Episode 1396 Talkback: Spotlight on The Avengers in the Copper Age
Pants
Posts: 567
Our fiftieth-anniversary Avengers retrospective marches on into the Eighties, with honorary Geek grand-marshal Chris Eberle at the head of the parade. Listen and learn how the Avengers cope with the disgrace and betrayal of founding member Hank Pym; emotional fallout from Avengers #200; new friends and foes stemming from the twisted family heritage of Thanos; the Vision gone haywire; the royal rivalry of Namor and Hercules; and a fateful appearance on Late Night with David Letterman! Plus, the foundation of the West Coast Avengers, and an extended recap of one of the greatest Avengers stories (and THE greatest Masters of Evil story) ever told: 'Under Siege'! (1:56:33)
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Comments
The last place I remember seeing him is at the end of Secret Invasion stealing Luke Cage's baby. But that was Skrull Jarvis, so I'm not sure where real Jarvis was. My hope is he's in England hitting up nannies and servant girls.
I could a write a two issue mini starring Jarvis getting his StoneCold-Butler-Pimp thing on in England living off his Avenger/Stark money. To bring it back to this episode I would even have him wearing an eye-patch (it works for Fury).
If I'm not mistaken, Bill Mantlo and Gene Colan were actually assigned as the regular ongoing team on the book near the beginning of this period, but this was squashed almost immediately by some dissatisfaction on Shooter's part. Mantlo had already been tying some story elements into Iron Man having to do with the Maria Stark Foundation and the robot in the basement known as Arsenal. Shooter took the book and shook it up with the roster change that introduced Tigra to the team. He was also having problems with Colan's unique style of storytelling and had been trying to get him to conform to more standard modes of panel grids (among other things); this was one of the tensions that eventually led to Colan's defection to DC. (I might be a shade off on some details; I'm running on half-remembered details I'd read years ago.)
The first married superheroes of the Silver Age were not Aquaman and Mera, but Hawkman and Hawkgirl who were already married when they first came to Earth from Thanagar. Aquaman married Mera after a whirlwind romance sometime shortly after, however -- and they, in turned, were soon followed into matrimonial bliss by Mento and Elasti Girl from the Doom Patrol. (And, of course, the Richards were somewhere in that period as well.)
The Molecule Man was one of those interesting one-shot villains that peppered the pages of the Fantastic Four during its early years, and was quickly forgotten and not seen again for years. He was initially brought back from obscurity by Len Wein and Steve Gerber in the team-up books, initially as an escapee from the Watcher's prison, and then, later, as his own son! And then back into obscurity until Shooter brought him back and breathed new life into the character.
The Eraser, who made further appearances during the 70's, didn't actually 'erase' people -- his device actually teleported them into his home dimension, where his government were waiting to take the victims as prisoners. Why the device did so in such a bizarre fashion, transmitting portions of a body a piece at a time is unknown (other than that it looked visually cool, especially as done by Jack Kirby). He is totally unrelated to the 60's Batman villain of the same name who apparently really did erase people from sight.
A lot of the Roger Stern era also benefitted from being under the careful and insightful guiding hand of editor Mark Gruenwald, who helmed a lot of the more interesting Marvel titles in the 80's, and deserves at least a portion of credit for their successes.
I'm pretty sure you mentioned this, but, just for the record, the Iron Man who was brought in as a founding member of the West Coast Avengers was Tony Stark's replacement, James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, who had also been present during the Secret Wars. Rhodes was only an active 'whacko' (as Hawkeye referred to them) during the mini-series, after which he returned the role to a recovering Stark, who, in turn, joined the west coast team in a generally non-Alpha role. Rhodes later went on to become War Machine and would return to the team years later, which I'm sure wil be covered in the next segment or two.
The whereabouts of Jarvis -- is a darn good question. I'd thought I'd remembered him being in the first couple of issues of Uncanny Avengers, but a quick check proved that I was mistaken. I can't remember his last appearance, though I do remember him being around during the period that Dr Strange had been a member of the New Avengers, and he and Wong had a constant tension over kitchen privileges. I would guess the current writers have a problem figuring where he would prove most useful, especially given that there are now so many sub-teams with more than one base of operations. I'm going to recheck my copies, because I now have a hunch that he may have been more likely to have shown up in the Avengers Assemble title.
During the earliest portion of the podcast, @Pants asks what the response was from readers back in 1980 to the seminal issue #213 "the Court-Martial of Yellowjacket", so I reached into my far left long-box and pulled out issue #216 (my first guess) to see for myself. It appears the consensus was that it was a fantastic issue, and I agree. Fans gave major props to the team's line-up changes, Yellowjacket's downfall being so realistic (maybe even too 'real' for comics), and offered overall unanimous accolades for Jim Shooter and the direction he was about to take the super team. There truly was truth in advertising on the cover of issue #213 - proclaiming it as destined to become another "Mighty Marvel Milestone".
FWIW: I'm a huge fan of these spotlight episodes guys. I'd like to request that you please, please consider doing one that covers Marvel Cosmic in the near future. @Adam_Murdough has proven time and time again that he is more than capable of handling it solo, though I prefer the roundtable discussions that also include Chris Eberle, @Pants and @JamieD. Thanks again guys!
And then there was the Magician, of whom we shall speak little of.
Jarvis showed up in AvX Versus #6 to fight Toad...LOL
But on a more serious tip I think he showed up in Bendis last few issues of Avengers and maybe a cameo in the recent Young Avengers. I think he's hanging around Avengers tower.
Thank goodness I already have a complete run of all the copper age X-men titles!