Avengers #158. Wonder Man vs the Vision.

If there's anything we all like to see, it's super-heroes fighting each other.

In fact, it sometimes makes you wonder why comics companies have ever bothered to invent super-villains when they could just give us good guys trying to bash each other's heads in each month.

And so it is that, in The Avengers #158, we finally get to see the Vision vs Wonder Man, which, bearing in mind that the Vision has Wonder Man's brain patterns (whatever they are), means it's Marvel inter-hero antagonism taken to its logical conclusion, as we effectively have a super-hero fighting himself. No doubt, next month, we'll be treated to twenty pages of Captain America punching himself in the face.

The reason why it happens is the Vision's decided that Wonder Man has his eye on the Scarlet Witch and he's now in one of his, "I'm not human. What can an android know of love? I'd better fly into a tempestuous rage about my lack of emotions," moods.

Sadly, despite making the cover, the fight only lasts a few pages before the Avengers get an SOS and set off to deal with Graviton who's still new to his powers and has seized control of the research facility where he works. Consequently, he's now having fun pushing the staff around and making the place float around like a balloon.

I do have to say I like the cut of Graviton's jib. He has the air of an early Silver Age Marvel villain about him, which means you could have imagined him turning up in a formative issue of Spider-Man or The Fantastic Four.

Inevitably, despite their vast numerical advantage, the Avengers soon fall victim to the fiend, mostly because none of them has the smarts to think of sneaking up on him from behind.

I wish I could claim to have strong feelings about this issue but I don't. It's a solid tale written by Jim Shooter and drawn by Sal Buscema, with lots of conflict and drama. Personally, I could have done with the Vision vs Wonder Man action taking up the whole issue, with Graviton being tackled in the next one but at least we can't accuse the mag of skimping on action.

While I'm here, I do feel I should say a word about inker Pablo Marcos. I'm generally not a fan of his work as either a penciller or an inker but his style goes well with Buscema's pencils. For me, Buscema always benefited from having an embellisher who was exactly that, willing to add extra detail to his generally sparse pencils, and Marcos was just such an inker.

"But hold on a moment, you blathersome blundersquid!" I hear you cry. "Never mind all that cobblers about inkers and pencillers and writers and gravity and stuff! What about what we came here for? Who won the fight between the Vision and Wonder Man?"

Well, obviously, no one did. It being a 1970s Marvel mag, it's a draw, with both parties basically running out of steam before being interrupted by Iron Man who tells them off for causing needless damage to the mansion.

Reading comics back in those days, it could be so incredibly frustrating.

Avengers #157. The not quite so dark knight returns.

Avengers assemble, true believers! Inspired by my post the other day, I've been for a rummage in my Steve Does Comics Cave and found Avengers #157 lurking there.

I was motivated to do this because it dawned on me that, although I have it, I don't think I've ever read it.

How could I allow this oversight to continue?

I couldn't.

So, here goes.

The first thing that leaps out at me is that the inside front cover is a full page ad for the 1976 King Kong remake.

It's the ad where Kong's straddling the twin towers of the World Trade Centre while plucking jet fighters from the air. You know? The one that makes it look like it's a movie that's a million times better than it actually is and makes it look like Kong himself is going to be totally awesome?

It only goes to prove how advertising can lie to us.

Having said that, I do prefer that version to the Peter Jackson remake, which I've never managed to make it all the way through.

As for the Avengers story, the first thing that strikes me about that is that it's drawn by Don Heck.

I must confess there've been times in my life when discovering that a story's drawn by Don Heck has been enough to send me into a dizzying combination of depression and indignation.

But now, oddly enough, separated from the publication of this comic by almost exactly forty years, seeing his work here makes me feel strangely warm, fuzzy and nostalgic. I can't deny it, there's something psychologically fulfilling about seeing him work again on the strip whose pages he did so much to grace in its early years.

It's got to be said that it's not Heck at his best - but, then, nor is it him at his worst.

I suspect this may be down to the inking of Pablo Marcos who manages to add a touch of polish and tidiness to the pencils that helps to hold them together in a way that some other inkers failed to do in this era.

The script is by Gerry Conway, so I started this tale assuming that someone's girlfriend was going to die.

The other thing that strikes me is it's a tale that's the very definition of, "Simplicity." Basically, the Avengers are at home in their mansion when the statue of the Black Knight, from way back in the days of the Evil Eye Saga, smashes into the building and, one by one, knocks them out, until the Vision shows up and disposes of him.

