Ain't Nothin' Like Halloween in Rutland, Vermont! Part 2012

Amazing Adventures #16 (January 1973)
"And the Juggernaut Will Get You... If You Don't Watch Out!"
Steve Englehart-Bob Brown/Marie Severin/Frank McLaughlin

Doug:  Hey, we're back to New England for our 4th annual visit to the Halloween parade that was featured in several Marvel and DC comics in the Bronze Age.  Today we're dropping in on the Bouncing Blue Beast, who Karen and I will tell you never looked better than when rendered by George Perez.  Unfortunately, Sir George isn't the penciller on this ish -- he doesn't do the honors for a couple of years and in the pages of the Avengers.  In Amazing Adventures you were dealt the usual hand of Tom Sutton; today we get a fill-in from Bob Brown.  Now I generally find Brown to be serviceable.  I have liked his work in Daredevil, the Avengers, and the Batman books.  But here...

Karen: I don't know what's going on here; I found Bob Brown acceptable if unexciting on Avengers but this is not his best work, particularly his version of Juggernaut. 

Doug:  If I was driving in some heavily wooded area and a huge blue ape-looking fellow lumbered out into the road, I'd assume I'd just had a sasquatch sighting.  Not so in this case, as it's our hairy hero Hank McCoy who jumps across the pavement in front of a Mustang being driven by none other than our scribe Steve Englehart!  Along for the ride are Len and Glynis Wein and Gerry Conway.  You might notice Marie Severin credited as one of this book's artists -- on the splash page credits, she is listed as the "caricaturist".  Our creative crew leaps from their ride to see the Beast leap off into the brush beside the road.  Marvel's stalwarts are on their way to Rutland, Vermont to meet Tom Fagan and participate in the All Hallow's Eve goings-on.  As for the Beast?  He bounds to a spot where his civvies have been stored -- complete with his mask (OK, don't get us going on that again...).  His lady friend Vera has been left by the side of the road, waiting for her man to return (Hank, there are bears in Vermont).  He does, and tells her that there's a car just up the road in which they can hitch a ride.

Karen: OK, what the heck are Hank and Vera doing just sitting by the side of the road? There's no real explanation as to how they got there. And don't get me started on the super-life-like masks again! I'm reading this out of the Marvel Masterworks edition and Steve Englehart mentions in the foreword that this story was part of a three-way cross-over between this title, Thor, and believe it or not, Justice League (unofficially of course)! I do have Thor #207, which is the second part of this tale. But I've never seen the JLA that finishes it all off.

Doug:  Hank and Vera run up to our friends from New York, and curiously Englehart tells them that the muffler fell off the car and the heater doesn't work -- yet he's wearing a tank top!  They allow Hank and Vera to get in, and away they go.  But what's that big red circle opening in the sky in their wake?  Why it's the Juggernaut's means of dropping back to terra firma.  We get a recap of Juggy's whereabouts -- seems he's been trapped in oblivion, cast there by Eternity after having been confined in Nightmare's realm (sheesh -- Juggy's been on the wrong side of some heavy hitters!).  Now the premise for the remainder of the plot is pretty thin:  the Juggernaut's holder will drop our big baddie on Rutland, VT -- a place where Dr. Strange was a year ago and where the Beast is this day.  The Juggernaut will be able to follow the Beast's emanations and basically do to our hero what he will -- hatred and revenge are front and center.  Nice guy.

Karen: OK, you brought it up in our little editorial post last weekend: Juggy is a big fat blob! I don't know what Brown was going for here, but I'm not feeling powerful and unstoppable here. More like, where's the couch and the Fritos. He looks like a friggin' blimp, for Pete's Sake. The drawing above is actually one of the better ones. 

