Getting Collected

 

cover art by John Buscema

Avengers #52 (April 1968) is an effective one-issue story. Strong writing by Roy Thomas and great art by John Buscema come together for a fine example of how to tell a good story with a solid beginning and end in just 20 pages.

The issue opens in Avengers Mansion, with Hank Pym nearly getting himself killed using a "vibrotron" to try to regain his growing power. This doesn't seem to work, though it will actually pay off (with some help from the issue's villain) later on in the story. Before long, the three Avengers are kidnapped and brought aboard a space ship.

I enjoy Hank's off-the-cuff analysis that the craft is "of unearthly design." Gee whiz, Hank, how many oddly shaped flying vehicles have you seen being used by earthly bad guys AND good guys? Helicarriers--Fantasti-Cars--hovercraft--Quinjets--and so on. They ALL look weird! But then, Hank is the scientist, not me. I guess he can tell.

Anyway, the ship belongs to the Collector, who has decided to collect the Avengers. He already has Thor on board and has tricked the Thunder God into drinking an obediance potion. Thor is sent out to add Iron Man to the growing collection.

In the meantime, Collector straps Hank to a machine to make his own attempt to give the Avenger back his power to grow. After all, he doesn't want a defective Avenger in his collection.

It's Janet who saves the day when she realizes that one of the Collector's prizes is an alien insect. Using her power to talk to insects, she gets the thing to let her loose, then frees Hank and Hawkeye. The Collector sics a big robot on them, but Hawkeye damages it and Hank discovers he can grow big enough to punch the snot out of it. Before this happens, the damaged robot runs out of control, fatally damaging the Collector's ship and forcing the Collector to teleport away. 

All this means Thor is free from being controlled, so he flies back to the ship, getting the other Avengers out of the ship before it explodes.

There's an epilogue in which it is confirmed that Hank has permenantly regained his power and the Avengers get a message from Captain America recommending Black Panther to the team. (At this point, just called Panther--I think to avoid being linked to the political group.)

It really is a good story from start to finish--with the plot moving along quickly and in a way that's consistant with Comic Book Logic. We have one more single-issue Avengers story to cover next week. Then we'll return to the X-Men and their team-up with the Avengers to bring the Pietro/Wanda situation to a close.