cover art by John Buscema
(with alterations by John Romita)
Avengers Annual #1 (1967), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Don Heck, was epic. It's even--on its own--made me a fan of Heck's art. I had always thought of his work as good, but a little stiff. But he was simply killing it here. I need to go back and look at some of his other work--it's possible I've been way too harsh on him.
In this chapter, Thor and Hawkeye confront the Living Laser in an unnamed African city. No country is given either--the city seems to have a mostly white population, which might have still be possible in a few places in 1967. This is another fun chapter, but if I were going to criticize it, it would be to point out that the setting is pretty generic. It is indeed supposed to be Africa, which gives room for a lot of different cultural styles. But, from what we see, this story could have been set in downtown Trenton without making a difference to the plot. It's a minor point, though, since the enusing fight seen is pretty darn cool.
When L.L. is confronted by the two Avengers, the villain manages to dodge Thor's hammer. In turn, Thor blocks return laser fire. Hawkeye then claims first crack at the bad guy.
It actually makes sense that Thor's sense of honor would cause him to hold back after Hawkeye states he wants to go first. It's an excuse to give us some Hawkeye vs. Living Laser scenes without Thor (whose raw power would bring the fight to an end quickly) taking part. But its a reasonable excuse that fits the characters.
And the Hawkeye/Living Laser fight is pretty cool, with both of them using intelligence tactics and counterstrikes against one another. In the end, though, the archer manages to pin the bad guy to a wall.
But it's at this point that the Mandarin's big, giant android Ultimo bursts out of a pit and changes the odds. He manages to knock Mjolnir out of Thor's hands, which means the Thunder God will turn back into Donald Black in 60 seconds. Hawkeye distracts Ultimo long enough for Thor to retrieve the hammer (in the absolute nick of time--Thor even changes back into Black for a moment before recovering Mjolnir). Thor then batters the android back into the pit from which he emerged, then uses lightning to seal the pit shut.
So all three of Mandarin's schemes have been foiled (and keep in mind that we have been given no clear idea of what the villain's goal might be).
So we get another fun chapter with another well-choreographed and nigh-epic fight scene. My only minor complaint was that it was stressed in an earlier chapter that this was taking place in Africa, but then we were given no real sense of place when the action starts.
In the next chapter, Captain American and Quicksilver will finally get off their lazy butts and track Mandarin to his lair, bringing us one last epic chapter before the story ends. We'll look at the final chapter next week.