Doug:  Once the car arrives in Rutland, everyone piles out.  Englehart tells Hank and Vera that they are heading to Fagan's, but that it's invite-only.  Hank says no sweat and asks Vera if she wants to check out the parade.  She replies that they have to get to Canada, and cryptically tells Hank that she needs the very best scientist experienced in mutations.  We then get one of the treats found in these sorts of stories, and that's seeing all of the Marvel and DC character costumes.  By the way, if you want a little retrospective on the real goings-on at Rutland back in the Bronze Age, we'd encourage you to purchase yourself a copy of the current Back Issue.  As the parade kicks off, the Bullpen meets back up with Hank and Vera and tells them that they can go to Fagan's party after all.  But as more smalltalk commences there's a commotion just over Hank's left shoulder -- it's the Juggernaut!

Karen: I'm glad you mentioned that Back Issue article. After reading the comics about the Rutland parades for so many years, it was great to see actual photographs from the parades and parties over the years.

Doug:  The Juggernaut destroys a float while he moves toward Hank -- and the Beast's emanations.  Again, hate and revenge are the agenda of Juggernaut's day, but as he gets close the red circle in the sky opens again and abruptly removes him from the scene.  Somehow in the melee, though, Glynis Wein went missing.  As the Marvel boys fan out to search for her, Hank orders Vera to go check into the motel.  This frees him to go full-on Beast mode and search for the Juggernaut.  He doesn't have to search long, as that mysterious red circle drops Juggy right in front of ol' Hank.  Hank tries to attack by chucking a bunch of rocks, but you know how effective that is.  What follows is a 7-page slugfest where lots of trees, a few boulders, and -almost- a dam are shredded.  But Hank fortuitously falls off the dam and gets himself a breather.

Karen: Yeah, Hank knows he can't beat the Juggernaut, so he leads him away from the town, and tries to figure out what to do. That makes sense.

Doug:   Then Hank does something unexplainable.  He gets back into his civvies and heads up to Tom Fagan's party -- I don't know, drawing the Juggernaut right into the midst of a bunch of innocent bystanders??  We see that Roy and Jeannie Thomas have joined the crowd, but before Hank can find out anything about Glynis the Juggernaut bursts through the wall.  Hank runs, knowing that somehow Juggy can sense his whereabouts.  Heading up the staircase and into the attic, Hank decides to cower on the floor.  But as the Juggernaut draws closer, Hank whirls, whipping his mask off (ah, the mask again) -- and scares the bejeezus out of the Juggernaut!  This creates an opportunity for Hank to launch himself at his foe and rip the Juggernaut's helmet off.  And you know what that means -- a quick and definite decline in mystical power.

Karen: Yeah, it made absolutely no sense that Hank lead Juggernaut back to a house full of people! That was just nuts. Almost as if there had been a miscommunication between writer and artist.Also, perhaps I misunderstood the reason Juggernaut needed the helmet. I thought it protected him from a mental attack by Professor X. I didn't think he lost his might when it was removed.

Doug:  Now it's the Juggernaut who makes tracks.  He runs right out of the house and hops into Englehart's Mustang!  Needless to say it gets destroyed and Hank pours on the attack.  The Juggernaut's no match and succumbs quickly, aging rapidly and getting visibly smaller and weaker.  As the Beast finally lays a hand on him the red circle in the sky appears and whisks the Juggernaut away -- to die, he says!  Back with the Bullpen, Glynis has been discovered and when asked where she was tells that she was in a place she doesn't remember, but had a pretty good time.  Huh?  What are we to make of that?  Anyway, the Beast saunters away, to the forest where he stands in front of a full moon -- until the dawn of the next day.  Vera?

Karen: Obviously the Juggernaut recovered. I think maybe Glynis might have gone over to the DC universe in that JLA issue, but I'm not 100% sure about it. Anybody know for sure? I thought this was a pretty weak story, that was not helped at all by the art.

Doug:  "Mixed bag" would be putting it mildly on this one.  The art ended up being serviceable on all characters except the Juggernaut who just looked fat.  I didn't care for the coloring in the Masterworks, as the Beast was way too dark a shade of blue.  But Bob Brown brought to the table what I'd generally expect.  As to Englehart's script... the inclusion of himself and the Bullpen, while not unusual in these stories, seemed a distraction and a useless plot vehicle.  And Glynis Wein's disappearance?  Your guess remains as good as mine.

