Blaugust Day 18 – Avengers Fighting Avengers

Avengers Annual #2

Summary from Comixology – The new Avengers take on the original Avengers! It’s a time-travel battle for the ages that involves two teams of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. And what part does Dr. Doom play in this battle of the Avengers?

Characters:

Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Goliath, Wasp
Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Wasp
Scarlet Centurion
Nearly everyone else in the Marvel Universe shows up though.

Published: September 1968 by Marvel

Creators:

Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencilers: Don Heck and Werner Roth
Cover Artists: John Buscema, Frank Giancoia, Sam Rosen
Inkers: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee

This issue is larger than normal books because it contains a larger than life cast of heroes. Both the current Avengers and the originals met up in confrontational circumstances to fight for the future of the world.

In the first part, “…And Time, The Rushing River…”, Captain America and the current team return from their time traveling exploits back to WWII to find things are not the same as when they left. There's a different cast of Avengers in their headquarters and when the two teams met up, the result is explosive.

While the current crew escapes to a subway to figure out what's going on, we watch Thor and the old gang talk to the Scarlet Centurion who turns out to be the big bad in this issue. Anyway, this guy tells the originals that the new guys are evil and since they know the Centurion from previous encounters, they believe him.

The current team figures out they need to use something called the Herodotron, which records all history, to find out what happened. They learn the Scarlet Centurion has bribed the original Avengers with promises of world peace and the eradication of famine and disease. The only catch is that they must get rid of all the other super-powered beings in the world.

What follows is a montage of Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Giant-Man and Wasp taking down almost all the Marvel heroes and villains. A pretty impressive accomplishment, but they did kinda have surprise and were kinda aggro about it. Once they 'win' they stop science research and pretty much become dictators of this new 'utopia' to prevent any new powered being from popping up.

With the current Avengers showing up, the Centurion points out that they are the last who stand in the way of peace, but Cap and the team have a plan. Get the time machine from last issue back in working condition and use it to correct the time stream.

So there ends the first part. Part 2 focuses on getting the time machine back together. Hawkeye and Black Panther manage to defeat Hulk and Iron Man because they have superior knowledge of their opponent's weaknesses. Captain America defeats Thor by keeping him away from his hammer (I didn't know Thor had to touch his hammer every 60 seconds to remain a god). And Goliath and Wasp defeat themselves because… they knew themselves.

The team gets the time machine back together and in doing so, the Scarlet Centurion reveals that he was behind Captain America's desire to check if Bucky lived (last issue). He also caused Wasp to sleep making the time stream screwy so the current team would be out of place timewise. But the final joke was on the Centurion as the Avengers reset time and zap him into the far future.

Then someone who I think is pretty important in the Marvel Universe shows up, the Watcher, and explains the Scarlet Centurion was Rama Tut in the past and they sent him 4000 years in the future where he becomes Kang the Conquerer. Kinda a bit complicated but it ties a bunch of Marvel continuity things together.

In any case, the time stream is set back to normal and the current Avengers go back to their mansion after they save the day.

So much stuff happens in this comic. Everyone shows up even if it is just to get defeated by the original Avengers. The art seems pretty similar to what the previous couple of issues were like, but since so much was happening it was harder to get a feel for emotion as much as the previous issue did with Cap feeling anguish over Bucky's death.

I think my main take away from this issue is that knowledge is important to these superhero fights. Since the current Avengers knew the weaknesses of the originals, they were able to overcome them eventually. Also always be wary of anyone offering solutions to disease and famine or saying they'll create world peace.

I think this issue even more than the last gives me an indication of the complexity of the Marvel continuity. The fact that the Scarlet Centurion shows up later as Kang the Conquerer (I've heard of him but don't know anything about him) shows how closely tied things can get. And while this issue didn't provide much insight into Ultron, it did help me understand the Marvel Universe a bit more.

You can pick up a digital copy,of this comic at Comixology or Marvel Unlimited

It's still not too late to join Blaugust – just go to the initiative page at Tales of the Aggronaut or take a look at the Blaugust Nook on Anook.

Morning Ramble #42 | Blaugust Day 18

#Avengers #Comics