Framed for Murder

 

cover art by John Buscema

Avengers #52 (May 1968) is the last single-story issue before the book returns to wrap up the Wanda/Pietro story arc. This will require a diversion BACK to X-Men, as the arc does jump back and forth between the two books. I will refrain from whining yet again about how annoying it is to potentially force someone to buy another book they might not necessarily choose to buy in order to get the entire story. Well, actually, I did just whine again, didn't I? I just can't let it go. But for gosh sakes, Roy Thomas, the X-Men could have just guest-starred in the Avengers! It could have worked that way!

Roy Thomas is the writer and he does provide a strong script here, with John Buscema's superb art bringing that script to life. We begin with Panther (for the time being, he's not called Black Panther so he's not tied in with the then-active political group) sneaking into Avengers Mansion. 

He's already been recommended for membership by Captain America, so this is a way of demonstrating his capabilities by bypassing the various booby traps. He does so, but finds the three active Avengers (Hawkeye, Wasp and Goliath) aren't so active. In fact, they're dead!

Then someone else enters the mansion. This is SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell--one of my favorite Marvel Universe side characters. He immediately arrests Panther (who is not yet well-known outside Wakanda) for murder. 

(By the way, I didn't like the way the Marvel Cinematic Universe portrayed Sitwell. The race swap didn't bother me, but dropping his bowtie-wearing, nerdy, Nick Fury-worshipping, but still very capable persona was no fun at all. I also didn't like that he turned out to be a double agent for Hydra, though I suppose he might have been brain-washed at some point.)

Anyway, Sitwell calls the cops. The Panther accepts being arrested for the time being, hoping that the truth will come out without having to battle the authorities. Though he does make a break for it later on in the story when he feels he has no choice, his decision to respect authority is a key part of his personality and I like that Roy Thomas uses this situation to highlight this.

When Panther and the cops leave with the bodies, the Grim Reaper (in his first appearance) shows up, revealing in a flashback that he's the one who "killed" the Avengers. Between the flashback and his later monologing while fighting Panther, we learn that he's the brother of Wonder Man, who worked for Baron Zemo's Masters of Evil. Though Wonder Man redeemed himself before dying and was NOT killed by an Avenger, Grim Reaper blames the Avengers. He's put his first three victims in a death-like suspended animation, planning on capturing other Avengers and killing them all enmasse. Also, after three hours, the suspended animation becomes permanent.

I've crammed all this back story into one paragraph, but Thomas does spread it out over the course of the book. Also, the Reaper's flashback fight with the Avengers and his later fight with Panther are typically fantastic examples of Buscema's action-packed art style.

Panther does eventually escape the cops and return to the Mansion to figure out what's going on. He meets the Reaper, who is apparently killed when the two fight. 

Despite a painful shoulder wound, Panther takes the Reaper's scythe to the morgue, using it to revive the Avengers.

The Grim Reaper gets away for now, but the Panther is cleared of murder charges and is officially inducted into the Avengers. The team then elects to finish tracking down Wanda and Pietro. It's a great one-issue story, but its nice to finally get back to the main story arc.

Next week, we''ll take a break from this story arc and look at an obscure character from the 1950s named Beanbags. In two weeks, we'll jump to an issue of X-Men (curse you, Roy Thomas). The next two weeks after that will bring us one more issue of the X-Men and one more Avengers to finally tie up the story arc.