Along the way, we discover that he's not really the Black Knight. He's just the now-soulless statue of him, which has been brought to life by an unnamed villain and, thinking he's the real Knight, is out to gain vengeance on the Defenders and Avengers for leaving him to stand around as a statue for the rest of eternity.

Other than the main plot, the other point of interest is we're now in the era of Wonder Man's return.

From what I can gather from the dialogue, he's not long since been revived and seems to already be thinking that he and not the Vision should be the Flake in the Scarlet Witch's 99. Given that he and the Vision are effectively the same character and that Marvel heroes can't deal with a problem without hitting it, I suspect this can only end in fisticuffs.

But that'll clearly have to wait for a later issue.

As will the identity of the true villain of the piece. Tragically, in this issue, we're never told who animated the statue. All we see is a hand that I don't recognise. I will therefore assume it belongs to either Kang or Ultron because, well, it's an Avengers story.

So, it's not a classic tale but it is one that you could imagine lingering in the mind, if only for the way the statue ultimately smashes itself to pieces on the Vision before giving up the ghost completely and simply dropping dead.

All of which, I suppose, proves there's a merit to simplicity when it comes to story-telling.

And that's basically it. I've fulfilled my duty and finally got round to reading a thing that had been unread for so long. It was a pain-free experience and I thoroughly recommend reading unread things, to everyone who views this post.

Avengers #4 - Captain America Lives again, video review.

There are many things in life that people were never meant to do. I've always instinctively known that I was never meant to appear on television.

Fortunately for the world, despite having once been offered the chance to be interviewed by Sophie Aldred, I've determinedly honoured that commitment to anonymity.

However, even I'm not oblivious to the existence of that terrible instrument of terror that men call YouTube. Verily it be filled with people giving their thoughts on all things known to man.

Therefore, in my never-ending quest to find new things to do, I've decided to review this comic via the medium of video, which is either me flinging the gauntlet down to other comics bloggers to enter a whole new field of self-expression as well, or it's just a man putting on a silly hat.

Whichever it is, here's my epic video review:

This week, I have mostly been reading...

As you no doubt know, this blog ploughs through millions of comics every day in order to bring you opinions so powerful they could rock the world. Why, grown men themselves have been known to hide in cupboards to avoid the power of my fulminations.

But the truth is that even I don't always have strong enough feelings about a comic to bother reviewing it in full. Therefore, this is a selection of what I've been looking at lately that I can't bring myself to give a full write-up to.

The Avengers have their second outing and find themselves up against the Space Phantom who, for years, I always got mixed up with the Space Parasite.

Needless to say, in this tale, everyone gets everyone mixed up with the Space Phantom and by the end of it all, the Hulk's quit and the newly formed group are already a man down.

Just to make things worse for our heroes, not only are they a man short but the very next issue, they have to fight both him and the Sub-Mariner.

Bah! Who needs that pesky Hulk anyway? Thanks to the maturity levels that only Namor can supply, the Avengers return to full strength with the return of Captain America.

Batman has  his greatest failure!

Or perhaps he doesn't, as he encounters murder on a film set.

This is actually one of my favourite Batman tales from the era but I don't have anything to say about it that I haven't said about other Batman tales in other posts, therefore I shall not review it but merely express my liking for it.

Captain Marvel goes all cosmic and has his head redrawn by John Romita.

To be honest I've never been totally sure what Cosmic Awareness is but it's all good mythic stuff as Jim Starlin's Cosmic Cube saga rumbles on and we get some back-story for the solar system.

Jim Starlin's long-gone but Mar-Vell's Cosmic Awareness comes in handy as he uses it to beat the Super-Adaptoid and bring Rick Jones permanently back to our world.

Tragically, this means we shall have to endure more of Rick's singing career which mostly seems to consist of him declaring himself not to be John Denver.

I can confirm that I too am not John Denver.

Ka-Zar finds himself in a Savage Land re-enactment of Moby Dick as he helps a vengeance-seeking wally try to kill a giant river monster.

The story's concept might be pretty clichéd but it's beautifully drawn by Alfredo Alcala.

It's the Mighty World of Marvel but it might as well be called Daredevil Annual 1979, as our red clad hero finds himself in two tales.

The first is a very long but uninvolving team-up with the Black Panther. The second is shorter and stronger as the man without fear finds himself on a train, up against the Beetle and the Gladiator.

