Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1988-10-01 00:06:40 |
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Solo Avengers #11
Issue(s): Solo Avengers #11
Cover Date: Oct 88
Hawkeye
Title: "The menace of the Mind-Melder!"
Credits:
Tom DeFalco - Writer
M.D. Bright - Penciler
Jose Marzon - Inker
Hercules
Title: "A farewell -- with arms"
Credits:
Bob Layton - Writer
Bob Layton - Breakdowns
Butch Guice - Finishes
Gregory Wright - Assistant Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor
Review/plot:
Hawkeye comes across a group of acrobat thieves calling themselves Bob-Cat and his Claw.
You have to be impressed with any villain that is able to convince a bunch of goons to dress up like him and call themselves something demeaning. Like, you're not your own person, you're just one of my Claws. Hawkeye is certainly impressed with them; he thinks they are as fast as "the original Captain America".
I may be misremembering, but i think this is the first acknowledgement that Hawkeye is aware that his buddy Captain America has been replaced. Which makes me realize i'd much rather read a story with Hawkeye reacting to that than most of these Solo Avengers stories. Something with a little character behind it.
Anyway, there's another player in this story - a wealthy ninety year old man named Winston Kranpuff that can project his mind into other bodies.
He's built up his wealth through his possession abilities, but now that he's approaching death's door, he's looking for another body to possess. And Hawkeye's will do nicely.
Meanwhile, Hawkeye continues to fight Bob-Cat and his Claws (i honestly can't tell which one is Bob-Cat).
So it's of course a bad time for a body swap...
...and his Hawkeye body starts getting beaten to death. So he returns to his own body. Hawkeye comes to and finishes off the goons, and we find that Kranpuff died upon returning to his own body anyway.
Now onto Hercules. One thing i like about the Solo Avengers format, at least in theory, is that you can bring in creators to work on their pet characters. So Roger Stern can do a Captain Marvel story, DeMatteis can use Hellcat from his Defenders run, etc.. This story has Bob Layton writing Hercules, a character that he's associated with thanks to two alternate future mini-series featuring the character. Being alternate universe stories, those minis are not part of my project here, but this story takes place in present day continuity, while Hercules is in Olympus. He comes across Dionysius sitting on an ICBM.
Dionysius feels that the Greek gods are fading in modern times, and that's exemplified by their recent defeat by the mortal Avengers (not an entirely accurate assessment of the situation but Dionysius seems personally humbled by having been thrown around by She-Hulk). So he's decided to detonate the warhead and let all of Olympus go out with a bang instead of a whimper.
Herc tries to convince him that he's just having "a bad century" (sure, it happens to all of us)...
...but Dionysius is undeterred. So Hercules decides he has to stop him by force, and that's when Dionysius summons "Butcher T. Washington".
Butcher T. is no joke.
Well, i mean, he is a joke, but it's a funny one.
Hercules seemingly loses to Butcher T..
And seeing Hercules near death causes Dionysius to call off the attack. To make good on his promise of wealth to Butcher, he teleports him to Fort Knox.
And it turns out it was Zeus' plan all along for Hercules to lose the fight.
Dionysius is "punished" for his transgressions by being stripped of his godhood and banished to Earth. Which is exactly what Dionysius wanted.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Bob-Cat will be seen again, although i think without the hyphen
Chronological Placement Considerations: Placing this in the same gap as Hawkeye's Solo Avengers #10 story. Hercules can appear here any time after Avengers #285. I have listed Butcher T. Washington as a character appearing because it is now my lifelong ambition to get him included in another Marvel story.
References:
- Hercules was injured in Avengers #274 and he's been staying in Olympus since Avengers #285.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
One reader wrote in questioning how an adamantium garote is possible considering that adamantium is supposed to be non-malleable.
Forget Butcher, I want a Dionysius series! "The Enebriated Adventures of Dionysius", in which he drinks a different supervillain under the table each issue! Heck, a team-up with Iron Man would write itself!
I'd guess in the Marvel U there's a lot of "off-brand" adamantium, and since it's so rare a lot of people don't know better. There's tons of scams in the real-world arms trade, after all. Or maybe ol' Dion enchanted it with his godpowers.
Layton could have revealed a better understanding of Booker T. Washington if his namesake spoke in a highly erudite manner and wore suits. As it is, the extent of the joke seems to be "dude's Black."
But Butcher T. should be the opposite of Booker T. and so he's an over-the-top ridiculous Rambo-esque guy, right? Just a dumb pun. But i can see why it could be offensive and maybe i shouldn't be so enthusiastic about him. Need something to latch onto on these flavorless Solo Avengers stories, but maybe Gary is right and i should be lobbying for Dion's bar stories instead.
Butcher and his ride might have fit in better in a book like G.I. Joe. He might have made for a neat new character there.
The ending is still very cool. Dionysius would make for a great supporting character in his new Dion persona.
@Michael: I suppose the precedent would be Constrictor's coils, which seem plenty flexible (albeit segmented) and which Iron Man once somehow "stretched" in IM #127's big fight scene.
So Adamantium seems to have the mutually exclusive properties of being non-malleable, yet ductile under certain conditions. Or maybe this is a good place for the Secondary Adamantium retcon to take effect.
