War, Interrupted

Gosh, has anyone heard of this little story?

I jest, of course. Even after nearly fifty years, the early 1972 story of the Kree-Skrull War by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer continues to resonate on some level in the minds of comics readers, having reached beyond its initial publication to manifest in a number of subsequent plots in print as well as on the big screen. Often described with words like "saga" and "epic," its popularity is astonishing for a "war" which was confined to two issues and didn't play out in the conventional sense (at least not for the reader--more on that in a moment); yet all things considered, this two-part tale leaves a trail which reaches back to stories which took place over nearly a five-year period.

Briefly, the events break down as follows*:

• July, 1967 - On a remote Pacific island, a Kree Sentry is discovered by two unfortunate explorers and later battles the Fantastic Four, which leads to its (presumed) destruction.
• August, 1967 - The Kree official known as Ronan the Accuser confronts the FF for their presumption and sentences them to "the extreme penalty" (which in late '67 is probably a dramatic way of indicating a death sentence, but who knows with the Kree), yet fails.
• December, 1967 - On ancient Earth, the Sentry discovers and takes a meeting with the Inhumans, where the Kree's role in their creation is revealed to them. (The details of which can be found at the conclusion of the Sentry post.)
• July, 1971 - Ronan returns to Earth to launch "Plan Atavus," designed to devolve all life on Earth to the state it existed 1 million years ago, thus effectively eliminating the potential threat of the human race to the Kree empire. As the plan begins to crumble, the Kree-Skrull War formally breaks out.

We're not privy to whatever other engagements take place between the Skrulls and the Kree from this point, prior to the Avengers' later involvement.

• September, 1971 - The Super-Skrull arrives to coordinate with other Skrulls already on the planet to capture Captain Marvel as well as eliminate the Inhumans to prevent their Kree creators from recruiting them for war efforts. Meanwhile, the Kree Supreme Intelligence, forcefully deposed by Ronan, begins to influence minds on Earth (including the Skrulls) to draw the Avengers into the conflict, events which initially lead to the team's disbandment.
• November, 1971 - The original Avengers convene to investigate what the hell is going on, leading to a conflict at an upstate farm where the Super-Skrull captures Captain Marvel, along with the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
• January, 1972 - While attempting to learn more of the Skrulls' activities on Earth, the Avengers are urged by Triton and Black Bolt to accompany them to the Great Refuge, where Maximus is collaborating with the Kree to conscript Inhumans as soldiers in the war. At the battle's conclusion, a Kree soldier (under the influence of the Intelligence) captures Rick Jones.

*Various other storylines from issues of both Fantastic Four and Captain Marvel have been omitted from this rundown.

At that point, the Avengers are poised to intervene in this conflict--for the sake of their captured comrades, and for the Earth.

...And The Crowd Goes Wild!

Recently I was flipping through a back issue of The Comics Journal and enjoying another look at a 1980 interview with artist John Byrne--all of 30 years old at the time and at the peak of his runs on X-Men and Captain America (though you might describe his time on the latter as more of a guest-artist stint, in light of its brevity). The Journal, known for its frank and comprehensive articles that one could find hard to put down once you'd begun reading, featured an extensive 22-page discussion with Byrne conducted by Journal staff Mitch Itkowitz and Consulting Editor Michael Catron, while also including inker Terry Austin, writer Roger Stern, comics critic/researcher Peter Sanderson, and publisher Ed Via.

In one of the outtakes of the interview, an exchange between Byrne, Itkowitz, Stern, Austin, and Via caught my eye, where Byrne was expressing a wish to dispense with any of the Captain Americas who appeared after 1945 when the original Cap disappeared. The discussion eventually turns to, as Stern puts it, the "made-up comic book stories" (heh, as opposed to regular comic book stories, but you probably get his point) that featured Captain America during this time, and one story in particular.

Byrne: So the Human Torch did not fly to Jupiter, passing clouds on the way...
Itkowitz: Yes, that was a silly story. "I'm breathing in outer space, fellows. With no air I'm keeping in flame!" Wonderful story. I don't know how they did that.
Byrne: He didn't fall from Jupiter to Earth, either.
Stern: And Cap didn't catch him when he fell from Jupiter, either.
Via: That's a good catch.
Byrne: That's a real good catch. [imitating radio commentator's voice] "An' he's caught him, an' the crowd goes wild!"

