Issue(s): Vision and the Scarlet Witch #2
Cover Date: Nov 85
Title: "Brothers"
Credits:
Steve Englehart - Writer
Richard Howell - Penciler
Andy Mushynsky - Inker
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
And now, the uninterrupted conclusion of the WCA/V&SW Grim Reaper crossover.

After a weakly drawn (and/or inked) battle with Ultron...

...the Avengers are captured.

Wonder Man overcomes his fear of death (again).

Amazingly, the Black Talon and the Man-Ape have still been hanging around after the Grim Reaper's racist outburst in WCA #2, but they run away once the Avengers break free.

I'll be charitable and suggest that they were waiting for the moment that would hurt Reaper the most, not that they were willing to stick around as long as they thought they'd be on the winning team.

The re-match fight is not nearly as cool as the big battle at the end of WCA #1.

And note Mr. I'm Not An Avenger taking on the super-strong Nekra in hand-to-hand combat.

Ultron gets punched out. Seriously, this is the last we see of him in this arc.

Actually, it turns out we'll see the rest of this fight in flashback in WCA #3, which is an odd storytelling choice.

Nekra escapes (she and the Grim Reaper split up, with the Reaper thinking "But God, I hope when they do come, they chase me instead of Nekra! That woman - wow!"), and the Vision and Wonder Man hunt down the Reaper. The final confrontation isn't physical. Simon confirms that it was he, not his brother, who stole the money from Williams Manufacturing.

Apparently the guilt of that was holding Wonder Man back and now he's able to let it go. Meanwhile, the Reaper comes to grips with the fact that Wonder Man really is his brother, and the realization that he would have killed him causes him to jump to his (seeming) death.

Wonder Man and Vision bond as brothers.

Then the Vision suggests to the Scarlet Witch that they have a baby.

Englehart left the Avengers before the conclusion of the Wonder Man plot that he began setting up in Avengers #152, and it almost feels like he decided to just pick up right where he left off. I mean that thematically; it's clear Englehart has done his research, as you can see from the copious footnotes in the first three parts of this crossover that make reference to lots of events that happened after he left. I'll try to stop comparing 70s Englehart to 80s Englehart, but since this plotline is a bit of a throwback, i will say that the story is much more clearly told, but that doesn't necessarily make it better. 70s Marvel was wilder, full of crazy ideas and momentous revelations, but the books were also sloppy and a little hard to follow at times. 80s Marvel was much better edited, but that doesn't guarantee a better story. Compare Richard Howell's pencils to, say, George Tuska (picking Tuska to avoid comparing Howell with superstars like Perez) and you'll see clearer storytelling but less dynamism. And no one looks back on Englehart's run here with the same reverence as, say, the Celestial Madonna storyline. Probably unfair to even ask that we compare them, and as i said, going forward i won't. But it's interesting to see the differences.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - developments for Wonder Man and Vision

Chronological Placement Considerations: Continues directly from West Coast Avengers #2.

References:

• When Ultron attacks at the beginning of this issue, he's with the robots that attacked Wonder Man, Tigra, and Iron Man in West Coast Avengers #1.
  
• The Vision removed the control crystal that allowed his mind to be taken over in Avengers #254. According to the Scarlet Witch, the Vision's world take-over actions in that arc were due to ISAAC taking over his mind, which isn't how i read that arc at all. The Vision considered the way ISAAC ran Titan as a model for his plans, but ISAAC wasn't making him do anything. I think Wanda is making excuses for her husband.
  
• At the end of this issue, when the Vision tells the Scarlet Witch that he's found a brother and a mother this day, she says she knows how he feels from when she learned Magneto was her father (in the original Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4). I, um, i don't think that's quite the same thing.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The battle was VERY badly written- Vision and Wonder Man run after the Reaper, leaving Wanda, Hank, Tony,Greer, Clint and Bobbi to handle Goliath and Ultron by themselves?? They should have been lucky to escape with their lives. And at the end Goliath seems to let himself be tied up.

Steve Englehart has stated in recent interviews that the only plan he had for Wonder Man in 1976(before he quit Marvel) was to explore his reactions to the modern world after being dead for a decade(presumably more in-depth that Stan Lee did with Captain America in 1964).

Howell's art looks more suited to a child's coloring book. Could they really not find a better artist for this series? What about Mark Bright, Ron Wilson, or Paul Neary? Hardly superstars but better than this.