The Avengers #1.

Yo! How's it hanging? With the nation reeling from the news that the world's oldest, whitest, poshest, least likeliest gangsta DJ in history - and direct inspiration for Ali G - Tim Westwood has finally been dumped by the BBC, it's time to remind ourselves he's not the only one who's spent a lifetime having to endure a string of bum raps. In The Avengers #1, the Hulk's encountering one too as he finds himself blamed for a near-train wreck he was in fact trying to prevent. Check it out.

Framed by Loki for that event, the green grappler takes refuge in a circus by pretending to be an elephant-juggling robot clown. Something Tim Westwood will no doubt not be considering as a future career option.

Unfortunately for Hulkie, Rick Jones has tried to call in the Fantastic Four to sort it all out but, thanks to yet more incompetent Loki machinations, he's succeeded instead in calling in Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Having met for the first time, the four heroes resist the usual Marvel super-hero urge to bash each others' brains out and set off instead to bash the Hulk's brains out.

Fortunately, the Hulk doesn't have any brains to bash out and, anyway, barely has Thor arrived than the thunder god sets off to Asgard to bash up Loki instead.

Needless to say, Thor defeats his evil step-brother and returns him to Earth to explain the plot to his new colleagues.

The Hulk suitably cleared, the quarrelsome quintet decide to gang together and become a team. For no noticeable reason, they decide to call themselves the Avengers, and a legend is born.

I first read this tale in the Mighty World of Marvel where it was printed before the group got their own UK mag, and it's always been one of my favourite Marvel origin tales.

Basically it's an amiable romp, with the heroes getting on way better than you'd expect and a pivotal role being given to Rick Jones and his Teen Brigade. You do get the feeling Stan Lee saw the mag primarily as a promotional tool for introducing new readers to as much of the Marvel universe in one go as he possibly could. Perhaps because of that, there's little of the traditional Marvel angst and even the Hulk is noticeably less aggro than he'd previously been in his own strip.

My favourite part of the tale's always been Thor's diversion to Asgard and his fight with a troll. The Earthbound stuff's fine but Asgard's always grabbed me and, with its silence and spindliness, the troll does seem a genuinely weird and alien thing - more so than Kirby's later depictions of members of that species.

It is remarkably convenient though that the car factory our heroes find themselves in at the tale's climax just happens to have a radiation-proof chamber in its cellar.

Steve Does Comics - keeping it real.

Steve Does Comics leaps into the 21st Century!

Like Spider-Woman in Avengers #12.1 , Steve Who Does
Comics is surrounded by enemies wherever he goes!

As I roam the streets of Sheffield, people often say to me, "Steve, you're always going on about some old crap or other. You do know it's not still 1978, don't you?"

And I reply, "You half-witted dolt! Of course it's still 1978! Why, if it wasn't, Brian and Michael wouldn't still be Number 1 with their moving tribute to LS Lowry!"

"Get with it, grandad!" they retort. "Brian and Michael haven't been Number 1 for weeks! It's the Bee Gees now, with their latest smash Night Fever! How can you keep up with current trends if you don't even watch Top of the Pops!?!"

To address this very issue, the other day I decided to take advantage of Free Comic Day and scoop up a pile of more modern comics than I'm used to dealing with, from Comixology. To keep it balanced, I chose some titles I was familiar with and some I'd never heard of before. Having not read a new comic since 1996, I shall at last find out what's been happening in the world of panels since those halcyon days of yore.

Avengers Vol 4 #12.1
By Brian Michael Bendis & Bryan Hitch.

Hooray! The Avengers! We all love the Avengers!

On the hunt for aliens, Spider-Woman's been kidnapped by a gang of arch-villains, and the Avengers go to her rescue.

The first thing that struck me about this is every super-hero in the world now seems to be in the Avengers - including Spider-Man and Wolverine, two characters who should surely never be in the Avengers.

It's all very nicely drawn - and beautifully coloured but somewhat bland in both its visual and verbal story-telling, and the sheer overabundance of heroes and villains makes it oddly uninvolving.

Even the return of Ultron, which lends the tale its climax, seems strangely flat when it should feel like the most mind-searingly thrilling thing ever to have happened, ever.

Strange also that none of the bad guys recognise Ultron when they see him.

Batman Black & White: A Black & White World
By Neil Gaiman and Simon Bisley.