I'd only vaguely remembered coming across that story^*, but the impression it had left on me was that it was a fun, harmless read, as comics stories from the 1940s were doubtless meant to be, no more, no less--an indulgence in sheer fantasy. At the time, comic books were items casually passed around and flipped through as little more than light-hearted kids' entertainment, far from the more involved storylines and conflicted characters that came our way in the '60s. Those earlier Golden Age characters were taken at face value--"Sun Girl," for instance, appears in costume and becomes attached to the original Human Torch as both sidekick and love interest, but mostly seems to be along for the ride on his adventures. I never figured out why she's called "Sun Girl," or what exactly she brings to the table besides a comely figure; apparently she carries around a ray gun that fires (what else?) sunbeams. Now how can you not laugh at something as superficial as that.

^*Human Torch Comics #33, 1948

And so I dug up and dusted off an old reprint of this story, "The Ray Of Madness!", just to get an idea of the levity involved in the back-and-forth with Byrne. Was there more to this 10-page story than the running joke it's been for decades? I mean, how preposterous could it really be?

Well, a little preposterous, yes. How about "adventurous," instead? (And a lot of fun!)

The source of all the trouble for everyone turns out to be mysterious rays being fired at Earth that are causing all of the planet's animals to go mad and attack and kill the human population. Called in to assist "the nation's foremost scientists" in investigating the crisis are Captain America, the Torch--and Sun Girl, whose input has no doubt been sought out because it's bound to be insightful. Actually, no, her input essentially amounts to fretting and reacting to startling news. Given that these are American comics, it came as no surprise to readers that America leads the way in world crisis management--and so all the parties meet with Dr. Jefferson at, yes, the Jeffersonian Institute in New York to compare notes.

Yikes! That would seem to be that, doesn't it? Who the heck in 1940s America is going to stop an attack from Jupiter?

Come on, you know who!

Don't you just love the fact that the story has the Torch starting his flight to Jupiter from the airport? He could have just walked out of the Institute and taken off from there, or from a rooftop, or even the bus stop. Maybe the Torch is more media-savvy than we thought. And just for the record, Torch, nobody needs to "take care" of Sun Girl, bub, because she's--Sun Girl! 'nuff said!

So the Torch begins his journey. It turns out his mission away from Earth only lasts a few hours, round trip--and so we've obviously waded into preposterous territory, haven't we. In this case, that also means coming perilously close to a situation rife with

And in 1940s comic books, what other kind of science is there?

We don't want to get bogged down in facts here, since, clearly, facts are the last things we're likely to find in this story.  But here are the head-shaking statistics which our story freely tosses to the curb:

• At its closest distance to Earth, Jupiter is 365 million miles away; in a worst-case scenario, with the distance being its greatest, that jumps to 601 million miles.
• Back in 2006, our fastest spacecraft launched from Earth took an average of over five months just to reach Mars, which is about 34 million miles away at a minimum; in 1964, the spacecraft of the time would take over seven months.

Sun Girl could no doubt do the math if we substituted Jupiter and bumped the technology down to 1940s standards--but suffice to say that even the zooming Human Torch would be in one-way transit for over a year at least, assuming (a) his flame didn't fizzle as soon as he left Earth's atmosphere, and (b) his flaming power could last indefinitely, despite how staying constantly ablaze and at top speed would tax it.

However, to play devil's advocate... if for some reason the Torch could attain the speed of light, and Jupiter happened to be at its average distance of 483 million miles from Earth, it would take him about 43 minutes to get there. The Avengers' Captain Marvel could swing that; but for even an android Torch, zooming through Earth's clouds is the best he could hope for as far as setting any speed records from point to point around the globe.

