Issue(s): Avengers #152
Cover Date: Oct 76
Title: "Nightmare in New Orleans!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Steve Englehart - Plot
John Buscema - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
The writer credits are a bit muddled. Conway is given a credit for "Writer/Editor" and Englehart for "Plotter".

The Scarlet Witch uses her magic to find out where the resurrected Wonder Man came from, and determines that it is New Orleans. She also calls Wonder Man a "zuvembie". Changes to the Comics Code Authority rules made it possible for Marvel to use supernatural creatures as long as there was a literary basis. Since zombies were not written about in literature (I guess Bela Lugosi's White Zombie movie doesn't count), Marvel got around it by... substituting a few letters.

Instant silence as everyone tries to figure out what she's talking about.

When they get to New Orleans the Avengers beat up some local thugs and get the location of the swamp where the local voodoo guys hang out. It turns out to be everyone's favorite black man in a chicken suit: the Black Talon (sorry, Gamecock). Actually this is a new Black Talon.

While the Avengers fight the Voodoo worshippers, the Scarlet Witch takes on the Black Talon and the dark god that is giving him his power (goofily depicted as a pair of floating eyeballs hiding in the trees).

During the fight she has to resort to using her old fashioned mutant abilities instead of her spells.

This apparently upsets her and at the end of the issue she decides she needs a leave of absence so she can find herself. The Vision, who is having his own identity crisis now that the man whose brain patterns were used to create his own mind is up and around again (sort of), doesn't really try to stop her.

Hank is having his perennial confidence issues, too. The Wasp says, "Nonsense. you've always been insecure -- first about my inheritance, now about yourself. *Kiss* Take that, man o'mine -- and please shut up."

The Marvel Chronology Project gives the Grim Reaper a behind-the-scenes appearance for this issue. Presumably he provided the Black Talon with Wonder Man's body, but he doesn't seem to take any action in this issue. Actually, it seems that Wonder Man's resurrection was actually thanks to Ultron. Per a note from Kurt Busiek at the Appendix, "This is the secret plot thread that's running through AVENGERS during the handoff from Englehart to Conway to Shooter, but which never gets explained."

In this issue there are actually some clues. First, even though Black Talon is the voodoo guy,it's said that he's not responsible for Wonder Man's resurrection. He received Wonder Man "already alive".

Second, Wonder Man is moaning about the "Silver Shadow".

Ultron will also be responsible for giving life to the Black Knight statue in issue #157; it seems he and the Grim Reaper have an alliance.

How did he do it? Well, this part never gets explained -- whatever was going on there gets lost in the switchover from Conway to Shooter, and the general hectic pace of AVENGERS back then (the book was insanely late, so it was being churned out really fast). But Conway was building a sub-plot, and I'm convinced that those two pieces -- the silver shadow that reanimated Simon and the reaching hand that reanimated the "Ghost of Stone" -- had to be two pieces of the same plot; he wouldn't use the same gimmick so close together without intending a relationship between the two.

And given Ultron's brilliant technological innovations, from the encephalo-beam he supplied the Reaper to rebuilding the Human Torch into the Vision, it's not out of the question for him to have devised a way to awaken a man in ionic coma in order to secure the services of the Reaper, or to make a stone statue move around for a while, causing destruction that would directly benefit Ultron's partner/agent (the Reaper again).

It would have been cool if this was spelled out more in the comics!

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - continuing the resurrection of Wonder Man story.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Continues directly from Avengers #151. Honestly this should really be merged with the previous entry; i don't know why i didn't do that, but if i do it now i'll lose the comments on one entry or the other.

References:

• Wonder Man previously appeared in Avengers #9.
  
• Faced with the idea of facing *ahem* zuvembies, the Avengers point out that it's not that odd since Captain America faced a vampire in Invaders #6 and Iron Man fought beside a werewolf in Werewolf By Night #42. Iron Man also very tactfully points out that the Beast looks like a monster, too. Ass.
  
• The Black Talon first appeared in Strange Tales #173.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

In FOOM#13, Englehart stated he was considering the Grim Reaper for this issue(no mention of Ultron, though).

I take it that the inclusion of the Yellow Claw in the list of characters appearing is a mistake?

It seems he just wanted to hang out with the Black Talon for a bit.

Thanks for catching this, Luis. It seems i was trying to tag Yellowjacket but i really tag him as Henry Pym so i guess i selected the Yellow Claw by mistake. Anyway, it's all fixed now.

Scarlet Witch kicked butt in this issue.

If I'm not mistaken one panel looks like a viewscreen watching the Avengers in the quinjet in transit to New Orleans. This presumably is the Atlanteans watching them before attacking in ish 154

I don't actually see a viewscreen panel, but i could be missing it. If there is one, another possibility is that it's the Grim Reaper watching, which may be why the MCP gives him a behind-the-scenes appearance.

I can't help feeling that Conway misunderstood Englehart's plot. If the Black Talon didn't revive Wonder Man then what was the point of him being in this story ?

There's no actual viewscreen panel here, but there is one weird looking panel with Cap in the Quinjet that kinda sorta resembles one,

I love how it takes them 14 friggin issues to finally decide on a team and then Wanda decides to go on a leave of absence in the very next issue.

Then again, this is the team which changed its membership in its second issue.

A WONDER MAN resurrection is just what the Doctor ordered for the next Iron Man film...

Sam Reuther,a TV reporter(probbaly a mashup of Sam Donaldson and Dan Rather) appears in #138 and #150-152.

He's also in Cap #184. Thanks Mark. Added him.

The Black Talon is missing a finger on each hand on the cover.

"Zuvembie" is apparently derived from Robert E. Howard's "Pigeons From Hell".