Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "invaders"

Invaders Classic - Volume 1 by Roy Thomas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Unlike DC, Marvel's World War 2 history wasn't marked by great team battles. DC had the Justice Society and the Seven Soldiers of Victory, Marvel had a bunch of individual battles with the occasional Submariner-Human Torch team up thrown in.

But Roy Thomas had the perfect solution for Marvel: If you don't have a great Golden Age Team history make one up.

So, the Invaders were born. This book collects Giant Invaders #1, Invaders 1-9, and Marvel Premiere 29 and 30.

The books with Giant Invaders #1 and sees Marvel's golden age big three (Captain America, Human Torch, and Sub-mariner) and their kid sidekick (Toro and Bucky) joining forces in a 32 page adventure against the Nazi super soldier replica Masterman. They're urged to join forces on a permanent basis by none other than British Prime Minister Winston Churchill with a goal of invading Hitler's Fortress Europa.

Issues 1 and 2 of the regular Invaders series has them battling Brain Drain and encountering some apparent Norse gods who aren't from Asgard. A mostly okay story.

Issues 3 and 4 of the Invaders have the Invaders up against U-man. Other than the obligatory battle of Namor v. the rest of the Invaders due to the latter's insistence on taking down U-man on his own since U-man had attack at the sea, the serial is more good but not outstanding work.

The middle section of the book is what earns it my 5 star rating including Marvel Premiere #29 and 30 and Invaders #5 and #6. In Invaders #5, all the Invaders other than Bucky are kidnapped and brainwashed by the Red Skull into attacking America's war production. Marvel Premiere #29 sees Bucky taking to the airwaves and calling for all the costumed heroes to gather to form a new team to stop the Invaders and rescue them from the Red Skull's clutches. This is a story that only Roy Thomas could have written. Each of the seven was introduced with a half page explaining their origins and histories in the Golden Age. It was a magical experience reading this, and the rest of the arch with these lesser know heroes in action was just a plain delight, and one of my favorite issues of any book I've read.

Issues 7-9 concludes with the Invaders facing Baron Blood, a vampire for the Nazis. Vampires were pretty big at Marvel in the 1970s with Morbius, so this is a case of what goes around comes around. The story featured the introduction of the Union Jack, who had been a top war commando in World War I. I was somewhat less than impressed with the imaginary World War I superteam he'd been a part of, but maybe it'll come in handy later. Despite his advanced years, he joins the the Invaders.

The one aspect of this story that bothered me was the war weariness setting in for Captain America and Torch in 1942. Mind you, there's some realism here and it may ring true for the era it was was written in the 1970s. But it doesn't ring well with the golden era replication of the rest of the story. This can get too heady too fast, but we'll see how it plays out in Volume 2. Overall, despite the moodiness of the last 3 issues, it's still a great book for those who like World War II stories and the Golden Age of Comics. The important thing to remember is that it is basically a love letter to the Golden Age from the Bronze Age, and the publication era does influence it.



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Invaders Classic - Volume 3 by Roy Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Invaders #22 and #23 as well as #25-#34. #24 was a reprint of the Golden Age Submariner/Human Torch story in the Golden Age Marvel Comics #17 which I really wish they'd included but I guess you can't always have what you want and it's not necessary to understanding the stories.

At any rate, here are the issues we did get.

Issue 23 features Toro needing serious medical care after the Invaders last book and Roy Thomas (who loves the Golden Age of comics) retcons a new origin for Toro that makes him a mutant. It's actually pretty clever.

Issues 24 and 25 have the Invaders facing a threat in the form of an anti-imperialistic Egyptian metahuman, The Scarlet Scarab. The character is a lot like Namor which poses some problems for the plot as well as for both our heroes and General Rommell. In Rommell, there's a bit of an anachronism as he's portrayed as a Nazi. While Rommell fought for Germany, he wasn't part of the Nazi Party and was more of a nationalist who ended up trying to assassinate Hitler. It's not a big deal other than for being a rare breach in accuracy.

Issues 26-28 sees Bucky trying to find a Doctor to help cure Toro but the only one who can help is locked in an internment camp. Bucky tries to get the Doctor out to help, but runs smack into Agent Axis, a man who is actually the multi-personality combination of three different Axis Agents.It also introduces the Kid Commandos as a Japanese-American Girl and a black boy get Superpowers. I think it's good that they addressed the internment issue. The Kid Commandos are a far better idea than what Timely put out during the war with the far less interesting, "Young Allies." And I actually liked Bucky and Toro leaving temporarily as it allowed stories with more focus and along with the Liberty Legion (established in prior issues) gives this comic a much better focus.

Issues 29 and 30 involve the Teutonic Knight and begins by explaining how the Big 3 Invaders each encountered him individually and how he became even more deadly based on what he obtained for them with issue 30 being the wrap up. A solid story.

Issue 31 is an oddball that has the Invaders battling a version of the Frankenstein monster created for the Nazis by one of Frankenstein's ancestors.

Issues 32 and 33 have Hitler and his scientists scheming to contact Asgard bring the Norse gods into the War. The story does a good job playing off Hitler's belief in the Norse mythology and their vision of gods and shows how he's able to trick Thor into temporarily entering the war on the side of the Axis by pointing out that their enemies are known as the Invaders and in Russia, they're helping an evil man named Stalin. True enough but not the full story. There's a guest appearance by a future Marvel baddie who still despises Hitler (it was a very clever cameo) and a power up for Union Jack.

Issue 34 has the Invaders dealing with the Destroyer (formerly Union Jack's identity and now held by his friend) apparently going evil. This is an okay issue more than anything else.

Overall, in its the third volume, the Invaders continue to be a very well-written book. It's success is driven by writer Roy Thomas' love for the Golden Age era of comics and for his ability to reimagine it in a way that's believable.




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Invaders Classic - Volume 4 by Roy Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the final seven Issues of the 1970s Invaders series (Issues 35-41) and the four Issue 1993 Invaders Series.

The 1970s entries have some strong points, particularly the Whizzer and Miss America being drawn into the action as they would later be part of the All Winners Squad. Roy Thomas has a fun time tweaking DC's Golden Age for making Wonder Woman Secretary of the Justice Society as Miss America finds herself secretary of the Liberty Region for a reason she can't understand and then sets off for action. While there's a bit of a bumpy ride through the 1970s series, the fact that it ends with a big battle with the Invaders joining with the Liberty Legion to battle the Super Axis made up of some of the toughest villains they'd faced in the series, it was a fitting finale, even though Thomas left for the final four issues and the series was closed out by Don Glut.

The 1990s mini-series has some good moments, including the return of the Golden Age vision as the Invaders and the Liberty Legion faced a team of fifth columnist Americans known as the Battle Axis. The plot does get a bit convoluted, the art shows all the hallmarks of bad art that were so popular in comics, and while I can understand while Marvel didn't use their predecessor company heroes to play the part of heroes gone bad, I have mixed feelings of altering public domain superheroes from defunct companies that dramatically. And really they didn't give the Battle Axis (except for Spider Queen) much of a motivation for turning evil.

Still, the book is solid read, helped by the reprinting of background material from Invaders #36 explaining Thomas' rationale behind the series along with some important character notes for the 1990s Invaders series.

Overall, this is an okay collection of comic stories that's a cut below prior Invaders collections.



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