On the other hand, maybe those clouds sticking with him all the way to Jupiter were meant to compensate for the void (to say nothing of the distance)? *shrug* So, before you know it:

Fortunately, the Torch has landed directly in the vicinity of the red hot "pool of peril," where the ray of madness originates. Otherwise, our poor guy would have to spend, oh, several human lifetimes searching a planet the size of Jupiter, a world so large that over 1,300 Earths could fit inside it. But he's right on target, and proceeds to not only destroy the pool, but also survive the attack of those who protected it--the savage Kleezar and his tribe of animal-like "Jupiter-men." The Torch catches a break when Kleezar's men are destroyed by a barrage of fiery meteors and Kleezar himself becomes a victim of the flood of fire-water resulting from the Torch's destruction of the pool.

Only seconds after fighting a major battle, and the Torch is ready for the return trip to Earth. What a guy. What a hero.

But it may not be smooth sailing for the Torch. Back on Earth, with a telescope that would put the Hubble to shame, Dr. Jefferson monitors the Torch's approach; but the even sharper-eyed Captain America notices from at least 33,000 feet below that the Torch's flame has gone out, and leaps into action, while Sun Girl... well, Sun Girl basically tells Cap that there's nothing to be done. For once, I'm with Sun Girl. What exactly is Cap going to do about someone plummeting from space? Salute? Well, when you've got a story that paraphrases John 15:13 when the situation is at its most desperate, you'd better believe that Captain America is going to be the best outfielder for the job and make the big play.

And yes, it was lucky the Torch happened to be falling within the perimeter of Jefferson's observatory, instead of, say, Uruguay.  But rest assured that Sun Girl would be proud of him no matter where he fell to his doom.

You can catch (ha ha, get it?) our own Human Torch from the FF in a similar predicament in a separate post, though there would be more than enough trouble on planet Earth to keep him busy.

This Is A Job For--Betty Dean!

Anyone familiar with the history of the Sub-Mariner no doubt recalls the character of Betty Dean, a police officer who was assigned to trap Namor by posing as a drowning swimmer in order to hopefully provoke him into "saving" her. Betty dates back to early 1940, during the time when Namor was making a series of attacks on New York while the German war machine was moving through Europe. Namor's reasons for engaging in hostilities toward the U.S. eastern seaboard were in response to the casualties inflicted on his people due to American incursions near his home; yet even though the U.S. was still two years from entering the war, the war itself would end up being a backdrop to the meeting between Namor and Betty, and would play a crucial role in easing tensions between Namor and America and pivoting him toward battling the Nazis and their allies.

My first exposure to the story of Betty Dean happened to take place in my first exposure to Marvel comics--with Sub-Mariner #38, an issue where Namor was in grief over the loss of the lady Dorma and was sifting through his memories of both Atlantis and loves lost. Written by Roy Thomas, the scene where Namor meets Betty is encapsulated by Thomas to cover the basics, though clearly omitting a good deal of context.

The story of Betty's introduction adds an air of romance to a menacing character who up to that point was little more than a misguided marauder. And a good thing, too, since much more rides on the romantic angle in that story than any hope of success in the police department's "plan." Did Betty's superiors really send her in hoping that her deception would result in an arrest? The police must have fought any number of prior engagements with Namor and realized that their bullets were ineffective--what hope did Betty have brandishing a pistol? And how was that purse supposed to keep her gun from being clogged by sea water? "All right, Mr. Sub-Mariner, you asked for it! *CLICK* Oops..."

Thomas had also made a point to introduce Betty in an earlier story of the new Sub-Mariner title--yet while he's obviously aware of many elements from the 1940 story, he curiously alters the circumstances of their meeting completely.

Namor's memories in that story center around locating and securing the so-called helmet of power used by his now-deceased foe, the man called Destiny. But through his recollections, we also learn that his relationship with Betty was a platonic one--mainly because of a reason that amounts to "hogwash," given his intentions toward Sue Storm and, later, Marrina.

But Namor's thoughts of Betty have a deeper purpose in Thomas's story since they lead to his reunion with Betty 28 years after their first encounter, during a scene where Namor is involved in a fight with the Thing to recover Paul Destine's helmet. Given the way in which that meeting takes place, it's possible that Thomas altered the details of Betty's first appearance in order to given the newer scene a sense of symmetry, in terms of Betty ending the conflict as well as Namor's abrupt departure.

