Tennis, Anyone?

I adore this single page by the incomparable John Buscema and George Klein. These two blended their talents all too briefly on the Assemblers, but they created some exciting pages between them in that tiny period of time.

For one thing I like comic book pages where characters read comics, especially recognizable comics. It's fun, and suits the personality of Hawkeye (not yet revealed to be Clint Barton yet) perfectly.

And for another thing, his page is a clever multiverse-bending ending to a story from Not Brand Echh #12. That's a delightful cover by Marie Severin by the way. 

The whole story can be found here at the Diversions of the Groovy Kind Blog. The story by Roy Thomas and Tom Sutton is pretty funny and involves these "Revengers" at a very particular time in their history when they were arguably at their weakest. The team consisted of Goliath, the Wasp, Hawkeye, the Black Panther and brand-new member the largely untried Vision.

In fact, this story had to happen in between issues #58 and #59 of The Avengers run since that is the only possible time that the assembled team pictured so elegantly by Buscema and Klein ever existed. The Vision became an Avenger in issue #58 and the erratic Hank Pym doffed his Goliath duds to become Yellowjacket in issue #59.

So, it is in the pages of Not Brand Echh of all places, in this weird fusion of the of the Marvel and Marble universes where we find this Avengers team assembled for the one and only time really.

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When Butlers Attack!

He came with the mansion. Edwin Jarvis was in the employ of Tony Stark, but he soon became the butler and leader of the support staff of the Mighty Avengers. Like most men of his profession, he was not that interested in taking a leading public role, but that did not mean he was not a stalwart when push came to shove. Quite the opposite instead. 

In an attack by the Masters of Evil, Jarvis was once nearly killed. He recovered eventually to once again take his role as the keeper of the mansion. I first met Edwin Jarvis way back in the series when for a short time it was believed he had turned upon his employers, driven to the brink by a need for money for the welfare of his mother. Here's how it went down. 

"The Crimson Cowl!" That name reverberates in my memory as it was the nom de guerre of one of Mavel's most significant and visceral arch villains. We encounter the Crimson Cowl for the first time in the pages of The Avengers #54 when he meets with Jarvis, the seemingly disloyal butler of the Assemblers. Hidden within dramatic flowing robes, the Crimson Cowl is a figure of mystery and cruel authority.

At the time he is the leader of a gang of Avengers foes reorganized to seek vengeance against their old foes. Klaw, Whirlwind, Melter, Radioactive Man, and even the Black Knight form the ranks of these "New Masters of Evil".

With such a group of craven but ambitious criminals, the Crimson Cowl is forced to show his strength in the face of attempted revolts within the ranks, as we can see in this encounter with Klaw.

It is seemingly revealed in the Cowl's debut appearance that he is in fact Jarvis himself, using a mere robot to fool the Masters of Evil themselves (and the reader) into thinking their leader was someone else.

But that ruse within a ruse is uncovered in the very next issue when we discover to our dismay that Jarvis was merely a pawn of the real Crimson Cowl, who finally reveals himself to be in reality the robot itself, a robot who calls himself "Ultron-5 The Living Automaton".

Ponder these pages to see that momentous revelation in all its dramatic glory. The Masters of Evil are defeated, and the plan of Ultron fails. But soon we learn more.

Ultron-5 is not done with the Avengers. Instead, we learn that he was in fact created by Henry Pym himself, one of the founding members of the Avengers.

Ultron-5 in an act similar to Pym's creates his own artificial life form, dubbing it The Vision and sending it on a mission to infiltrate and destroy the Avengers themselves. Of course, that scheme fails well.

Even Ultron-5's seeming destruction cannot end his threat.

For soon he returns under the new name of "Ultron-6".

And not contented with that continues to upgrade himself into the "Ultimate Ultron". Ultron is of course defeated by the Avengers, but the robot seems always to return to menace them and the world itself, carrying on the legacy of the mysterious "Crimson Cowl".

Edwin Jarvis for his part returns to service in the Avengers Mansion, his reputation singed a wee bit, but it is soon restored in full. And he also has a reasonable dislike for robots. 

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Memorial Day!

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."   -- John Donne

For more on this awesome comic book written by Roy Thomas and drawn to perfection by John Buscema and George Klein, check out this link.

Have a pleasant Memorial Day.

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The Sunday Honeys - Goddess Of Love!

It's Valentines Day and to celebrate the holiday I'm skipping the regularly scheduled Sunday Funnies feature and instead taking a look at one of the most fetching Atlas/Marvel era characters -- the Goddess of Love herself and reputedly the most beautiful girl in the world -- Venus. Venus had her own reasonably successful comic in the 50's when the comic book world was in a turmoil after the sundry public outcries for the medium to police itself or to just go away entirely. So comics were sanitized and to that end Marvel (called Atlas back then) published a girl's comic featuring the  Goddess of Love. 

Venus was launched at the same time as Marvel/Timely/Atlas titles Namora and Sun Girl. If you notice that all three star lovely dames then you hit the spot as apparently the scheme was to latch onto the growing girl market in comics. All three series lasted at least three issues then all were cancelled. Some of the leftover Venus tales appeared in other titles at the time. Then at some point it was decided to revive Venus with some tweaking of the concept and eventually the title last a cool nineteen issues. Now I'm not going to do an issue by issue reprise of this series for the simple reason I found such an analysis at this highly informative link. Written by Dr. Michael Vassallo, the acknowledged guru of Atlas Comics you'll find even more enlightening info on the character as well as a detailed breakdown of each of the first nine issues.  Vassallo identifies many of the artists on the title with the earliest issues having been drawn by George Klein who I fondly remember as an able inker over John Buscema on seminal issues of The Avengers and elsewhere. Artists like Ken Bald, Werner Roth and Bill Everett among others will contribute to the series eventually. 

These nine issues were gathered together and published by Marvel some years ago in their doughty Marvel Masterworks series. It's a handsome volume that I found somewhere for a discounted price as likely I'd never have brought it home otherwise. 

There has not been a second volume in the Masterworks series dedicated to Venus though it is crucial that it does happen. Most of the stories which evoked my admiration for the character, and all those by Bill Everett are in the later issues of the run.  Here are the covers. 

And below is a glimpse of what a volume like this might look like if it existed. 

I'm a fan of Marvel's Atlas days with heroes like Venus and Marvel Boy and Black Knight, first discovering these charactes and stories tucked away inside Marvel's copious reprint comic such as Marvel Tales and Fantasy Masterpieces among others. 

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