Issue(s): Avengers #235
Cover Date: Sep 83
Title: "Havoc on the homefront!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Writer
Bob Budiansky & Joe Sinnott - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker
Mike Carlin - Assistant Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
Lots of downtime to start off this issue, but there's a real purpose to it.

Scarlet Witch is of course despondent due to the fact that her husband has been disabled.

There's a neat character scene in the beginning where we see Captain America biting his tongue about the way the Wasp is ordering around a repair crew. He realizes he has to let the Wasp be a leader in her own way.

Then he almost looses his cool when Starfox shows up late for a training session (it's really the fact that the team seems to be falling apart, with the Vision disabled, Henry Pym in jail leaving the team after his recent legal troubles, Thor on leave of absence, and, especially, Tony Stark succumbing to alcoholism, that's got him jumpy).

Then we see the She-Hulk smashing a car that tried to ignore a traffic light while she was jogging, and Spider-Man showing up to stop her from smashing the driver as well.

Even though the She-Hulk is correct that the driver broke a traffic law, her response seems to indicate that she's having some anger management issues. Spidey learns that She-Hulk is apartment hunting and that she makes $1,000 a week working for the Avengers, leaving him kicking himself for not joining the team when he had a chance.

With that set-up, we get into the action part of the comic. Authorities realize that the Wizard has escaped from prison when his plant-double, created by the Plantman as part of their joint break-out, is discovered for what it is.

Normally Henry Gyrich would call in the Avengers, but he's "tied up with some new hush-hush project" (that would be Project Wideawake, as seen in various recent issues of the X-Men and especially the New Mutants). Instead a Raymond Sikorski, agent of the National Security Council, makes the call.

The Wasp breaks the Avengers up into teams to investigate the Wizard's known hideouts. The team choices are a little unusual - Captain Marvel is left on monitor duty while the Wasp and Starfox (She-Hulk calls them the "All-Flirt Squad") form one team and Captain America, She-Hulk, and the Scarlet Witch (who is surprised to be removed from her husband's side) form the second team.

It's the second team who encounter the Wizard. After fighting their way through an array of his clever tricks and traps (including a "Pocket of Non-Causality" for the Scarlet Witch!)...

...they are able to capture the Wizard.

The team returns home feeling satisfied and a little less cranky, which is what the Wasp intended all along.

I may make it sound a little trite, but it actually works pretty damn well. Nice writing by Roger Stern.

Quality Rating: A-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Raymond Sikorsky, a minor Avengers supporting character

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue begins with a repair crew fixing the damage caused to Avengers Mansion when Mr. Fantastic was abducted in Fantastic Four #257. Thor has left the team to find the Runestaff of Kamo Tharnn, as shown in Thor #334.

References:

• Mr. Fantastic was abducted while investigating the Vision's shutdown in Fantastic Four #257.
  
• Contemplating all that Wanda has been through, Cap thinks back to when she first joined the team in Avengers #16.
  
• Continuing his contemplation about the team, Cap also notes to himself that Thor is on leave of absence due to a personal mission, as shown in Thor #334.
  
• She-Hulk and Spider-Man last met in Amazing Spider-Man annual #16.
  
• Spidey declined Avengers membership most recently in Avengers #221.
  
• Plantman got re-captured in Avengers #232.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Hank Pym is not in jail.

The car Shulkie hits is clearly trying to run a red light. The panel where she's crossing the street shows her passing someone who's clearly a normal pedestrian. Instead of getting angry about being grabbed, Jen should have been shocked out of her reverie on the spot and asked the guy why he was driving like a maniac.

We can assume Spidey recognized this as well, but didn't want to embarrass Shulkie (not to mention the "imagine what she could do to you") factor.

Is Raymond Sikorsky somehow inspired by Igor Sikorsky, the Russian immigrant/American aviation pioneer best known for the design and building of helicopters?