The complete story of Betty Dean's first meeting with Namor, in Timely's Marvel Mystery Comics, takes us back to a much simpler time in storytelling, with the events of the war being felt in American comic books in tales of sabotage and intrigue. Legendary Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett was all of 22 years old when he produced the story, marking the point when the Sub-Mariner takes his first steps toward becoming a hero to those he had previously attacked in earnest--and all because of a police officer who met him as a brash foe but would go on to become one of his most trusted friends.

Heroes Reborn

We've come to the end of our three-part look at the Avengers/Invaders twelve-issue series from 2008-2009, where the Invaders find themselves brought forward in time to 2008 and the Avengers struggle to gain their trust while trying to find a way to return them home. In Part One, that seemed unlikely, with the Invaders convinced that the Avengers were part of some Nazi deception and the Avengers unable to provide any proof of their bona fides for fear of corrupting the timeline. But in Part Two, the two teams found themselves fighting in common cause against S.H.I.E.L.D. Life Model Decoy units and slowly coming to an understanding of each other, while other members of the Invaders worked with the "New" Avengers to discover just how and why they were taken from the year 1941.

Seemingly at the nexus of this affair is a young soldier, Paul Anselm, whose comrades were killed while the Invaders battled behind enemy lines and a mist from the Cosmic Cube appeared to transport them through time. Paul had been caught up in the wake and arrived with the team in 21st century New York City, where he visited his still-alive older self and came to terms with the fate of his comrades in '41. Or, did he? Once the two teams of Avengers put aside their differences and prepared to use the Cube to send the Invaders back, Paul decided to make a grab for the Cube and attempt to not only save his friends, but also to affect the outcome of the war. To say that the timeline reacted disastrously is an understatement.

But with the third and final part of this story focusing on events in 1941 once the Invaders return (with the Avengers caught in the wake, this time), we have the opportunity to see where things went wrong. Did Paul manage to succeed in not only saving the lives of his buddies, but also in changing the past and thereby making sure that all the death and destruction of a world at war was avoided? It would seem like child's play with a device like the Cosmic Cube at your disposal. But with the haunting words of the 1940s hero called the Vision, we know that there's more to the Cube than simply its ability to alter reality. And we may see that there may be more to Paul Anselm, as well.

Behold... The Vision!

We're up to the next four issues in our look at the 2008 Avengers/Invaders 12-part series. In Part One, the Invaders are mysteriously brought forward in time, and the Avengers capture and contain them in isolation aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier until a way can be found to return them to their own time. But the situation is complicated, since the Avengers can't give the Invaders any details of their identities, for fear of corrupting the past timeline--and, thanks to an encounter with one of the Thunderbolts who has a German accent, the Invaders are inclined to think this is all some Nazi trick.

Naturally, the Invaders aren't content to be captives of those they believe are Nazis; in fact, they have some unsolicited help, in the form of the "New" Avengers who have slipped aboard and have come to break them out of captivity in order to return them to 1941.

Both teams of Avengers, then, are looking to help the Invaders return to the past, though neither team is inclined to trust the other due to the events of Civil War. As a result, all hell has broken out on the helicarrier flight deck, as all three teams struggle to prevail.

Yet, this fifth issue opens rather sedately, for there is another player in this drama--Paul Anselm, a soldier from 1941 who was caught in the Invaders' wake and transported with them into the future, where he has already met his older self and learned about the end of World War II as well as the fate of the comrades he fought with. And so we find him at a cemetery, paying his respects to his friends, and within sight of a conspicuous headstone:

Paul's sentiments are harmless enough, though we're beginning to see he feels a profound sense of guilt over not being on the field with his unit when they were fighting for their lives. Paul is about as helpless as anyone could be in his shoes under these circumstances--but whether this is simply a human interest angle to the plight of the Invaders or a portent of things to come remains to be seen.

"Start Spreadin' The News... Here Comes A Big Wave..."

Well, there's no getting around it: the Sub-Mariner destroyed New York City in 1941.

Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary tale! Although you could argue that a great deal of those Golden Age comics stories were so far-fetched that they could qualify as imaginary tales, assuming the thought of an "imaginary tale" ever occurred to any comics writer in the '40s. But no, Namor created a tidal wive that engulfed New York--and he did it because he wanted to be the next Napoleon.

