The Invaders #35 (December 1978)
"Havoc on the Home Front!"
Roy Thomas-Don Heck/Alan Kupperberg/Rick Hoberg
The Invaders #36 (January 1979)
"Crushed by the Iron Cross"
Roy Thomas-Alan Kupperberg/Chic Stone
The Invaders #37 (February 1979)
"The Liberty Legion Busts Loose"
Don Glut-Rick Hoberg/Alan Kupperberg/Chic Stone
Doug: Nostalgia's a powerful thing isn't it? Even as an adult, I couldn't wait for the first
Invaders issue not drawn by Frank Robbins and Frank Springer. Trouble is, around the time those arrived, Don Heck got the art assignment. And here's my obligatory "I am not being mean to Don Heck" statement -- love the man's Silver Age work; his Bronze Age stuff not so much. So anyway, I'm working out of the
Invaders Classic series of trades on this one -- volume 4 has the same cover as issue #35 above. The Whizzer was great during
his brief tenure in the Avengers, wasn't he? Why wouldn't I be drawn back to this issue? Wait -- it has the whole
Liberty Legion in it as well? Sign me up! Ah, but therein lies some trouble -- as you can see, today you're getting a full-blown arc rather than a single issue. But is that your gain?
 |
| Invaders #35, with pencils presumably by Alan Kupperberg |
Doug: I'll start you off with three
100-Word Reviews, and then I'll go into my usual format for thoughts on the story. Here you go:
Invaders #35 - The Invaders are called Stateside to deal with a saboteur who
made a “withdrawal” from a munitions installation. Cap, Namor, and the Torch
are in Times Square meeting an adoring public when the Whizzer suddenly
arrives. He relates (for us) a brief history of the Liberty Legion, and why he
needs the Invaders’ help. Miss America had investigated a German-American tavern when
she saw a professor kidnapped by two German toughs. Trailing them, she
encountered the Iron Cross and engaged him in battle. She was joined by her
Legion teammates, who were soon trounced. Hence the need for the Invaders.
Invaders #36 - The kidnapped man is Professor Schneider, designer of the
Iron Cross armor. The wearer of the armor is Helmut Gruler, Schneider’s
childhood friend. Gruler says time and again throughout the story that he is
not a Nazi, somehow distancing his intense jingoism from the darker aspects of
Hitler’s Germany. Gruler needs Schneider to make “improvements” to the Iron
Cross armor. Meanwhile, the Invaders (now in an Atlantean ship) follow the
trail of the captured Liberty Legion. Namor is engaged by the Iron Cross in the
Atlantic, and their battle rips open the U-boat in which the Legion is being
held.
Invaders #37 - As water pours through the gaping hole in the U-boat, the
Iron Cross grabs Professor Schneider and hightails it out of there. Aboard the
vessel, the crew unsuccessfully attempts to murder the Liberty Legion. Thin Man
heads out into the ocean to assist Namor in getting the sub to the surface.
They accomplish the task and once everyone’s safe, a team of Namor, the Torch,
Miss America, and Red Raven pursue Iron Cross. The Torch melts the inner
workings of the mechanical suit, causing Gruler to fall into the ocean;
Schneider tells that the blueprints were destroyed with the suit.
 |
| Invaders #35, with pencils presumably by Don Heck |
The Good: As alluded to above, the art. It's not spectacular -- and actually, one might consider it rather middling in comparison to other Bronze Age luminaries, especially the young guns who were breaking out in the late 1970s: Byrne, Perez, Miller, et al. I think my impression of it is just clouded by my joy at freedom from depictions of ballerinas in the throes of rigor mortis. Anyway, the pacing is really solid, all of the players look exactly as you think they should look, etc.
Namor has a certain haughtiness about him as he should, Cap is focused, the Whizzer a bit frantic -- it's all here. The most interesting aspect of
Invaders #35, however, is that you can plainly see the panels where Don Heck did the pencils and those where Alan Kupperberg did so. I've provided a few samples to support this. Again -- nothing wrong here... it's just noticeable.
I liked that we got a peek into the workings of the Stateside Liberty Legion, and to be perfectly honest wish we had been able to see more. I don't know if there was ever discussion of a spin-off WWII series featuring the Legion, but there should have been. Madeline Joyce seemed an able spy, and the angle that there would be an expatriate in New York who had built a weapon for Germany was a nice plotline. It is unfortunate, however, that as Miss America took the lead in the case she ended up being the one captured. "Helpless female" trope... You know, I look at the Liberty Legion the first time they are assembled in the story and there is really no reason they should not have been a successful launch on their own. The Whizzer and the Patriot do what Quicksilver and Captain America do, the Thin Man of course mimics Reed Richards, Red Raven = the Angel, Jack Frost is an early version of Iceman, and Blue Diamond would seem somewhat similar to Wonder Man.
If we think of Miss America as the then-popular Ms. Marvel, then what's not to like? The Liberty Legion should have had the best of many corners of the Marvel Universe.
The flashbacks/recaps aspect of the story will serve as a segueway to my next section. While I think flashbacks are good for the month-to-month reader, let's face it -- this is no longer how we read comics. So while there was certainly merit in bringing new readers up to speed on the Liberty Legion's history, it did play out a bit long. Same thing for the origin of the Iron Cross armor. It wasn't bad -- just a bit cumbersome.
I'm always torn about whether I liked the convention of one-page recaps that were en vogue when I stopped reading new comics (seemed a waste of a perfectly good splash page) or if I preferred the in-story rehashing of last month's details. I guess both have merit.
The Bad: If Helmut Gruler had stated one more time that he was not a Nazi, I think I'd have screamed. But as a teacher of these sorts of issues, I did appreciate Roy Thomas's efforts. One aspect of the Holocaust that we strive to make clear with teachers we train at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is to use precise language.
