#important newsman Sam Reuther

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #150-151: Avengers Assemble!/At Last: The Decision!

August, 1976

That second title is kind of how I felt reading the flashback padded #150.

But lets talk about this cover. It’s okay. It’s everyone running at the screen over a big question mark. Because: who is going to be on the new roster??

Keep wondering, scrubs. Buy next month’s issue.

Yes, I agree smol Vision. That is bullshit.

Its an okay cover though. It’d make a decent poster, plus or minus the ?.

Last time: So bear with me here. I’m dropping a big synopsis all up ins. So Hawkeye ragequit the team which caused a membership opportunity filled by Swordsman and his live-in girlfriend Mantis. Mantis started trying to mack on Vision which caused a tense love rectangle between Swordsman, Mantis, Vision and Scarlet Witch.

Eventually, Mantis was revealed as the Celestial Madonna when Kang kidnapped her to try to forcibly marry her, Swordsman died, Mantis and Vision went on journeys of discovery, and then there was a double marriage between Vision/Scarlet Witch and Mantis/a tree wearing Swordsman’s corpse. Shame it wasn’t multiple trees because then you could have had a copse in a corpse.

Also, Hawkeye rejoined the team.

With Vision and Scarlet Witch on their honeymoon, Mantis on a space honeymoon, and Swordsman dead and also a tree puppet, the Avengers needed to boost their roster.

Moondragon joined from her involvement in the Celestial Madonna Stuff. Wasp and Yellowjacket came back to the team. Beast answered their membership call. Vision and Scarlet Witch came back briefly from their honeymoon and immediately got roped into drama. And Patsy Walker blackmailed her way into accidentally becoming Hellcat on purpose.

Thor and Moondragon went looking for Hawkeye in the Old West because Hawkeye had ragequit the Avengers to go recruit Black Knight in the Crusade Times. There, they watched some cowboys stop a train robbery and then Thor tanked Kang to death.

In the present times, Captain America recruited the rest of the Avengers into investigating Brand with him and discovered some weird cross-universal conspiracy by an eldritch and sapient hat to have corporations control the government. The Squadron Supreme was involved and got their keisters kicked. Also, Thor came back from the Old West and fought a whale man.

Now here we are. Finally ready to settle on that new roster. Who is going to be on it? That’s what the giant question mark wants to know.

We start with Wasp and Yellowjacket returning from their extended hospital stay to find a big ol’ crowd in front of Avengers’ mansion.

They must have heard that this is issue 150. And/or that a new Avengers roster is being decided. But not New Avengers.

As I remarked once upon a time, you wouldn’t get this kind of crowd in modern days Avengers. There’s so many teams that are constantly changing their roster to no applause. Perhaps the Marvel public is jaded at the Avengerses.

The two heroes are immediately accosted by a wild Sam Reuther who wants to know if they’re new Avengers.

Wasp: “New Avenger? We are Avengers.”

But Jarvis lets the two in so that Sam Reuther can continue baseless speculation and time filling. Insert joke about 24-hour news cycle, pause for laughter.

As Jarvis leads them to the meeting room, Wasp frets that she doesn’t know whether Yellowjacket still wants to be an Avenger. But reassures herself that he’ll stay with her.

When everyone is seated at their big table, Thor addresses the Avengers as chairman.

First things first: Iron Man got a new mask. Everyone look at Iron Man’s new mask. Notice how it doesn’t have an iron nose anymore. Stan Lee giveth and taketh away.

But there is equally important news:

Thor: “I do hereby call this meeting to order! Avengers, ‘tis a momentous decision we be called upon to make this day! We have sought out new Avengers -- and now, we must needs choose who we shall be in the days ahead! Our choice will affect our honor, our fortunes -- mayhap our very lives! And yet, to commence our deliberations... I am forced to announce my leave of absence.”

DUN DUN DUNNN

We take a break from that drama bomb to let Sam Reuther recap how the Avengers formed in issue #1. That reminds me of the time I recapped issue #1... ~flashback wiggle~

And now back to the Avengers reacting to Thor quitting the team, rage-situation ambiguous.

Wasp even protests that while she and Yellowjacket have come and gone, Thor is one of the mainstays of the team!

So Thor spells out the epiphany he recently had. About being nearly as powerful as the whole rest of the team put together. About being a ““big fish in a small pond.”” And how he suspects that he has remained on the team out of vanity, being aggrieved that the team has done fine in his absence.