The classic tale takes place in The Human Torch #5, the Fall 1941 issue. (There was another #5 issue published earlier that summer.) The catalyst for the story is when the Sub-Mariner surveys the vast damage caused to his undersea kingdom by the battles of the war with the Nazis--and, spurred on by Rathia, a "refugee princess" who's been displaced by the destruction, he forms a war council which plans to attack basically every surface country involved in the war until hostilities cease--the "war to end all wars." Rathia, however, has ambitions of her own, and fills Namor's head with delusions of grandeur, convincing him that he could come out of this as the ruler of everyone. And Namor swallows it hook, line, and sinker.

Helping Namor in his cause are two things: the advanced weaponry that all the undersea factions are bringing to the council, as well as the Human Torch, who's eaten drugged food served to him by Namor that has sapped his will. (No, I don't know why an android would be craving a seafood platter--this was well before even my time.) Aside from the Torch, one of Namor's main weapons is a giant turbine that can cause massive sea disturbances, such as whirlpools that can down fleets of ships:

He also constructs a massive fleet of whale and shark ships that manage to systematically surprise and disable every fleet they target. We've read so often of Namor and Atlantis declaring war, only to mainly target New York until a truce is called, that it's admittedly easy to dismiss this kind of thing. The first Fantastic Four annual perhaps comes as close to Namor launching a widespread campaign against the surface world as we've seen.  Yet, back in 1941, his undersea forces were actually on the verge of declaring victory. Something else to also consider is that he was attacking surface forces already armed and prepared for war, and still he managed to prevail in every engagement.

But Napoleon had his wake-up call, and Namor's good fortune doesn't last, either. Eventually, the Torch throws off his enslavement when the sight of an American flag makes him come to his senses and regain control of his actions. Unfortunately, Namor is already poised to attack America, beginning with their Atlantic fleet:

But Namor maliciously decides to go a step further, by using several turbines to send a tidal wave against New York City, without a thought to casualties:

Meanwhile, the Torch, flying above the devastation, takes action to create, well, "drain holes" to dispose of the flood waters, while using the resulting steam to disable Namor's fleet and drive the sea prince out into the open:

It's only then that Namor comes to his senses, claiming he was seduced by Rathia and went a little overboard. Afterward, the two join forces in a massive mop-up operation:

Please, don't ask me why Namor wasn't found as culpable as Rathia, if not more so. I have no idea why he gets a pass. Rathia was merely Namor's Delilah, except that she didn't even betray him; all she did, it seems, was appeal to his baser instincts. It was Namor who thundered ahead and planned these attacks--Namor who captured or destroyed whole fleets--Namor who destroyed a major U.S. city. Yet Rathia is taken prisoner; Namor's forces are taken prisoner; but Namor gets to walk because he's learned the error of his ways. The man is like Teflon.

This story was reprinted in a 1999 one-shot, "Timely Comics Presents The Human Torch," with a new cover painting by Ray Lago which mimics the original by Alex Schomburg:

It's a sixty-page giant that contains much more Golden Age goodness than what you're seeing here, and you can pick it up for a song from Amazon if you're interested in reading the entire story. Roy Thomas also contributes an informative three-page afterword.

BONUS!

Alex Ross presents a double-page spread of the famous tidal wave scene.

The Golden Age, Today: Captain America Meets Sub-Mariner!

OR: "Allies In The Making"


Captain America #423 can't help but give a reader the impression of being a nod by writer Roy Thomas to those old Timely stories where the core heroes of the time--Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, and the Human Torch--were all active in one way or another in the years before America entered World War II. Cap, of course, along with Bucky, was battling domestic threats from German saboteurs and the like--and the Torch, when not fighting crime, was defending New York City from the Sub-Mariner's attacks upon the human race as repayment for explosives being detonated above his Antarctic home. It would be awhile before these three joined forces in Europe as part of the Invaders in common cause.

