Invaders Annual #1 (1977)

“Okay Axis, Here We Come!”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Frank Robbins, Frank Springer, Alex Schomburg, Don Rico, Lee Elias

It’s another FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL featuring– oh golly– the Invaders. Basically, somebody fell in love with the forgotten, pre-1960’s “Timely Comics” and wanted to shine a spotlight on them. You can probably blame Avengers #4 and the return of Captain America for undoing this Pandora’s Box. Fans and creators were intrigued by these old timey stories and wanted to know more about them. Actual copies of the “Timely” Golden Age comics were few and far between– partially due to the fact that very few people “collected” comics in the 40’s– and if you did see one, it was like stumbling across a Stegosaurus fossil. So fans would often write in to Marvel, pining for additional peeks into this seldom-seen era.

Marvel responded by first running reprints of this old stuff; mostly the (usually awful) Sub-Mariner and Human Torch stories in their anthology books. Yet the tone of these was very different from what modern fans were used to, so it was really just an appetizer when fans wanted a full-course meal. Marvel began to sneak them into their modern stories, starting in “Avengers #71” when Captain America, the (original) Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner made an appearance to fight the Avengers, courtesy of the Grandmaster. Still, fans (and, mostly, writer and admitted comic nostalgia buff Roy Thomas) wanted more.

In 1975, the Invaders got their own book. The title was an exercise in ret-conning that wove new stories in the familiar setting of World War II. The team name itself, while not necessarily sounding heroic, was one of the original names tossed around in the early 70’s for what would become the Defenders. Someone thought the name sounded COOL (again, I’m looking at Thomas), so here it was as part of Marvel team-craze of the mid-70’s.

Now, when I originally had plans for doing this article, I wanted to start with “Giant-Size Invaders #1” or even “Invaders #1”. I’ve already done some regular size and GIANT-SIZED first issues… but a KING SIZE issue?! Whoa, better call the fire department cuz’ my comic nerd libido is now blazing! KING SIZE! Look the frick out!

It also helped that this issue has some truly bizarre story-telling and plots twists. It’s also something of a book-end to the Invaders’ actual first appearance; as an un-named team; in Avengers #71.

Dammit…let me finally get to babbling about this book! In 1942, the main Invaders are called to their secret location in London’s Big Ben for a Special Mission. The Invaders’ Allied liasons, the British Major Rawlings and the American Colonel Farrow, only need the three main Invaders; they could care less about Spitfire, Union Jack, Bucky and Toro. The big deal is that three old timey throwaway villains have joined up with the EVIL Axis: the Hyena, the Shark and Agent Axis. They all had short encounters with the Torch, Sub-Mariner and Cap, respectively. The heroes fly off to fight them in the tried and true method of comic book chapters. The creators have some fun with this, as each individual chapter is drawn by an actual old timey artist; all who have come out of retirement. So that’s kinda’ nice… but then the plot begins.

The Torch meets the Hyena in upstate New York and gets subdued by flying in a big tub of water. Curses! Shoulda’ seen that coming! I’m a little amazed that Hyena didn’t try the old Wile E. Coyote trick of pulling a painting over a stone wall to make it resemble a tunnel.

Cap duels with Agent Axis on top of the Statue of Liberty. We get a flashback where it turns out Axis is actually three people: an Italian, a German and a Japanese who were merged into one by a freak lightning bolt. Axis apparently has the super power of Annoyance, as he spouts single words in three different languages (plus English). In a VERY forced manner, Axis has Cap’s old triangular shield and temporarily swaps it with him.

The third chapter involves Namor the Sub-Mariner chasing the Shark. Shark gets the best of Namor with an electrified torpedo and renders him unconscious. When Namor wakes up, he’s astonished to see that Shark has removed his swim trunks and placed a black pair on him! Yes, Shark just de-pantsed Namor…. the villain caught the hero then TOOK OFF THE HERO’s PANTS and chained him up.

Weirder, is that Shark then flies Namor’s pants as the flag of his ship.

As strange as it may seem, there is a motive behind the villains’ schemes. To help the Axis and the EVIL Adolf Hitler, they were trying to acquire certain things from each Invader. Hyena wanted a sample of Torch’s blood, since an earlier transfusion had created Spitfire and the Axis wanted to create their own super speedsters. Agent Axis wanted Cap’s shield because…it’s Cap’s shield! But, uh, why did Shark want Namor’s pants?! Well, it’s explained that Namor’s trunks were pressurized, so the Axis wanted to apply its qualities to an army of frogmen suits. Still… why fly the trunks as a flag? And Shark just happened to have a spare pair of drawers that fit Namor? Damn, that’s creepy.

All three heroes suddenly disappear from their captors. It’s a deux ex machina of the Grandmaster that brings them into Avengers #71, where they fight the Black Panther, Yellowjacket and the Vision. In Paris, no less. It’s the usual Super Hero Misunderstanding, but the Avengers get the win in this 6-man tag team tornado bout. All six guys are able to figure things out and Yellowjacket comes clean about being from the future. As they disappear again, Cap hopes he’ll still be around in 30 or 40 years, since being an Avenger sounds kinda’ fun.

The Invaders return to 1942 and easily take out their foes. Cap and Namor get their stuff back… and it seems this whole story was just a way to avoid a potential “No-Prize request” from a trivia-obsessed reader. Thus the forced plot elements of Cap swapping his shield and Namor losing his trunks. What? Was somebody really concerned that a fan might call bullshit on Namor’s black trunks?! Eight years after the fact?!

It was certainly a nice gesture to bring back the old artists as we’ve got an “art jam”. Even though it’s more cartoonish, I actually like the old codgers’ work better than the regular Invaders art squad of Frank Robbins and Frank Springer. Especially Alex Schomburg who turns in a nice effort on his Human Torch chapter. You also have to love how the Axis charcters are always depicted as purely EVIL with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. This was a common theme that was repeated throughout the entire series. It’s especially funny how Hitler was always drawn like a slobbering loon and written like a complete imbecile.

Invaders, as a concept and ongoing title, sounded cool. Yet, the stories were usually disjointed shlop that liberally ret-conned elements and tried to force in waaaaay too much. It’s like they tried to work twice as hard to connect old Golden Age stories that were only half as long; or characters that were even less significant. You can sense a bit of Thomas’ enthusiasm and overall love of comics, though. “Continuity” used to be a big thing for fans, but Thomas seemed to go out of his way in “Invaders” to make even the smallest minutiae matter. He’d be back to try this again… in 1981 at DC with “All-Star Squadron”. I hope it doesn’t seem like I’m ragging on the guy, because there are probably about 400+ Thomas-written comics that I dig. In one of those Stupid FanBoy Stories That Anybody Not-Named-Me Couldn’t Care Less About: I briefly met him in San Diego in 2008 and told him thanks for the hours of enjoyment he had provided me.

Invaders, the title, lasted about 44 issues with several relaunches that continue to this day. I haven’t read every single Invaders book, but the only one I really enjoyed was “Avengers/Invaders” from a few years back. I also kinda’ liked the short-lived 2004 series as sort of a black ops team, which I may get around to reviewing, some day (after I write about all the other junk in my head, re-design this Crappy Website, start my own company, watch all 6 seasons of “Dexter”, become fluent in Spanish and build my own hovercraft).

Like I said, the Invaders may sound COOL… but their original series is something of a mess.

Summary: Roy Thomas tries REALLY hard to make old Marvel stories relevant. Namor gets de-pansted. Time warp stuff to tie-in to Avengers #71
Cover Price: 0.50
Rating: 0.50 (Hey! The cover price accurately displays the “value”.)