Issue(s): Avengers annual #6
Cover Date: Nov 76
Title: "No final victory! / Interlude! / Confrontation! / Climax / Night Vision!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway / Scott Edelman - Writer
George Perez / Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Mike Esposito, John Tartaglione, & Duffy Vohland / Herb Trimpe - Inker

Review/plot:
Picking up from Avengers #153, the Scarlet Witch teleports into the Avengers Mansion. Weak from blood loss, she is able to warn the team that the Serpent Crown has been taken but not by whom.

The Whizzer wakes up and the Wasp and Yellowjacket take him to the dining room for a meal. The Beast goes after Wonder Man, and the Vision takes Scarlet Witch to a doctor. Captain America and Iron Man go after the crown. In all the chaos, you can feel Iron Man and Cap, the two professional veterans, bonding.

The Beast manages to subdue Wonder Man, and off panel he convinces him to be a good guy. Cap and Iron Man fight off the Living Laser...

...and his soldier allies (including a renegade general), and the rest of the team, including Wonder Man but not the Scarlet Witch, show up as reinforcements.

The Vision manages to quickly grabs the Serpent Crown and flies off with it, leaving the rest of the team to mop up. Unfortunately the Living Laser also has the Whizzer's son Nuklo, a powerful energy creature, in captivity.

Nuklo attacks the Avengers and the Living Laser's team equally, but the Whizzer shows up and is able to knock out his son before his own bad heart gives out on him.

A lot of this plot relies on the coincidence of the Whizzer showing up looking for Nuklo at the same time the Living Laser makes his move for the Serpent Crown, which is too contrived.

There's also a back-up story about the Vision accidentally smashing up some poor guy's truck and then getting into a fight with Whirlwind. His response to the trucker is "call Tony Stark" as if Stark is accessible to the public.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - developments for Wonder Man

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue is a direct continuation of Avengers #153. As far as the Vision's back-up story, the best placement is after the Scarlet Witch leaves the team after the fight with the Black Talon, which would explain the Vision's erratic behavior.

References:

• The Serpent Crown saga took place in Avengers #141-144,147-149.
  
• The Whizzer was having flashbacks to the two appearances of the All-Winners Squad in All-Winners #19 and All-Winners #21.
  
• The Whizzer was last seen in Fantastic Four #150.
  
• Nuklo was previously seen in Giant-Size Avengers #1.
  
• We saw the Whizzer flipping out in Avengers #151.
  
• The Wasp rejected the Living Laser's love in Avengers #44, but he actually meant Avengers #34.
  
• The Living Laser has been in prison since Avengers #79, reading about the Legend of Lemuria in the prison library.
  
• The Serpent Crown was presumed destroyed in Captain America #181.
  
• Whirlwind was put in jail in Avengers #139.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I figure with how often Iron Man and the Avengers say 'bill Stark' he has an Avengers Insurance Hotline by then or something.

This issue is referred to as Giant-Size Avengers #6 in both Avengers #153 and(weirdly)#154. I'm guessing Gerry Conway didn't know that 1)the Giant-Size books were discontinued in 1975, and 2)there was no Giant-Size Avengers #5 regardless.

Now, this is the start of a beautiful friendship. The friendship that developed between Beast and Wonder Man in their time together as Avengers is one of the best developed, most enjoyable in all the time I read Marvel Comics.

My biggest beef with the story was how Whizzer just shows up and somehow his speed ability, running into Nuklo, takes out Nuklo. That always seemed a ridiculous contrived ending.

General Pollock returns in Marvel Two-In-One #51.

I had him listed in the References for that issue, but i've added him as a Character Appearing here and there.

It never was explained how the Living Laser knew about the Other-Earth Serpent Crown, much less how to find it.

There was a Giant-Size Avengers #5; it reprinted Avengers Annual #1, which is the only reason I ever got to read that story as a kid.

His response to the trucker is "call Tony Stark" as if Stark is accessible to the public.

I'm sure Stark Industries has a published phone number. It might take a few levels to get to the man himself, but probably somebody (Mrs. Arbogast?) settles the issue on the way up the food chain, anyhow.