Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
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Avengers #204-205
Issue(s): Avengers #204, Avengers #205
Cover Date: Feb-Mar 81
Title: "Claws across the water!" / "Shadow of the Claw!"
Credits:
Bob Budiansky & Jim Shooter / Bob Budiansky - Plot
David Michelinie - Script
Don Newton / Alan Kupperberg - Penciler
Dan Green - Inker
Review/plot:
The Avengers go up against the Yellow Claw.
The Claw is getting old, and he's decided to impregnate a bunch of women so they can bear him sons, which he'll have fight to the death, and let the winner take up his mantle.
Oh, he's also going to sterilize everyone else in the world.
The Avengers are able to stop him...
...and the Claw seemingly dies at the end of the arc, although of course that won't stop him from returning.
It's not easy to square this particular scheme with the revelation that the Claw was really grooming Johnny Woo to take over the Atlas Foundation, but it's probably wheels within wheels and all that.
This issue suffers from sub-par art and not a particularly great plot.
This is the last arc in Michelinie's run, to the degree that it was ever Michelinie's run. Most issues seem to have been written by committee, although with (this arc aside) surprisingly good results. Michelinie put a real emphasis on character in his run but didn't neglect the super-heroics, either. It will be fill-ins from here to issue #211, which starts Jim Shooter's second run.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
Inbound References (1): showCharacters Appearing: Beast, Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Jarvis, Jocasta, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wasp, Wonder Man, Yellow Claw Previous:
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Comments
The title to #204 refers to a lyric in Paul McCartney's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey".
I think these were the only Avengers issues between the start of the Korvac Saga and when I stopped collecting in 1992 that I never ended up buying. I just couldn't bring myself to be interested enough to track them down.
Iron Man refers to 'Jocarta' in the last panel above.
Also, the Yellow Claw makes the Mandarin seem like a politically correct non-stereotype!
I'm not sure but I think this one was handwaved into being a LMD/Robot/something like that of Yellow Claw in Agents of Atlas. Or maybe I'm thinking of the Frog-Man story. Or the Nova story. I know something wasn't him.
