Issue(s): Avengers #304
Cover Date: Jun 89
Title: " ...Yearning to breathe free!"
Credits:
Danny Fingeroth - Writer
Rich Buckler - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker
David Wohl - Assistant Editor
Howard Mackie - Editor

Review/plot:
Another fill-in while waiting for the John Byrne run to start, this one guest stars Puma and features the first use of the U-Foes outside of the Hulk book.

Captain America takes Thor and Gilgamesh, all in civilian clothes, on a tour of Ellis Island and while they are there they see a Native American teen named Charles who disparages the immigrants that came to America as invaders.

Charles turns out to be on the run from Puma.

His full name is Charles Little Sky, and he's a member of Puma's tribe and has been identified as having powers. Puma wants to bring him back to his uncle to be trained. Charles denies that he has powers (he's just been having headaches), and doesn't want to go back. The Avengers initially aren't sure if they should be getting involved, but then Charles' powers activate and it turns out he has the ability to open portals to other dimensions. And he lets the U-Foes back onto planet Earth.

With the U-Foes keeping the Avengers busy, Puma debates just running off with Charles.

Gilgamesh remains in civilian clothes throughout this issue and i kept getting him confused with Charles, just because it's two dark haired guys in streetclothes that i'm not familiar with. That's Gilgamesh taking a hit from Ironclad, not Charles.

Puma winds up getting dragged into the fight anyway.

Despite a pretty cool group of characters all around, the fight is straight meat and potatoes. No fancy splash panels from Rich Buckler.

During the fight, Charles' powers start to go out of control, and Gilgamesh realizes that he has to keep him knocked out.

The U-Foes are eventually knocked out, mostly thanks to Thor...

...but Cap and Gilgamesh finish off Ironclad.

Charles decides to leave Earth in the end, and Puma's sass-mouth almost gets him arrested.

The story ends with a joke about how now Charles is the immigrant. Or i hope it's a joke, but Cap seems to be quite serious.

Danny Fingeroth will bring Charles (Portal) back in Darkhawk and, much later, his dimension-hopping powers make a crossover with the Marvel Zombies universe possible.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Portal

Chronological Placement Considerations: The battle with Super-Nova from the previous arc happened in "recent days", in Thor's parlance. It's not said where Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman are.

References:

• A narration capsule tells us that the Avengers (i assume not Gilgamesh) are aware that Puma fought the Beyonder "in defense of the entire nation", and that's the reason they initially give Puma the benefit of the doubt even though they also know he's a mercenary. The battle with the Beyonder happened in Amazing Spider-Man #273 and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #111.
  
• The U-Foes origin was shown in Hulk #254.
  
• After several encounters with the Hulk, they wound up getting tossed into the Crossroads dimension in Hulk #304.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Even though I had given up on Avengers, I had to buy this issue because Puma was in it (I was a big fan) and I was dying to know why Puma was teamed up with the U-Foes, as the cover implied.

Nice fill-in with cool art by Buckler and Palmer. And yeah, it's also neat to see Puma and the U-Foes tackle the Avengers.

Buckler catches so much flack for being a notorious swipe artist that it's easy to forget how good he actually was. Bring in Tom Palmer on inks and you've got an Avengers story that can sit right next to Buscema's run on the title.

I usually prefer superhero costumes, no matter how silly, to civilian clothes. (this is the biggest reason for my dislike of MCU-style costume changes that happened in the early 2010s) But I gotta admit Gilgamesh looks cool in this issue. It somehow fits him better than his armor, and certainly better than his lack of any kind of costume in future appearances. The two panels where he stands up to Ironclad with his hands in his pockets and then knocks him out make him look rather badass.