Ain't Nothin' Like Halloween in Rutland, Vermont! Part 2011

Batman #237 (December 1971) "Night of the Reaper!" Denny O'Neil-Neal Adams/Dick Giordano Doug: Welcome back to our third annual trip to those Halloween days of yore, as celebrated in Rutland, Vermont. The early 1970's were filled with stories about the legendary Halloween parties and parades hosted by Tom Fagan. So far we've visited this town with the Defenders, and twice with the Avengers. Today we drop in on the Dark Knight Detective and his young ward, Robin. As you see from the creator credits, this was produced by the Hall of Fame crew that revitalized the Batman in the post-TV show days. A note to our readers -- while at one time I had this book, I'll be reading and scanning from Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams, volume 3. You'll notice that the images have been recolored, an act that Adams insisted on when these hardcovers were pitched to him. Doug: We open with a quite-ominous splash page -- the Batman, staked through the heart to a tree! In the background, a darkened manse on a hill, and a sense of a windy chill in the air. Cue the next page, and elsewhere on this night the Halloween parade through Rutland, Vermont is taking place, and Dick Grayson and some college friends are there to see it. One of the fellows seems to be tripping on the lights and sounds. As the boys make their way along, eventually deciding to head to a party, they come upon a mugging in progress. As they approach, they see a group of thugs beating a youth in a Robin costume. Dick takes over, but the trippin' fool stumbles into him, leaving him wide open for a blow from a blackjack. The thugs run off as the boys lick their wounds. Doug: Robin loses the guys, and we next see him in his fighting togs. Looking for clues as to why a professional hit squad would be working a small town like Rutland, Robin begins to explore the surroundings. He sees a familiar figure in the distance leaning next to a tree; upon moving closer, he sees the same Batman we'd seen on the title page -- a man in costume with a stake through his heart! As Robin squats to inspect for footprints, a shadow sweeps over him and a grim reaper appears, scythe swinging! Robin ducks, but rising to maneuver out of the way, he loses his balance and plunges over a cliff. He lands face down on the rocky shore of a brook. Suddenly the Batman swoops down from a nearby tree, turning the youth over to free his lungs from the rippling water. Scooping up his young ward, the Dark Knight carries him to the home of Tom Fagan, where a doctor friend is staying.

