a hard no on Operation: Galactic Storm. I think I did buy the conclusion, but other than that I stuck to the titles I was reading and that was it. Shoot, I think I bought the collection on digital, but I'm still not convinced I've read the whole damn thing. From 1992, Avengers #345, "Storm Warnings" Written by Bob Harras, pencils by Steve Epting, inks and colors by Tom Palmer.

Above: Cap has been wrong, wrong, wrong about this, for like 130-some issues. I think it's some kind of old-timey throwback thing, like Cap thinks the Avengers shouldn't have more members than maybe a baseball team. Wrong! Avengers rosters should have like 90 guys. Maybe three do most of the heavy lifting, but so what? Anyway, five chapters in, and this still feels like it's just getting started? In space near the sun, Sersi, Thor, Quasar, and the Vision rescue the scientists from earth's Starcore satellite; and are present when the Shi'ar fleet appears through a wormhole. Earth's sun was something like a crossing point for wormholes, so the Shi'ar could take another one from there to attack the Kree; but they were causing damage to the sun and didn't much care. Actually, the Shi'ar captain is notably uncomfortable that they have to kill the gathered Avengers, but they couldn't risk them being spies for the Kree. However, he's bitten off more than he can chew, as the Avengers capture their ship.

At the gathering of both east and west coast Avengers teams, Captain America is a little upset to hear Sersi threatened to kill the Shi'ar crew, and that the prisoners have been shrunk by Hank Pym for storage! He argues it seems like something the Collector would do, but Gruenwald's Cap sometimes seems to have forgotten how wars are fought. Still, using Quasar to ferry teams around, he proposes splitting into three groups: one going to see the Kree, the other the Shi'ar, and a third to protect earth. The third team being slightly less powerful types--although, She-Hulk and Gilgamesh arguably don't fit that shoe, but Hawkeye doesn't think it fits him, either. And Hank Pym agrees: he knew Clint had faced the Kree in space before...and used to be "more than just an archer." With a new dose of growth serum, Clint is back in his Goliath harness, and complains to Cap until he agrees to bump USAgent for him. Squeaky wheel, guys, squeaky wheel.

Quasar sends both space teams on their way, then stays to guard the stargate (Not that one!) but is quickly joined by Her. Yes, I scanned beloved and memorable Her instead of Clint-back-as-Goliath. The panels lined up better, and--look, I like Her, OK? Shut up, that's why! And on the Shi'ar homeworld, Empress Lilandra is visited by her estranged sister Deathbird, who seems to be offering to get things done but help Lilandra keep her hands clean... 

That ran 19 chapters? I counted twice, and yeah! Plus I recall Cap #401 is basically a wrap-up chapter, too. Also this issue, still another Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation; actual number of copies sold nearest to filing date: 173,950. While as usual, that would be a crushing number now; it seemed low for the time? Also, if you haven't seen it, the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon was able to knock Operation: Galactic Storm out in about two episodes--okay, thinking about it, I don't think the Shi'ar were involved, but no great loss. If I recall correctly, that episode has my favorite Hank Pym bit of the series, as Yellowjacket.

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Sodam? Better check your local laws and statutes about that.

I was searching for a bit, since I swore I had blogged more than a few issues of this series: yeah, after it became Avengers Spotlight, maybe. From 1989, Solo Avengers #16, featuring "The Sinister Secret of Sodam" Written by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Al Milgrom, inks by Jose Marzan; and "Seconds!" Written by Peter B. Gillis, pencils by Don Perlin, inks by Jack Abel.

On the trail of Hawkeye and watching some A.I.M. goons, Mockingbird wants to help out her estranged husband, but can't let on she was following him only because he was going to meet his ex, the Black Widow. "Ex" is probably too generous...While Mockingbird gets inside and then starts pummelling A.I.M. troops, Hawkeye and the Widow have been captured...by Hank Pym? No, a robot Hank. Not even a good Ultron one! Hawkeye had known the robot was a fake the whole time--because he turned his hearing-aid up and could hear it clanking internally? Wouldn't doing that make everything else unbearably loud?

