Issue(s): Avengers #28, Avengers #29
Cover Date: May-Jun 66
Title: "Among us walks... a Goliath!" / "This power unleashed!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Don Heck - Penciler
Frank Giacoia - Inker

Review/plot:
We saw at the end of Avengers #27 that the Avengers had a message on their machine. It turns out that the Wasp has been captured. Henry Pym reveals his secret identity...

...and rejoins the Avengers as Goliath, despite the health risk involved in growing. The Scarlet Witch has been sewing Pym, a man she's never met, a new costume in her spare time.

Hawkeye's upset because he's always planned to take over the Avengers when Cap retired, but now that Pym is back he doesn't think he has a shot.

The Avengers show up and kick the crap out of the Collector (when you're using an 800 year old catapult as your primary means to attack the Avengers, you might as well give up) and the Beetle, who manages to give the Avengers more trouble than he gave Hawkeye all by himself (no more bolo arrows?).

Unfortunately, Hank stays big for too long and winds up passing out.

With Donald Blake unavailable, Cap calls an old army doctor who discovers that Pym is now permanently stuck at ten feet - too big to be normal but too small to be of much use to the Avengers.

Meanwhile, the Black Widow has been released from her brainwashing session in the "far east" (i thought she was Russian? Maybe they mean Siberia?). She's still wearing her Victoria's Secret outfit.

The Widow recruits the Swordsman and Power Man to defeat the Avengers. Hawkeye hears that she was released and heads after her, with the Wasp tailing him. Hawkeye gets ambushed by the Swordsman and Power Man, but luckily the Wasp was there too! Oh wait: in the Wasp's saddest moment in comic history, first she realizes she forgot to "prepare" her wasp's sting, then she almost gets eaten by a sparrow as she hurries back to the Avenger's Mansion, then she rests on a tree branch at full height and it snaps and she falls to the ground and knocks herself unconscious.

Cap gets captured by the Swordsman and Power Man next after a nice fight...

...but he summons the other Avengers and they show up and release the whup-ass on the Black Widow's team. Despite his reduced height, Goliath still seems to be very strong. In fact Cap refers to him as the most powerful Avenger. However, Hawkeye can't pull a shot on the Widow, and they manage to escape. Then, as they are heading home, Goliath says "You go ahead... I'll catch up later! I wouldn't fit... in the car... anyway!". Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Here's some self-effacing humor from Stan:

This wasn't great, but the frantic pace - "we're fighting Attuma! But the Beetle shows up! Now the Collector's got Janet! There's something wrong with Hank! The Black Widow's back, and she's got the Swordsman and Power Man with her!" - makes up for the poor quality to a degree.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - Henry Pym becomes Goliath and gets a new costume. Wasp and Goliath rejoin the Avengers. First appearance of the Collector.

Chronological Placement Considerations: See the Considerations for Monsters on the Prowl #1.

References:

• Donald Blake is unavailable because he's busy helping out Hercules in Thor #129.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Triple Action #22, Marvel Triple Action #23

Mike Friedrich has a letter in #29.

Did Don Heck design the Goliath costume? If so, it's probably his best effort (runner-up status goes to Sunfire). It's about a thousand notches above the Mandarin and his letterman smock.

He may change his name and costume, but Hank Pym still isn't that good as a superhero.

The Collector is now a movie star. He is being played by Benicio Del Toro in Thor: Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy.

when Pym originally becomes Giant Man, he only grows to 12ft - something about growing larger than that making it difficult to move. so now he's 10ft. it's 2ft less, but hardly such a difference that he should be considered useless as an Avenger.

both China and Russia had communist governments, so why shouldn't they share operatives? mebbe China's just got a much better 're-education program' than Russia, so Russia outsourced the brainwashing to them.

I think the "Chinese brainwashing" is more along the lines of "The Manchurian Candidate"; besides Russian and Chinese communism were somewhat different even if they both have the same denomination of "communism".

are you trying to muddy the waters with facts?? next you'll start trying logic on me.

This is Black Widow's first appearance in the Avengers. In the MCU, she replaces Wasp as the founding female of the team.

I enjoyed Goliath's comeback and the fight with Power Man. It has an odd old-fashioned quality to it.

Stan Lee was pretty good about having Captain America lose to genuinely superhuman opponents without making him seem like he's outclassed.: Power Man takes him out in issue #22, but it's a big fight. The Beetle KOs him here, but mostly by using his flight capability in a halfway smart way. And in the next arc we'll see Kang defeat Cap, but again, Cap lasts longer than you'd think.

It's much more effective than always making Cap win through sheer willpower or letting him be the "last man standing" all the time.

The other Avengers really just string Hank along so they can get Janet back on the team. Wanda really just made that costume for the first person who came along needing a costume. It doesn't have any antennae. It could have fit anyone because it's stretchy like that.

About a year or so after these comics were published, I bought a paperback novel about the Avengers that had no interior art, but the cover was a painted version of Kirby's cover to #28, showing Goliath towering over and behind the 4 musketeer Avengers (Cap, Hawkeye, Witch, and Quicksilver). I can't recall if the Wasp was in the painting. It was the first painted version of any Marvel super-heroes I had ever seen, and I was awed. The text story was okay, but a bit out of continuity.

That's the 1967 paperback "The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker" written by the great Otto Binder. The beautiful painted cover is indeed partly based on Avengers #28, here's a link to more info about it.
http://gobacktothepast.com/fabulous-finds-4-bantam-marvel-novels-1967-68/

Wow thanks very much Shar, I had looked for that book on the internet but wasn't able to find it, so I very much appreciate the link. That painting still holds up pretty well. I remember having two of those reprint paperpacks too but not the Captain America novel.

@James Holt, I see copies of that Avengers book on eBay. I may pick up one myself!

I remember reading that Avengers novel back in the day along with a Captain America novel "The Great Gold Steal" by the late Ted White.

Was Tanaleer Tivan's immortality (given by Death)as an Elder of the Universe in effect yet or was he only wielding the "Power Primordial" at this point.

The Elders were always immortal due to their monomaniacal obsessions but they don't get given immortality by Death until much later.

At this point, i love the thought of hawkeye and BW, its like an forbidden love where you only hope love will conquer