Issue(s): Avengers #109
Cover Date: Mar 73
Title: "The measure of a man!"
Credits:
Steve Englehart - Writer
Don Heck - Penciler
Frank McLaughlin - Inker

Review/plot:
After an introduction of this issue's bizarro villain - an eight foot tall man who runs out onto the tarmac and stops an airplane from taking off with his bare hands so that he can get on the plane (and the police don't stop him because he owns the airline)...

...this issue starts with a good little scene with the Scarlet Witch talking to Iron Man about how sweet the Vision is. He wants to know if she's got a name for him other than Vision. She said she wanted to call him "Simon" but he wasn't up for that. Iron Man does a pretty good job of not telling Wanda that she's nutty for wanting to date a machine.

Hawkeye, on the hand, isn't so polite. Like Quicksilver (but for different reasons... hopefully?), he can't accept the Scarlet Witch's choice in men. So he leaves the team and winds up in the employ of the eight foot tall man who it turns out is a business tycoon and an expert in everything except archery.

Before leaving the team, Hawkeye drops his odd circus costume in favor of his classic original.

One day Hawkeye finds the man - Imus Champion - dressed up in a cross between a sado-masochist's outfit and a supervillain costume.

He wants to steal a sunken ship's nerve gas, but it's in US waters. So in order to get it, he declares that he will trigger the San Andreas Fault and drop California into the sea! I don't know why he thought Hawkeye would go along with it, but Champion is easily able to defeat the archer. Luckily the other Avengers show up, due entirely to Wanda's analytical letter reading skills.

    

After Champion and his goons, who wear mummy masks...

... are defeated, Hawkeye confirms that he's quitting the team to prove that he can make it on his own.

Stiff, sketchy art from Don Heck weighs down this very strange issue.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - first Imus Champion (not to be confused with the Elder called Champion). Hawkeye quits the Avengers, leading to a period where he was wandering from book to book kind of like the Hulk in the early Silver Age after his book was canceled.

Chronological Placement Considerations: According to the Official Marvel Index, this story takes place in two segments. Pages 1-9 are the first part, a day or two after Avengers #108. The rest, when the Avengers go after Imus Champion, takes place many weeks later. During that gap, the Index places a large number of Thor comics (issues #208-228). For variety and spacing purposes, i'm spreading the Thor issues out into individual arcs; assume that this story is essentially taking place concurrently with all of them.

References:

• Quicksilver has been with the Inhumans since Fantastic Four #130, but the Avengers don't know that and it's been tearing the Scarlet Witch up.
  
• When the Vision wasn't charmed by Lorelei in Avengers #105, he assumed it meant that he was incapable of love, but he's over that now.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

this is where they got the idea for Lex Luthors plot in the first superman film.

Hawkeye had remained with the team since he first joined in Avengers 16. His departure is not welcome. The Vision now becomes the bedrock of the team.

The Vision had been in the upper left hand corner of every cover since issue 93. I think he stole Hawkeye's Thunder long before.

Up to this point, Hawkeye was the longest serving Avenger, hands down.

The Vision, Scarlet With romance seems prophetic to a world we may see within 20 years. Google to date has purchased 7 Robotics companies and it would seem prudent that at least a portion of the development phase would satisfy the needs if the lonely hearts club. Great Buscema Cover Art, wish he'd drawn the pages.

Now, now, for a virtual Hawkeye solo piece, who else should be doing the art but Dashing Donnie Heck, the original artist for the character? I grant you we don't actually see Clint changing back into the original Heck-drawn costume (which he hadn't worn since #63, almost four years back), but the saying "Don Heck could draw a man changing his shirt and make it exciting still nearly applies, I'd say.

This was my first exposure to Englehart-era Avengers (I'd started reading the book during the 1st Shooter run) and I was hooked immediately. Even though I recognized Clint was acting out, something about "That's it, man! I'm not gonna stand around and watch 'The Dating Game' any more! I've got to get out of this mausoleum or punch somebody!" just struck a chord. Loved that Clint didn't return to the team immediately after, that he still needed to get his head straight. Fun issue, as nutty (and somewhat DC-ish, IMO) as Champion is for a foe.

Going back to Heck's art, you didn't even like the splash page? Sigh.

R&RGP, agree 100% on that cover, one of my favorites of all time.