The real Hank is also there: he had been kidnapped, while attempting to cure his long-thought-dead wife Maria of her artifically-enlarged brain. Think an even more unwieldy MODOK. But she does get a new sort-of rocket chair, and new name: SODAM! "A Specialized Organism Designed for Aggressive Manuevers!" Was she ever Maria Pym? We don't find out here; but in another area, Mockingbird kicks a guy into shooting a computer, causing a power failure, freeing Hawkeye and Widow! The Hank-bot tries to stop the real one from giving Hawkeye some info, but then gets thrown into one of SODAM's mind-blasts and blown up. Somewhere else, SODAM's bosses give the order to retreat, so she hits the base self-destruct. The Avengers get out in a rocket sled, while Mockingbird has to chance the teleporter she got there in. No one is really happy in the end: Hank wonders if his wife is really dead, and Hawkeye understands since he wishes he could see his, as Mockingbird, her involvement still unseen, walks away.

Next up, the return of Moondragon! A tough nut to crack, since she was turned to ash in Defenders #152, a last issue I have but have never managed to blog because...ugh. Business magazine editor Pamela Douglas is having severe psychological problems, paranoid delusions, culminating in shaving her head to prove her boyfriend/husband Tom didn't love her? She does get what, for the time, would be a surprising amount of support, and wigs! (Her haircut would've predated Sinead O'Connor's big American break, but those panels really made me think of Britney Spears...) She later has a near-breakdown in front of an anti-abortion billboard. You don't see those in the Marvel U. too often. Thank god. Tom doesn't understand why she thinks she saw a baby, she wasn't pregnant; but they're interrupted by a giant clawed hand coming through their bedroom skylight!

Still, fleeing in terror, Pamela does get some answers where the baby is: Titan. Of course, the answer comes from the voice in her head; the mind of Moondragon! Pamela was Heather Douglas's closest female relative, a cousin or something, so why not move in and stay for a bit while a new clone body was being grown on Titan? Heather had been too weak to help or make herself known before, but the giant hand wasn't her doing. Well, not directly, anyway: it's the Gargoyle, Isaac Christians. His soul, trapped in a crystal, possessed some army guy that found it. Heather feels bad for what she did to him--under the Dragon of the Moon's control, or not, she was always a little 'look-what-you-made-me-do'--but c'mon, she already died for it, let it go. Pamela, with Heather in her head and the Gargoyle's soul in her hand, beams up to Moondragon's spaceship, for a trip to Titan...maybe you should tell your boyfriend you're going? Maybe he'd be concerned or want to go or something; but looks like he's getting extra ghosted. This was allegedly to be continued later; but I'm not sure it was before she returned in Quasar. I swear there was maybe a brief stretch in the 70's, where Marvel was really pushing Moondragon as their female lead in merchandising? I don't think there was a Spider-Woman yet, Storm wasn't big yet, maybe the Invisible Girl and Wasp weren't doing it? As often, I could be wrong. (And I might be! I vividly remember getting stickers of the Thing and Moondragon from Cracker Jacks way back when; but looking it up, there were Wasp and Invisible Girl stickers as well! Maybe they wanted a better guy/girl split.) Read more!

I probably could've read the prior issues, but...

I actually did pull most of this series out of a quarter bin, but mainly because this cover featured my 'bot, the Sentry! He's almost recognizable on it, but if this series was hoping Giant-Man was a big sales draw, um...from 1994, Blackwulf #5, "Sale of the Sentry" Written by Glenn Herdling, pencils by Keith Pollard, inks by Sandu Florea. 

Not that I could have pulled Blackwulf the character out of a line-up, I knew Blackwulf the comic was a short-lived 90's title, from around the same time as Nightwatch. It's an original title...for some values of "original," because like a lot of Image books from the time, it's a team of characters whose names are all random or phonetically spelled words against their equally generic opposite numbers. Honestly, I'm not sure a lot of Blackwulf's crew was referred to by name all issue. For some reason, I had thought Blackwulf was an Eternal or something; but he and his merry band were operating "as a top-secret, government-sponsored strike force."