A short story that works on the conceit that Batman and the Joker are basically actors playing a part and are chatting to each other whilst waiting to do their scenes.

It's all very pleasant but, as so often with Gaiman, feels suspiciously like it might, deep down, just be punchless whimsy.

Class War #1
by Rob Williams & Trevor Hairsine.

I must admit to being impressed that there're people called Trevor working in the modern industry. I like to think he smokes a pipe as he draws, and wears a cable-knit sweater.

But this is more like it. A government-appointed super-hero discovers just how bad the American government is and decides to turn against it.

I do worry that this comic's aimed at conspiracy theorists and the sort of people who have bunkers in their backyards, full of assault rifles for when, "The Day," comes. Also, the characters aren't properly introduced, making it a little confusing in places but, unlike the previous comics I've looked at here, it has a strong premise and an emotional thrust that does mean I'd be interested in seeing what happens next.

The Evil Tree #1
by Erik Hendrix  and Daniel Thollin.

This is a horror tale about some people driving around in the snow.

At least, the bit I read was.

I must admit I gave up after a few pages. It seemed like fairly standard horror fare and was very badly drawn.

Obviously, it was deliberately badly drawn, to suit its genre but the combination of ugly artwork and unengaging writing put me off before I could get very far into it.

Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite Comic #1.
by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming.

I always loved the Guardians of the Galaxy, so I was always going to be drawn to this one.

Drax is sat around, minding his own business, when he's attacked and has a fight that goes on for page after page until it ends. Then some bloke turns up and says he's needed elsewhere.

Erm, that's it in terms of story.

On the plus side, the thing's been put together with electronic reading in mind, which means it tells the tale with fresh panels popping up over already displaying pages, rather than everything appearing sequentially, demonstrating that some sort of thought's been put into its structuring.

On the downside, it has virtually no dialogue, characterisation, wit, plot, intelligence or point and the artwork is awful. Given the ambitious story-telling style of Drax's creator, I can't help feeling Jim Starlin would be turning in his grave if he were dead.

Mouse Guard Fall 1152 #1
by David Petersen.

I can't deny it, I got this one because it's about mice - and who doesn't love mice?

What happens is some talking mice set out to find a missing talking mouse but instead find he had a dark secret.

This has a children's storybook feel to it, which automatically lends it a certain charm. It's not what you could call the most involving story of all time - in fact, the writing's pretty much as dull as it could be - but it is very nicely drawn and stars mice, so it gets a thumbs up from me.

Superman: War of the Supermen #0
by Sterling Gates/James Robinson and Various.

General Zod's back, is now leader of the Kandorians and wants to invade our planet. Meanwhile, dark forces are stirring on Earth.

This is a lot more violent than the good old days of Curt Swan.

That's not necessarily a bad thing but it is a shock to the system for the older-style reader.

It all seems to be well done and its various artists make up for an appallingly bad cover by giving us a lovely - if vaguely fascistic - splash page of the Kandorians heading toward Earth to give it a good smacking.

I don't know if I like the comic or not. I'd probably have to read more in order to make my mind up.

But it does have to be said that, with his seeming inability to grasp that all Kryptonians have the same powers that he has, Superman does come across as not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

"Well that's all fancy blather," I hear you cry, "But which was your favourite? And what did you make of the modern world of comics?"

My favourite for writing was Class War - which had flaws but was at least taut - and, for art, it was Mouse Guard.

I can make few conclusions on the state of modern comics because I'd need a bigger sample to get a proper overview of that. But, The Evil Tree and Guardians of the Galaxy aside, the experience wasn't as bad as I'd feared.

One of the reasons I gave up comics in the mid-1990s was because of rampantly self-indulgent artwork that made it impossible to understand what was actually going on. Apart from the odd lapse, none of these comics had that flaw. And one thing that does seem to have improved since then is that not one of them was drawn by someone who draws like Jim Lee with a broken arm.

Super-hero movies you want to see!

Because I always follow Casey Kasem's advice and keep both ears to the ground and my feet in the clouds, I happen to have noticed there's an Avengers movie out at the moment.

Such is my attentiveness that I know all about it.

Apparently, it was written and directed by the late Bert Weedon and stars Scarlet Johnsen as Emma Peel, while Patrick McNee reprises his old role of the Incredible Hulk. I think we all remember his classic line from the old TV shows; "Grab my bowler, Sarah Jane, I do believe I'm turning irradiated."