It's incorrect to make blanket statements such as "The Germans did..." or "The Nazis did..." simply because of issues of collaboration by non-Germans, and the point that Thomas makes with Gruler was true; it was certainly true that Gruler's nationalism could have existed without him being a member of the party. So while it became about as tiring as a Claremontian "I'm the best at what I do, and what I do isn't pretty.", I understood.
The Iron Cross was a somewhat formidable foe for our heroes, but really he was just a Titanium Man from an earlier era.
And when you consider that Iron Man beat the Titanium Man by himself on numerous occasions, I never really felt like our heroes were threatened -- regardless of how much they got slapped around.
When the Thin Man ventured outside the damaged U-boat and attempted to repressurize it by pressing his body against the hull, I really had a difficult time suspending my disbelief. The pressure of the sea alone would have killed him. And with no breathing device? Pfah...
With such a large ensemble cast, it was tough for any of the heroes to get major face time. I thought the creators did a decent job of keeping everyone in character -- but such moments to shine were fleeting. Cap in particular seemed short-shrifted. I also felt like the Whizzer was pining just a bit too much for Miss America; given that she was arguably far more powerful than he, I'm sure she could take care of herself. She did, in fact, fight the Iron Cross to a standstill for several minutes, something Namor himself accomplished.
After giving some consideration to this story over several days, I'd suggest hopping in the wayback machine and running this tale as an annual. That would have pared it down a bit and probably made it read better. Just a thought.
The Ugly: The unevenness of the art could be jarring at times. I'd mentioned the panels that sometimes moved between Don Heck and Alan Kupperberg as lead penciler; I think the same thing happened in
Invaders #37 between Kupperberg and Rick Hoberg. Additionally, the inks are incredibly sketchy at times in that issue. Sketchy like Vinnie Colletta hopped up on too much espresso. It wasn't bad art, per se; it just made me feel like I'd suddenly landed in a different book.
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| Invaders #37 - what's up with the scratchy inks in this portion of the book? |
Time well spent? I won't say "no", because as I said at the top there was a definite sense of nostalgia and even love for these characters I followed in my youth. But fine literature? Uh, not so much. So let's just call it a nice diversion of four-color fun and leave it at that.
Namor has a certain haughtiness about him as he should, Cap is focused, the Whizzer a bit frantic -- it's all here. The most interesting aspect of Invaders #35, however, is that you can plainly see the panels where Don Heck did the pencils and those where Alan Kupperberg did so. I've provided a few samples to support this. Again -- nothing wrong here... it's just noticeable.
If we think of Miss America as the then-popular Ms. Marvel, then what's not to like? The Liberty Legion should have had the best of many corners of the Marvel Universe.
I'm always torn about whether I liked the convention of one-page recaps that were en vogue when I stopped reading new comics (seemed a waste of a perfectly good splash page) or if I preferred the in-story rehashing of last month's details. I guess both have merit. 
It's incorrect to make blanket statements such as "The Germans did..." or "The Nazis did..." simply because of issues of collaboration by non-Germans, and the point that Thomas makes with Gruler was true; it was certainly true that Gruler's nationalism could have existed without him being a member of the party. So while it became about as tiring as a Claremontian "I'm the best at what I do, and what I do isn't pretty.", I understood.
And when you consider that Iron Man beat the Titanium Man by himself on numerous occasions, I never really felt like our heroes were threatened -- regardless of how much they got slapped around.
Doug: So you may have heard there's a new Marvel flick opening this week... Karen and I thought it would be a hoot to journey back to those thrilling days of yesteryear when hero vs. hero clashes had a bit more novelty to them and served as the stuff of playground arguments. One might even say a story like this could be summed up by one of its supporting characters:
Doug: Like many Silver Age stories, the plot revolves around a misunderstanding. Iron Man is basically duped by the Chameleon of all people. What I find most interesting about this book -- not the story, per se, but the book -- is that Tales of Suspense #58 was the third appearance of the Chameleon and the second appearance of his partner, Kraven the Hunter (each had appeared previously in Amazing Spider-Man #15, cover dated August 1964). Given that Marvel Comics as we know it was only in its fourth year of publication (and only second year for some of its key titles), this is really important. Stan Lee took villains from one magazine, where they were appropriately matched against a hero of a certain powerset, and transplanted them into a magazine where the protagonist far outclassed them. 
And what's more? Said original hero (Spider-Man) appears nowhere in this issue of Tales of Suspense -- not even in a flashback! That Marvel had become a shared universe would have been happening right in front of us, had we been buying these books from the spinner racks. I just find that significant.
Cap backhands Shellhead with his shield, sending him flying. Oddly enough, by the next page the scene has somehow shifted to the rooftops; it seems like Lee tries to salvage this a bit with some dialog from Iron Man about how Cap couldn't hide from him on a rooftop, but it still comes across a bit awkward. At this point, Cap is still trying to talk sense with his team-mate but it's not going well. Finally he gives into the ol' fisticuffs.
I, too, noticed the abrupt shift in scenery and also thought it odd. I need to pull out my Official Handbook and check Iron Man's weight when in armor. Cap's pretty strong, isn't he? He gave Stark a few pretty good jolts. And... what would the early Marvel Universe be without running out of web fluid, low charge on the armor, or suddenly changing into Ben Grimm? The DC Universe just didn't have anything going like that (well, with the exception of the occasional yellow-whatever foiling Green Lantern). 
Don Heck should have drawn Allen Funt on the sidelines in one of the battle scenes!
I think his personality was altered for the better as time went on. But if I have a takeaway from these early stories, it's that Tony Stark has for the most part been written "in character" through the years. This headstrong, almost cocky, Tony Stark fits right in with the way in which Robert Downey, Jr. has portrayed him in the MCU.
