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Avengers #43-44Issue(s): Avengers #43, Avengers #44 Review/plot: Quicksilver is uncharacteristically happy - to the point of annoying everyone else - because he's learned that he can fly short distances by vibrating his legs at top speed. Cap earns Hercules' respect by surviving a tussle with him. The Wasp learns that since her 23rd birthday has passed she is now entitled to her full inheritance. Hank says this means she'll be harder to manage than ever. While all this fun is going on Hawkeye sneaks off to beat up some hoods who have knowledge of the Black Widow's location - they know now that she has actually been working for SHIELD and isn't a traitor. Hawkeye discovers that he's become very good at hand-to-hand combat due to Cap's training. The transition from Hawkeye being annoyingly antagonistic to Cap to respecting him has been handled very well by Thomas. Hawkeye finds out where the Black Widow is and he and Hercules head off to get her without letting the other Avengers know. They wind up fighting the Communist version of Captain America... the Red Guardian... ...who leads Hercules into the Psychotron and defeats Hawkeye with his, um, "magnetically-controlled belt emblem". The Psychotron pits Hercules against the Hydra. Hawkeye is captured and placed in one of those capture tubes bad guys are fond of putting heroes in, right next to the Black Widow. Hawkeye learns that the Red Guardian is the Black Widow's husband (she will reveal at the end of this story that she went into the spy business when she was told that her husband died, but it turned out it was a plot by the Communists to turn each of them into a super-agent). The Avengers decide to go after Hawkeye and Hercules even though bringing the whole team into a hostile foreign country will very likely set off an international incident. The Black Widow passes a lie detector test (due to a post-hypnotic suggestion by SHIELD) and the Communists decide to trust her again. After a big fight the Avengers destroy the Communist base, the Black Widow destroys the Psychotron, and the Red Guardian has a change of heart and sacrifices himself due to the enormous respect he's gained for Captain America and the realization that he does love his wife (Communists aren't supposed to love). Quality Rating: C+ Chronological Placement Considerations: Captain America appears here between fouling up a SHIELD plot and getting Sharon Carter in trouble in Tales Of Suspense #92 and going to rescue her in Tales Of Suspense #93. Presumably SHIELD is prepping for Cap's mission during this time period. References: N/A Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: Marvel Triple Action #35, Marvel Triple Action #36 Inbound References (15): show 1967 / Box 3 / Silver Age CommentsI am in awe of the Red Guardian. He reminds me of Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. Posted by: Steven Printz | August 4, 2013 3:03 PM Interesting that Jan has a birthday with a specific age (obviously there's a reason, but still). That's so rare in the MU. The only others that immediately spring to mind are Peter Parker and Kitty Pride. Posted by: Erik Beck | January 19, 2015 3:51 PM Many decades later, the original Red Guardian turns up alive again in Daredevil 444 (Vol. 2, #64). I don't think anything ever comes of it, and no explanation is given. I think Bendis just needed a twist ending to a story featuring the Black Widow. Posted by: Andrew | March 28, 2016 5:21 PM He appears a few years after that in a Hawkeye and Mockingbird/Black Widow crossover where he is the villain and the current idiot calling himself Ronin. Posted by: AF | March 29, 2016 5:12 AM PLEASE MARVEL bring Alexei Shostakov Back to life.. The "Red Guardian" character never had his due and one of the most Iconic JOHN BUSCEMA Covers in Marvel history is (like Roy Batty says) a fading memory "Like Tears in the Rain" Posted by: RocknRollguitarplayer | July 13, 2016 3:15 PM Reading this story nowadays, it's weird to see the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China depicted as being so closely allied that they are working together to build a devastating super-weapon, and with former sendinging some of their top personnel over to the later to be trained as super-powered agents. In reality, the Sino-Soviet Split had occurred several years earlier, with the two countries formally severing relations in 1962. Tensions between the two countries eventually became so bad that the Sino-Soviet border conflict took place in 1969, and for a short time it seemed a very real possibility that nuclear war would break out between them. I guess the severely-deteriorated relationship between the USSR and China was not really common knowledge in 1967, and to the Average Joe here in the States it undoubtedly seemed like Communism was instead a monolithic entity. I'm sure most people imagined that Khrushchev and Mao were best buds or something. So I guess it made sense for Roy Thomas to write a story depict the Soviets and Chinese as colluding to overthrow the Western world with the Psychotron. Posted by: Ben Herman | August 18, 2016 4:25 PM Though it should be noted that the story participates in one of the big tropes of Western media after the Sino-Soviet split, in which the Soviet characters sometimes possess a sense of personal honor while the Chinese Communists do not, a product of casual racism. Posted by: Omar Karindu | August 18, 2016 4:56 PM I'm currently working my way through all the TIME magazines from 1966 and I can tell you, the Sino-Soviet split was common knowledge. Not a week goes by in '66 without an update on the Cultural Revolution and how China and the USSR are growing further apart, both ideologically