Doug: Batman's friend is a Doctor Gruener, who is a Nazi concentration camp survivor. Batman explains that he has come to Rutland not by chance, but to assist the doctor in finding and bringing to justice Colonel Kurt Schloss, known during the War as the Butcher! Schloss was accused of atrocities in the camps, notably the deaths of Dr. Gruener's family. The Colonel has allegedy been sighted in the Rutland area -- he has a fetish for masquerade parties and was known to have purchased a pirate costume. Batman and the doctor tell Robin that the goons the boys had tangled with might be the former henchmen of Schloss -- tracking him for his stolen Nazi gold. Batman decides to move among Fagan's party-goers (the shot of a Thor with a colander for a helmet is priceless), to see if he can pick up any clues. Doug: We cut to the outside where Dick's "stoned" friend continues to stumble about. He comes across a dead body while being drawn toward a large house with a red beacon. The reaper appears again and our guy runs off. He's quickly intercepted by the Batman, who decides to head toward the light -- having eyeballed it for a few seconds, he ascertained that the beacon was sending Morse code! Arriving, Batman takes out one hood and then moves to the belltower. But unseen, Col. Schloss (replete with pirate doo-rag) sneaks out. In the tower, Batman accosts the light operator, tossing him onto the roof. Grabbing him and doing his best Michael Keaton impression, Batman gets some information -- the goons are indeed after Schloss, but not as allies. They feel that he's held out on them with the stolen gold, and want their cut. As a means of revenge, a car bomb has been set; and it's at that point that Batman hears an auto start and shift into gear. Doug: After the explosion, Batman is despondent over the loss of life -- and of legal justice. Robin attempts to encourage his mentor, but Batman brushes him off. He chastises Robin not seeing the bigger picture -- why would the Nazis off the man dressed as Batman, and rough up the kid dressed as Robin, if they were looking for Schloss? Batman is convinced that the reaper is still at large and sets off to find him. It doesn't take long, and Batman confronts the man in the flowing purple robes -- a man he knows as Dr. Gruener! Batman tells him that he deduced that the thugs had no way of knowing that Batman or Robin would be in the area unless they'd been tipped -- which Gruener arranged. Gruener then admitted that he had done that, because he'd decided that his revenge would be personal, and not through the Batman or through the courts. The reaper would make Schloss pay for the loss of Gruener's family. Batman begins to close on Gruener, they scuffle, and Gruener is able to get away. We see Dick's wayward friend one more time, talking with other kids on top of the local dam, and as fate would have it he is directly in the path of the fleeing reaper. There is contact, and as the youth falls his necklace becomes wrapped around the reaper's scythe. Dangling before his eyes is a Star of David, and Gruener questions what he has become. Next we see him fall/leap from the dam, apparently landing on his own weapon. Doug: This was a well-done done-in-one. Denny O'Neil's words are straightforward and solid -- the mystery is good, and not obvious. Of course Neal Adams is incredible, and moody. Recently some of our commenters have questioned whether Adams was good on heroes like Thor, or the FF; I could enter that argument, but for the sake of staying on topic here, I'll offer that he is perhaps the best Batman artist -- ever. His long, lithe figurework perfectly suits the Dark Knight, and his Joker several stories later in "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!" is a classic. Toss in the fact that Adams had his finger on the pulse of fashion during the times he was at his peak, and you really have a complete artist. The recoloring is nice, and adds to the feel of the story. Adams is of course a perfectionist and I see care in his move to recoloring; others have likened it to interference, akin to George Lucas' meddling with the Star Wars films. Overall, a great example of the O'Neil/Adams/Giordano collaboration that is truly one of the highlights of the early '70's.

Doug: Incidentally, this isn't Neal Adams' only foray into material dealing with the Holocaust. Adams, along with Joe Kubert and hundreds of other comic book/strip artists, went to the defense of Dina Babbitt against the museum at Auschwitz. Babbitt, while a prisoner, was commissioned by Dr. Joseph Mengele (the "Angel of Death") to paint portraits of Sinti and Roma (Gypsy) prisoners. She did, and it saved her life as well as the life of her mother. In her later years, Babbitt worked tirelessly to get the artwork returned to her; the museum has steadfastly refused. Adams and others, attempting to drum up support, created a graphic novel telling of Babbitt's plight. You can see one version of it below:

Ain't Nothin' Like Halloween in Rutland, Vermont! Part 2010

Avengers #83 (December 1970)
"Come On In, the Revolution's Fine!"
Roy Thomas-John Buscema/Tom Palmer

Doug: Welcome back to our second annual installment of looking at Halloween in the burg of Rutland, Vermont. You may recall that last year we inspected Avengers #119, where the Collector spoiled the festivities at Tom Fagan's annual superhero-themed costume parade. This time we trip back a few years earlier to find that other super-baddies had also spoiled some fun along the way!

Doug: I have to say right off the bat --the artistic pairing of John Buscema and Tom Palmer may be akin to Lennon and McCartney, or Hope and Crosby, or any of the other great duos of our time. Yeah, I know Buscema sometimes missed on certain facial angles, but his dynamism just added so much energy to every page -- find me a page (shoot, find me a panel!) in this book that doesn't just exude action! And Palmer -- this was the era of experimentation by inkers, and the use of zip-a-tone throughout this book just stretches the moody parts, adds depth to the night scenes, etc. These are two guys at the peak of their powers as the Bronze Age dawned.
Karen: This is just a flat-out gorgeous looking book. The big spread on pages 2 and 3 is an iconic image. One of the other things that struck me is that there are no "throw-away" panels in this book. Every single panel shows an attention to detail that has to be seen to be believed.

