Issue(s): Avengers #26, Avengers #27
Cover Date: Mar-Apr 66
Title: "The Voice of the Wasp" / "Four against the floodtide!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Don Heck - Penciler
Frank Giacoia - Inker

Review/plot:
More insubordination from Hawkeye.

Quicksilver, used to working with Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, knows how to handle insubordination.

In the end, Cap puts Hawkeye in his place, but it's got to be aggravating.

When that's all wrapped up, we pick up on where we left off with the Wasp from Tales To Astonish #78 (note that the Wasp surprises Pym by transforming "instantaneously").

She is heading to New York to warn the Avengers that Namor is headed there. Nothing ever comes of this, however, because as "the wealthy and beautiful" Janet is "resting" in the ocean...

...she is captured by Attuma, who is planning on flooding NYC.

She manages to get a message to the Avengers. (I shouldn't even go down this rabbit hole, but this issue starts out with the Avengers admiring a new machine created by Tony Stark that ensures that the person sending a message is an Avenger. However, when the Avengers receive the Wasp's message, the Scarlet Witch suggests that it could be a trap like last issue when Dr. Doom lured them to Latveria. I guess Wanda wasn't paying attention.)

The Avengers, sans Hawkeye who is goofing off and not responding to his message ring, head to sea and attack Attuma. Hawkeye returns to the Mansion but can't remember how to access the message machine because he wasn't paying attention earlier either, so now he has to use the 'memory inducer'. While he's doing so, a mysterious figure lurks in the foreground. It turns out to be Beetle, of all people.

Hawkeye shoots him with a "bolo arrow". "Bolo arrow??" exclaims the Beetle. I agree: that's ridiculous.

Leaving the Beetle fully armed but tied up with some rope, possibly from the 'bolo arrow', Hawkeye borrows an aero-sub from the Fantastic Four and heads off to meet up with the other Avengers, who have been defeated by Attuma like four times now, but Attuma keeps feeling the need to beat them again to be fair. On the fifth try the Avengers actually manage to stop Attuma.

They also see a nice kraken:

When they head back to the Mansion they find that the Beetle has escaped the intricate prison Hawkeye constructed for him (i.e., some rope) and the Wasp is gone as well. There's a message waiting for them on their new machine.

Even though this continues directly into the next issue, we'll have to stop here for now, because a continuity insert written in 2005 wreaks havoc with placement of a lot of issues from this period.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - Wasp can now shrink without pills or Hank's control helmet.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Based on the sequence of events in Marvels #3, this story takes place before Galactus arrives on Earth. Henry Pym next appears in Marvel Monsters: Monsters on the Prowl #1, see that entry's Considerations section for more.

References:

• The Wasp met Attuma before in Tales to Astonish #64, but he doesn't recognize her because she's out of costume.
  
• Janet and Hank witnessed Namor fight the Navy and headed to New York in Tales To Astonish #77-78.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Triple Action #20, Marvel Triple Action #21

You write that "I guess Wanda's wasn't paying attention" about the answering machine, but I think Hawkeye is the bigger nincompoop in this issue. Cap is like, "Yo, this machine will let us communicate, so we can tell each other about villains' plots to enslave the human race. The PIN number is 1313."

And Hawkeye is like, "Whatevs, I am going to hang out with showgirls while still in costume. OH HELL WHAT WAS THAT NUMBER."

He cannot remember a four-digit number: and really, it's just a 2-digit number repeated!

Man, I don't care about Tony Stark's inventive genius. The real heroes at Stark Industries are the usability experts who have to dumb everything down to Hawkeye's level. It is no surprise that the Beetle can sneak into the mansion: there is probably a neon sign on the front door saying, "Hawkeye, the emergency key is under the door mat." And then it has an arrow to the doormat.

interesting how the collector was just an old man originally, not an elder of the universe

Yes, the original version of the Collector isn't very cool. He is a guy with catapults, beanstalk beans, and weird giants. He's almost exactly like Immortus from Avengers #10. I wonder why they didn't re-use Immortus?

I'm not a big fan of Roy Thomas, but I can't fault him for revising the Collector.

The image of Jan in the panel when she "instantaneously" shrinks is from TtA #78 (you can see the panel in fnord12's entry for TtA #78). I wonder what Heck's original drawing of Jan looked like in this Avg. panel and why it was pasted over/replaced with Colan's Jan.

re: the new machine Stark made for them to leave messages and ensuring it's not a trap

the way i read it was this was for when they leave messages for each other, like how we'd leave a note on the dry erase board for our roommates. before this, they were leaving notes taped to cartridges (wha?), which clearly anyone could just show up and do. this new machine only allows Avengers to record a message or retrieve a message. and that's separate from any yahoo sending mayday transmissions over the radio. so, i think Wanda should be cleared of not paying attention accusations.

why is Attuma's plan to take over THE WORLD first before conquering Atlantis? just as a point of scale, shouldn't it be easier to conquer Atlantis first? which he obviously sucks at doing. and why are Attuma's people walking around in humid air instead of swimming in water?? they're ocean-dwelling people. oy.

I liked this story for the interplay in the group, the crossover with the Sub-Mariner and the Kraken.

The best thing to come grom these issues, are the no prize comment hawkeye shouts at the beetle!

Just looked it up; I presume the Kraken joke to a kaijuu film refers to the giant cephalopod (merely known as "The Giant Octopus") from "King Kong vs. Godzilla", which came out in Japan in '62 and the US in '63. (I would have expected it to be associated with the Ebidrah movie but that came out at the end of '66 in Japan)