Avengers #1 (1963)

“The Coming of the Avengers”

Writer: Stan Lee

Pencils: Jack Kirby

Been catching up on all the “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoons via YouTube and what not. This possessed me to take my “Avengers Masterworks” into the shitter with me, yesterday. For the first time in about 20 years, I read the original “Avengers #1”.

Damn…it may have been the worst Avengers story ever published. The main plot revolves around Loki trying to create a menace big enough so that Don Blake will turn into Thor. Loki apparently hasn’t been reading his “Journey into Mystery”, since he would’ve laughed at some of the instances that caused Blake to tap his cane and switch into Thor. Instead of, say, dropping a safe on someone in Blake’s hospital in NYC, Loki does the logical thing: he decides to frame the Hulk for a trainwreck– way out in the “Southwest”.

That sorta’ works, since Rick Jones knows that the Hulk’s misunderstood. He tries to contact the Fantastic Four for help, but instead Loki messes with the radio waves and it gets picked up by Blake, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

So everyone arrives in “the Southwest” (depicted as possibly San Antonio on a shitty map) and begins fighting the Hulk. But in the meantime, Hulk’s joined a circus, convincing them that he’s a super-strong robot. Riiiiight. Sure, you see a lot of strange crap in 60’s comics, but the Hulk convincing someone that he’s a big green robot and then getting hired for said role is pretty damn bizarre. This little sequence has gotten a lot of chuckles from Marvel and its fans over the years. Yet it’s even funnier that at one time, this was a perfectly acceptable flow to a story.

Of course, I find it even funnier that the Hulkster appears to be juggling a seal.

Marvel’s been putting out a lot of comic book/action figure packs as of late. If they do one for “Avengers #1” and included a Clown Hulk….well, I know I’ll be out of 14 bucks, right there.

Anyways, Thor disappears to Asgard to tussle with Loki. So the majority of the book is Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp chasing the Hulk. In the end, they manage to trap Loki in a lead-lined vault (presumably up in Detroit, MI) and decide to work together.

The art’s awful and seems rushed. The cover is even worse and it seem like not much thought was put into it. The layout and espeically the typography seem slapped together. The story sets out to establish an alternative to the FF and it’s just as mish-mashed as the cast. Wasp seems infatuated with Thor and some of the Hulk’s antics defy even comic book physics (for instance, he’s in mid-air, but suddenly stops and propels himself self even HARDER into the sky). But it’s interesting to note that Loki is trapped on the “Island of Silence”… just as he was in the new cartoon series. Although here he can actually TALK on the “Island of Silence”.

This story is only noteworthy for its historical significance. Bad plot, bad characters and bad action make it a true bomb. It’s amazing that the Avengers went on to become such a cornerstone of Marvel after such an awful start. If issue 4 hadn’t brought Captain America, it’s possible the book might not have lasted.

In short, if you’re jones-ing for some old Avengers yarns, you’re better off tracking down the new cartoons. They have some goofy slam/bang Short Attention Span antics, but they touch on all the key points of the Avengers and even enhance them in some places.

Summary:

Everyone chases the Hulk. Thor’s magic hammer comes into play. Stuff happens.

Cover price:.12
Rating: .20