He’ll be there if the Avengers need him but for now he has to do his own thing. And he asks Iron Man to stay on the team as a seasoned hand and also the interim chairman until proper elections can be held.

Hellcat, aka Patsy Walker or vice versa, is getting pretty hype despite Thor quitting. She is absolutely sure that the Avengers are going to ask her to stay on and she is DEFINITELY going to become an Avenger. Like holy shit yes. Live the dream.

Beast is less than thrilled. I think he’s slowly realized that the pity ride-along he tossed her way is going to result in someone even more fun-loving than him joining the team. THREATENING HIS ROLE AS THE FUN PERSON.

He is glum.

Now its Iron Man’s time to give a little speech.

Iron Man: “Uh... well, I guess we’ll just keep going like we were. I’ve sat in on plenty of Tony Stark’s board meetings, but this is all very unexpected! I’m sure we all respect Thor’s decision -- and, as has been said many times, ‘once an Avenger, always an Avenger.’ Still, as a friend I can’t help but wish that nobody’d put this idea in his head.”

He says, while Moondragon takes up the majority of the foreground.

Also, that sat in on board meetings thing verges on protesting too hard. And also seems like a loose thread that someone could pull if they actually cared about who Iron Man was. Like, if one of the Avengers asked anyone else in on the board meetings whether Iron Man and Tony Stark are ever in the same place at the same time.

Although that’s being a bit too pedantic, probably.

Anyway, Iron Man asks Captain America if he’ll rejoin the Avengers for official. I mean, they had such a good time teaming up recently. Right?

We don’t learn his answer this time. Because the next page Sam Reuther continues recapping, this time various points of early Avengers history such as finding Cap, Hulk quitting the team, Wonder Man betraying and then saving the team and then dying, and the change of roster that led to the Kooky Quartet.

And then, no joke, the last twelve pages of the comic are just reprinted pages from Avengers #16.

And I’m not recapping that again. Here’s the link for that post. Now you know what happens in the rest of this issue.

Not counting the cover, there are only six pages of new content in this issue. Of which, two are just recaps of previous issues. The rest of this issue is a reprint.

It’d be one thing if pages were reprinted to serve some kind of point that the recap was making. But it’s just an entire swath of a previous issue.

Which contributes to the narrative that Englehart was replaced as writer because of problems meeting his deadlines.

This is his last issue as the writer on Avengers. Afterward he gets replaced by Gerry Conway. Although I’m showing on marvel wikia that Englehart still gets writing credits until #153 so I guess ideas of his were used until Conway decided on his own direction.

So I’m not sure how much of what is to follow falls on Englehart versus Conway and Jim Shooter who also gets a writing credit on #151, implying a haphazard writer changeover.

Anyway, lets press on and find out what team we end up with!

September, 1976

America wants you! To read this dang issue.

Fine, America. FINE.

Again, a perfectly decent cover. Catches the attention, which a change-up should do.

Also Thor looks like he’s about to cry. It’s hard leaving your friends to go find yourself.

We pick back up and Sam Reuther is still recapping Avengers. And somehow getting images to appear behind him despite filming live. That’s the magic of television.

And we get Ben Grimm, in his Thing exoskeleton phase (Fantastic Four gets weird) watching the news. He dismisses the change in roster just a public relations bit.

Why, the Fantastic Four would never change its membership all the time! The very idea that for example, Medusa, Thundra, and Power Man would join the Fantastic Four is... dang.

Ben begrudgingly becomes interested in the news.

Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Cap finally answers Iron Man’s question from last time.

He’ll rejoin the team. Because dernit he’s a man drawn to his roots and his roots in this era are with the Avengers!

Iron Man then asks Vision and Scarlet Witch if they’re sticking on the team. They did cut their honeymoon short for this.

But Scarlet Witch interjects, asking whether Hawkeye will be rejoining.

And then the narrative interjects, taking us to Robert Frank, once the Whizzer, and his crappy apartment.

He’s had a tough time recently. Remember in Giant-Size Avengers #1, he learned that his son had become a rampaging nuclear monster.

And then he overhears speculation on the news that Scarlet Witch might leave the Avengers and he overreacts, yelling that she can’t leave him after he’s done so much and come so far and in the end it didn’t even matter.

Although, in fairness, Quicksilver quit the Avengers to live in a secret city. He has reason to worry, I guess.