Sadly, being a low-budget movie with little publicity behind it, it's not likely to do much at the box office. Such is the way with these home-grown British movies. However, coming as it does after a spate of comic book adaptations, it does raise the question of what other super-hero movies one would like to see.

There was a time when I'd have loved to have seen a Killraven movie. Admittedly, that was before I'd reacquainted myself with the comics and realised just how unfilmable they probably were.

I bow to no one in my admiration for Ant-Man but fear the multiplex masses may not be ready yet for one man's battle to escape from within a glass tumbler.

Therefore, I must bow to the inevitable and demand a Defenders movie. Who wouldn't thrill to the sight of the least coordinated super-team of them all fighting the forces of fiendomness?

So, that's me accounted for, but which super-heroes who've yet to hit the big screen would you like to see immortalised in celluloid?

Sal Buscema's all-time Top Ten Avengers covers.

All lovers of the Buscema brothers'll be no doubt interested to know there's a new Comic Book Resources interview with Sal Buscema right here. But the first time Sal came to my attention was when he first took over the reins of The Avengers, a strip that had already been made great by his big brother John.

Happily, Sal didn't let the family tradition down, and kicked off in grand style by completing the tale of Ultron's rebirth as Adamantium Antagonist.

Sal only seems to have done ten Avengers covers in the time-frame this blog covers - and that sounds like a cue for me to fling myself once more into the Fields of Controversy by doing my own personal Top Ten of Sal Buscema Avengers covers.

#10.

The titanic trouble-busters find themselves up against the maddening menace of Kang's Growing Man.

#9.

Scorpio crashes in.

#8.

As if it's not enough that those cosmic creeps Ronan and the Sentry have captured Captain Marvel, they've even enlisted the aid of Goliath.

Still, at least the Avengers have Rick Jones on their side.

#7.

Who says Henry Pym has no sense of fun? Why, as the cover of issue #90 shows, there's nothing he likes more to do with his spare time than to go out clubbing.

#6.

The Avengers meet the Squadron Sinister for a cover with strong echoes of big brother John's classic frontispiece to Avengers Annual #2.

#5.

Can it be?

Can the Vision be dead?

#4.

In World War Two, the Avengers take on the Golden Age heroes the world - and Roy Thomas - would come to know as The Invaders.

#3.

The Hulk?

Being shrunk down like Ant-Man?

This calls for the Avengers.

#2.

Our heroes at the mercy of a crackletastic Ultron!

The power!

The drama!

The menace!

#1.

Poor old Captain Marvel. He rarely had a happy time of it.

Still, he did at least have the honour of launching an entire epic.

Avengers #58. Even an Android Can Cry.

With the exciting news that, during the Olympics, some of us are to have the army stationed on our roof, complete with missile launchers, it's time to look back on a far simpler time when the only things people had to worry about turning up on their rooftops were groups of super-doers.

Turning up on the Avengers' rooftop this issue is the Black Panther who discovers he's been summoned to their mansion to help mull over whether the newly introduced Vision should be accepted for membership. I don't think I'm giving away too much by saying his application is indeed successful, although it does make you wonder what he'd have done if it hadn't been.

Regardless of such questions, this was always one of my favourite Avengers tales when I was a kid, mostly because of its celebrated closing shot of the Vision crying like a great big sissy after he's been voted in.

Well, super-heroes - and androids - crying might have seemed a novelty back then but, looking at it now, it's plain to see how atypical the whole issue is. For once, there's no super-villain to fight, just twenty pages of exposition and flashbacks as the team get to the root of just who the Vision is and where he came from.

Right from the start, it's established he's solar powered. Was this a sign that, even at this early stage, writer Roy Thomas was thinking in terms of the android having once been the original Human Torch? I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise, given that he was clearly revelling in a chance to let his love for comic book continuity hold sway. We already had the Vision as a partial revival of the Golden Age character of the same name, and now, in this tale, we find out he's also a partial revival of Silver Age Avengers' foe Wonder Man. Such is Roy's love of continuity, he even gets a plug in for Hank Pym's previous fight with Dragon Man.

Nice to see that the creation of Ultron was all Hank Pym's fault. You do have to worry that, if things are to be taken as they're told here, Pym not only accidentally created a homicidal robot but somehow gave the prototypical Ultron a deadly weapon without realising it. The Avengers really should have been asking questions about that man's state of mind long before they did.

Avengers #57. Behold the Vision!