Giant-Man gets called in to help out, but not so much for his giantness, but as a roboticist; on the trail of the missing Sentry 459. That's burying the lede, though, since Ultron is the bad guy this issue, dressed up as a priest! He's taken over a small town in Pennsylvania with cybernetic implants, and I don't think he did it by force; Ultron may have just convinced them that's how you get on the World Wide Web. Meanwhile, Blackwulf and his guys were there in search of a missing teammate, Sparrow, who's quit their team and shacked up with "an old flame," Michael Rossi. (If that name rings a bell, it's probably from Uncanny X-Men #182, he had known Carol Danvers pre-Rogue. How or why he ended up there, I couldn't say; it's also a weirdly specific minor character to use.) One of her teammates gets her to blow her stack, pointing out the new Blackwulf, Lucien, was responsible for the death of the old one, and took his code-name to boot! Why? Look, you'd have to find those first four issues or something. I also have no idea how or why the Sentry/Ultron plot and the Sparrow plot are in the same town, and I sincerely doubt reading prior issues is gonna help me out on that one.

Ultron just kind of walks off in this one, giving the freed Sparrow a "control box" for her autonomic body functions. It looked like it had two buttons, so I don't know exactly how much control he was talking there. On-off? Up-down? Whatever Ultron did to the townspeople did a number on their nervous systems, but Hank has a fix, a computer program "that allowed them to simulate their daily routine." Blackwulf notes he programmed them to think they had free will; which he finds disturbing--it's downright hellish, isn't it? So there's a small town in the Marvel universe where the locals walk and talk and maybe even interact with you, but are probably about as alive as a wax museum. I wonder if Hank has to update them, or if they're still running OS94...

I don't even think that's uncommon, I think that happens every now and again in comics: "Everyone in this town is dead, their brains eaten by planarian worms/computer virus/alien consciousnesses/etc. But, they still mostly act like they used to, so...no harm done?" This is what New Yorkers think of the flyover states, isn't it...

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I've mentioned it before, even if I still haven't run back across the issue it's from: I think it's from Waid and Kitson's Legion of Super-Heroes run, wherein Brainiac 5 expresses some frustration that between his two teammates Star Boy and Light Lass, they control one of the fundamental forces of the universe: gravity. I'm not sure if Brainy is more offended that they don't have the theoretical understanding for it, or aren't more useful. Also largely useless: Graviton! And this comic. From 1992, Avengers Unplugged #2, "The Day Gravity Went Wild" Written by Glen Herdling, pencils by M.C. Wyman, inks by Sandu Floria.

Graviton has a new, generic and horrible, costume this issue; and is far more buff than usual today. (The style of the time.) Today he's tearing up Arizona, downing some jets and spinning a ton of other stuff around him. Back at Avengers' Mansion, Deathcry answers the call, and with Hercules she assembles Giant-Man and the Vision to take a quinjet out there. Shi'ar teenage warrior Deathcry had not been on earth or on the team long, but this issue she's picked up a lot of the idioms: she basically sounds like Jubilee, as in, an older white guy writing a teenage girl and kind of halfassing it. When she has to save people trapped in Graviton's spinning vortex, she manages to quite effectively, then initially refuses to go back out for a crying child's pet. Acquiescing, Deathcry goes back out to rescue a kitty, then returns with--a teddy bear? Admittedly, maybe an alien girl doesn't know earth's pets and whatnot, but I think there was a disconnect from the story and the art there.

Even though the Avengers seem like they absolutely could simply punch Graviton in the face, they are hindered in that would then cause him to drop a lot of people and stuff. Moreover, Graviton claims his powers are out of control, due to a recent experiment; but that is a ruse to get access to Giant-Man's Pym particles, which give him mass control. The comic-book science is particularly iffy today; as Graviton then halves his size and mass to increase his power--I don't think he would have much wanted to be three feet tall, right? Still, the Vision uses his density-changing powers, with a boost from Giant-Man, to collapse Graviton to "infinite density and zero volume." Even if that occurred for only the tiniest fraction of a second, I think that would have some negative impact on Arizona, if not this section of the universe. But nope! 

Also this ninety-nine cent issue: a two-page family tree for various Avengers relationships going into the Crossing. Both Thor and Cap appear to be dead and/or dying from the kickoff, so they aren't doing so hot. Deathcry's entry mentions her bond with Hercules, kind of a foster sibling thing, and that she could end the Shi'ar Imperium if she returned. That also wouldn't happen: Deathcry would be killed for shock value/laughs in or around Annihilation: Conquest--Starlord #2. Still, her appearance today as a somewhat vapid teen hero was more endearing than the rabid warrior bitch she was alternately written as. And I usually have a soft spot for Graviton: he was the bad guy in the original West Coast Avengers mini-series, with his also-somewhat generic but still snazzy usual costume. Somewhat tough to have a gravity-themed logo or whatever...Maybe we'll eventually get to his appearance in Thunderbolts, where Moonstone lets him have it for somehow being a loser with powers like those, getting him to up his game.