Doug: The above being said, I'm not certain scribe Roy Thomas was firing on all cylinders in this issue. I'm not sure exactly where to focus my complaint, but it just felt throughout like something was a bit off. Perhaps it's because this is a done-in-one, so there were no subplots to make me think of what was to come. Maybe it was the remark that Clint Barton made, with a tree trunk in his hand, that he was going to use it as a hockey puck. Uh, right, Roy...

Karen: That particular bit of dialog is painful to be sure. But the whole issue feels so hokey. Women's liberation was definitely an important topic as the 70s dawned, but the entire story feels so dreadfully out of touch. I'm not even sure what Roy was trying to say about the women's movement here.
Doug: As we get rolling, Jan arrives home to Avengers Mansion to hear voices coming from the meeting room. Thinking she'll surprise them, scare them, whatever -- she peeks around the corner to find that it's not her teammates in the room (well, at least not all of them), but a different team of all females! Seated around the table are Medusa, the Black Widow, the Scarlet Witch -- while at the head is a strong, Viking-looking woman who calls herself the Valkyrie! The two-page splash here is not only beautiful, but contains what would become stock images for the Wasp and Valkyrie -- I believe both adorned Slurpee cups back in the mid-70's!

Karen: I remember those!
Doug: Jan grows to her normal height, and the others ask her to hear out the Valkyrie. As the woman warrior begins to tell her origin, I had the stinking suspicion that something was off here. These are strong female characters (by this time -- certainly not as Stan Lee had written them years earlier), and they just seemed to be going along with the whole "male chauvinism" deal a bit too easily. But Valkyrie proves to be a master propagandist, and the ladies set off on whatever mission she has.

Karen: Another remark on the art: I love that horse-drawn chariot that Valkyrie drives. Man, could Buscema draw horses!
Doug: We then cut to Rutland, Vermont, where Tom Fagan and others are gathered, awaiting the start of the 11th annual Rutland Halloween parade. As fate would have it, the Avengers show up -- Vision, Goliath, Black Panther, and Quicksilver. The Panther tells of a potential kidnapping plot as the heroes' reason for journeying north. Party guests Roy and Jeannie Thomas make a cameo, and Fagan invites the Avengers to ride on a parade float.

Karen: It's amusing to see the regular joes in costumes that hang on them, unlike our powerfully-built heroes! I also noticed a certain dark-knight detective hanging out in the crowd.
Doug: We then greet the Masters of Evil, reassembled after busting out of jail. Klaw, Whirlwind, the Melter, and the Radioactive Man have come to Vermont to steal a device that would allow access to parallel time! In the parade is Dr. T. W. Erwin, and with him is the machine that powers his precious device. As the Masters move, they are immediately found out by our heroes and a melee ensues. However, as powerful as this group of Avengers is, they are overwhelmed somewhat easily. The Vision, in particular, is taken out of the fight quickly by being enveloped in melting tar -- he fears that to turn intangible would damage his circuitry. The most intriguing battle is Quicksilver vs. Whirlwind, and I wish we'd seen more of it!

Karen: Anyone familiar with H.P. Lovecraft would take note of the fact that Dr. Erwin is from Miskatonic University! Who knows what horrible creatures he might have let into our world with his device. That crazy Roy!

Karen: I agree that our male heroes are downed a bit quickly, all so that they can be rescued by the ladies. It's a tad too obvious.
Doug: The cavalry arrives, and wouldn't you know that girl-power wins and wins quickly. But right when we think that we're going to be treated to a little boy-girl debate, Valkyrie steps from the shadows, blasts the gents off their collective feet, and tells the prof. to take everyone to the parallel time machine. In the fastest transition ever, the very next panel (not page, mind you) shows the assembled heroes in the professor's laboratory and Valkyrie draped all over the machine. She quickly begins to glow and then change before everyone's eyes, and emerges from all of the commotion as the Enchantress!

