Avengers #11 (December 1964)
"The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man!"
Writer: Stan Lee
Pencils: Don Heck
Inks: Chic Stone

"Avengers" has always been one of my favorite Marvel titles. Aside from reviving Captain America in issue 4, early Avengers comics were pretty ordinary by Marvel standards. Everyone knows how the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man came to be... but it takes a true geek to know how the Avengers formed. It seemed like "Avengers" was the dumping ground for strange concepts that didn't make it into the first tier Mavel books. How else can you explain the forgettable stories with the Space Phantom, Lava Men and even Wonder Man? Considering that the team's members all had their own books, it's a legitimate theory.

This story is titled "The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man". It may shock you, but the title gives away half of the plot, right there. Now, very few stories with the title of "X meets Y" or "X vs. Y" have made it into the realm of "classic". Think: "Gamera vs. Gaos" or "Jason vs. Freddy". Although "Three Stooges Meet Hercules" might counter that point. So how does this one stack up?

Our story opens with the Avengers being called to a meeting. The only issue they're discussing is the absence of Iron Man. Tony Stark, Iron Man's alter ego was "killed" in "Tales of Suspense"...so Iron Man's preoccupied. The Avengers decide to grant Iron Man a temporary leave of absence. The meeting lasts all of five minutes, and you have to wonder if that's the ONLY requirement for the position of "Avenger": Show up for ONE five minute meeting once a week. Oh, and speak in corny dialogue.

Elsewhere/elsewhen, the time traveling Kang the Conqueror is still stewing over his defeat by the Avengers from issue 8. He's been tracking the Avengers ever since, and has catalogued the failed attacks by the Masters of Evil. He notes how the Masters attempted to use Wonder Man to defeat the Avengers, but were betrayed by Wondy. Kang surmises that he should build a loyal robot to defeat the Avengers...one in the form of Spider-Man. Kang's been studying Spidey as well and quickly makes a robotic duplicate. Like all good villains, Kang talks to himself and announces that Spider-Man's most important weapon is "his maginificent webbing". I dunno, I would have said the old standby of "proportionate strength, speed and agility of a spider", or even "spider-sense"...but who am I to argue with a pink-faced nut wearing thigh-high purple boots? Kang sends his Spidey-bot to the present, where he helps Captain America catch some thugs. "Spidey" wants to join the Avengers and offers to lead the Avengers to the missing Iron Man. "Spidey" tells the crew that Iron Man's at the Temple of Tirod in Mexico. Being impressionable dolts, the Avengers agree and all depart, one-by one to the Temple (this was the days before the Quinjets). Cap gets off the early Avengers fight call; "Avengers, Awaaay"(or maybe it had FOUR "a's"...I dunno).

The Avengers all arrive at the temple, individually, and are defeated by the Spidey-bot. Spidey-bot defeats Giant-man by tying his hands together with "elasticized webbing". Wasp is simply caught in a big web bucket. Thor arrives and has his hammer trapped in another web-bag. Thor is also webbed up, and within 60 seconds, reverts to Don Blake. Nevermind that in previous issues, Thor's hammer could create dimensional rifts, transport entie buildings and make popcorn...here it's rendered helpless by sticky stuff! Captain America then parachutes in and knocked off the top of the Temple by the Spidey-bot. Something unexpected happens- Cap doesn't hit the ground and is saved by a webbed hammock!? Kang, monitoring the whole thing, suspects that his robot has a few fried circuits. He orders the Spidey-bot to immediately activate a time machine to send the Avengers into the Kang's future. Kang also announces that he had stocked the temple with an "odorless nerve gas which dulled the fighting effectiveness of ALL of them". In other words, ol' Smilin Stan decided that the Avengers had appeared a little TOO weak.

Turns out, Cap was saved by the REAL Spider-Man. The real Spidey attacks the robot and the two even go into a mid-air melee by making webbed wings. Weird... I know Spidey would occassionally make parachutes and stuff, but sometimes when backed into a plot conundrum, the writers would make his web shooters resemble Green Lantern's ring. In other words, the web-shooters could construct any object. Anyways, Spidey defeats the robot by.... hitting the "off" button! Yes, the off button.. that's not an exaggeration. Spidey makes a web-balloon and floats away. Cap saw the whole thing and the Avengers regroup and fill in the pieces. They decide that "we have only ONE foe who capable of creating so perfect a robot.... Kang!" Thor bellows out a hilarious threat: "Hear me, man of the future! The Avengers have been warned! Next time we shall not be taken unaware!" Pretty ridiculous... I mean, it could have been a new villain they hadn't seen before.. but that's splitting hairs. The story quickly ends and we see Kang make like Cobra Commander as he smashes his computer console.

The Avengers didn't bother to catch up to Spidey and make peace with him, or dispose of the Spidey-bot. You could fill-in the blanks and assume Kane transported his construct back home. However, I remember an issue of "Spider-Man Team-up" from around 1996 with Spidey and the Avengers. A sequel 30 years in the making, it was even more convoluted than THIS yarn. I think it involved the Spidey Clone, "Teen" Iron Man, the orange/pink version of the Wasp and "five o clock" shadow Giant-Man. I also want to say that it discreditted Kang as the mastermind behind this original plot. I'll have to dig into the Bowels of ES-Land and look it up, someday.

Finally, there's an editorial blurb in the letters page. Stan Lee comes out and says that this wasn't the ORIGINAL ending. Originally, the Avengers were supposed to battle just the robot... no inclusion of the REAL Spidey. They felt like they would be ripping off the readers, so they re-wrote the ending to have Spidey make the save. That explains how Spider-Man suddenly appears, with no explanation. It needs some type of explanation-- I mean WHY would Peter Parker be in Mexico? On a whim? Furthermore, HOW did the eternally broke Spidey get to Mexico? I guess it's just Logic in Comics! Oh yeah...and WHY was Mexico the locale? The temple wasn't THAT spiffy...it could have easily been the old "skyscraper designated for demolition", or Central Park. I assume they wanted to add a little globetrotting to the tale, is all.

The first few pages have ALOT of dialogue crammed into them. We're talking about 200 words per page! You also get a BONUS Pin-up of Kang! Rarrr...a pin-up! Saucy! There're some fun ads as well- like "Get Ahead! Be an Auto Mechanic!", "You can have a He-Man Voice" and the Hypno-Coin! Dammit.. I miss those self-improvement comic ads. Nowadays we just get crap like "Corn Nuts" and "X-box". Never a way to learn judo or become a magician!

I'd rate this at 1.00. I'd recommend it for Avengers fans only. And then, only the diehards or completionists. Spidey fans could survive without this in their collection. This book checks in around the 40-50 dollar price range, but you can get a decent copy on eBay for around 20-30.

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