cover art by Ron Wilson
Avengers #126 (August 1974), written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Bob Brown, has moments throughout that deal with ongoing character arcs--most significantly Scarlet Witch's jealousy of Mantis (who has designs on Vision) and Captain America wondering if he should give up being Captain America. This, of course, is one of the appeals of an ongoing series--character change and character growth. (Though Wanda's decision to start a jealous argument with Vision AFTER they've been captured by villains is a bit awkward.)
For this review, though, I'm going to concentrate on the main plot, which I think is fun and well-constructed. The ambassador from the country of Rudyarda comes to Avengers Mansion. This country is essentially the Marvel Universe version of apartheid South Africa, where you can get arrested for being black. In fact, Black Panther had been jailed in that country once for precisely that crime.
The ambassador proves himself to be a jerk right away by refusing to shake T'Challa's hand--he finds the touch of a black man distasteful. But he also reports the mysterious death of the embassy gardener, who was burnt to a crisp, and death threats against other members of the embassy staff. The Avengers are obligated to help anyone who needs it, even if they are racist blowhards. Iron Man, Thor and Cap are in conference, so Panther, Wanda, Vision, Swordsman and Mantis head outside with the ambassador, intending to go to the Rudyardian Embassy.
They only make it as far as the Mansion's front yard before Klaw and Solarr trap them in a sound bubble. Bob Brown provides us with a really fun two-page spread here.
The sound bubble is impenetrable and also extends underground, while giant Klaw is just a projection. Klaw himself is somewhere else.
Solarr zaps the ambassador, apparently injuring him seriously. Wanda uses her hex powers to revive him, but Klaw gives Panther only an hour to abdicate before Solarr zaps one of the women.
Panther, who has the most experience fighting Klaw, figures he must be physically located within a 20-block radius. So Cap, Thor and Shellhead go hunting with sound detectors. They track down Klaw's apparent headquarters and fight some solid sound constructs of huge panthers (I love Comic Book Science). But Klaw is nowhere to be found.
That's when Black Panther has his Sherlock moment. He deduces that Klaw is actually the ambassador in disguise!
He punches out Klaw, the sound barrier and the bubble containing Solarr fade away and Solarr falls to the ground and gets knocked out.
I love this ending, because Panther's explanation for how he deduced the ambassador was really Klaw is perfectly logical. If Holmes had battled super villains, this ending would have fit perfectly into the Holmsian Canon.
As I implied earlier, some of the ongoing character moments are sandwiched awkwardly into the action scenes. The heroes here are all experienced pros who should know to set that sort of stuff aside until the bad guys are taken care of. But, to be fair, you wouldn't want an issue in which the first half is all soap opera stuff and the action doesn't begin until halfway through the issues. Getting in the character moments without ruining the pacing of an issue is probably an ongoing issue for comic book writers.
But despite this, Englehart and Brown turn out a fun story with a great ending.
Next week, we will rocket into the cosmos to visit with the Space Family Robinson.
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