Issue(s): Solo Avengers #6 (Falcon story only)
Cover Date: May 88
Title: "Scattered lives"
Credits:
Dan Mishkin - Writer
Tom Grindberg - Penciler
Josef Rubinstein - Inker
Gregory Wright - Assistant Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
Writer Dan Mishkin was a regular at DC; this is one of a small handful of random books he did for Marvel. Similar for artist Tom Grindberg, but we've already seen him on X-Factor annual #2.

The Falcon is surprised to find out that the Avengers have moved their Mansion without telling him.

Well, yeah, dude. That's kind of what happens when you beg off from their darkest moment in history with the excuse that you have the flu (c.f. Avengers #276). People tend to cut you out of the loop after that.

The Falcon doesn't really consider himself to be a former Avenger, either, or at least this latest event has put him in a bad mood about it.

The actual plot of this issue takes on the subject of gentrification in Harlem.

The church in question is one that Sam Wilson's grandfather helped build and his father preached in. He makes a passionate speech about peaceful protest that wins over the crowd. But then a mentally ill guy called Scatterbrain ("poor boy's sick... he thinks those Russians and spacemen he's always on about are real!"), who is working for a crime lord named Victor Meachum, shows up and threatens the real estate guy responsible for tearing down the church.

And it turns out he's not just mentally ill; he also has super-powers that i guess transfer his delusions to other people and make his visions a reality.

Falcon tells him that he knows what it's like to "hear things that nobody else can"...

...but that's not a reference to his "Snap" Wilson days. He just means Redwing.

When it's over, Victor Meachum says that he'll stop the real estate company from buying the church, but Falcon says that it's just so that everyone will forget that Meachum was employing and manipulating Scatterbrain, so forget it, he'll help build a new church instead.

I guess i can't expect much about the serious topics of gentrification and mental illness (it's a super-power!) in an 11 page back-up, but this seems like a particularly weird story, including how it starts with Falcon being upset about the Avengers leaving the city without telling him and ends with no closure on that.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place after Avengers #288 when Avengers Mansion was moved. The MCP has this placed between the Falcon's appearances in Captain America #340 and #342, i guess with the Falcon having gone home to Harlem while Steve Rogers went off to face Tony Stark in #341. It's definitely written that Falcon is returning to the group hanging out at D-Man's mansion in #342, not that he's been there all along, so that is a good gap for this to go in.

References:

• No footnote, but Avengers Mansion was moved in Avengers #288.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A