Avengers #117 (November 1973)

For whatever reason, this particular issue has been tough for me to track down. Finally scored it for about 5 bucks on eBay this week. It's the 3rd part of 1973's big Avengers-Defenders crossover. Sigh...remember when those two teams were Marvel's top sellers? I was barely an embryo.

Borrowing the old Gardner Fox JLA/JSA team-up formula: team members are matched up in pairs, then sent around the globe to recover an artifact--a piece of the Evil Eye, which looks like a pink flashlight. Mild difference is that the pairs are fighting each other. Mystic bad guys Loki and Dormammu have teamed up and manipulated the two teams against each other, by using the Black Knight as the catalyst. This issue features "Swordsman vs. Valkyrie" in Bolivia and "Captain america vs. Sub-Mariner" in Japan.

Swordsman and Valkyrie end up in a re-built German castle in the jungles of Bolivia. Val sneaks in to find the Evil Eye, while Swordsman simply walks up, knocks on the door and meets the castle's owner. The two heroes tussle over the artifact with Swordy appearing to have the edge. Val gets a great line: "Threats? From a man with a pretty moustache?! Suddenly, the castle's owner, a relocated Nazi, shoots Swordy in the back. As a reaction, Swordy stabs and KILLS the guy. Val grabs the fragment and flies away, but only after verifying that paramedics have arrived for Swordsman. In one of those Only in Comics moments, the Bolivian police look and act just like the typical Marvel New York Cops.

Over in Japan, Sub-Mariner and Cap are going at in on the docks. This was the brief period when Cap had super strength, so he's more of a match for Namor. Namor tries to dive into the ocean, but Cap throws his shield and blocks him from hitting the water. Physics dictate that Namor's dive would have continued and he would have made the ocean (but Cap's adamantium shield IS supposed to absorb all impact)..or y'know, he could maybe ROLL OVER by about 3 feet and dive in. But in the next panel we see Namor sitting on top of the shield like it's an inflatable raft. Logic in Comics! Since this is Marvel in the 70's, the two discuss philosophy in the midst of their brawl. In the middle of their fight we also get a Senseless Run-in from Sunfire. Sunfire grabs the Evil eye for a bit, but it eventually ends up in Cap's hands. Cap and Namor realize that they might have been manipulated into this whole "war". They decide to work together and fly off as the story ends.

The fights are nothing noteworthy, but both featured a bizarre run-in. The old Nazi was rather random...as was Swordy KILLING him. The captions brush aside the killing like it's no big deal. Might have been the seeds of a subplot, but Swordsman himself was killed off within the year. Sunfire's appearance feels forced, but he's billed on the cover as a "mystery supervillain". It wasn't until he joined the X-men that he was officially labeled a "superhero"....and even then his exact intentions were ambiguous.

In another trivia note, Hawkeye appears on the splash page, fighting his old foe Iron Man. Hawkeye was actually with the Defenders when this story toook place, so it might be a tad confusing to young bucks. Hawk's Defenders tenure didn't last too long, and I think he was only with them for this story.

The story would flow into "Defenders", then climax in "Avengers" #118 with a big team-up/final battle. It may have been exciting news at the time, but the story hasn't aged well. Good for Avengers for Defenders completionists, but 100% skippable for modern comic fans. Oh yeah, note the title, as that's something you wouldn't find printed today.

Summary: Purple guy with fin on his head fights "Kill the Wabbit" opera chick in a castle. Cap fights a flying Mr. Spock in a speedo. All for pink flashlights.
Cover price: .20
Rating: .75

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