INVADERS #29

"ATTACK OF THE TEUTONIC KNIGHT!"
Guest Writer: Don Glut | Penciler: Alan Kupperberg | Embellisher: Frank Springer
Colorist: Françoise Mouly | Letterer: John Costanza | Editor: Roy Thomas

The Plot: Aboard Namor's flagship, the Invaders fly off on a secret mission. Union Jack explains that the group is out to find a Nazi villain called Komtur, the Teutonic Knight, which elicits exclamations of recognition from Captain America, the Human Torch, and the Sub-Mariner.

One at a time, the three Invaders relate their respective encounters with the Teutonic Knight: Cap and Bucky fought him in late 1941 in the United States, when they were guarding a government warehouse. The Knight raided the facility and escaped with the plans for a saucer ship called the "Flying Arsenal". Not long after, the Torch and Toro were guarding a British scientist, Doctor Barrow, who held the secret of the Flying Arsenal's experimental engine. The Knight kidnapped Barrow and escaped the Torch and his ward. Then, later still, Namor found himself aboard an American ship near Africa with his friend, reporter Betty Dean, and a newly discovered element called Radium-X. The Knight attacked the ship and stole the Radium-X.

Union Jack then reveals that the Teutonic Knight has been terrorizing Britain aboard a flying craft, which the Invaders realize must be the experimental ship, constructed from the purloined plans, running thanks to Doctor Barrows' special engine, and powered with Radium-X. No sooner do they reach this conclusion, than the group comes across the ship involved in a dogfight with British planes.

Continuity Notes: Opening narration notes that it's less than a day since the Invaders returned from the United States following the events of the previous few issues. As they travel, the heroes discuss Bucky and Toro remaining behind to found the Kid Commandos.

Spitfire notes that the Invaders keep a log of their various missions in the team's "combat diary".

As noted above, the Teutonic Knight calls himself Komtur, which a footnote tells us was the title of the commander of the order of Teutonic Knights during the Middle Ages.

My Thoughts: And here we have (not counting a couple of Golden Age reprints) the first issue of INVADERS without Roy Thomas in the writer's seat -- though that's a temporarly development. It's also, while not the first installment lacking Frank Robbins on pencils, the first issue of the post-Robbins era. He's departed for greener pastures, turning his duties over to Alan Kupperberg -- who will illustrate INVADERS through to its end in another baker's dozen issues. And I have to admit -- so far, I like what I see! Kupperberg's characters don't have the manic, cartoony flamboyance of Robbins', but at least at this point, he seems to be trying for a transition that won't jar readers too much.

This is aided by Frank Springer continuing on inks. Whether it's Kupperberg trying to do a minor impression of Robbins, or whether it's Springer's finishes, I can't tell -- but somehow, the characters are all "on model" with Robbins' versions, even when drawn in a different style.

And by the way, while we're on the topic of Alan Kupperberg -- my main exposure to him, so far as I can think of, was on some AMAZING SPIDER-MAN issues circa 1987 or so, and my recollection is that his work was incredibly dull and uninspired. I was surprised to find his art here is way better than what I recall of that eighties work. And Googling some of his art, I find that in general it is a lot better than what I remember of those Spidey issues. So maybe he was under a tight deadline in 1987 (which might not be surprising, considering there was a lot of behind-the-scenes upheaval on the Spider-books around that time), or maybe he was being forced into the Jim Shooter "house style" which had become more and more prevalent at Marvel over the final few years of Shooter's tenure as editor-in-chief. But in any case, I'm pleased to report that he's not as bad an artist as I'd long thought!

I, uhh, guess we'll talk about the Teutonic Knight next week!