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Avengers #169
Issue(s): Avengers #169
Cover Date: Mar 78
Title: "If we should fail-- the world dies tonight / The temple of winged death! / Black Prowler... white death! / Madness over Moscow! / A fateful decision!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
David Hunt - Inker
Review/plot:
Iron Man, Black Panther, and Captain America go on quests to find three bombs set by a dying disgruntled competitor of Stark Industries.
A fourth bomb is hidden in the man's heart, so shellhead cryogenic-ally freezes him so that the man can never die.
It's just a harmless fill-in issue. But Cap beats up some Peruvian natives in bird costumes (and defeats their birds with bees!)...
...Iron Man invades the USSR...
...and the Black Panther gets to wrestle a polar bear, so from a certain point of view, it's an awesome harmless fill-in issue.
Some scans based on some of the comments. First, sudoriferous!
Second, the scene where Cap says that he's never killed before.
Quality Rating: C-
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: This is a fill-in issue that actually takes place before Avengers #164.
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
Inbound References (3): showCharacters Appearing: Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Man, Jason Beere Previous:
Marvel Team-Up #59-62Up:
MainNext:
Daredevil #148-149
Comments
Suderiferous!
Scans Daily recently did a feature on this issue, and they pointed out that in this issue, Cap implies that he never killed anyone in World War II. Something to keep in mind- you'll be reviewing Cap 322 soon.
They go back and forth with that aspect of Cap's character over the years. Sometimes he claims that he never killed anyone, at other times, he talks about how it's different when at war.
It's sort of like with Hulk where they go back and forth as to how much of a menace he is. Sometimes, he's never led to any deaths, other times, they reveal that some deaths occurred during his rampages. It makes Banner look really bad, but it's hardly believable that no one even died indirectly from Hulk's destruction.
Suderiferous ,Cap.Duh.
I wonder whatever happened to this guy? The mansion's been destroyed multiple times, and yet no mention of his fate, especially considering he could destroy the world. They must have had him moved somewhere. Unicorn and Nefaria were both there at the same time, and they escaped thanks to two separate incidents. Very curious. Someone to bring back, if a writer were so inclined...and remembered who he was.
This looks like one of Marvel's multi-purpose fill-ins. It could potentially have been used in any of the three heroes' titles if it hadn't been used in The Avengers.
I wonder if that word was ever used in a National Spelling Bee. One can imagine a bespectacled, socially awkward teen asking the panel to use the word in a sentence. A judge could reply "Despite the arctic climate, Prince T'Challa, a.k.a. the Black Panther, was quite sudoriferous after a grueling encounter with a polar bear".