As I roam the streets of Sheffield, people often say to me, "Steve, I saw what you just did to that bunch of visiting snooker players. Just how do you do that thing where you fire devastating heat beams from your eyeballs?"

And I say, "It doesn't come easy. It's a very complicated process, involving solar power and decades of baffling continuity."

Fortunately for me, I'm not alone in this, as one of Marvel's finest super-teams possesses a character in the exact same mould.

And Avengers #57 is where we get to meet him.

The Avengers're minding their own business, lost in their domestic troubles, when a strange being called the Vision shows up and tries to kill them all.

Then he decides he doesn't want to kill them all.

Instead he wants to lead them to the lair of his creator - the rapacious robot Ultron.

There, the Avengers quickly find themselves trapped like the dozy lumps they are, leaving the Vision to prove he can be trusted, by setting off on his own to bump off Ultron.

Reading the story now, there're two things that most strike you about it.

One is that the Vision, who we tend to see as Marvel's answer to Mr Spock, seems to be a veritable ball of emotions in the tale. He's tormented, he's tortured, he's angry, he's confused. It's a far cry from the impassive creature we expect him to be at this stage of his existence.

The other is what a complete and utter dolt Ultron is.

First, his plan involves letting the Avengers know exactly where to find him.

Second, he traps them in a chamber with moving walls, but those walls move at a snail's pace, giving them every chance to escape.

Third, despite having created him, Ultron totally forgets the Vision can change his density - not once but twice - leading to his own destruction.

And fourth, he actually tells the Vision what his only weakness is (the electrodes on his head), giving his foe the chance to discombobulate him that he would never otherwise have had. If you didn't know better, you'd think the rancid robot wanted to be defeated.

However, the charm of the tale is three-fold.

One, there's John Buscema's beautifully elegant artwork, exemplified by the classic cover above. For me, this was the period when Buscema had just entered the very peak of his career.

Two is that we get to see something of the Avengers' private life; Hank standing Jan up to spend an evening in his lab, the disintegration of Hawkeye and the Black Widow's relationship, and the Black Panther deciding he needs to find a new role for himself besides that of costumed crime-fighter.

Interesting that, in Hank's early exchanges with Jan, Thomas seems to be laying the groundwork for the arrival of Hank's Yellowjacket persona a few issues later. Apparently, once his work in the lab's done, he has something to do with private matters that he wants to discuss with her. If only Jan had known then what a total nut-job he was.

The third charm is of course that we get a great new character added to the Avengers' roster. As far as I can remember, the Vision was the first character created specifically to be in the team, instead of being imported from another book. In a sense, you could argue this was a betrayal of the strip's original purpose but, as Ultron couldn't tell you - because his head's just flown off - sometimes in life, betrayal can be a good thing.

The Avengers' all-time greatest villain: Poll Results!

Well, the Greek Prime Minister might be trying to put everything to a referendum but he's well and truly behind the curve, as this site's already done the only referendum that counts.

That's right; the results are in from Steve Does Comics' poll to find the all-time greatest Avengers villain. Could it be the Grim Reaper? Could it be the Space Phantom? Could it be Attuma?

In fact it was none of the above because the runaway winner was Ultron with eleven votes.

Second was Kang with six votes.

Joint third were the Squadron Sinister and Count Nefaria, with one vote each.

Joint fifth was everyone else in the entire world, with a walloping zero votes.

Who'd have thought a mother-fixated patricidal robot could prove so popular? Well, the Greeks probably could. They did after all invent the Oedipus Complex. It just goes to show there's no such thing as a coincidence in this world.

As always, thanks to all those who voted.

The Avengers' all-time greatest villain.

For a team specifically created to be Marvel's flagship super-group, it's always seemed to me the Avengers have generated surprisingly few great villains in their time.

Mostly, in the 1960s and '70s period in which I read the strip, they seemed to find themselves up against villains who were rarely - or even never seen again - or bad guys imported from other titles, often after failing to set the world alight  there.

Still, amongst all these not-quite-greats, there was the odd classic bad guy created for the strip.

And, anyway, all because a villain's not an all-time great doesn't mean he can't be appreciated.

In a couple of days from now I'll create a poll to find out just who is the Internet's favourite Avengers foe. And that means I need your nominations.

Remember, if he/she/it isn't in it, he/she/it can't win it.

Giant-Size Avengers #4. The Celestial Madonna Saga: Part 13.

