Avengers #63Issue(s): Avengers #63 Review/plot: The Vision saves the day but it leaves Hawkeye feeling frustrated about his lack of powers. There's no follow-up on why the ship wasn't working - the Panther says he checked it out personally before the flight. Often it seems like these issues start off with some random gratuitous action, but in this case it makes the Panther look bad. The Avengers return to find that Janet and Hank are back from their honeymoon. Hank has decided to retain the Yellowjacket identity. It's a good looking costume but his powers are now totally redundant to the Wasp's. Then Nick Fury contacts the Avengers and tells them they need to go find the Black Widow. Hawkeye is told to stay behind because he is too personally involved. After the other Avengers leave, Hawkeye receives a message from the Black Widow. He finds Pym's growth potion and a new costume the Wasp designed, and he becomes Goliath. It turns out that the Nick Fury who contacted the other Avengers was actually a ruse by Egghead, so while they are off on a wild goose chase, Hawkeye heads in the right direction. The Widow is held captive by Egghead, the Mad Thinker, and the Puppet Master. When they see Hawkeye coming they assume he is Hank Pym. They release a giant android to fight him in order to cover their escape, leaving the Widow in the android's hands. Hawkeye defeats the android and takes the Widow back to Avengers Mansion. Best line this issue: Mad Thinker: "Our android? It was my genius alone which designed that brute!" This is the beginning of what i call the "Evil Alliance" unofficial crossover, where the Mad Thinker, the Puppet Master, and Egghead join forces and appear in the Avengers as well as Captain Marvel #12-14 and Sub-Mariner #14 (actually Captain Marvel got a head start and issue #12 takes place before this issue). Even though the inter-connectivity of the Marvel Universe is nothing new at this point, it's cool to see a cross-title story like this. Quality Rating: C Chronological Placement Considerations: The Black Widow was captured in Captain Marvel #12. References:
Crossover: Evil Alliance Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: Marvel Super Action #24 Inbound References (7): show 1969 / Box 4 / Silver Age CommentsGene Colan gives Egghead a weird and unimpressive costume, and Roy Thomas has him spouting Shakespeare in a failed attempt to give him character. Posted by: Mark Drummond | August 7, 2011 12:14 AM I really wonder what Roy Thomas was thinking during this period of the Avengers. He changed Pym from Goliath to Yellowjacket, only to turn Hawkeye into a new Goliath. Doesn't make much sense. It doesn't help that the story doesn't flow naturally. Just a lot of "And now this happens." Posted by: Chris | October 16, 2012 2:24 AM In hindsight, one possibility is that Thomas was creating the Avengers as "the House of Pym" - Yellowjacket, the Wasp, Goliath II, the Vision (created by Ultron) and the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver . . . but I don't think that was really the intention. I find it really hard to enjoy Thomas's run on the Avengers, despite Buscema's art. Even the Kree/Skrull War, which I'd heard so much about, was kind of a jumbled mess except for awesome stuff from Neal Adams. Posted by: Anonymous | October 16, 2012 7:26 PM I believe Thomas has said in various interviews that he disliked archer heroes with their trick arrows, so this was a way to give Hawkeye--at the time a fan favorite-- a bona fide power. What it did though was really relegate Hank and Jan to the bottom of the barrel--what supehero team or comic needs two shrinking characters? But I guess their relative insiginificance power-wise made it easier to get rid of H&J and bring back Wanda and Pietro in #75, which fit in with Thomas' plans to get Vision involved in a romance with a human female. Posted by: Shar | November 5, 2012 3:57 PM Ugh, all the time I was reading Hawkeye's stint in Essential Avengers I thought he was wearing a really tight shirt. Nope, showing his stomach off it seems. Then again it was designed by Jan for her husband so... Posted by: David Banes | November 2, 2013 3:47 AM Roy Thomas later stated that he turned Hawkeye into Goliath because Hawkeye on the covers didn't result in good sales figures, but he liked the personality and didn't want to dump him. Posted by: Mark Drummond | November 28, 2013 12:03 AM I've always found it a bit amusing that the outfit Hawkeye / Goliath wears was designed by the Wasp to be worn by her hubby Hank Pym, considering it has a sorta BDSM vibe to it. Well, considering what we would find out about their bedroom activities many years later during Geoff Johns' run, in hindsight it's not too surprising that the Wasp tried to convince Hank to wear a more kinky costume. Posted by: Ben Herman | August 30, 2016 9:35 PM Seems inconsistent for Clint to give up on all his years of training and experience as an archer over one broken bowstring. Surely this wouldn't have been the first time he had ever had a routine equipment malfunction after firing off who-knows-how-many arrows in combat. Would have been cooler IMO, and more versatile, for him to become a giant-sized archer. Precedent had already been set by the Super-Adaptoid. Also, it would have helped a lot as far as distinguishing him from Hank-Goliath. As for Hank himself, I liked the way a more recent Avengers writer (Hickman?) had Henry finding many more uses for his size-changing skills, such as the bullet-shrinking trick, and his ability to suddenly increase the size of his insect comrades. Posted by: James Holt | September 28, 2017 10:42 PM Englehart came up with the shrink other stuff power in West Coast Avengers. It's a bit too powerful I think. Posted by: OrangeDuke | December 20, 2017 7:54 PM Comments are now closed. |
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