and diplomatically. By January of 1967, the Soviet embassy in Peking will actually be attacked by the Red Guards. Maybe Thomas was "dumbing it down" for a perceived audience of teenagers? Or maybe he just didn't follow current events very well. Posted by: Zeilstern | August 18, 2016 5:04 PM "Why do you think Khruschev and Mao can't get their heads together?" - Malcolm X, 1963 Posted by: cullen | August 18, 2016 6:20 PM The Official Handbook explains the USSR and China working together as the Chinese having invented the Psychotron but lacking the necessary submarines and thinking that the USSR would be more likely to help them conquer the US than vice versa. Posted by: Michael | August 18, 2016 7:49 PM @Zeilstern - Thanks for the info. I guess Roy Thomas might not have felt like having to address complex geopolitical issues within a superhero story. Or, as Michael points out, perhaps he was sort of backed into the corner of having to explain why the USSR and China would be working together due to Stan Lee having previously shown the Black Widow being brainwashed by the Chinese. Of course, it is never specifically stated by either Lee or Thomas that the villains are Chinese. Yes, it's very heavily implied, but if you want to make this story work within the real-world events of the 1960s, you could say that the Psychotron was actually being built by North Korea, which was very closely allied with the USSR throughout the Cold War. Posted by: Ben Herman | August 19, 2016 3:58 PM Until Nixon went to China, the PRC and USSR were still seen as being on the same side. That was still four years away. And they did cooperate on limited issues when both had the same interests - such as sending supplies to North Vietnam. In 1967, this still seemed like a squabble between two anti-American countries trying to determine who would be the leader of their anti-American coalition. Not that the Cold War had become a three party struggle. While it is highly unlikely for them to work together on such a high value project, we can imagine a scenario where they would. Let's say China has one of those comic book geniuses who build these types of devices. However, China can't provide the technology and equipment to work. The Soviet Union could so the two work together on a limited basis because both are obviously falling behind the US in superpowered metahumans. China provides the genius while the Soviets provide the equipment. They agree to some sort of ridiculous treaty in order to make it work, knowing it'll all blow up in their faces because just maybe they may get something useful out of it. Posted by: Chris | August 19, 2016 10:13 PM Chris, I disagree with your contention that Americans saw the USSR and the PRC as essentially being on the same side. Below is a link to a TIME magazine article from October 21, 1966 discussing LBJ's meetings with Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko. The US is lifting certain export restrictions to central Europe and hopes that in return the USSR can help pressure the North Vietnamese to negotiate a peace deal. China is seen as being the stubborn one on that issue - and it is noted that China, during the Cultural Revolution, is accusing the USSR of "colluding" with the West. I've always perceived TIME magazine to be pretty "middlebrow" fare. I think the discrepancy between the plot of this comic and the reality of world affairs reflects just how lowbrow and disposable comics of this era were seen as, by both their consumers and creators. Here's the TIME magazine article from October of 1966: Posted by: Zeilstern | August 20, 2016 8:32 AM I've always thought that the Red Guardian was a good concept and a good character and am glad that he was brought back. There was also a WWII era Red Guardian as well as the female one who later changed her name. Posted by: Bobby Sisemore | November 12, 2016 7:48 PM I keep coming back to thoughts of biblical prophesy and a conflict between Global power brokers facing economic and moral collapse. The Red Guardian rises out of Putins Russia to lead a final movement that results in an Armageddon like conflict between nations to resolve the planets economic, ethical and religious uncertainty. The plot isn't as much nation verse nation as it is a belief system and moral code reset of the highest magnitude. This certainly brings a Wild Card like atmosphere to the global arena that now breeds conflict at the soul level for those that still cling to one. The gateways of spiritual evolvement or enslavement wait in the shadows. Posted by: RocknRollguitarplayer | January 10, 2017 12:16 AM I've always thought that the Red Guardian was a good concept and a good character and am glad that he was brought back. There was also a WWII era Red Guardian as well as the female one who later changed her name. It occurs to me that the backstory given here doesn't fit very well with the retcon that the Black Widow's childhood is "fixed" to the WWII era. Is the Red Guardian from this story now meant to have the same anti-aging treatment as Natasha? Or did she marry him when he was (in terms of chronological age) many years her junior? How does the idea that she wasn't interested in espionage until his death was faked fit with all the "Red Room" stuff? Posted by: Omar Karindu | July 14, 2017 7:28 PM Wellstone. Americans today aren't even aware that Russia is no longer Communists. So I wouldn't take magazine articles as evidence that the command man knew about the Sino Soviet split. It was news to me when I studied Chinese history in the eighties, and the Prof assumed no one in the class would know about it. Posted by: OrangeDuke | December 11, 2017 12:47 AM Comments are now closed. |
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