Yet in those early days, Namor was a powerful, hostile force as far as humanity was concerned, attacking the streets without warning and delivering ultimatums with a raised fist. It would have been difficult to believe at the time that he would ever choose to fight for the human race rather than against it, as intent as he seemed on wreaking havoc and destruction whenever he was spotted descending from the sky. Fortunately for New Yorkers, Namor wasn't making war per se, but was mainly engaging in forceful strikes as a deterrent to further encroachment on his territory by the Americans (though arranging for a tidal wave to engulf the city was definitely going overboard); but humans also had in their corner a defender in the Torch, who was available to match Namor in a battle of the elements, where the Torch usually prevailed due to Namor's vulnerability to fire and his dependence on water for his strength and vigor. Otherwise, Namor was unstoppable, and would have felt emboldened to continue to terrorize not just New York but other American cities on a grander scale.

In fact, the foundation of this story has Namor escalating the already tense situation between himself and humans, after he's has been driven off by the Torch one too many times and is ready to take it up a notch. Only this time, Namor won't be met with fire, but with the fists of America's sentinel of liberty, Captain America, as these two characters meet for the first time.

Make A Stand For Liberty!

It probably goes without saying that, in the early 1940s, patriotism in the United States was on the rise, with Americans on the alert and keeping an eye out for enemy threats not only beyond the country's borders, but also within them. When it came to comic books being published at the time, it seemed even little kids weren't exempt from the patriotic fervor that appeared to be everywhere:

Timely Comics, the predecessor to Marvel, obviously had no qualms about tapping into that fervor, as well as the eagerness and enthusiasm of its young readers who would respond to calls to "serve" and "volunteer," even if that only meant joining a patriotic club and having a badge to show for it. Timely had a trio of patriotic stars in the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America, but others were waiting in the wings. One of whom took the readily-available name of:

The Patriot, a/k/a Jeff Mace, reporter for Consolidated News, would later be known as the third Captain America in post-war America; but in the beginning of his career, he traded punches with any number of subversives and "fifth columnists," with tunnel vision that saw his duty to America clearly and unwaveringly. In his debut in Human Torch #4 (though mistakenly numbered on its cover), Mace hits the ground running by battling the "Yellowshirts," who move like lightning to strike at vulnerable areas of the country and paralyze Americans' will to fight:

"And they won't call us 'yellow' after we show them the color of our terror!" That's just superb writing by Ray Gill, whose story carries little subtlety or depth but cuts right to the chase in most cases. We meet Mace and his friend and future sidekick, Mary Morgan, simply taking a stroll when all hell breaks loose.

In these comics, panic is usually the order of the day when a crisis strikes. Fellow reporter Casey wastes no time stoking fear in the reader, reporting on simultaneous strikes all across the city and jumping to the conclusion that death is around the corner for all of them (or, if you read between the lines, all of us). And so the time is perfect to debut a new hero:

(Clearly, Mary cuts no slack for her friends, crisis or no crisis.)

The Patriot is a whirlwind of action, a one-man army who strong-arms the Yellowshirts wherever he finds them. But as we'll see, his main function is to act as inspiration for not only the other characters in the comic who are hard-pressed and even cowed by the opposition, but also for the story's readers.

Mace makes sure to clean out the Consolidated News offices first, but then heads to more visible areas of New York, making stands with his fellow civilians. Eventually, he's wrapping things up and settling up with the Yellowshirts' leader:

With the words "liberty," "freedom," "democracy," "country," and "defenders" virtually bursting out of that panel, it seems the Patriot is on his way to being a Timely mainstay for the duration of the war. Mary will be hanging around, too, though her mood doesn't seem to improve even when everything turns out all right:

Mary reminds me of how actress Noel Neill played Lois Lane in those old George Reeves Superman shows--the day is saved, but all Lois can do is chide Clark Kent for missing all the action. Maybe Lois took a leaf from Mary's book. If it ain't broke...

The Patriot also would have a brief cameo in the Kree-Skrull War, when Rick Jones summoned a simulacrum of him to battle a Kree death squad:

But when the Patriot took the place of the Spirit of '76--the first man to step in as Captain America, killed in the line of duty--his patriotic fervor was at odds with the changing times:

Lost to time and obscurity, Mace would encounter the original Cap one last time, on the verge of losing a battle that could claim even the most spirited of heroes:

So on this day, it seemed appropropriate to give a nod to a less celebrated version of Captain America, fighting for a country that won its battle for independence through the efforts of many such men and women who made a stand for liberty.

BONUS:

In the Patriot's own words, his very first adventure!