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I have never seen anyone in one of those "Anti-Bat" shirts; running from a monster or otherwise.

I needed to research something, so had to dig this one out of the garage; and I noticed a big-ass hole in the wall out there! Like somebody shot a hole in it. Hopefully not taking any shots at this one: from 1990, Avengers West Coast #54, "The Troubled Earth" Story and art by John Byrne, inks by Paul Ryan.

This would be the second of three Acts of Vengeance tie-in issues for the book; as previously the U-Foes had attacked the team from out of nowhere; and now the Mole Man is tearing up Los Angeles. Or, his monster is, in this case Giganto! Best known from the cover of Fantastic Four #1, it may not have had a name before now. Also, it apparently weighs less than 85 tons, since Iron Man is able to pick it up!

While Wonder Man and the android Human Torch backtrack down Giganto's tunnel and encounter the Mole Man--who is confused as to why this Torch doesn't sound like the "witless stripling" he's used to--Hank Pym and the Wasp are bringing the catatonic Scarlet Witch home when their quinjet runs into another of Moley's monsters: Tricephalous! Kirby's version of Ghidorah, although Tricephalous was also from FF #1 in 1961, predating Ghidorah by three years. Anyway, the flying dragon destroys the quinjet, which inexplicably doesn't crash, saved by a mysterious magnetic field...Also inexplicably, Pym thinks said field is somehow related to Tricephalous; but I suppose he's concentrating, since he shrinks it "to the size of a sparrow!" Pretty cool, actually.

The Mole Man thinks he's getting revenge for the Avengers attacking his Monster Island; although a brief interlude with Magneto and the mysterious "lackey" make it apparent that he's been fooled. To convince him, Wonder Man lets Moley blast him a few times; although I doubt Simon was in any danger, it still convinces the Mole Man to withdraw. Still, after multiple attacks from different foes, the Avengers have started to realize something was up.

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The cover for today's book may be in the background of some of my street shots! From 2013, Avengers Arena #13, "The Devil's Greatest Trick" Written by Christos Gage, pencils by Karl Moline, inks by Mark Pennington.

Arcade has kidnapped a number of teenage superhumans, brought them to his Murder World island, and was in the process of forcing them to fight to the death. But, his little A.I. helper urges him to take action, since while they had covered a number of electronic footprints, someone may have noticed the kids are gone: Molly Hayes, of the Runaways! She's gone to the Avengers Academy and Hank Pym, since while she was receiving (fake) texts from them, she doesn't believe her friends Chase and Nico would leave her behind, or their dinosaur Old Lace. Hank agrees to look into it, and with Tigra notices some other kids were gone. They didn't seem suspicious by themselves, but checking with Wolverine and Captain Britain at their respective schools, more kids were gone. Wolvie thought X-23 was just on "walkabout," while the Captain was following his truants' exploits on social media: fake posts created by Arcade. Tigra tries to call Juston Seyfert, the kid with the pet Sentinel, but his mom won't let him talk to her. Doesn't matter, "Juston" was a LMD replacement, he may have already died in Murder World.

With so many kids gone, Hank runs a search on exotic energy signatures from around the time the kids allegedly left, and discovers a recurring teleportation energy. Visiting Maria Hill, she explains what a pain in the ass teleportation is for her, but a lot of supervillains escaped around that same time. That explains that, right? Except they had another teenage hero disappear about the same time: Death Locket. Maria writes it off as "a time travel thing," but Hank isn't convinced. Arcade has an extra push for that, though: one of the Avengers Academy's former students, Mettle, stops by for a visit. 'Mettle' explains he took off with his girlfriend Hazmat, who couldn't come because she was afraid they would make her go back to her parents. Instead, Mettle had been one of the first to die in Murder World, and Arcade used his corpse and iridium skin, to hide a robot decoy. Hank and Tigra are placated...for now.