At last it's the end of the Celestial Madonna Saga. Soon I shall be free to drivel on about whatever it is I want to drivel about next.

But first, with such an event, I think we can take it for granted Marvel'll have pulled out all the stops to make sure such a tale's special, using the finest creators to produce a truly landmark issue that people'll speak of in hushed whispers forever.

And so it is that when we open the book, we find Giant Size Avengers #4's guest artist is...

...Don Heck.

Now, as long-suffering readers of this blog'll know, I'm open-minded on the subject of Don Heck. I quite like his early Iron Man and Avengers work, and I like his work on Sub-Mariner #68.

But sadly not all his art was of that standard and there were times when trying to read a comic drawn by him could be a painful experience.

This is one of those times. It simply looks dreadful. How much of that's down to Heck and how much is down to John Tartag(lione), whose inking here can only be labelled primitive, is hard to say but either way the final effect is terrible. In places it genuinely looks like the thing's been drawn by someone who was just randomly dragged in off the street.

Still, as we all know, pretty pictures are only part of a comic book, and a great story might yet overcome ugly graphics.

It turns out that story has an awful lot to pack in.

Diverted from his travellings through time, the Vision finds himself in what I take to be the centre of the Earth where he discovers Dormammu and Umar have captured the Scarlet Witch and're up to their usual out-to-take-over-the-world mischief. The Vision soon sees off Dormammu's underlings but looks like he's going to come a cropper when the Witch, under Dormammu's control, drains him of all power. Happily the sight of her BF dying brings the Witch to her senses and she sorts out Dormammu with an almost bathetic ease before she and the Vizh head off to Vietnam to rejoin the rest of the gang.

While all this has been going on, the rest of that gang have been exposited-up senseless as writer Steve Englehart tries to tie up all loose ends.

So we get the final threads of explanation that Moondragon and Mantis were both raised as potential Celestial Madonnas but, of the two, the more in-touch-with-reality Mantis has been chosen. Then at least three different version of Kang show up to cause trouble before a final Kang appears and kidnaps Mantis, who then turns out not to be Mantis but the Space Phantom in disguise. Kang out of the way, Mantis is now free to marry a tree and fulfil her destiny - but not before the Vision and Scarlet Witch arrive and say they want to make it a joint wedding. So Immortus does the honours, Mantis and her new tree-husband become beings of pure thought, and everyone lives happily ever after - except Kang who's presumably now stuck with the Space Phantom for a girlfriend from now on.

The thing that strikes you about the story is how over-crammed it feels as Steve Englehart seems determined to throw in everything including the kitchen sink. We even get the return of the Titanic Three. I suppose some of it's unavoidable; he had to finish off the Scarlet Witch sub-plot that'd been rumbling on for several issues, in order that the Vision and the Witch could get married. Hence we need the intrusive and unwelcome Dormammu sub-plot that, apart from making Dormammu look feeble, really feels like it belongs in a different issue altogether.

Of course, the question has to be asked why did the Vision and the Witch have to be married this issue anyway? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have a later tale devoted to their wedding rather than having what should be a major event squeezed into Mantis' wedding story?

The multiple Kangs really do feel like overfilling the bucket, as does the arrival of the Space Phantom. By the point that he shows up, you're feeling it wouldn't be a surprise if even the Living Eraser put in an appearance.

I also wonder just how valid the Vision and Scarlet Witch's marriage is. I'm no expert on American law but does a wedding overseen by "the King of Limbo" really have any legal status in the US?

Being the rampant hard-line feminist (grrr) that I am, I also query the fact that, without ever being consulted, Mantis and Moondragon have been raised purely with an eye on them becoming a wife to a tree. You'd have thought it's something they might be a little offended to discover. Instead Moondragon seems offended only that she's not the one who's been chosen.

I also have to wonder about the ethics of Mantis' prospective tree-husband having resurrected and taken possession of the Swordsman's corpse to use as a kind of zombie for its purposes. There is such a thing as respecting the dead.

So, overall it's a disappointing end to the whole thing, with Steve Englehart simply trying to fit too much in for the good of the story, lapses of taste and a terrible art job.

The one thing I do like is the characterisation of Thor, from whom we get a fair bit of internal monologue as he ponders on the nature of mortality, godhood, the passage of time, leadership of the Avengers and no doubt a whole bunch more things I've forgotten about. I don't remember him ever being depicted as so thoughtful in his own mag and it's refreshing to see here.