Anyway, Sam Reuther has been narrating this whole time about how when the Kooky Quartet started, everyone was worried. Because now the Avengers were 3/4 crooks. And also less powerful than previous teams. But dern if they didn’t prove themselves just as capable and such!

Back inside the mansion, Thor explains that Hawkeye is going to be hanging around the Current West, living out his cowboy fantasies with Two-Gun Kid.

But the both of them will help out if needed. Consider it “detached service.”

With that reassurance, both Vision and Scarlet Witch happily rejoin the team.

As does Wasp, skipping ahead because eh protocol is for people who aren’t Janet Van Dyne. She’s been laid up in the hospital. She craves action as the Winsome Wasp.

And then Sam Reuther dumps on Hank Pym and Hawkeye in one smooth page o’ recap. He calls Hank Pym “the most confusing Avenger of all” due to his frequent power, costume, and codename switch-ups. Also I choose to believe he makes fun of Hawkeye’s no pants, no underwear costume.

Meanwhile, a mysterious figure rages as he watches Sam Reuther recap the Avengers on the news. Because Sam Reuther mentioned that Wasp loves Yellowjacket and SHE’LL REGRET CHOOSING HIM OVER MYSTERIOUS FIGURE OH YES MYSTERIOUS FIGURE SURE SWEARS IT!

A gritty general tells Mysterious Figure that he needs to work on his self-control and curb his ferocity. But telling an emotional person yelling at the tv to calm down has never been anything but counterproductive.

Back at the mansion, Yellowjacket decides...

NOT to rejoin the team.

He just wants to be a scientist and do scientist stuff. And maybe some superheroing on the side. Maybe he’ll join the Defenders where nobody expects anything much of you...

and he sadly walks out of the room while Sam Reuther begins to talk about all the people who didn’t become Avengers like Spider-Man, Namor, Daredevil and then about the cooler ones that did become Avengers like Hercules, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, and Vision.

And I guess Sam Reuther knows Vision’s backstory because he mentions he has the brain patterns of the dead deceased Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man.

You know too much, Sam Reuther.

And then we check in on the Champions, because Sam Reuther just mentioned two of them. And because its good to check in on the Champions sometimes, if only to remind yourself that the Champions existed and only due to the capricious whims of editorial.

Iceman and Angel get nostalgic about their time as the original X-Men and how Hank is an Avenger now.

And Hercules and Black Widow both reflect on their time with the team, coming when both were strangers in a strange land.

Black Widow’s Avengers membership at this point is extremely tentative so its weird that she has such fond memories about it. But the grass looks greener as you glance over your shoulder. Or something?

Meanwhile, Moondragon is up.

And she too turns down a position on the team. It’d be hypocritical to drive Thor off the team for slumming and then hang around herself. Plus, she wanted to learn more of Earth ways and she has come to realize that the Avengers are too constraining.

Even so, the Avengers have showed her great kindness when they weren’t fighting over her like a piece of meat and she respects them, for some reason. If they meet again, it will be as allies.

A decision that has Iron Man thinking “who the heck does she think she is?” and “thank goodness for small favors, eh?” at the same time. Thank goodness she’s not sticking around but ugh how dare she think she better than the Avengers.

But like I’ve been constantly alluding to, Iron Man would regret bringing her onto the team. I wonder how much of what she’s done is payback for Thor and Iron Man being such jerks about her.

But that brings us to Beast. And Beast immediately accepts. And flips out of his chair. Which seems to aggravate Thor. Or surprise him. Its hard to say. Thor is sometimes drawn so that the only emotion he seems to have is anger.

Wasp immediately objects. Not to Beast! He seems fine! But doesn’t the team seem like its getting crowded? I mean, you have Iron Man, Captain America, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Yellowjacket and now Beast? Why, that’s six people! That’s so many people!

Okay, yeah, she just wants to make sure that there’s still room on the team for when she convinces Hank (Pym) to change his mind. Kind of rude to Beast though, Wasp.

Anyway, Hellcat is now under consideration. And she looks THRILLED.

And now for another Sam Reuther interruption. As he recaps women in the Avengers. But he calls them ‘females.’ The legacy of Stan, maybe.

Anyway again. Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat, has only been on the one mission. And she did try to blackmail an Avenger. And her origin story is ‘oh cool a free supersuit.’ But on the other hand, she’s pretty rad. Pulled her weight during that Crisis on Other Earth.

So Iron Man definitely extends an Avengers invitation to her.

And Patsy obviously accepts. I mean, come on. What could possibly stop her?