Arcade's robot helper wonders what the endgame is here, because while he says this is to rebuild his rep; the robot is now convinced this is either an elaborate 'suicide by cape' attempt, or Arcade is somehow delusional enough to think he can get away with it. Arcade blows it up, and then starts a new unit.

I really need to see if I can find trades for this; although like the robot helper I wonder how Arcade wasn't super-murdered after this. And I'm not super-familiar with Molly Hayes, but is she ever wrong? Good instincts in that kid, that probably no one listens to.
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I thought this was the last comic I hadn't moved yet, then noticed another freaking longbox over there. Maybe I should've looked through it first...From 1987, West Coast Avengers #16, "The Dive" Written by Steve Englehart, pencils by Al Milgrom, inks by Joe Sinnott.

With Tigra and Hellcat on the cover, I thought this would be more about them, since the latter was wearing the former's old costume. That could be simpler: we've seen an old issue of the Cat where Greer Nelson wore that before she became Tigra. Then, Patsy Walker took up the costume and the name Hellcat in Avengers #144.

Against expectations and the cover, though; most of this one was about Hank Pym. There's a page-and-a-half flashback of Hank's fall from grace that really derails the issue; after Hellcat and Tigra defeat Tiger Shark: he had been one of the villains in Egghead's Masters of Evil that tried to break him. T.S. makes a snippy comment at Hank when he's being taken away by the cops, and Hank protests too strongly that he's not owned, you are! And while the West Coast Avengers are proud and impressed at how Hank has turned his life around, there are hints that maybe he's not doing as well as he fronted. Tigra had previously told him she loved him, but after reconciling her cat and human halves she was backpedaling on that a bit: Hank takes the 'nice' label badly, but forces himself to keep it together by remembering another Avenger who lost it: Quicksilver.

Tiger Shark had angrily let on that his supposed 'partner' Whirlwind was in the area, after some MacGuffin or another. Hank had fought Whirlwind many times before, and knew he could coach Tigra and Hellcat to beat him. Facing his old foe, Whirlwind is not impressed: he feels he has his own unique worth, which is more than he can say for Hank, since there were maybe four other people using his size-changing gimmick at the time. (Or had used it; and I don't think I counted the Wasp in that total, even!) Pym tries to take a swipe at Whirlwind, and ends up falling off a building: Hellcat saves him and Tigra catches Whirlwind, and Hank seems to shrug off his insults. Still, as Tigra gets him so they can leave San Francisco, Hank seems to imply he's thinking about suicide. Which he would attempt the next issue, which wouldn't get him on the cover, which went to Cactus, Gila, and Butte!

Son of Satan Daimon Hellstrom appears here as well, but just as Patsy's husband. And to be on the receiving end of Hank's recap.
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Along with the conclusion to the Black Knight two-parter, I got this one, the conclusion to the Spider-Woman two-parter, at the last comicon. With all the set-up out of the way, how will this one roll? Um...into several pages of recap. From 1984, Avengers #241, "Dark Angel!" Written by Roger Stern, with story consultant Ann Nocenti, breakdowns by Al Milgrom, finishes by Joe Sinnott and Andy Mushinsky.

Jessica Drew is still in a coma, with her spirit trapped in the astral plane; and the Avengers are trying to save her, with the help of Dr. Strange, the Shroud, and the not-entirely-forgiven Dr. Pym. Morgan Le Fey makes a mystic appearance, to tell the collected heroes to step off, she's going to return to the physical world in Jessica's body. Since no one gets to stepping, Morgan then attacks; as Dr. Strange puts it, "she's unleashed some of the very substance of the astral plane into the physical world!" (By the way, I haven't watched Runaways yet, but casting Elizabeth Hurley as Morgan le Fey is nice work.) Strange is occupied keeping Jessica alive, so it's up to the Avengers, since this is their book and all. With the Shroud's darkness covering them, they attempt to take the fight to Morgan, with not a lot of success: she makes a giant body for herself, the better to throw She-Hulk around.

