GIANT-SIZE INVADERS #1

"THE COMING OF THE INVADERS!"
Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas | Artist: Frank Robbins | Inker: Vince Colletta
Colorist: Petra Goldberg | Letterer: John Costanza
With Special Thanks to John Romita
This issue dedicated to the "Real McCoys"--
Stan Lee * Joe Simon * Jack Kirby

The Plot: After breaking up a Nazi sabotage operation, Captain America and Bucky are approached by FBI agents who bring them to see Doctor Anderson, the man who oversaw Steve Rogers' transformation into Captain America, and who is now dying at Walter Reed Hospital. Anderson explains that he was recently kidnapped by a Nazi agent named Krieghund, who probed his memory for the super-soldier secrets, and used those secrets to create a new Nazi super-agent, Master Man. But the Human Torch and his sidekick, Toro, arrived to rescue Anderson, while Krieghund and Master Man escaped from their secret Virginia base.

Suddenly realizing what Krieghund is up to, Anderson asks the FBI to rush Cap, Bucky, the Human Torch, and Toro to Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. The heroes arrive time to see a British battleship come under attack by a German submarine. Master Man leaps from the sub to the ship, but finds Namor the Sub-Mariner, in disguise, waiting for him. Master Man gains the upper hand on Namor, but Cap, Bucky, and the Torches arrive to lend a hand. Master Man retreats to shore, followed by Cap and Bucky, while Namor, the Torch, and Toro save the British ship and sink the sub. On shore, Master Man's super-soldier formula wears off and Cap and Bucky easily defeat him.

In the aftermath, the heroes learn that Winston Churchill was aboard the ship, coming to Washington for a meeting with President Roosevelt. He implores the group to remain together and upon their agreement, christens them the Invaders.

Continuity Notes: When Doctor Anderson's name is mentioned, Cap flashes back to his origin, recalling that Anderson oversaw all the government's special projects, including Professor Erskine's Operation: Rebirth. Erskine's alais of Reinstein is mentioned in this scene as well. Also present in the flashback are the usual stalwarts from any retelling of Cap's origin: Franklin Roosevelt, General Phillips, the young woman disguised as an old lady, and Nazi agent Kruger.

When Captain America and the Human Torch cross paths, we're told that they first met in 1941's YOUNG ALLIES #1.

Dialogue indicates that this story occurs one year after Steve Rogers became Captain America, and two weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States' entrance to World War II.

At one point, Namor notes that he is the "acting emperor" of Atlantis (though the kingdom is not here, nor in any subsequent issues I've seen, referred to by that name for whatever reason), with a footnote pointing to "this issue's special 'Comics Section'" for details -- a feature not included in the reprint I read for this review.

My Thoughts: Well. It's a comic written by Roy Thomas, so it could probably get by with about thirty to fifty percent fewer words and still be readable -- but it's not nearly as over-verbose as some of Thomas's sixties work that I've read in the past, so that's good at least. I can only hope the series proper will follow that trend. As I said last week when I announced this project, I think Thomas is a great "idea man" -- I'm just not generally a fan of scripting.

Speaking of which, the Namor presented in this tale bears no resemblance to any version of the character I've ever seen before. He speaks very casually, his dialogue peppered with contractions and slang. It's... weird. I assume this is how Namor was written in the original 1940s stories, but I don't know for sure. All I can say is that Namor talking like this is going to take some getting used to!

(Another thing I assume is taken from the orignal comics is Toro regularly calling the Human Torch "Pappy". Again, not something I'm familiar with, but I have admittedly read very few stories, Golden Age or otherwise, featuring Toro.)

The artwork is great, though, for the most part. This is the Frank Robbins I know from the Batman stories I looked at a couple years back -- though there's a distinct lack of the heavy blacks he used in those stories at the Distinguished Competition -- understandable, since the Invaders aren't creatures of the night, but still a little jarring.

I mean, there had to have
originally been backgrounds in the
pencil art for this page, right?!

Also missing in this story: backgrounds. With very few exceptions (and especially as the story moves along), the characters are seen on nearly every page talking, fighting, and doing whatever else in completely featureless, colored voids. But I'm not ready to pin this on Robbins, who did backgrounds just fine in his Batman stories. If you'll take a gander up top and check out the inking credit for this issue, you'll find the name of a man notorious for erasing backgrounds and other details from the pencil art in order to meet his deadlines. So until anyone can confirm otherwise, I will assume that good ol' Vinnie Colletta is the culprit on this front, and hope that he doesn't stick around for long as regular inker on the ongoing series.

And as for the story? I mean, it gets the job done. As of the final page, the Invaders have been formed and are ready to challenge the Axis powers. The story that gets us there is decent, if somewhat uninspired. And it seems a little odd to recap Captain America's origin but not the Torch's or Namor's -- but apparently this issue featured some Golden Age reprints, so those origins may have appeared there instead.

I'm not a hundred percent sold on this series after one issue, but I'll continue to tough it out as the series proper begins next week. I'm hopeful some ongoing serialization in the Mighty Marvel Manner will raise my interest level!