Doug: To wrap this up, Amora details how Odin banished she and the Executioner, and depowered them both. When the Executioner left her, she swore revenge on all males. Making her way to Earth, she disguised herself and gave her would-be allies small spells of suggestion to make them go along with her. And as she moved to work the machine, which would take her back to Asgard where she would wreak more havoc, Wanda resisted her. Wanda's hex sphere (see, no one really knows how her power works!!) turned the Enchantress' spells upon herself, seemingly disintegrating her. And that was that. Until, of course, Clint had to shoot off his mouth about women's lib!

Karen: And of course, a few years later, Clint would tell Wanda he wanted to be the father of her "little witch-brood"! He's a charmer, all right.

Ain't Nothin' Like Halloween in Rutland, Vermont!

Avengers #119 (January 1974)

“Night of the Collector”
Steve Englehart-Bob Brown/Don Heck
Doug: Happy Halloween, kiddie-winkies! We here at the BAB blog hope you will get more treats than tricks this autumn!

Doug: Today we begin what may turn into an annual series -- a visit to Rutland, VT. I was surprised to learn, when I began to do a little preliminary research for this reading, that there have been many, many stories set in that little hamlet. Sure, I knew of Avengers 83 and 119, and of Batman 237, but I’d forgotten about Marvel Feature 2, the second appearance of the Defenders. There’s an editorial box in this mag that shows some of the Marvel stories featuring Rutland. For a complete rundown of Rutland’s comic book Halloween celebrations, please visit this link (incidentally searched under Rutland parade honcho “Tom Fagan”: http://www.comicbookdb.com/character_chron.php?ID=32675.

Doug: Avengers #119 was one of the earliest issues of the title that I owned. It was a strange jumping on point – sure, I had other stories in my small collection, but this was a full-force introduction to the team of this era. In some ways #119 served as an epilogue to the just-concluded Avengers-Defenders War; you could also see it as a bridge between that epic and the coming three-parter against the Zodiac. This story is bookended with the quandary of what to do with the now mentally-disabled Loki.

Doug: The team disembarks from a borrowed SHIELD jet and there’s action right away. For whatever reason, the team sets off the intruder defenses on the roof of Avengers Mansion. I felt this was good for me a as a kid, because I got up to speed on all of the characters’ powers. The only beef I have with the scene is that T’Challa was able to shut off the system with his “palm print” – through his glove?? Although I guess if you look closely at the attached image, it does look like his bare skin shows on his left hand. But that could be a coloring error, too...

Karen: I’d say the rooftop sequence was ridiculous, if I hadn’t set off my own home security alarm a number of times!

Doug: You didn’t like the whole event, or the way the Panther ended it? I suppose with so many team members present, and with stress running high, maybe Cap (for example) thought Iron Man had shut it off? I don’t know…

Doug: Wanda Maximoff in this issue: what rhymes with “Witch”? Wow – Englehart was really hard on her during his run. Her personality changed drastically, she began to dabble in witchcraft under the tutelage of Agatha Harkness, she proclaimed her love for and then married the Vision, and so on. She is not likeable at all in this story.

Karen: Wanda was deep into her “I hate humans” stage. I actually thought it made sense, given that as a mutant, she’d faced human bigotry before. The Vision was also nearly killed by some people after he and Wanda embraced on TV (back in issue 113). But yes, she became a very bitter, unpleasant person around this time, and Mantis’ interest in the Vision didn’t help things.

Doug: There is an odd exchange early in the story between the Panther and Mantis. It’s apparent that we (at this point) know next to nothing about Mantis, and she’d been with the team for only seven issues. What began as a potential origin story tailed off to nothing – was this scene merely to set up her clairvoyance of the coming trouble in Vermont?

Karen: I think at least in part, it was a set-up scene, but it also just points out the mystery surrounding her. I remember at the time she was a real cipher for some time – although I saw enough to know I didn’t like her!

