Issue(s): Avengers #75, Avengers #76
Cover Date: Apr-May 70
Title: "The Warlord and the Witch!" / "The blaze of battle... the flames of love!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
John Buscema - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
After Janet and Hank announce that they are leaving the Avengers to study the effects of oil fields on Alaskan wildlife (in a press conference where Captain America has to tell the press to pay attention to poor Hank)(and wow, the oil/Alaskan wildlife conflict was an issue even back in 1970?)...

...Quicksilver returns to the Avengers. After the obligatory fight scene, Quicksilver explains that in searching for a way to restore the Scarlet Witch's powers, he, Scarlet Witch, and the Toad opened a portal to another dimension where a Conan type named Arkon came through.

He wanted the Scarlet Witch as a queen and he needed to trigger a nuclear war on earth in order to restore light to his own dying world. A full battalion of Avengers, including Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America, find a way to Arkon's world...

...and defeat Arkon and his minions.

Wanda is rescued and Iron Man and Thor find another way to save Arkon's world, but the Toad seems to have been forgotten.

Arkon is depicted as not such a bad guy for someone who is willing to destroy an entire planet, and the Scarlet Witch certainly goes soft on him.

He promises the Scarlet Witch that he'll make her powers return, although it doesn't say how.

The Black Widow breaks up with Goliath with no real explanation.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - first Arkon. Scarlet Witch gets her powers back. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver rejoin the Avengers. Wasp and Yellowjacket leave the Avengers. Black Widow breaks up with Hawkeye.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Needs to fit with Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America's books.

References:

• The Avengers last saw Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch when they fled along with the Toad after their fight with the Avengers and the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #45 and Avengers #53.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Super Action #36, Marvel Super Action #37

The Toad doesn't reappear until nearly exactly 5 years later in the same title, but his absence doesn't affect anything.

The Scarlet Witch now has brown hair. Her swimsuit is now strapless. This will be her default appearance for decades. While artists would change her costume from time to time, eventually Wanda would always revert to her default costume. Rejoining the team here, the Scarlet Witch would remain with the team until Avengers 211.

Her hair was brown in the early X-Men issues (prior to joining the Avengers in Av. #16)...so when she returned to the Avengers in #75, Roy wanted her haircolor back to brown instead of the "black" hair (gray or blue base with black shading) she'd had during her first stint with the Avengers. I believe his explanation is contained in #81's lettercol.

Ah yes this is the first of Arkon who gets some nice character development when acting with the X-Men.

Arkon always seemed like he should have been a much better villain - an extra-dimensional invader who is a cross between Conan and Genghis Khan - but he never quite worked. His description in OHOTMU sounded much better than these issues.

Yeah, Arkon gets a LOT of passes for a guy who (in FF 160-163) is willing to annihilate THREE Earths to save his. Meanwhile he tries to kill Wonder Man (WCA 31) for simply playing him in a movie. Double-standard much?

Thundra would have been better sticking with (Squadron Sinister) Hyperion, IMO.

No surprise that Arkon is created by Roy Thomas, a huge Conan fan. But, is there ever a point where Arkon isn't seeking a mate?

Big John Buscema was originally wanted as the artist on Conan the Barbarian. I wonder if his rendering of Arkon played a role in this offer? They went with Barry Smith instead. Buscema was either too busy or Smith was cheaper to get.

@Jim Wojton: Yes, the pay rate seems to have been the deciding factor. In Alter Ego #115, Roy Thomas states that "John was briefly scheduled to be the first penciler of Conan the Barbarian after I acquired the rights to Howard's hero." However just when Big John was "all set to sink his teeth into the new bi-monthly, Martin Goodman decided we had to use a penciler with a lower rate so he [Goodman] could recoup the $150 per issue Marvel would be paying the Robert E. Howard estate. John and I were both disappointed, but Goodman's cheapness turned out to be a windfall for Barry Smith, who came into his own on Conan."

Of course Buscema eventually became Conan's regular penciler, but--as JB stated in an interview (also in that same issue of AE)--he was "disappointed when they [Marvel] didn't give it to me from the beginning."

Has the question of why the Widow broke up with Hawk-eye ever been addressed? Other than "plot point"?

I think there's some stuff in her revamp appearances in ASM #86 and Amazing Adventures that boils down to "I needed to find myself." I suppose it makes some sense; Hawkeye was her bridge to defecting, but now that part of her life is ending and she wants a fresh start.

And one imagines they have some conflicts from both her willingness to kill from Avengers #37 -- this being pre-Bendis Hawkeye, the guy who destroys his marriage over his incredibly strict view of the Avengers' no-kill policy -- and the fact that Thomas portrays him as a chauvinistic lout right around the time Natasha is turning into a Strong Female Character.

The implication in Amazing 86 was that she felt guilty over her involvement in her husband's death and decided to cut ties with everything that reminded her of that day, including Hawkeye, who was involved in that battle.

Hank Pym leaves the lineup, and doesn't return to the regular lineup again until issue #151. In 75 issues he has gone through four different costumed identities. I think that he was best in the first issue.

"After Janet and Hank announce that they are leaving the Avengers to study the effects of oil fields on Alaskan wildlife (in a press conference where Captain America has to tell the press to pay attention to poor Hank)(and wow, the oil/Alaskan wildlife conflict was an issue even back in 1970?)..."

The US Environmental Protection Agency was first established in 1970.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge had been established in 1960.

In 1953, an article, "Northeast Alaska: The Last Great Wilderness" was published in the Sierra Club's journal, by National Park Service planner George Collins and biologist Lowell Sumner. This article was instrumental in bringing widespread national attention to the problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_National_Wildlife_Refuge

The US Forest Service was established in 1905 under Theodore Roosevelt. The US Forest Reserve Act dates back to 1891.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Forest_Service

quote:

Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, which is widely credited with helping to launch the environmental movement.[2] On January 28, 1969, eight days after Richard Nixon became the 37th President, a blowout on the ocean bottom near Union Oil's Platform "A" on the Dos Cuadras field leaked between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels (16,000 m3) of oil into the water of the Santa Barbara Channel, near Santa Barbara, California.[3] The oil spill polluted a 60-mile stretch of coastline, harming marine wildlife and damaging the local fishing economy. [4] The event led to widespread criticism of both Union Oil and the offshore oil drilling industry.[5] On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day brought millions of Americans together to peacefully demonstrate in support of environmental reform.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reorganization_Plan_No._3

pretty sure this is where the Vision and Scarlet witch first meet,(of course she doesn't notice him, only having eyes for Arkon).