Issue(s): Avengers #255
Cover Date: May 85
Title: "The legacy of Thanos!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Writer
John Buscema - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker
Howard Mackie - Assistant Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
Roger Stern's Avengers are, of course, awesome, but what makes them even awesomer is when John Buscema and Tom Palmer are on art, and that starts with this issue. Buscema and Palmer had a run together on the Avengers way back in issues #74 to #84, but there's nothing old fashioned looking about their art in this run. It's very good.

As the cover (painted by Palmer) suggests, this issue focuses on Captain Marvel. She arrives at Sanctuary II on the fake mission given to her by the Vision while he was trying to take over the world...

...and, unsurprisingly, initially finds nothing. However, while exploring Thanos' giant space ship...

...she encounters a group of aliens. Their story is that they're travelers who ran into trouble and were forced to dock here for repairs, but they are in fact spaaaaaaaaaaace pirates.

All of the pirates are alien species that have appeared in Marvel comics before. Gunthar is of course a Rigellian.

Skunge is a Laxidazian troll, like Adam Warlock's friend Pip.

Kehl is a Taurian, a race that was a victim of Galactus, as seen in Thor #160.

Levan is of the same species, and even has the same haircut, as Captain Autolycus, who fought Adam Warlock in Strange Tales #179.

The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe #9 (vol. 1) names them Sarks. Since Sarks are basically just blue-skinned humans, i'd have assumed that this crew's boss, Nebula (who we haven't met just yet) is probably also a Sark (we can write off the haircut as male pattern baldness and therefore not affecting her), but her species has never been confirmed as far as i know. Nebula will claim to be Thanos' granddaughter and, later (as Andrew notes in the comments), the son of Zorr (from Nova #1). But Nebula's claims aren't necessarily trustworthy.

Anyway, it's a great little group.

After an initial scuffle, Captain Marvel warily buys into their story and allows them to travel with the ship, but they trick her and throw Sanctuary II into hyper-space which, as Gunthar anticipated, temporarily neutralizes her powers and makes her their prisoner.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is pushing for action against the Avengers after the Vision's take-over of their computer systems. Luckily Raymond Sikorski is much less out for blood than Henry Gyrich would have been...

...but when the Vision admits culpability, he is "invited" to Washington for a debriefing. The Scarlet Witch goes with him.

It's a great human scene. Add that to the intriguing space story and you've got a very nice issue.

It's cool how Thanos' legacy looms so large here that he's got a presence despite being dead and not having appeared for almost eight years.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first "Freebooters" as Nebula's space pirates are eventually, disappointingly, called. Buscema and Palmer return to the Avengers. Vision and Scarlet Witch leave the Avengers.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Captain Marvel says it's taken "seven hours" to fly from Earth to Sanctuary II. In Avengers #252, she had made it as far as Jupiter in a half-hour, but i'm contending that at some point after that she saw the appearance of the Dire Wraith's homeworld and turned around to appear in ROM #65-66 before zipping back off into space again. It's also worth noting that while the other West Coast Avengers have returned home, Wonder Man is still with the East Coast team. This probably explains his lack of appearance in Iron Man #193-194, suggesting that those issues are occurring around the same time. The Wasp returns from her vacation, which began in issue #251.

References:

• The Vision claimed to have detected a signal coming from Sanctuary II in Avengers #252, and sent Captain Marvel to investigate. I thought the signal might have been related to the Blood Brothers appearance in that issue (like, the machine in Thanos' desert based sent a signal to Sanctuary II which in turn pulled the Brothers out of sub-space), but the Vision admits in this issue that Marvel's mission was a complete wild goose chase.
  
• There's no footnote, but as Captain Marvel walks through Sanctuary II's vast hangar deck and observes the massive fleet of spaceships, she thinks to herself that the Avengers' battle with Thanos and his forces were before her time. There are a lot of issues related to that, but the most relevant is Avengers #125, when the Avengers went up against Thanos' space fleet.
  
• Captain Marvel tells the Rigellian Gunthar that Thor has spoken highly of his people. No footnote, but Thor met the Rigellians in Thor #131-133.
  
• During the recap of the Vision's recent schemes, Avengers #242 and Avengers #243 are specifically given footnotes, but the Vision's connection to ISAAC in Avengers #238 is also relevant, as are the issues directly prior to this one.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

What wizard did Tom Palmer make a bargain with? I've never seen another inker do what he does. Inking John Buscema means you're always going to look good but Damn, Palmer takes it to another level. I can't be the only one who thinks this.

Palmer used a lot of Zip-A-Tone, which gave his work interesting textures and a lushly illustrative quality. (Today there are plenty of graphics programs that achieve the same thing.) IMO I don't think Buscema needed all that embellishment--I preferred an inker like George Klein on Buscema--but there's no denying Palmer's work was masterful (and still is).

Jay Patrick, you're definitely not alone!
Marvel UK reprinted the Captain Marvel segments of this issue alongside bits of Iron Man #198... it was my introduction to the Avengers in their own magazine (sort of) and of course I didn't realize how lucky I was to accidentally jump on at such a good point, art-wise. (I was spoiled, really.)
While he's not an obvious "world-builder" like my other favourites Chris Claremont and (Transformers') Simon Furman, I simply loved Roger Stern's writing style... I can't put my finger on why; he just makes it look so easy!

The cover without any copy and stuff on: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3JvOs7aqlVk/VkZWV8In_KI/AAAAAAABuyw/xo0wUsc6vAs/s1600/Avengers%2B%2523255A%2B1985%2Bby%2BTom%2BPalmer.jpg

If Nebula is the daughter of Zorr, from Nova 1, wouldn't she be a Luphomoid?

Not that it necessarily settles it, but it seems Luphomoid is what movie Nebula is.