Meanwhile, the astral body of the sorcerer Magnus wakes up, and realizes he sent Jessica into a trap. Dr. Strange was using the light of the Eye of Agamotto as a lifeline, for Jessica to follow to her body, but she was losing strength. Magnus tells his origin: he and Morgan used to be a thing, until she went from insanely hating the king to full-on Darkhold evil, and when he stole the Darkhold from her she killed him while he was astral projecting, leaving him a bodiless spirit, that eventually worked up enough strength to occasionally return to earth, as he did in Spider-Woman #13. Magnus fell in love with Jessica, but also felt guilty for setting her against Morgan, and sacrifices himself to save her. Jessica returns to her body, much to the joy of Dr. Pym, who really didn't do much, but needed a win.

Furious over losing a perfectly good potential body, Morgan threatens to take She-Hulk's instead, but is stopped by Dr. Strange, since he no longer had to divide his attention. She swears vengeance on him as the Avengers escape. Dr. Pym does have to give Jessica the bad news: her spider-powers were gone. Still, she's undeterred, planning on continuing her private detective career. Of course, that wasn't the last we saw of her, and her powers weren't even all gone at that point: I remember her return in Wolverine, I think she still had her wall-climbing powers then. Which she thought of as kind of dumb without the other powers, but still. I don't think much else from this one comes up, except it would be great if Magnus was the great love of her life, and Jessica was always going on and on about her dead wizard-ghost boyfriend with the Friar Tuck haircut...


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I wonder why Yellowjacket didn't get cover billing...

...ow, that might do it. From 1978, Marvel Two-In-One #39, "The Vision Gambit" Written by Roger Slifer, pencils by Ron Wilson, inks by Pablo Marcos.

I don't have the previous issue handy, but the Mad Thinker has captured both the Thing and Daredevil, and was gassing the former to blackmail the latter: the Thinker was convinced DD had precognitive powers. Frantically, Daredevil has to bluff his way out: he tells the Thinker the gas was going to leak and kill them both, then confirms his "psychic" status by announcing the unexpected arrival of a kid Ben had met the previous issue. The kid is promptly captured by an android, but that gives Ben time to get loose while the Thinker goes into his presentation: Vision knockoffs! He demonstrates one that's pretty good, but could be better if he could capture and study the real deal. I don't know if I agree with his supposition that the Hulk would eventually tire and be killed, though: the bad guys always forget about him getting madder and stronger. During his little presentation, Ben is about to clobber him, but the Thinker has absolutely seen that coming.

Now thoroughly hypnotized, Ben is 100% on Team Thinker. He opts against doing the same to Daredevil, for fear of interfering with his "psychic" abilities; but with hostages he knows DD doesn't have a choice. Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, their target is lounging around watching hockey. (Aside: you could imagine an android, or synthezoid, having rigid posture, but I love how Vision often seems to be almost languid when he sits.) The Thinker had already calculated that Yellowjacket was the only other person at the mansion today, and Ben sucker-punches him. This puts the Vision on the defensive, but the Thinker had given DD a weapon to zap him when he went intangible, then contain him in an "ionic field." Then Daredevil has to lug over a box to scoop the Vision up for transport. (It takes him a while, and the Thing would've been quicker, except the Thinker didn't want to give DD time to plan with Vision.)

Victorious, the Thinker just has one little chore to take care of: kill Daredevil! He had checked his gas lines and found no leak, so knows DD had bluffed him. Thinker resigns himself to relying on his calculations, but they've done pretty well for him...up to when "Daredevil" shrinks and escapes Ben! Back at the mansion, DD had revived Yellowjacket, then they did a bit of costume switching: YJ wore his costume under Daredevil's, except for his pants, which were left full of ants as a decoy; and Daredevil had Yellowjacket's mask! As DD dodges Ben, Yellowjacket gets the hypnogoggles and releases Ben, then restores the Vision to normal. All good, except the Thinker still has his Vision knockoff--actually, several! DD and YJ are both knocked out, as multiple Visions pile on Ben; before the real one disintegrates them with his "searing optic blasts!" That sounds like an oops, since Vision usually had a beam from the gem on his forehead, and I don't think it was usually this effective.

Oh, yeah, that kid: the Vision checks the Thinker's math, and finds it pretty accurate, but he had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Daredevil wasn't the psychic his computers predicted, the kid was. That struck me as mildly unnecessary, since I thought Thinker got the psychic idea from observing DD. (Strictly speaking, the kid wasn't psychic either; just intuitive based on observations.) I have an Essential Two-in-One or two, might need to see if I have the prior issue in one.
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