Doug: I always thought, when I was a kid, that she was kind of mysteriously weird. I think I appreciated her more as an adult the first time I read the complete Celestial Madonna arc.

Doug: Once in Rutland, the Avengers are greeted by Tom Fagan. They are offered the chance to participate in the annual Halloween parade; only half of them agree. Wanda stalks off with the Vision, and the Swordsman and Mantis exit as well. So it is left to Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, and the Black Panther to ride on a float – Thor reveals that their decision was based on an attempt to draw the super-baddie out into the open. But how about that line-up? If those eight characters don’t constitute one of the greatest rosters in the team’s history, I’d be hard-pressed to name another.

Karen: No kidding, that’s one heck of a team! Line-ups like this make me long for 1974 again – or at least an Avengers team that actually feels like the Avengers!

Doug: Shortly after leaving the float, the main four are attacked by Fagan – who obviously isn’t the real Tom. He attacks the team with wild animal skins, which he proclaims are the Coats of Hercules. Something ain’t right here, and Thor is the first one onto – the Collector!

Karen: I thought it was kind of funny that the Collector would masquerade as Fagan in the same Nighthawk costume he wore in issue 83! That’s such a terrible costume!

Doug: And isn’t the idea that someone could wear a costume and rubber face mask and deceive the Avengers a little out there? We did a Cap story some time ago where Cap did that – and it didn’t work then, either.

Doug: Avengers #28 was one of the first 2-3 Avengers stories I ever read, so seeing the Collector “again” was a thrill. My knowledge of the Avengers rogues gallery wasn’t too extensive at that point in my readership, so I was under the impression that the Collector must be Public Enemy #1.

Karen: I was never too excited by the Collector. As a kid, he just looked like an old man, and I thought, “Why can’t the Avengers beat an old man?”

Doug: I should comment on the art in this story – that’s what I do! You can certainly go wrong at times with Bob Brown and Don Heck. But, for whatever reason, they really work great here. The pencils and inks are really pretty solid, and that’s saying something, because Heck as the penciller of #111 (for example) was pretty horrible! I always liked Brown’s work on the Daredevil comics of this period, and some of his DC stuff was good as well. Heck, though – he was another story after, say, 1966 or so.

Karen: Heck’s work on the Avengers in the ‘70’s was pretty poor. His art had become quite sketchy. I thought Brown was serviceable, but not exciting. Although I love the stories Englehart was cranking out, I wish the book had had a better artist. One of the Buscemas, or maybe Rich Buckler, would have been nice. I loved Dave Cockrum’s work on Giant-Size Avengers – it’s too bad he didn’t handle the regular title. Of course, we’d get a young George Perez towards the end of Englehart’s run.

Doug: There is a brief interlude that shows Wanda further tripping out, and a heartfelt exchange between Mantis and that loveable loser, the Swordsman. These two pages conclude when the wandering Avengers stumble upon the real Tom Fagan, all tied up!

Doug: I really loved the resolution to this story. The creepy old house where the Collector has holed up is invaded by Fagan and a bunch of local teenagers (all in heroic costumes, for sure), and they drive the old boy nuts! Sure, he uses some trick to set off a bunch of bats, but that trouble is pretty easily solved. The Collector ends up vanishing. Does anyone know the next time he pays a visit? Seems to involve, if I recall, a fella named Korvac…

Karen: Bats? Really? The Collector used bats? It’s stuff like this that makes it hard to defend ‘old’ comics to today’s crowd! And they just leave Loki in Rutland? Oh come on. Talk about abrogation of responsibilities! “Yeah, Loki won’t get into any trouble here! OK, let’s get in the Quinjet, Jarvis has dinner ready!” Sheesh.

Karen: But despite that bizarre conclusion, it was a decent enough one issue story. Englehart still managed to get in a fair amount of character development.

Doug: I really liked this story. It’s a Bronze Age blast – action, characterization, heroic heroes and villains who we don’t have to take too seriously, and a touch of real-world in it to make us smile. Just a fun yarn!