Moondragon. Moondragon is what could possibly stop her.

Moondragon tells her that she has no training or experience (which in fairness, true) so she musn’t join the Avengers yet. Instead, she will come with Moondragon on Moondragon’s Fun Trip Exploring The World and Moondragon will train her.

No! They’ll train each other. Moondragon will teach her superhumanity and Hellcat will teach her... humanity.

Dammit Moondragon, this is why you’re the worst Avenger.

It’s only funny to me that she joined the Avengers, convinced Thor to quit, and then quit herself. And I don’t even think she was wrong not to stick around. With the benefit of a reread, there was a hells uncomfortable workplace environment going on. But she is the one element that stopped an amazing run of Patsy Walker being an Avenger.

And it would have not been super great. This was the Avengers in the 70s. Their gender politics are not great. See also: Patsy Walker dismissing the idea of being a womens libber. But Patsy Walker on the Avengers!

maybe then she wouldn’t have met Daimon Hellstrom, married him, and then later committed suicide under his demonic influence ;___;

Anyway, I say Moondragon is to blame. But really its either Englehart, Conway, Shooter or any combination thereof who just used Moondragon to keep Hellcat out of the Avengers for some unknown, dumb reason.

I do have a headcanon about it though.

Moondragon is, at this point, a closeted lesbian. Maybe she just likes Patsy, despite them interacting a grand total of almost never up until this point. Just likes her and wants to spend time teaching her to kick ass and learning how to be... human.

Although since its Moondragon and she is almost as callous as an X-Men regarding psychic powers, she almost certainly influenced Patsy to agree to give up on her dream that has been her single most powerful motivating factor in these comics.

Moondragon, that is Not Cool.

Oh. And consolation prize. Yellowjacket changed his mind. He went off-screen to sulk. Wasp didn’t go running after him so he came running back to her. Yay.

Also: Avenging is in his blood, yo. That and a strange microbe that made him almost die.

Thor suggests applying the “detached service” thinger to Yellowjacket too. Give him more labtime. Make his Avenging more flexible. And hell, lets just give “detached service” to Moondragon and Hellcat too!

Consolation prizes all around!

Moondragon prays that the Avengers never get in such dire straights that they need her power to save them. As does Iron Man. Except in a more insulting way. He’s had unkind thoughts throughout.

And Beast wishes Patsy luck and makes me miss what their dynamic could have been had she stayed. Although I imagine it would have been as a comedy duo with Beast and someone is already slated for that.

So Thor hammerwhirls himself, Moondragon, and Hellcat away. And the new team (mostly comprised of old members. Like seriously. This new roster is Iron Guy Who Is Always On The Team, Captain Frequently On The Team, Wasp, Man Of Many Names Who Is Always On The Team, Scarlet Witch Has Been On Team More Than Iron Man, robot husbando, and new challenger Beast. Was the idea to get back to basics? Plus Beast?) goes out to the waiting crowd to announce themselves.

And of course give the big: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE for the cameras.

They're so busy working the crowd that they don’t notice the giant crate that was delivered for them.

At least until it CREEAAAKKs.

And then with a CRRRASHH! Wonder Man punches his way out of the crate. And noticably shaky and slumped (like some manner of... living dead), he points at Vision.

And accuses him. Of being the one that stole his mind.

So. That’s going to be a thing.

And okay. New roster. Which isn’t very new but whatever. It has Wasp. It has Scarlet Witch and Vision. It has Beast. It could stand to have a Hellcat but the world isn’t perfect.

What did I think? Well, I’ve been pretty open about it.

I have to reiterate because of the shaky transition from Englehart to Conway, its hard to know who is responsible for what. Englehart brought Patsy Walker into the book and made her a superheroine. Did he do that only to shuffle her immediately off the book? What about Moondragon? Was her scant role on the team after the Celestial Madonna Saga solely to badger Thor until he quit the team?

Was it Conway and Shooter who decided to enforce a back to basics approach with the new roster? Was Englehart taken off the book because of a problem meeting deadlines as implied in this letters column apologia?

Englehart insists that he wasn’t late getting #150 in on time. So was it creative differences?

The way that #150 just cuts off halfway for a reprint, right before anything was decided about the new roster except Thor gone, Iron Man to remain, makes things hazy.

But whatever. Lets just say there were more interesting ways this roster could have gone. And then see where things go from here.

So Wonder Man. Back from the dead. Huh. Wonder where Conway is going with that?

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