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Episode 1377 Talkback: Spotlight on The Avengers in the Bronze Age Part Two
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Concluding our two-part focus on the Avengers in the 1970s. From the Serpent Crown to the Korvac Saga, from the resurrection of Wonder Man to the mysterious parentage of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, from the induction of the Beast to. . . whatever the hell was going on in Avengers #200, we hit all the major beats of Marvel's flagship super-team title in the latter half of the Decade of Decadence. Wild Pig's Chris Eberle helps us bring home the Bronze in this episode. (1:22:02)
Listen here.
Listen here.
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Matthew
The first time we knew there were other Infinity Gems (though they weren't called that at the time) was in Marvel Team-Up #55, when Spider-Man and Warlock encountered the Gardener, who was in possession of the Time Gem (though it wasn't called that at the time). This addition to the Marvel Mythos was a collaboration between Bill Mantlo and John Byrne.
George Perez, who was still the new kid at Marvel at the time he first took on the Avengers fulltime, was already showing himself to be a workhorse. When he started on the book, he was also drawing the Inhumans, the Fantastic Four, and the Sons Of The Tiger (for Deadly Hands Of Kung-Fu) each month. And it should be noted that it was Perez who began the now honored tradition of drawing all those portraits of the various Avengers members and teams you see hanging on the walls of the Avengers Mansion, a tradition carried on through to this very day (as noted in a recent issue of Uncanny Avengers where Rogue tries to replace one with a portrait of Professor Charles Xavier.)
Korvac first appeared -- oh, well, you already found that one.
The storyline where Steve Englehart took his sudden leave, featuring the bizarre voodoo resurrection of Wonder Man, would actually continue years later when Englehart returned to write the West Coast Avengers. That is, his version would continue, as he picked up the threads he dropped and worked them into the new incarnation of the team.
The Serpent Crown controlled the Squadron Supreme's earth through its thrall: President Nelson Rockefeller! That storyline would have repercussions that would eventually lead in to the classic Squadron Supreme limited series by Mark Gruenwald and Bob Hall a decade later. It also figured in a subsequent story that crossed over into Super-Villain Team-Up for a few issues.
Red Ronin is misspelled on the cover of #198.
I tend to recall Perez as one of those prodigious pencilers who can turn out a lot of very good work in short term, and it always seems that he's had multiple titles out at the same time -- but now that I think further on it, maybe it was only for that brief period when he was first getting started?
The bronze age is where most of my Avengers collection comes from and I enjoyed the Ultron appearances and Gravitron. And Korvac was indeed a WTF moment. I guess this era where it was discussed that this was the Avengers JLA era makes me feel down how the Avengers are no longer seen as the elite of the elite of the Marvel universe. it seems now that everyone can be an Avenger and there are three or four teams. Even the West Coast Avengers didn't bug me because I thought "Well they can't be everywhere" Now they are. And its not going to change anytime soon.
Before the nerve pinch he was very fast. Because of a scheduling problem, he drew that first issue of The Inhumans in one week. After he fully recovered from the nerve pinch, and after Logan’s Run ended, he went back to penciling both Avengers and FF for a few months. For a very brief time in late 1979, he was working on Avengers, JLA, and New Teen Titans, but he felt he couldn’t keep up that pace, so he dropped Avengers for the second time. At some point during the mid-’80s he went back to drawing only one monthly title, though he would usually be working on covers or special projects on the side.
Keep 'em coming, boys!
As for modern appearances of Jocasta, I think her current status is "blowed up real good," but that's happened before, so I'm sure she'll recover from that whenever the next writer down the line feels like reviving her. I've heard good things about how she was used in Avengers Academy, and Dan Slott put her to really good use in his run on Mighty Avengers, where she acted as the majordomo for Hank Pym's Infinite Avengers Mansion. She and Hank also appeared to have a little somethin' somethin' going on the side, which creeped out the other team members.
My vote for the next CGS Spotlight is for "Marvel Cosmic" so we can hear your insights and more factoids on such luminaries as Silver Surfer, Galactus, Thanos and all Infinity related material, Thor, Beta-Ray Bill, Nova, Inhumans, Eternals, The Watcher, Quasar, Kang, Adam Warlock, Killraven, Dark Phoenix, Brood, Celestials, Captain Marvel, Skrull, Kree, Annihilators, Galactic Storm, Secret Wars, Contest of Champions 1 & 2, Fantastic Four, and of course, Guardians of the Galaxy... This is easily a 3 parter waiting to happen.
Still listening but I've just reached the part with Ultron and his "transforming" of Tony Stark.
Tony used the Extremis Virus to "hack" his biology. So he has the nanites living in his bones and he can mentally have them come out of his pores and sheath his body in the armor etc. So when Ultron decided to "hack" Tony Stark's armor he realized the biological components and was able to transform Stark physically. Jocasta has been back. In Academy she was working with Jeremy Briggs (before he was killed, genius kid who could transmute matter). To save the the Mighty Avengers from Ultron (during Siege) she now has to split her time between Earth and being the bride of Ultron (whereever he is).
One of the key parts of this is George Perez. One thing that wasn't mentioned is that when Perez started on the Avengers in the 140's, he was A LOT rougher than his subsequent work - so one of the utter pleasures of his work in this timeperiod is watching him go from an interesting new guy to a superstar talent. It was breathtaking to see how he developed! For me, he really started coming into his own about 18 months later with Avengers 160, when he joined Jim Shooter and we got the Wonderman story, followed by Antman leading into Ultron, and in the background, we got the setup for the upcoming Korvac story. the thing that was maddening though was the inconsistency with which Perez was on the book - after 3 amazing issues in a row, there was George Tuska and then the NEfaria 3-parter with Byrne, which was a solid story, but IIRC, Shooter tabled the Korvac setup in the issues where Perez wasn't the artist, and then brought them back when Perez returned in issue 167 for a Guardians of the Galaxy story and stayed for the next several issues. And he was looking even better than he had in the early 160's issue! Wonderful!! But then he was gone! Ugh. I remember being so disappointed. And when we finally got to the meat of the Korvac story, we got Dave Wenzel?? A perfectly competent artist, but, sorry, no George Perez. i remember thinking how disappointing it was that we didn't have Perez doing the end of the story. I mean it WAS a great story - and like Jamie, I recall that great ending where all the Avengers are sprawled on the ground looking utterly defeated. But no Perez!! Damnit!! Still irritates me decades later. Those Shooter/Perez issues remain among my all time favorite Avengers comics, and comics in general, and the lack of Perez for the Korvac finale one of my all time greatest disappointments (up there with the never-to-be seen Dr. Strange by Frank Miller!).
One other point, on the Wanda/Pietro parents issue, IIRC, the way they did it was, as you guys mentioned, set up that their mother was Magda, and left the father a mystery. But if you were reading FF at the same time, Byrne dropped the seemingly unrelated point of who Magda's husband/lover was (I'm being discreet here, but is this really a spoiler that needs to be protected?? lol). If you were reading either book without the other, you didn't have the answer. But if you read it together, you knew! I always thought that was pretty cool. And they didn't come back to this point for several years - but it was out there.
Anyway, as I mentioned - great stuff overall - and great podcast.
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L nny
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L nny
Turns out, Marvel changed the story of Avengers #200 thanks to an issue of What If...? that strayed too close to the storyline Michelinie was crafting.
http://marvel.wikia.com/X-Men_Vol_1_125
Apparently Magneto's on Asteroid M looking at his own data files and deletes the Magda file because it pains him.
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L nny